Full review can be found here:

https://nordie.wordpress.com/2018/10/24/book-review-spider-man-marvels-mightiest...

Full review can be found here:

https://nordie.wordpress.com/2018/10/24/book-review-spider-man-marvels-mightiest...

This edition of "Marvel's Mightiest Heroes" from Hachette has three stories: the origin Spider-Man story from “Amazing Fantasy” issue 15 (August 1962); "The Sinister Six" story from “Amazing Spider-Man Annual” issue 1 (1964) and the "Happy Birthday" arc from “Amazing Spider-Man”, Volume 2, issue 57 (498) - 502 (November 2003 - February 2004). The origin story by Stan Lee, Steve Ditko and letterer, Artie Simek hardly needs any introduction – geeky high school kid, Peter Parker gets bitten by a radioactive spider; develops remarkable "spider-like" powers; decides to use new powers to make a few bucks; ignores fleeing robber, resulting in the death of Uncle Ben and learning that "with great power there must also come - great responsibility". In "The Sinister Six" (by Lee and Ditko with Joe Rosen on letters) six of Spider-Man's greatest foes (Doctor Octopus, Sandman, Kraven, Mysterio, Electro and the Vulture) band together to form a team to destroy their nemesis. To add to Spider-Man's woes his girlfriend Betty Brant and Aunt May are under threat from the Six and to make matters worse it looks as if he's losing his powers. Both stories are magnificent, full of Lee's trademark hyperbole and overblown dialogue and Ditko's beautifully flowing and oddly angled and powerfully fitting artwork. Both tales look magnificent on the heavy glossy stock pages of the book and both also benefit from updated colouring techniques – never have both tales looked so lovely and sumptuous. The final story arc: "Happy Birthday" by J. Michael Straczynski and John Romita, Jr. sees New York coming under attack by the dreaded Dormammu and Spider-Man and Doctor Strange getting blasted into the void and becoming lost in the time-stream. This allows Spider-Man to look in on and potentially get involved in pivotal moments from his past and from his future. This story, although well regarded, doesn't work so well for me – Spider-Man as a character is best suited to New York and his familiar urban landscape and always seems to struggle in this type of inter-stellar widescreen story. The tale was obviously developed to fit in with the 500th issue of "Amazing Spider-Man", but unfortunately the plot seems an overly contrived way to allow Spider-Man to revisit his history and Straczynski seems unclear whether to focus on over-the-top action or whether to mine the past events for nostalgia, pathos and romance. Romita, Jr.'s artwork looks rushed in places and stunning in others, resulting in an overall competent affair. Despite the above, the arc is enjoyable and entertaining but far from the top division of Spider-Man stories. The book itself is a perfect bound hardback and runs to 216 full colour glossy pages, printed on nice stock. All the covers from the original comics are reprinted and there are a number of decent special features: a rogue’s gallery; a behind the scenes look at the creation of Spider-Man; the top five Spider-Man battles; a look at the different spider-costumes over the decades and a nice six page potted history of the character. All that adds up to an excellent package and a great value for money bundle. ( )

The second of Hachette’s Mightiest Hero series. The origin story is given a modern sheen with a restored an coloured version from the character’s fiftieth anniversary but the volume falls apart a little with the main feature. The Happy Birthday two-parter is fine but to bulk it out to graphic novel length they’ve had to feed in two one part stories, the first of which fits at least thematically with the intention of exploiting Spider-Man’s past but the second of which comes across as pure filler. Something of a patchwork effort. ( )