Spider-Man Webspinners: The Complete Collection

Was travelling for work the past couple of days and took with me the recently released Spider-Man: Webspinners Complete Collection TPB and finished it off. Pretty good book and glad I added it to my collection. Below is my synopsis.The book opens with a JM DeMatties three-parter with Spidey vs. Mysterio. I've never been a huge Mysterio fan, and this arc didn't do much to change my opinion. The issues were dreadfully over-written and sloggishly verbose. And not necessarily in a good way, in my opinion. It was nice to get some back-story on Mysterio and how he became the villain over time, but the art was ... sketch and amateurish for lack of a better term. Dunno. It was ok, but nothing great. I'd give this arc a C+ for effort.The second three-issue-arc features Spidey & the Silver Surfer vs. the Psycho Man and Annihilus and follows up on some long-lost plot threads from a 1968 Silver Surfer issue, that I'm not sure anyone was asking to be resolved. The art is kind of all over the place by Keith Giffen, not bad, just different. The story was mainly ok. I'd give this a C+ as well.The next arc, by Joe Kelley is AMAZING and the highlight of this book. The three-parter focuses on Peter Parker in High School in the days leading up to his senior prom. I won't spoil too much for those that haven't read it, but it's gloriously drenched in teen angst and Pete finally stands up to Flash for once, and inadvertently invites three different girls to his senior prom! All the while, we get some nice character development on Flash's back story, Pete tries to finish his senior project on time, and a tense battle with Sandman, where Spidey very nearly kills him ... by accident! Good stuff all around, and in my mind this has to be one of the top 10-20 Spidey stories of all time. I really enjoyed this. A+++The rest of the book is padded out by a Paul Jenkins then-current-continuity tale with Spidey taking on the Chameleon and reminiscing about his lost loved ones. Not bad. Probably a B+. Then we get a Howard Mackie then-current-continuity tale featuring Spidey in his then-new-animated-series costume in the negative zone fighting Blastarr and Carnage. Eh. It's about as bad as it sounds basically. Cletus Kasady hops a ride to the negative zone and just HAPPENS to stumble into an all new carnage symboite. Ugh. At that time, Kasady had been separated from his alien suit and was in prison. This is pretty bad. I'd give it a D. The final arc is a 2 parter by Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz, which are an all time classic Spidey creative team. This story gets an A-. It's set, continuity wise, between issues 288 and 289 of Amazing Spider-Man with Spidey in both his classic red & blues as well as the black costume. Silver Sable, the Sinister Syndicate, and Doc Ock all appear in this arc.That's about it. If you can get the book for a good price, I'd recommend it.

Lots of great stories in here!

Fantastic and unique Spider-Man tales with great art, definitely worth reading. 🙂