Description

The Best of Spider-Man: Volume 3                        Hardcover w/ Dust Jacket
Writer: J. Michael Straczynski
Artists: John Romita Jr. & John Romita Sr.
Cover by: J. Scott Campbell.

The latest volume of the best Spider-Man stories the House of Ideas has to offer presents an entire year’s worth of tales from Amazing Spider-Man – including the monumental reconciliation between Peter and Mary Jane, and an interdimensional invasion that sees Spidey set adrift in the time stream, forced to relive his greatest battles! Featuring the landmark Amazing Spider-man #500, this deluxe hardcover culminates in one very special, unexpected reunion!

The Best of Spider-Man: Volume 3 Hardcover contains:

Amazing Spider-Man Issues #46-58

In part #1, Taking inventory of his crummy life, Peter tries to get some sleep; He only succeeds when Dr. Strange induces sleep in order to talk to Spider-Man in his dreams; He warns Spidey that he made himself noticeable to mystical predators by leaving the path in the astral plane when he tackled Shade, then refers him to page 73 of his etymology book; Peter wakes and checks the book, finding an entry on the spider-wasp; Several days later, a spider-wasp-like creature calling herself Shathra attacks Spidey; She wants to toy with him before killing him but Spidey manages to get away, ducking into a subway station and maneuvering Shathra into being hit by a train; Before she is struck, she utters the name “Parker” and Spidey realizes she knows his secret; Later, playing a new game, Shathra takes human form, goes to the Daily Bugle, and tells them she and Spider-Man were lovers.

Next in part #2, At Midtown High, Peter enters the teachers’ lounge to find “Sharon Keller” on TV talking about her affair with Spider-Man; Recognizing “Sharon” as a disguised Shathra, Peter calls MJ to assure her it isn’t true but hears the doubt in her voice; Elsewhere, Ezekiel sees the broadcast and decides he’s been away too long; Furious, Spidey attacks the TV studio, inducing Shathra to reveal her true self on camera. Losing control, Spidey beats on her relentlessly, realizing too late that he has given in to his spider personna as Shathra wanted; Her meal now ripe, Shathra tags Spidey with a paralyzing stinger; He manages to escape in a cab; Seeing the mass of yellow cabs on the street, Shathra doesn’t know which one to pursue; Fighting the stinger’s toxins, Spidey stumbles into the Museum of Natural History’s “The Life and Death of Spiders!” exhibit.

Next in part #3, At the end of his fight with Shathra, a stunned and weakened Peter had succumbed to her sting’s poison; But luck favored him when he entered a spiders’ den and she lost his scent; Unbeknownst to Peter, he is taken to Ghana by Ezekiel, a friend of his; There Ezekiel feeds him the story of the first Spider-Man, Kwaku Anansi; Ezekiel takes Peter to a holy place of Spiders, something he refers to as a “place of power”; He tells that Peter will have an advantage here; Peter is confused, but is forced to dress up when Shathra comes to the place; A bitter fight ensues.

Next in part #4, Ezekiel tells Peter to consider Morlun and Shathra appetizers to an impeding huge menace before sending him to the airport in a limo with a first-class ticket to New York; Peter tells Ezekiel he’s a good guy; Ezekiel hopes he still feels that way when he learns the truth; Peter trades his first-class ticket to New York for a coach ticket to Los Angeles, unaware that MJ has arrived at his New York apartment; As Peter wallcrawls into MJ’s empty hotel room, MJ hangs out in Peter’s vacant apartment; Deciding the empty dwellings are signs of things ending, they head back to their own lives; A bad storm forces both their planes to land in Denver where Peter spots MJ only because his eyes is drawn to a spider on an airport seat.

Next in part #5, Peter Parker and Mary Jane get stranded in the same Colorado airport after flying across the country in an attempt to see each other; While waiting for the weather to clear the two begin to patch up their rocky marriage, but unfortunately they are interrupted by another stuck traveler, Doctor DOOM!; DOOM is suddenly attacked by Latverian freedom fighters, but Spider-Man and an undercover Captain America arrive just in time to save the besieged dictator, as well as the nearby innocents.

Next in part #6, In July 3, 1957, thirteen Mafia bosses and lieutenants meet in Las Vegas to peacefully resolve their differences; Missing is Morris Forelli who sends four gunmen to murder the thirteen, then bury the bodies in a mass grave in the Nevada Desert; In April 3, 2003, the US military tests a pocket gamma bomb in the Nevada Desert. After detonation, a creature crawls out of the ground; Meanwhile, Peter and MJ have dinner and get reacquainted; The creature journeys to New York, killing a train yard security guard, then crashes a meeting between a pimp and two of Morris Forelli’s men, killing the mobsters and destroying the building to send a message.

Next in part #7, Digger fights Spider-Man, and continues his vendetta against mobster Morris Forelli; Forelli hires Spidey to become his bodyguard and sends him on a trip to Nevada to investigate the origin of the dangerous Digger; Spider-Man tackles the creature who calls himself “Digger”, deducing from his green skin and great strength that he is gamma-spawned.

Next in part #8, Digger attacks another of Morris Forelli’s interests, but Spider-Man is there to stop him; Unfortunately so is a hit crew hired by Forelli to take down Digger for good; The hit crew only covers Digger’s escape, while Spider-man discovers a way to take down the zombie Hulk, and tension flares between Spider-Man and the Forelli family.

Next in part #9, Armed with a way to take Digger down, Spider-Man and Lieutenant William Lamont put his idea to the test; Spidey attacks Digger, chasing him into the sewer; Also, Spidey has a little surprise for his new boss, Morris Forelli.

Next in part #10, Peter finds some kids loitering outside the school; When he tells them they are late for class, they reply that they aren’t students anymore!; All but Melissa, a young girl on crutches, whom Peter helps to class; Taking an interest in her, Peter checks her transcript and learns she was forced to drop Honors Biology against her wishes; He arranges to get her transferred into his Honnor Bio class and even walks her home; There, he clumsily stops a robber making off with some of her family’s possessions; Peter meets Melissa’s mother Laura and hears about her brother Jack whom Spidey sent to jail for carjacking.

Next in part #11, Spider-Man watches Melissa for 8 nights, following her as she searches for Joshua, who disappeared after leaving jail; When drug dealers corner her looking to collect on Joshua’s debts, Spidey creates a disturbance allowing Melissa to escape; Exhausted over following Melissa every night, Peter visits the courthouse to learn details about Joshua’s parole but gets nowhere; Leaving, he encounters Ezekiel who tells him he’s there attending to legal matters; Later, Peter dreams about a fashion district location where parolees are congregating; Having webbed Melissa’s window shut, Spidey makes sure she’s stuck at home before finding Joshua at the location Thinking he’s breaking up a criminal operation, Spidey attacks.

Next in part #12, After a rough day at school dealing with Julie, an uncooperative administrative assistant, Peter tries to relax with MJ and May. Aunt May asks why Julie offends Peter when she’s only reponding to her own nature. Later, Peter and MJ watch lightning from their bed. When a red lighning bolt strikes, Peter heads out as Spidey to investigate. Je finds Times Square overrun by Mindless Ones and joins Cyclops, the Thing, Human Torch, Invisible Woman, Thor and Iron Man already fighting them. Spidey rescues a bystander, only to discover it’s Julie from Midtown High. When she ashs for an autograph signed to Julie “for my niece”, Spidey signs an air shaft, telling her, “If you can pull it out of the ground, you can have it”. Mr. Fantastic arrives with a device to channel the heroes’ various energies into a vibrational plane that will return the Mindless One to their home. Dr. Strange arrives too late to prevent the device’s use, which allows Dormammu to cross over to Earth instead.

Finally in part #13, Dr. Strange confronts Dormammu while the other heroes contains the Mindless One; Deciding to help Strange, Spidey accidentally alters the dynamics of Doc’s spell; Intending to destroy both himself and Doemammu, Strange instead cast outside of space and time with Spidey, simultaneously seeing the past and a possible future where Dormammu wins; There, Spidey tries to rescue Mary Jane from a Mindless One but it snaps her neck, killing her; Time switches and he finds at Aunt May’s grave observing his middle-aged self.
——————————————————————————–

Amazing Spider-Man Issue #500

Two generations of the greatest Spider-Man artists of all time mark a milestone! It’s Peter Parker’s birthday … but how do you throw a surprise party for someone with a Spider- sense? Someone figures out how and Spidey spends his special day looking back at his career and EVERY villain he’s faced over those years … against his will! A special story for Spidey fans new & old! Spider-Man battles an inter-dimensional threat with help from a raft of guest stars including the FF, Thor, Iron Man, Cyclops, and Dr. Strange. Classic Spider-Man villains including Doc Ock and the Green Goblin also make their appearance!

Story/Spoilers
Lost in time, Peter is faced with a tough decision. He watches as his future self, surrounded by armed men and women telling him not to move. He also watches his younger self the day that he was transformed forever into Spider-Man, and wonders if he should help the future or the past versions of himself.

The future version is confronted by William Lamont, who tries to convince the future version of himself not to fight back and to let himself be taken. The future Spider-Man disagrees, saying that he has to do this. William Lamont walks away, and future Spider-Man looks back at the grave behind him, that of his beloved Aunt May, saying how things will be better for Mary-Jane and for their son, Ben. He puts up a valiant effort, tearing a hole in the line of the people before finally being shot down.

Peter then watches his younger self as the spider descends on him, wondering if he should change the incident by shooting the spider off with his webs. Unable to do it, both the current and past Peter Parker scream in agony. The past version fading, the current version of Peter is confronted by Doctor Strange, who had just found Peter. Doctor Strange tells him that he must follow his voice to return to the present.

Dazed by the impact of Strange’s spell, he wakes up to see the Sandman, as he was when they first fought back at the beginning of his career. Quipping about the fact that he is as stupid back when they first met, Spider-Man easily leaps over him and heads to the vacuum cleaner, how he originally defeated the Sandman. As he is on the verge of victory, everything goes white with Doctor Strange’s voice telling him to follow it.

He reappears, this time fighting the Vulture, again in the same way they first fought. Being thrown into a water tank, he comes up for air, once again hearing Doctor Strange and experiencing a change of scenery. This time he hears a hissing noise from behind, which is revealed to be the Lizard. Fighting with him while talking about how they will meet in about thirty minutes, he once again is transported to another time.

This time he is facing Electro, wearing the rubber gloves he wore to defeat him. He fights his way through him, knocking him out with a punch. He awakens to the seen of Betty Brant, his old girlfriend looming over the dead body of her brother, and as he tries to comfort her, she slaps him and he tries to explain, before being spirited away.

He then sees Mysterio using his illusions. Standing there for a moment, he triest to rest, before being taken to fight the Hulk, who wants to smash him. During the fight with the Hulk, he is buried under rubble, before being taken away once more. Trapped and having the only thing that can save Aunt May’s life, he lifts up the rubble and moves on.

Hearing a girl’s voice, he see that he is atop the bridge where Gwen Stacy died, and watches as the Green Goblin throws her off. Attempting to save her and failing once more, he stops and is sitting in darkness before Doctor Strange convinces him to move on despite the pain and agony he is feeling. And so, he moves on.

He faces numerous of his most famous foes and tragic situations, before finally, after a long journey, he returns to present, where the Thing is telling him how he ran out of opponents. Realizing he is back, he returns in time to stop Reed Richards from making the mistake and giving Dormammu power, and with the help of the Fantastic Four, Avengers, and Doctor Strange, they stop the attacks.

He is given a present by Doctor Strange, and returns to his house to celebrate his birthday. Following his party, he takes out Doctor Strange’s present and his Uncle Ben appears, and has a conversation with him. Ben tells him that all he should be is happy, and Peter returns after their time is up to MJ in bed.
——————————————————————————–

Hardcover reprints/collects: Amazing Spider-Man #46-58 & 500.  Marvel Comics

Hardcover is bagged and will be carefully / securely packaged then shipped via USPS Priority Mail to ensure that it arrives to you perfectly and quickly.

First Printing
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Publication Date: June 2004
Format: FC, 368 pages, HC, 11″ x 7.5″
ISBN-10: 0785113398
ISBN-13: 9780785113393

Collectible Entertainment note: Hardcover w/ Dust Jacket is New & Unread.  Very Fine + condition.  Beautiful!  Please See Scans!!  A must have for any serious Spider-Man collector and/or enthusiast.  A fun & entertaining read.  Very Highly Recommended.

Please read return policy.