Pop Quiz Time! – how many Spider-Man stories are there in the 616 universe of Spider-Man’s early years (up to his high school graduation)?
A. 28
B. 29
C. 56
D. 106
E. 119
Read on, True Believers, the answer you seek is just a scroll away!
Now, before we go over the answer, if you are patient, allow me to entertain you with a clever and witty post. If you if you need to get to the meat of this post right this instant, you need to click here now!
OK, so time for the answer – If you chose A. 28, then good job! You knew that Amazing Spider-Man #28 was Peter Parker’s high school graduation. However, you are wrong!
That’s right! All you who chose B. 29 remembered to add in Amazing Fantasy #15! Kudos to you! Once again, though, you are incorrect.
Yes, you who chose C. 56 remembered to add in the 25 Untold Tales of Spider-Man plus the two Untold Tales annuals. Great! But you are a bit mistaken still.
Congratulations! Those of you who chose D. 106 knew that there were other guest appearances of Spider-Man in the Avengers and Fantastic Four and Alias and all the stupid let’-go-back-and-tell-stories-of-Spider-Man’s-past issues like Learning to Crawl and With Great Power plus all those team ups with Human Torch in Strange Tales! You are truly the masters of Crawlspace counting!
For those of you who chose D. 119, you remembered the thirteen issues of Chapter One. Well, I’m not sure if I should congratulate you or not on that deduction, so I’ve got nothing for you.
What we are doing here is a COMPLETE list of ALL Spider-Man comics/appearances. In order not of when the comic was published, but when it appears in continuity. That’s more that just the equivalent of ordering Star Wars movies by episodes. That’s more than just adding in Solo and Rogue One. This is the equivalent of all of that PLUS adding in the Clone Wars cartoon (both Lucasfilm and the MTV versions), Rebels, the Droids cartoon, the Holiday Special, AND Ewoks (both cartoon and made for TV movie*)
For you Spider-philes, our list will be a good test to see if you HAVE read everything there is to read about Spider-Man. Sure, you know Amazing Spider-Man. You know Untold Tales of Spider-Man. You are probably familiar with Learning the Crawl and With Great Power. If you are a frequent Cobwebs reader, you already know about the Fantastic Four Annual #1. But are you up to date on his Tales to Astonish and Strange Tales appearances? And that’s not all! We have Alias, Spider-Girl, Webspinners and more! If Spider-Man made an appearance, we’ve got it!
Right now, we have every appearance up to his high school graduation. If you like this, we’ll keep updating the list!
Not only do we have them listed, we’ve provided you a link to Marvel Unlimited where you can read it online.
So where is the list? HERE!
What don’t we have? Non-616 versions flashbacks (we will put those stories where they fit). Plus, I only have up to his high school graduation because this a super time consuming process! So make sure you put a comment to let me know if it is worth continuing to compile. So why are you still reading this? I’m done being witty and clever. Get reading those issues you’ve missed!
OK, you knew something else was coming. You know me too well. OK. I have a challenge for you. There are a few issues that Marvel Unlimited does not have … yet. If later you are looking over this list and find it, email me! Find an issue I missed? It’s possible (I did try to be thorough). Let me know! Don’t agree with where I placed an issue? Leave your reasoning in the comments or email me. lordalford@gmail.com
Happy readings, my friends!
* Sadly, this was a thing:
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Spotify
Pandora
Amazon Music
iHeartRadio
Podbean
Amazon Alexa
Player.fm
Listen Notes
Stitcher
Wow, David! You made my day! Being compared with the MadGoblin? Wow! Thanks! I’m glad you are liking the posts and when I make it onto the podcast. Come out of the shadows more often and let me know the things you are interested in seeing more of. I’ve had enough response to continue that chronological post, so we’ll get another section out in a month or two. Again, I appreciate the kind words!
I normally just lurk here, but this makes me be pushed from the shadows – Mark, you rule. From your columns that are consistently among the best and most interesting I’ve read about the character (up there with the MadGoblin himself’s), to your hilarious appearances on the podcast to this now, thank you for your effort, education and entertainment. I’m looking forward to tracking this as it progresses.
Editorial opinion and authorial intent only matters up to a point. Ultimately older in story information matters. Hence Spider-Man is not actually mentally 15 as Slott and the editorial attitude was not so long ago.
The ASm run at the time actually only referenced it in 3 issues, one of which was a pseudo dream sequence. I think with something like that you have to treat it as we treat something like Sins Past or that Jenkins Lizard storyline wherein they so aggressively do not jive with established continuity (and with no egregious benefit either) that we essentially have to quarantine them, like a noxious gas, and just ignore them. Fun fact here in the UK they not only ignored Chapter One but also skipped Captain Power altogether and the narrative still flowed fine.
a) But editorial opinion matters. All in all, I think we both agree that it was a horrible idea and are glad that people in power decided to ignore it. Although, it does make continuity messy since the ASM run at the time referenced it.
b) Thanks! I went back and read it, and I think I’ll keep it in the timeline Spidey is in since they are just in a flashback. I’ve never read that before. Awesome!
c) Sounds good!
a) Yes but authorial intentions alone do not determine something being canon or not. Plus restructuring is a form of contradiction no?
b) I was referring to Blade vol 5 #10
c) Currently it’s more an idea as I have lots of real life stuff and other fan projects on the go. I was going to just post it on the message boards somewday when it’s done though. When i am done I shall try to contact you.
My aim though is to make it somewhat customizable. So I’d place untold tales and similar sort of flashback stories in their in-unvierse chronological space but also place them in the best place for around the time they were published. My reason for doing this is because if a new reader picked up the list they might wish to avoid potential spoilers from flashback stories written in hindsight, e.g. that MJ always knew Peter was Spider-Man
Equally where some issues or stories take place during multi-part stories I’d be listing those issues in between the parts of those arcs but also before or after with a note explaining their placement. E.g. if ASM #1-3 was a 3 part story and Spec #1 happened in between parts 1 and 2 or Spec #2 happened in between scenes from ASM #3 I’d list the issues as such but also list Spec #1-2 AFTER ASM #1-3 so readers can have the option of how they want to read the issues, whether to disrupt the 3 part story or not.
My aim is to create a pre-OMD reading list that is pretty comprehensive, flows well narratively and could genuinely be handed to somebody toally unfamiliar with Spider-Man and get them started.
To Al, Hornacek, and Brad –
@ Al – a) actually, while Chapter One is not now canon, and never should have been canon, the intention at the time was that it was a soft reboot and was considered canon. It was not supposed to contradict the original stories as much as restructure them. This is also why ASM at the time confirmed it as canon with the Captain Power stories. However, it is not no longer considered canon which is why they were put in their own little section denoting as such. The purist will need to read that as it was, at one point, Spider-Man’s history. But I do agree that the smart person stays away from them with a ten foot pole.
b) I found Hembeck’s page where he compiles all of the Petey stories, so I included them now. Thanks! As for the Blade issue, I’m looking, but coming up short on this. Are you talking about Blade #1? If so, the story is modern time and I remember there being a big flashback scene, but I’m trying to keep flashbacks stories with their main story continuity.
c) I used several lists that people started as my basis for getting this put together. None of them agree completely with each other (and no doubt, much of the timing of these stories is wonky) and they leave out certain chunks of comics here and there. My goal here is to try and get them all and to provide where our readers can read them on MU. I did not use MCP, but I will be checking them out as I make future lists. Thanks for that!
Your list sounds intriguing. Where are you posting it? If you don’t have a spot, maybe we can work out some Cobwebs space for the Big Al Spider-Man Reading List. Let me know if you are interested.
@ Hornacek – Ee chee wa maa!
@ Brad – Thanks! I do!
Mark a) Technically Chapter One was never canon. They tried to assert it as canon but it’s contradictions to the original stories disqualifies it as such
b) You actually missed a few stories. There is an appearance featuring Ben and May as younger people in an issue of Blade and debatably those Fred Hembeck ‘Petey’ Adventures of Peter Parker are kind of canon. Hey if Chapter One and With Great Power is being included might as well include those.
c) Dunno if you used it or not but you should check out Marvel Chronology Project as it’s really useful for this sort of thing. I used it to make a (at the time) pretty definitive chronological order for all the MC2 titles. Also I am considering doing a defintivie (ppre-OMD) reading list for Spider-Man. Not in-universe chronological but like something that makes sense narratively (so starting with AF #15) or gives you enough of a skeleton that you could customize something for yourselves.
Yub nub!
Thank you so much for the time you put into this project. You rock