Streamlined Reading Order

[Xistel]

I have an issue: a friend of mine wants to get into reading Spider-Man but doesn't want to jump on to the most recent "place". Instead, he'd like to read some TPB and go through good / important storylines in a chronological order but not go too far into the past. So he'd like to avoid anything earlier than late 70's early 80's.

He'd like to read a retelling of 616 Origin, then some comics in his youth, college, etc up to now.

I know some important things like Kraven's Last Hunt, Superior Spider-Man, Spider-Man Blue (love it), etc but I don't know enough to really create the narrative he's looking for. Any ideas?

[Jman27]

I’m using this

http://www.comicsbackissues.com/comi...er-chronology/

[Xistel]

Thanks. That's a little bit what I was thinking, but I still feel it's a bit dense.

[Lee]

A lot of the milestone stories were published before the late '70s.

Marvel will often publish "untold tales" set in prior eras, but they typically don't outright remake or retell the milestone stories, and the few times they do (like the old "Marvel Age: Spider-Man" or "Spider-Man: Chapter One" series) they're usually aimed at younger readers and/or diverge from the mainline continuity.

[wleakr]

I would suggest the friend head to the local library and try whatever catches their eye. Most have it so you can search their website.

Often the TPB will suggest other things to read if you like the particular story in hand; some will even suggest a reading order.

[Alex_Of_X]

616 Spidey 70s-present in 10 TPBs:

1. Death of the Stacys
2. Nothing can stop the Juggernaut
3. Kraven's Last Hunt
4. Maximum Carnage
5. Coming Home
6. One More Day
7. Spider-Island
8. Spider-Men
9. Superior Spider-Man
10. Spider-Verse

[Spider-Tiger]

616 Spidey 70s-present in 10 TPBs:

1. Death of the Stacys
2. Nothing can stop the Juggernaut
3. Kraven's Last Hunt
4. Maximum Carnage
5. Coming Home
6. One More Day
7. Spider-Island
8. Spider-Men
9. Superior Spider-Man
10. Spider-Verse

Good List.

I'd add these trades as essential status quo changing stories: Spider-man: the original Clone Saga, Spider-man Parallel Lives, Spider-man: Son of the Goblin, and Spider-man Revelations (1997.) Nothing Can Stop the Juggernaut is a great story but I'd probably replace it with the Alien Costume Saga which is included in the Birth of Venom trade. So...

1. Death of the Stacys
2. The Original Clone Saga
3. Birth of Venom*
4. Parallel Lives
5. Kraven's Last Hunt
6. Son of the Goblin**
7. Maximum Carnage
8. Revelations (1997)
9. Coming Home
10. One More Day
11. Spider-Island
12. Spider-Men
13. Superior Spider-Man
14. Spider-Verse

Slightly heftier list, but I think that covers most of the major arcs.

* You could split this up. Read 80s stuff (#252- 259) here and 90s stuff after Kravens Last Hunt.
** could also split this one up. 70s material (# 136-137) after Death of the Stacy's and 90s material (the rest) here.

[Spider-Tiger]

OP, there's also a decent recap of 616 continuity that was published in the early 90s (so it covers 60s-80s material.) It's a 4-part issue series called Spider-man Saga. Could be useful to your friend for filling in the blanks.

https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Spider-Man_Saga_Vol_1_1

[Daibhidh]

You should also recommend the actual proposal and wedding issues.

[JTait]

He'd like to read a retelling of 616 Origin, then some comics in his youth, college, etc up to now.

I honestly think that the best version of the origin is the original Lee/Ditko version. In fact, I would have the first 50 issues of ASM (plus Amazing Fantasy #15) as essential reading. Beyond that it gets more subjective, but I've listed the truly unmissable stories (in my opinion) below:

The Death of the Stacys
Harry Osborn as the Green Goblin (all of his appearances are pretty good, but the JMD/Buscema penned stuff later on is best)
Venom's first 2-3 appearances (plus the alien costume saga if you want the background)
Kraven's Last Hunt
Coming Home
The first few arcs of BND, plus ASM #600
Superior Spider-Man

It makes me sad how little there is from my first 10 years of reading the character as a child. There is a lot of it that I love, but it would be pushing it slightly to include any of it on an 'essential' reading order.

[Lee]

I honestly think that the best version of the origin is the original Lee/Ditko version. In fact, I would have the first 50 issues of ASM (plus Amazing Fantasy #15) as essential reading.

I'd extend it to #52, to complete the Kingpin storyline that starts in #50.

[JTait]

I'd extend it to #52, to complete the Kingpin storyline that starts in #50.

Good point, I agree. I am due a re-read of the Lee/Romita run, but I remember it dropping off quite a bit after this point.

[Mister Mets]

I'd recommend he try several jump-on points.

He could check out the Lee/ Ditko run, but it's possible he's not going to be into silver age storytelling. In some cases, older comics are more satisfying when you have a framework from modern comics (in education, this can be called a schema.)

The Spider-Man comics are very dependent on issue to issue continuity, so it's probably better to read whole runs just to get a sense of how Peter's adventures in one story affect him in another.

Brand New Day represents a major jump-on point, so Amazing Spider-Man #546 is a starting place.