Essential Web of Spider-Man—Volume 2

Comic Info

Web of Spider-Man (1) #20

Reprints Web of Spider-Man (1) #19-32 and Annual #3, Amazing Spider-Man (1) #293-294, and Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #131-132 (October 1986-November 1987).  Peter is facing some of his biggest problems.  He’s dealing with villains like Hobgoblin, the Rose, and Vulture while teaming up with the X-Man Wolverine.  Peter will also face tragedy with the death of a friend, but his biggest challenge could be when his old enemy Kraven the Hunter gets serious about putting the Wall-Crawler on the endangered species list!

Written by David Michelinie, Larry Lieber, Jim Shooter, Len Kaminski, Stefan Petrocha, Dwight Jon Zimmerman, Bob Layton, James Owsley, J.M. DeMatteis, Danny Fingeroth, and Roger Stern, Essential Web of Spider-Man—Volume 2 is a Marvel Comics black-and-white comic book collection.  Following Essential Web of Spider-Man—Volume 1, the collection features art by Marc Silvestri, Larry Lieber, Jim Fern, Del Barras, Tom Morgan, Dave Simons, Steve Geiger, Mike Zeck, Bob McLeod, Alex Saviuk, Frank Giacoia, Don Perlin, Steve Mooney, Greg Larocque, Peter Poplaski, Al Gordon, and Bob Layton.  Issues in this collection were also collected as part of The Amazing Spider-Man:  Kraven’s Last Hunt in various collections.

Web of Spider-Man was Marvel Team-Up’s replacement title.  I loved Marvel Team-Up.  I liked the weird combinations of characters and the odder the character the better.  Web of Spider-Man seemed to focus more on the life of Peter Parker and less of Spider-Man.  I love that Marvel would expand the world of the character in this way, and it is something that is lacking from modern comics for the most part…but I’d still rather have Marvel Team-Up.

Web of Spider-Man (1) #29

The collection is pretty typical Peter Parker angst.  There’s worries about money, Aunt May, and housing…everything you’d expect in Spider-Man comic book.  There is some oddity in the collection in that you have Web of Spider-Man Annual #3 (1987) which is essentially a source book with pin-ups and a weird collection of rogues, but you also have the Wolverine-Spider-Man team-up that follows the classic Spider-Man vs. Wolverine #1 (February 1987) which feels like it should be included here since the death of Ned Leeds’ is a pivotal point in this collection and the issues that follow.

The biggest part of this collection is the six part critically acclaimed Kraven’s Last Hunt.  This is also where Essential collections show their weakness.  While it is nice to have a cheap, affordable copy of Kraven’s Last Hunt, the series is aided by the rich art and darkness of the story.  You just don’t get that from Essential collections.

Essential Web of Spider-Man—Volume 2 feels like one of the lesser Essential collections.  It is solid, but I would have liked to have seen an Essential Web of Spider-Man—Volume 3 more than this title.  This volume does have some pivotal points in Peter’s life and some early appearances of “Venom” (aka the person trying to secretly kill Peter in a few issues), but largely, this feels like rather hum-drum Spider-Man.  The Essential collection was cancelled after this release, and this volume ended the series.

Related Links:

Essential Web of Spider-Man—Volume 1

The Amazing Spider-Man:  Kraven’s Last Hunt