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About This Series
Issues
Pictures
About This
Series:
Issues:
This series was
all about new comic adventures set in the early days of Spider-Man's
crime-fighting career. It was one of several titles Marvel
experimented with at the 99 cent cover price. The aim was to
attract younger readers who were put off by the then standard cover
price of $1.50 and up per comic. People really loved this series
but, sadly, it lasted only 26 issues. There were 25 regular
issues, with a gimmicky -1 issue released between issues #22 and #23.
The artwork was wonderful, and the writing as masterful as the days of Spider-Man past. At this time, a lot of comic readers, like myself, were put out with how Marvel was handling Spider-Man. First, it was the symbiotes Venom and Carnage that Marvel overplayed. Then, it was the Spider-Man clones. The clones storyline was stupid. Really stupid. It was like soap opera "Days of Our Lives" dumb. Watch out Marlena and Evil Marlena...here comes Spider-Man and evil Spider-Man. No, wait, he's not evil, just "a little confused Spider-Man". The grasping Marvel did with Spider-Man in the middle-to-late 1990s is what effectively killed off the original era of Spider-Man comics. Unfortunately, the dropping interest in most of the Marvel titles is what killed off this gem of a series.
I was really surprised with how well this series was done. Writer Kurt Busiek is really the "father" of this series. He's publicly stated since the series wrapped that he felt the series title was misconceived. He would have preferred "Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man", which WAS used for a later series. The whole idea of the series was to introduce younger readers, and the mere name of the title meant that you had to know what went on earlier in Spider-Man's saga for these tales to be "untold". Although general reader reaction to the title was pretty good, a lot of retailers refused to stock the 99 cent comics due to a narrow profit margin. What later happened is that the 99 cent titles were made into flip books, two-in-one comics that increased the thickness and bumped up the price to $1.95. But then, the whole scope of what Marvel was trying to do was forfeit; the comics were no longer reasonably priced for budget buyers. By the end, the 99 cent experiment was deemed a failure.
Still, "Untold Tales of Spider-Man" outlasted ALL of its 99 cent sister series. It probably would have continued longer, had Busiek not left the series after issue #25. No matter what, this series was a rare Marvel highlight in the days that the Spider-Man Clone Saga in other titles bored and/or confused the h*** out of longtime Spider-Man fans.
The artwork was wonderful, and the writing as masterful as the days of Spider-Man past. At this time, a lot of comic readers, like myself, were put out with how Marvel was handling Spider-Man. First, it was the symbiotes Venom and Carnage that Marvel overplayed. Then, it was the Spider-Man clones. The clones storyline was stupid. Really stupid. It was like soap opera "Days of Our Lives" dumb. Watch out Marlena and Evil Marlena...here comes Spider-Man and evil Spider-Man. No, wait, he's not evil, just "a little confused Spider-Man". The grasping Marvel did with Spider-Man in the middle-to-late 1990s is what effectively killed off the original era of Spider-Man comics. Unfortunately, the dropping interest in most of the Marvel titles is what killed off this gem of a series.
I was really surprised with how well this series was done. Writer Kurt Busiek is really the "father" of this series. He's publicly stated since the series wrapped that he felt the series title was misconceived. He would have preferred "Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man", which WAS used for a later series. The whole idea of the series was to introduce younger readers, and the mere name of the title meant that you had to know what went on earlier in Spider-Man's saga for these tales to be "untold". Although general reader reaction to the title was pretty good, a lot of retailers refused to stock the 99 cent comics due to a narrow profit margin. What later happened is that the 99 cent titles were made into flip books, two-in-one comics that increased the thickness and bumped up the price to $1.95. But then, the whole scope of what Marvel was trying to do was forfeit; the comics were no longer reasonably priced for budget buyers. By the end, the 99 cent experiment was deemed a failure.
Still, "Untold Tales of Spider-Man" outlasted ALL of its 99 cent sister series. It probably would have continued longer, had Busiek not left the series after issue #25. No matter what, this series was a rare Marvel highlight in the days that the Spider-Man Clone Saga in other titles bored and/or confused the h*** out of longtime Spider-Man fans.
Issues:
#5: January,
1996. Spider-Man fights the Vulture. Cool. The flip
side is "Fantastic Four Unplugged" #3. I didn't think the FF
story was that good. Just seemed like filler, especially since it
was preceding a major story in "Fantastic Four" #408. The
Spider-Man side, however, was very cool. This is what Spider-Man
always used to be like. Spider-Man was supposed to be funny and
colorful with essentially harmless storylines. I never liked it
when the radical violence of Carnage was brought into Spider-Man
comics, or the Clone Saga. This story is fun, and it still
follows a continuity.