Good accessible standalone Spider-Man comics

[Mister Mets]

I'm a big fan of the relationship stuff in TASM2 and the intrigue surrounding the Sinister Six.

Can someone recommend me some good modern Spider-Man comics that have a similar flavor? Dramatic weight, romance, loss, Spider-Man's inspiring the city, etc.

The best story with Spider-Man inspiring the city may be Spider Island, in which everyone in Manhattan gains spider-powers and Peter Parker finds a way to stand out when everyone has great power.

Ends of the Earth (Amazing Spider-Man #682-687) is a Sinister Six story with dramatic weight, loss and high stakes.

Amazing Spider-Man #617 and #625 have a standout Rhino story, as new villains try to force the retired Rhino back into the suit with tragic results.

JM Dematteis's Spectacular Spider-Man run (#178-200) is the best comic book version of the downfall of Harry Osborn.

The basis for the film relationship between Peter & Gwen may be Bendis's Ultimate Spider-Man, which essentially reimagined the Spider-Man comics as an excellent 21st Century high school drama.

[normanosborn]

The recommendations are great and much appreciated, but it's probably going to be of more interest to any potential new reader if you explain what makes the story worthwhile.

Fair enough.

Spider-Man vs. Wolverine is great because it only requires a very basic knowledge of who Peter Parker and Wolverine are. The major benefit of this pairing is that it displays many defining differences between the two heroes and the way they act. The plot is very much self-contained, yet contains some huge twists in case the reader is interested in reading more Spider-Man. The art is simple yet great and the story does not suffer from decompression. This means that a lot of things happen on every page.

[Mister Mets]

Looking at some stuff that hasn't been mentioned.

In the late 80s, Spider-Man started wearing the black costume, and starred in three tragic and dark storylines that pushed him to his limit. In addition to the already mentioned Spider-Man VS Wolverine and Kraven's Last Hunt, the first of those chronologically was “The Death of Jean Dewolff” from Peter Parker the Spectacular Spider-Man #107-110. It pit the hero against a villain who was essentially an ordinary serial killer, although there was a nasty twist to his identity. It ended in one of the most violent battles of Spider-Man’s career. Against Daredevil.

The idea of MARVEL KNIGHTS SPIDER-MAN #1-12 was brilliantly simple, although Marvel only did it once. The plan was to give A-list creators twelve issues to do their take on Spider-Man, and leave without any encores. The first time around Marvel had the good fortune to get Mark Millar at a time when he was practicing what he preached on shorter comic book runs, believing that if writers stuck around too long, their work would have diminishing returns. The result was essentially a distillation of everything that is good and great about the wall-crawler. Millar, Dodson and Cho reconciled the disparate aspects of the character: the geek aware he’s married to a woman outside of his league, the reckless superhero who picked fights with the Avengers, and the nice guy who will do a tremendous favor for one of his greatest villains. We also get a sense of the how brutal Spider-Man’s job is−something that has previously been more effectively conveyed by the movies−thanks to the edgier tone of the series. The story had some new revelations about one of Spider-Man’s greatest enemies, and a change in Venom that has come to define that villain.

Torment collects Todd McFarlane’s SPIDER-MAN #1-5, the first issue of which was the best-selling Spider-Man comic ever. It’s one of the few stories that I read when I was really new to Spider-Man that still holds up, although others may disagree. It’s Mcfarlane’s debut as writer, but I think it mostly works, with a naturalistic take on Spidey in the early issues, before everything goes to hell, and the wallcrawler gets into one of the most vicious fights of his life. Mcfarlane’s SPIDER-MAN had one of the most interesting hooks of any Spider-Man satellite title, essentially turning it into a monster book. The first volume certainly met that criteria when a C-list villain essentially turns the Lizard into a mindless, savage zombie. It’s not about winning and losing for Spider-Man; it’s about survival.

The anthology series TANGLED WEB is particularly useful for self-contained stories, and most of it is worth hunting down. The general idea was to get unconventional talents to tell the stories of people affected by Spider-Man. TANGLED WEB #4 by Greg Rucka and Eduardo Risso was the perfect realization of that, with the story of a Kingpin employee who has to meet with the boss after Spider-Man busted a multi-million dollar shipment. Darwyn Cooke popped up for TANGLED WEB #11, showing what Valentine’s Day is like for Spider-Man as he deals with the aftermath of a fight with the Vulture. With TANGLED WEB #20, Zeb Wells and Dean Haspiel tell the origin of J. Jonah Jameson with a combination of humor and pathos. TANGLED WEB #22 capped off the series with a look at a police invesigation seemingly hampered by Spider-Man’s intervention. The twist ends up working on multiple levels.

There are a few other scattered single issues worth hunting down. AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #153 by Len Wein and Ross Andru makes you care about someone who would usually be a peripherary character: a widowed college football coach suddenly dragged into a crime drama when his young daughter is kidnapped. It’s a reminder that Peter Parker is relatively safe as far as the writers are concerned, and there are limits on what can be thing to supporting characters, but that nasty things can happen to those unlucky enough to be dragged into Spider-Man’s world. AMAZING SPIDER-MAN Annual #15 features a clash between the Punisher and Doctor Octopus, and a look at the inner workings of the Daily Bugle. It’s probably the best Spider-Man work by writer Dennis O’Neil and obscure artist Frank Miller.

PETER PARKER THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #65 marked the first appearance of Cloak and Dagger, as Spider-Man encounters two young heroes with a different moral code. PETER PARKER THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #127 may just be the definitive Lizard story. WHAT IF? #88 is another personal favorite, showing a Peter Parker who was affected in a different way by the spider bite, and fears that he has cursed his only son.

[Scott Taylor]

Thinking about this, it is tough to recommend alot of standalone stories that require no previous knowledge about why they are important. Marvel's way of doing business seems to preclude alot of the elseworlds type of one-shots you get alot over at DC. Most of the good Spidey stories are in-continuity and mean more when you know what the character has gone through to get there.

For full impact, Spider-Man vs Wolverine requires the reader to know that Spidey doesn't kill and is a pretty innocent guy.

MTU was a deliberate attempt at doing a bunch of one-shots that didn't require continuity. But none of those stories stand out to me as being great. Same goes for Avenging Spider-Man.

Marvel Knights seems the closest to hitting the mark.

[mi27ke85]

I have a hard time remembering what stories are stand-alone or not. But, I know several of my friends enjoyed Spider-Verse a lot without having read previous issues.

[Mister Mets]

I have a hard time remembering what stories are stand-alone or not. But, I know several of my friends enjoyed Spider-Verse a lot without having read previous issues.

The criteria can vary.

A key factor is how dependent the story is whether you would recommend that particular story to someone by itself, or whether you'd prefer to recommend a larger run.

Thinking about this, it is tough to recommend alot of standalone stories that require no previous knowledge about why they are important. Marvel's way of doing business seems to preclude alot of the elseworlds type of one-shots you get alot over at DC. Most of the good Spidey stories are in-continuity and mean more when you know what the character has gone through to get there.

For full impact, Spider-Man vs Wolverine requires the reader to know that Spidey doesn't kill and is a pretty innocent guy.

MTU was a deliberate attempt at doing a bunch of one-shots that didn't require continuity. But none of those stories stand out to me as being great. Same goes for Avenging Spider-Man.

Marvel Knights seems the closest to hitting the mark.

Zeb Wells wrote some really good one-shots for the Avengers. He had a great take on Hawkeye, Spider-Man's reverence for Captain America, and Uncle Ben.

I've been reading some Marvel Team Up issues. Many are forgettable, but some are really good. Especially with the Claremont/ Byrne run. Those are probably three of the best Spider-Man stories of the 1970s. I really like MTU #59-60, a team-up with two of the founding Avengers gets a little bit crazy when it appears that one of them has died fighting the bad guy. MTU #79 has the Red Sonja team-up. And the Tigra/ Kraven story is really good.

There's also a four issue romance between Spider-Man and an amnesiac Black Widow, although that technically built on a long-running narrative, so it's not really self-contained.

[Spidey5640]

As this issue is mostly a "Flashback" I don't know if it fits the criteria but I've always thought ASM 181 really showed expressed Spidey's strengths, weaknesses and heartbreak very well.

[Quill-Han-Vos]

My favorite is probably this one:

[Metamorphosis]

As this issue is mostly a "Flashback" I don't know if it fits the criteria but I've always thought ASM 181 really showed expressed Spidey's strengths, weaknesses and heartbreak very well.

I just read this issue for the first time yesterday, and what you wrote is a fitting summary.

[KC]

Spider-man: Blue

Amazing Fantasy #15