Best and Worst Spider-Man Prose Novels

[The Overlord]

Spidey has had several prose novels over the decades, which one did you think was the best and which one did you think was the worst?

[Metamorphosis]

Ultimate Spider-Man (the book of short Spider-Man stories from 1994, not the comic) has some good stuff, including a great story by Peter David called "Five Minutes".

[Mister Mets]

Ultimate Spider-Man (the book of short Spider-Man stories from 1994, not the comic) has some good stuff, including a great story by Peter David called "Five Minutes".

Yeah, that was pretty good.

Peter David also had a decent take on Spider-Man's origin (officially cowritten with Stan Lee; it seemed to be a prose version of an aborted screenplay from the 80s; Peter David's voice shines through on that.)

[WeirdSpider]

Best: Adam-Troy Castro's Sinister Six trilogy is very good. It give us The Gentleman who is my second favorite Spider-Man villain after the Green Goblin. In fact The Gentleman was the mysterious man in those god awful Marc Webb movies.
Carnage in New York, and Goblin's revenge are great too.
Also Diane Duane's Venom trilogy is pretty great too.

Worst: John Vornholt's Valley of the Lizard. Chupacabras don't belong in Spider-Man's universe. Plus most of the book is just Peter reading Curt's diary.

[Metamorphosis]

Yeah, that was pretty good.

Peter David also had a decent take on Spider-Man's origin (officially cowritten with Stan Lee; it seemed to be a prose version of an aborted screenplay from the 80s; Peter David's voice shines through on that.)

Yep--usually I don't like writer-inserted retcons, but PAD having Officer Stan Carter at the scene of Ben Parker's murder in that story I thought was a super-neat touch.

There's also a great story in there by Craig Shaw Gardner, "Kraven The Hunter Is Dead, Alas", where Mysterio starts playing around with the dark arts in an effort to presumably raise Kraven from the dead. Spooky stuff!!

http://spiderfan.org/comics/title/sp....html#ultimate

[Scott Taylor]

Best: Adam-Troy Castro's Sinister Six trilogy is very good. It give us The Gentleman who is my second favorite Spider-Man villain after the Green Goblin. In fact The Gentleman was the mysterious man in those god awful Marc Webb movies.

Yah, this is my favorite.

[RD!]

I've just started reading that trilogy, almost finished book one and I am in awe.

It's not just a good Spider-Man book, it's a great book. Period.

I love how ATC gets Peter, MJ and all the villians. Flash is used great, Betty, Jonah. Good to see a novel where MJ plays a more active part. Great use of the marriage, supporting cast, everything. I love the sly cameos, references to other comics, storylines and novels. Should be required reading for every Spider-Man fan.

Worst novel? I haven't enjoyed the latest two. Forever Young had some good moments, but ultimately was a bit of a chore while Kraven's Last Hunt was a poor imitation of the original comic.

I haven't read every Spider-Man novel yet, only the more recent ones, but am hoping to get them all at some point.