When did you start reading ASM?

[oldschool]

Amazing_Spider-Man_Vol_1_113.jpg

Although I had already read a few of my older brother's comics, this was the first issue I bought for myself off a newsstand and I haven't missed one since! Yeah, I'm old but that just means I got a lot of good issues for 25 cents or less! ;-)

[Zeitgeist]

I had gotten some old 80's comics from a friend of my parents (an early issue of the first run of The Punisher, a Web Of Spider-Man which had him in the black suit and appearances of Sin Eater and Electro... or was it Shocker?) but when I started collecting myself as a kid was in the early 90's - there was like 3-4 different Spider-Man books or something, post Mcfarlane but Mark Bagley was doing MVP work on Amazing, Peter was married and Mary Jane was smoking cigaretteszzz. The first Spidey comic I bought myself was an Amazing Spider-Man which had Cardiac in it, and not too soon after was the first on page appearance of Carnage - which was such a genuinely creepy appearance that I almost threw the comic away. Of course about a year later or so the ball of suck known as Maximum Carnage happened. Black Cat reappeared as an ally, some Spider-Slayer stuff, dorky ass "Web Armor", Amazing 400 happened, Peter's parents reappeared - nope, just androids! - and then of course the whole Clone Saga deal. I stopped not too long after that and only started reading about around Brand New Day, save for some minis and random issues in between here and there.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Growing up I didn't read superhero comics. Preferred reading Donald Duck comics and Asterix and Tintin, and some other stuff like Harvey Comics' Richie Rich and Casper (I got into that when the Macaulay Culkin Richie Rich movie came out) and MAD. The first Spider-Man I read was the newspaper strip and it wasn't until the Raimi movie that I got into 616. And since I was interested in the Green Goblin, I remember picking up a TPB of Revenge of the Green Goblin by Roger Stern which was a little weird because MJ was "dead" there. Then I read Spider-Man Blue, and Paul Jenkins' Fusion story. And then I read JMS. I love the issue where Peter comes to his old high school and the last panel has him applying to teach there. Then I read the 9/11 issue (which I might have read before that, to me the art in that is better than the panels) and Nuff Said (the entirely silent comic). And of course The Conversation, and the entire series of issues leading to "Doomed Affairs" which for me is the best single issue in JMS' run. I also read The Pulse.

But at the time I was also reading stuff like Ultimate and reading back issues too. I dropped out with Sins' Past and read intermittently. I was not too keen on the Avengers Mansion stuff. Then OMD happened and I lost all interest in 616, reading older issues instead. So I read more Lee-Ditko, Lee-Romita, and others since then. I also turned to independent and other comics since non-superhero comics has always been more formative for me than long underwear stories.

[MajorHoy]

Not too much drastic change in the overall results/order in the past two days:

* NOTA/Before marriage = 16 votes (+2)
* Marriage = 14 votes (+5)
* Clone Saga = 9 votes (+2)
* JMS = 5 votes (+1)
* Brand New Day = 4 votes (no change)
* Big Time = 3 votes (no change)
* Superior Spider-Man = 2 votes (no change)
* 2014 relaunch = 2 votes (+1)
* 1999 relaunch = 1 vote (no change)

[Spider-Tracer]

I started reading Spidey as a kid in the early 90's. Though back then, Peter might be a clone, Superman was dead, Jean Paul Valley was Batman and Green Lantern became Parallax... it was a dark time.

[Spidey_62]

I started picking up random recent backissues weekly around age 6 (I remember I was getting trades of classic stories along with the Essentials when I was younger) but I started picking up new issues regularly when the JMS run started. I remember a store owner told me that first issue was a great new jumping on point.

[PCN24454]

Starting with BND is probably why I wasn't as critical of Carlie as most people.

[Jekyll]

Grew up in the 90s, but couldn’t get into the clone stuff. So count me amongst the JMS folks.

[Aura Blaize]

The first ever issue of Spider-Man I picked up was when he "died" and fought Thanos. This was around 91 or so. I didn't REALLY start reading until the beginning issues of the Clone Saga and I've mostly been reading it ever since, taking a few breaks every so often. I haven't taken a break since JMS though

[Uncanny Mutie]

During the David Michelinie era, when I would pick up random McFarlane and Larsen issues. Started reading and collecting regularly during the Michelinie/Mark Bagley era.