Top 10 Essential/Most Important Spider-man Trade Paperbacks/Collections

[Comics N' Toons]

What Are The Best of the Best Spider-man Trade Paperbacks/Collected Editions That Every Spider-fan should have in their collection?


Say, top 10 or 12??????

[Revolutionary_Jack]

IN terms of "not one bad issue", I'd recommend the following large collections of ongoings:
-- The Amazing Spider-Man Omnibus Vol. 1 Hardcover – May 17, 2016 -- Stan Lee and Steve Ditko's complete run in one giant paperweight.
(https://www.amazon.com/Amazing-Spide.../dp/130290082X)

-- Roger Stern's Spider-Man Omnibus, all his Spectacular and Amazing run from the '80s in one volume.
(https://www.amazon.com/Spider-Man-Ro...8735152&sr=8-1)

-- Lee-Romita's "Spider-Man No More" Epic Collection -- aka the most charismatic and consistent phase of the entire Lee-Romita era in one volume.
(https://www.amazon.com/Amazing-Spide...8735225&sr=8-2)

-- The Best of Spider-Man vol. 3 which in fact collects virtually all of JMS-JRJR's run in a single volume (with only "The Book of Ezekiel" missing). Still the most consistent phase of JMS' run in one collection. This is currently obscure so I recommend fishing it out of libraries for the time being. I think Marvel should put out JMS/JRJR in a single omnibus. Spider-Man has never looked better than in this run and has rarely been better written.
(https://www.amazon.com/Best-Spider-M...8735468&sr=8-1)

These editions are worth a permanent place on the shelf. Follow these four books and you have a snapshot of Spider-Man in different periods, how the titles changed, characters developed and so on. And again to repeat, not one bad issue in this bunch. They are also all standalone and essentially complete reading experiences without any real cliffhangers or anything.


In terms of TPB for single story-arcs, i.e. shorter stories and collections that are satisfying to read as standalone in one setting:
-- Kraven's Last Hunt
-- Revenge of the Green Goblin
-- Spider-Man: Blue
-- Spider-Man Life Story (which is an AU)
-- Spider-Man: Parallel Lives
-- The Superior Foes of Spider-Man (which admittedly doesn't feature Spider-Man or Peter Parker but is worth reading on itself). The omnibus is out of print (https://www.amazon.com/Superior-Foes...s=books&sr=1-3) unfortunately, but get the 2 volume edition. It's worth reading in full.

[Alkaeus]

The above list has my approval, for whatever that's worth; I would maybe swap out Blue or Superior Foes for the first omnibus of Ultimate Spider-Man (https://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Spid.../dp/0785164758) or the first Complete Collection of Spider-Girl (https://www.amazon.com/Spider-Girl-C.../dp/1302912488), but the latter is very expensive, I think due to a lack of reprints. If there are better options for collecting Spider-Girl, I would love to be corrected.

One thing that surprised me though is that Comixology at least doesn't seem to have a big collection of J. M. DeMatteis' 90's run on Spectacular, given the reputation #200 has.

[Comics N' Toons]

Thanks for the replies, folks! I just have to add that I never cared for the JMS stuff. Any more recomendations? Anyone else wanna chime in?

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Thanks for the replies, folks! I just have to add that I never cared for the JMS stuff. Any more recomendations? Anyone else wanna chime in?

Costs nothing to be sharing, and should cost nothing to care in return. Some little politeness goes well too.

I recommended 9 other titles you know. You didn't need to pick one to attack it.

[blackspidey2099]

Thanks for the replies, folks! I just have to add that I never cared for the JMS stuff. Any more recomendations? Anyone else wanna chime in?

Some of my recommendations that haven't been covered yet are Spider-Man/Human Torch, Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man Volume 4 TPB, Spider-Man Big Time Complete Collection, The Death of Jean Dewolff TPB, Marvel Knights Spider-Man.

[K7P5V]

Highly recommended would be...

Untold Tales of Spider-Man

[JAG2045]

Highly recommended would be...

Untold Tales of Spider-Man

I cant wait until the reprint of this comes out - its been one of my Omnibus whales for years!