Is the 1987 Spider-Man vs. Wolverine graphic novel still canon?

[Huntsman Spider]

So long story short is that the bare bones of the story (Spider-Man and Wolverine got tangled up with spies in Europe which got Charlie and Ned killed) count but the specifics (Germany and Berlin Wall) do not?

Pretty much, yeah.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

So long story short is that the bare bones of the story (Spider-Man and Wolverine got tangled up with spies in Europe which got Charlie and Ned killed) count but the specifics (Germany and Berlin Wall) do not?

Succinctly put.

[ngroove]

Spider-Man vs. Wolverine was a graphic novel released in 1987... ?

Spider-Man vs Wolverine was not a graphic novel - it was a one-shot.

[Hybrid]

Spider-Man vs Wolverine was not a graphic novel - it was a one-shot.

My bad, I got the terminology mixed because I've been busy with other stuff outside of comics lately and haven't focused on it as much.

[David Walton]

To this day, I've never read "Spider-Man vs. Wolverine" or PARALLEL LIVES. The first I never even saw on the shelves. It sold out almost immediately in my area! The second was a bit too pricey for me at the time, being the prestige format.

I bring up PARALLEL LIVES only because they both had major implications for the Spider-Man books but a lot of regular ASM readers missed out on them at the time. It was pretty rare in those days for any kind of major development to take place outside the main book--even Harry's death in PPTSSM was a pretty big departure from the norm since it didn't take place in ASM.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

To this day, I've never read "Spider-Man vs. Wolverine" or PARALLEL LIVES. The first I never even saw on the shelves. It sold out almost immediately in my area! The second was a bit too pricey for me at the time, being the prestige format.

Parallel Lives was an actual Marvel OGN (Original Graphic Novel), similar to The Death of Captain Marvel, God Loves Man Kills, Triumph and Torment. It had the same label as those stories. In any case neither of those stories would qualify as "Graphic Novels" as we understand them today.

I bring up PARALLEL LIVES only because they both had major implications for the Spider-Man books but a lot of regular ASM readers missed out on them at the time.

Parallel Lives came out in 1989, two years after Peter and MJ got married, several years after Roger Stern's "The Daydreamers" (ASM#246) and Tom Defalco-Ron Frenz's "Be All My Past Remembered" (ASM#259). Aside from the added detail about MJ knowing Peter's identity from AF#15, it didn't really change or bring in anything, merely confirming stuff we already know.

The book is an album style story that affirms the status-quo and provides an introduction to the civilian about "Why Peter-MJ are meant to be together" in a no-frills low-continuity style. That's all it does.

It was pretty rare in those days for any kind of major development to take place outside the main book--even Harry's death in PPTSSM was a pretty big departure from the norm since it didn't take place in ASM.

That was already underway at the time, though.
-- Peter unmasked to Felicia Hardy in Bill Mantlo's run on Spectacular.
-- Roger Stern seemingly had Felicia Hardy drown only for Mantlo in Spectacular to revive her and write "The Owl/Octopus War" in the pages of Spectacular where she and Peter were in a relationship, a status-quo that Stern only barely acknowledged.
-- PAD's The death of Jean deWolff, where Daredevil finds out Peter's identity. Also a big deal at the time.
-- Oh and who can forget SECRET WARS 1984, the first Marvel wide-event where Peter plays a central and crucial role.
-- Let's not forget Kraven's Last Hunt which was a Spider-Man line-wide continuity event (and to be honest, a collected KLH is far closer to a graphic novel than PL or SMv.Wolv).
-- Harry Osborn wasn't seen as a major supporting character in that time, so there wasn't an issue with his death happening in Spectacular Spider-Man. After Len Wein made Bart Hamilton the Goblin, Harry had become a background character making just token appearances here and there and he had gone so far in the background that it was Flash Thompson and not Harry who was Best Man at Peter's wedding. If anything Spectacular Spider-Man was the story that made everyone go, "Oh yeah...Harry Osborn, right!"

This idea that all major developments must happen in ASM...that didn't exist all the time. It certainly wasn't practised much in the 80s.

A lot of our ideas about Spider-Man, i.e. Harry Osborn was always seen as Peter's best friend and major supporting character. All major stories must happen in ASM. These ideas are fairly recent.

[WebLurker]

To this day, I've never read "Spider-Man vs. Wolverine" or PARALLEL LIVES. The first I never even saw on the shelves. It sold out almost immediately in my area! The second was a bit too pricey for me at the time, being the prestige format.

I bring up PARALLEL LIVES only because they both had major implications for the Spider-Man books but a lot of regular ASM readers missed out on them at the time. It was pretty rare in those days for any kind of major development to take place outside the main book--even Harry's death in PPTSSM was a pretty big departure from the norm since it didn't take place in ASM.

They're both in the Epic Collections line (the Kraven's Last Hunt and Assassination Nation volumes respectively).

[David Walton]

They're both in the Epic Collections line (the Kraven's Last Hunt and Assassination Nation volumes respectively).

I should probably read them both at some point! There's a part of me that doesn't care to ever read SMvW. I might still be holding a grudge that they killed Ned Leeds off in a one-shot that I couldn't even find at my local shop, at a time when there weren't frequent trade collections!

[WebLurker]

I should probably read them both at some point! There's a part of me that doesn't care to ever read SMvW. I might still be holding a grudge that they killed Ned Leeds off in a one-shot that I couldn't even find at my local shop, at a time when there weren't frequent trade collections!

I dunno, it's pretty good.