Tuesday, July 19, 2022

Mighty Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 3: The Goblin and the Gangsters

Mighty Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 3: The Goblin and the GangstersMighty Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 3: The Goblin and the Gangsters by Stan Lee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Mighty Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 3: The Goblin and the Gangsters collects Amazing Spider-Man #20-28 plus Annual #2.

These Mighty Marvel Masterworks are hit or miss for me. Some of them do not age well at all. Others, like this one, are pretty damn good even after sixty years.

Stan Lee and Steve Ditko were in their prime during this span of issues, no matter who was doing all the heavy lifting. Spidey goes up against The Green Goblin, the Scorpion, The Beetle, The Circus of Crime, The Crime Master, the Molten Man, and a Spider-Slayer robot. He even has time to team up with Doctor Strange against Xandu, an evil wizard.

I shouldn't be as surprised as I am considering I've read quite a bit of Silver Age Marvel stuff but there is so much stuff crammed into these issues. Each one has enough material for two issues, four to six issues of a modern comic. Ditko was at the top of his game and Stan was still putting in the effort on the dialog. As I've said before, I think these early Spider-Man issues hold up better than the early Fantastic Four issues, especially when you factor in the dialog.

I think one of the reason these issues have such charm for me is because Spider-Man is still fairly new. He has some history but not enough to drag him down. Lee and Ditko are still inventing the dances that Spidey will do for decades after they leave the book. Hell, Mary Jane Watson hasn't even met Peter yet and won't for another two years!

Four out of five stars. This is one of the best runs of the Silver Age.

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