The Ultimate Spider-Man

I can't count how many times I've read this book as a child, and glad to add it back to my collection if for nothing more than nostalgia.

This is the best novels of Spider-man I've ever read. Any fan of the wall-crawling hero should have this for their collection.

Great experience

An anthology of Spider-Man stories, taken from many periods in his career. One of the cool things about it is that there is an illustration to go with each story at the start, from Ditko and Romita right on through. There is also an introduction by Stan Lee, the editor.The stories are generally of pretty good quality.Ultimate Spider-Man : 01 Spider-Man - Stan Lee and Peter DavidUltimate Spider-Man : 02 Suits - Tom De Haven and Dean Wesley SmithUltimate Spider-Man : 03 Cool - Lawrence Watt-EvansUltimate Spider-Man : 04 Blindspot - Ann NocentiUltimate Spider-Man : 05 Kraven the Hunter Is Dead Alas - Craig Shaw GardnerUltimate Spider-Man : 06 Radically Both - Christopher GoldenUltimate Spider-Man : 07 Scoop! - David MichelinieUltimate Spider-Man : 08 Tinker Tailor Soldier Courier - Robert L. Washington, IIIUltimate Spider-Man : 09 Thunder on the Mountain - Richard Lee ByersUltimate Spider-Man : 10 Cold Blood - Greg CoxUltimate Spider-Man : 11 An Evening in the Bronx with Venom - John Gregory Betancourt and Keith R. A. DeCandidoUltimate Spider-Man : 12 Five Minutes - Peter DavidA novella telling the origin of Spider-Man, with James rants and Doc Ock included.3 out of 5After getting beaten up by the Vulture, a young Spidey is thinking fo giving it away until a trip to Atlantic City with his aunt leads him to meet the Black Bee, a much older ex-hero with a similar story.3.5 out of 5A kid takes his hero worship of Spider-Man into gun wielding vigilante territory.3.5 out of 5Spidey finds an organlegger who apart from those crimes is making something nasty.2.5 out of 5Spidey would rather fight supervillains than have to go shopping with his wife and aunt, so he does. Luckily for him a cancer ridden Vulture and Mysterio, who has a magical mistake problem, are definitely available.3.5 out of 5Curt Connors latest transformation allows his consciousness to watch helplessly as the Lizard goes on rampage, threatening his own family.3.5 out of 5A small town reporter comes to the Bugle, and wants to work with Peter Parker. Why? To find out who Spidey is, of course. When they undercover your good old New York variety gangs of hoods with powered armour complications ensue.3.5 out of 5Spider-Man gets asked to transport a donor liver for a dying young girl, after its couriers get stuck in traffic. Unfortunately a super powered mercenary has been hired to retrieve it.3 out of 5Spidey has tracked a group of mercenaries, including the Rhino to a buried energy weapon. Unfortunately this is where a guy and his son have decided to do the mountain man thing.4 out of 5On a freezing night of too many snowstorms Spidey wonders why he is out, given there is no-one to help. Except one old man. Morbius the Living Vampire has the same problem. No bad guys outside, no-one to eat. Just one old man.3.5 out of 5A terrified man is running from Brock, and Spider-Man lends a hand. All is not as it seems, however.3.5 out of 5Decisions on when to go and when to stay cause arguments in the Parker household.4 out of 5

I should start off by saying that I'm not a Spider-Man collector. It's not that I don't enjoy the series (because I do), but I just don't buy it as regularly as I do the X-books. I do know the backstory extensively, though, having purchased anthologies of the early Amazing Spider-Man issues. But with everything else, I'm essentially a blank slate where this character is concerned, and I'm open to just about all possibilities.So, without a lot of backhistory in my mind, I found this novel quite enjoyable. These stories work because they were written to BE stories. All too often, comic book novel adaptations are usually comic books without the art, and they fail for it. But the various writers here keep their medium in mind, and work with it.The novel starts off with the necessary retelling of Spider-Man's origin. I quite disliked this, to be honest. It smacked of "Hey, here's some stuff we forgot to tell you the first time!" The revelation that Dok Ock was performing the radiation experiment that charged the spider that gave Peter Parker his powers was not in the original version of the story, so I'm guessing this came from the Untold Tales of Spider-Man series (and I still don't like it).There are actually a few more stories in that vein (basically, they "fill in gaps" where there were no such gaps in the original comic books). One story has Peter Parker questioning his desire to be Spider-Man after a vicious encounter with the Vulture. He takes a vacation to Atlantic City, and there, a retired superhero by the name of the Black Bee convinces him not to give up. It was inspiring and very human, but I couldn't break away from the fact that it didn't appear in the original books.Toward the end of the novel, though, there was more room for making new stories up - especially when they're not of major superhero import, but rather of human interest. For example, the last story, "Five Minutes," involves no major villains. It only involves Spider-Man anguishing over being five minutes too late to save a suicidal man, and David powerfully conveys Peter's inner torment.On the other hand, there's one story that I just can't get into. It's a story by Ann Nocenti; she tells about Spider-Man's investigation into an organ-smuggling ring. It's a story that needs much more development than she has room for. It seems much more like a prologue for a full novel than a self-contained story. But it's the only weak part of the novel.In essence, the Ultimate Spider-Man is as appropriate a title as you can give to this novel. It retells his origin, explains his emotional conflicts and inner motivations, and even includes some classic battles with the Vulture and Venom for people who want solid action. It's definitely perfect for people new to Spider-Man, and long-time fans should get something out of it, too.