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Post by Deleted on May 19, 2022 6:43:25 GMT -5
I was reflecting on my love for ol' Webhead since I was a little kid. I started reading Spider-Man (along with comic books in general) as a young lad in the mid to late 70's, and pretty much simultaneously had exposure to the current titles at that time (ASM, Peter Parker, Marvel Team-Up, Spidey Super Stories) along with 60's and even some earlier 70's material by way of Pocket Books and Fireside reprint editions.
Eventually I figured out ASM was the historical and ongoing "flagship" title, and that of course made sense. But as I now look back at my appreciation for all of those titles, after the early Ditko era I find ASM itself a title I've only sporadically enjoyed revisiting (usually just the issues with a classic villain). Peter Parker kind of the same.
But Marvel Team-Up is a different thing for me. While not every issue was a winner, and some team-ups I certainly liked better than others, I've more consistently liked that series over the years and find it the most fun to revisit overall. I think the simple reason for me is "less filler" in some ways compared to the main ongoing series. Even with a subpar story in Team-Up, you will often at least get an appearance of a cool character. Whereas with ASM, I find myself going for months waiting for the Scorpion or Electro or somebody else interesting to show up.
For the late 70's and early 80's, I actually find myself in the same boat with Superman. While I love a lot of classic Silver Age era material, the 70's was a slog for me with much of Action/Superman, but DC Comics Presents I thought often kept things interesting.
And even back to that Silver Age Superman material, I'm actually finding myself picking up / rereading more Lois Lane or Jimmy Olsen books these days.
Do you similarly find some "non-flagship" books more interesting than the main series of certain characters/teams? If so, do you think in some cases a little more creative freedom than the main title(s) storylines contributes to this?
And of course please list any examples!
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Post by kirby101 on May 19, 2022 6:45:34 GMT -5
Untold Tales of Spider-Man was better than any other Spider-Man book at the time.
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Post by Deleted on May 19, 2022 6:47:10 GMT -5
Untold Tales of Spider-Man was better than any other Spider-Man book at the time. Oh heck yes!! Great callout.
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Post by Deleted on May 19, 2022 6:47:28 GMT -5
I started properly reading U.S. comics around the time DC Comics Presents finished (1986, right?), but I’ve read so many issues. Great title. Majority of team-ups were fun.
I did enjoy Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man (90s) more, at least when all the Spidey books weren’t tying into each other. Felt it continued the soap opera and personal lives more than the flagship title.
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Post by Deleted on May 19, 2022 6:48:09 GMT -5
Untold Tales of Spider-Man was better than any other Spider-Man book at the time. *Rolls up sleeves* Would you like to step outside and talk about that?
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Post by tarkintino on May 19, 2022 7:42:35 GMT -5
Untold Tales of Spider-Man was better than any other Spider-Man book at the time. Well, it was the 90s Spider-Man, so surpassing that was not a difficult hill to climb.
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Post by adamwarlock2099 on May 19, 2022 7:59:01 GMT -5
Untold Tales of Spider-Man was better than any other Spider-Man book at the time. Well, it was the 90s Spider-Man, so surpassing that was not a difficult hill to climb. *Rolls up sleeves* Would you like to step outside and talk about that?
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Post by Graphic Autist on May 19, 2022 9:25:17 GMT -5
When I first started buying comics for myself (around 1982 or 1983,) I had no idea for a few months that Marvel Tales were reprints of older ASM issues.
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Post by kirby101 on May 19, 2022 9:48:29 GMT -5
Well, it was the 90s Spider-Man, so surpassing that was not a difficult hill to climb. *Rolls up sleeves* Would you like to step outside and talk about that? Somebody must be a Clone Saga fan.
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Post by Deleted on May 19, 2022 9:53:08 GMT -5
When I first started buying comics for myself (around 1982 or 1983,) I had no idea for a few months that Marvel Tales were reprints of older ASM issues. Forgot about Marvel Tales! Yes, I'm sure I did the same thing when I started reading it Another title that comes to mind for me back during the mid/late 70's to early 80's was Superman Family. Can't give you any real reason why, but something jumped out at the newsstand for me when I'd see that title.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on May 19, 2022 10:09:05 GMT -5
When I first started buying comics for myself (around 1982 or 1983,) I had no idea for a few months that Marvel Tales were reprints of older ASM issues. Forgot about Marvel Tales! Yes, I'm sure I did the same thing when I started reading it Another title that comes to mind for me back during the mid/late 70's to early 80's was Superman Family. Can't give you any real reason why, but something jumped out at the newsstand for me when I'd see that title. Same thing, though for me it would have been 1976-77. Nine and ten year old me didn't differentiate between reprints and new comics. So I bought as many issues of Marvel Tales as I did ASM. Probably helped that they were reprinting the very best of the Lee/Romita run at the time.
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Post by commond on May 19, 2022 10:10:36 GMT -5
I like J.M. DeMatteis and Sal Buscema on Spectacular Spider-Man better than Amazing Spider-Man from the same time frame. In retrospect, DeMattesis re-used a lot of his ideas from Captain America, but I loved how there was this whole dynamic between Peter Parker and Harry Osborn that only played out in Spectacular Spider-Man and resulted in two classic stories.
It probably doesn't count, but for a long time Classic X-Men was my second favorite X-book. More recently, I've been enjoying Gotham Central, which I assume fits under the umbrella of the Bat titles. Legends of the Dark Knight was quite a good alternative to the Batman books back in the day. Punisher War Zone was pretty cool for the first arc with JRJR on art.
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Post by Batflunkie on May 19, 2022 10:23:56 GMT -5
Now you can just chalk this up to personal taste, but I feel like Peter David era X-Factor, Excalibur, and Generation X were better than the mainline X-Books
Like I expressed recently in the Classic Comics Purchases thread, I also have something of a love for the X-Men Adventures titles
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Post by Deleted on May 19, 2022 10:39:51 GMT -5
Somebody must be a Clone Saga fan. Quite the reverse. Overlong and convoluted. Should have been a 12-issue maxi-series.
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Post by adamwarlock2099 on May 19, 2022 11:01:27 GMT -5
Somebody must be a Clone Saga fan. It was alright. A bit long winded and could have been less than a fricking hundred issue long story. But I more like the actual Spiderman title that started in 1990 and stayed, in my opinion, consistently good for the most part up until the Clone Saga. I have a few issues after that but didn't care for them as much as the earlier issues.
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