Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection: Round Robin Paperback – April 7, 2015

Not only do you get the Round Robin storyline here, but a Spider-Man annual crossover story, Nova and Spidey against the Tri-sentinel, Spidey vs Cardiac (obscure punisher type character), and Spider-Man, Fear Itself (graphic novel).My only complaint with this collection is, given all the added material, they included Fear Itself instead of the three issue Carnage story that would have been after the Cardiac one.

great comic

Love it Spiderman is great my favorite superhero.

excellent product and shipping

I love the Epic Collection format with phone book size and great full color reproduction on quality paper. But this is the first one that kind of became a chore to finish. I debated giving it only three stars but I decided to be generous and round this 3.5 star book up.Collected from the cover dated years of 1991 and 1992 we get three connected Annuals, ten issues of Amazing Spider-Man and a stand alone graphic novel.The volume starts with three connected Annuals, Amazing Spider-Man Annual #25, Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #11 and Web of Spider-Man Annual #7. During this time Marvel had decided to make the Annuals 64 pages long so you get over 50 pages of new content. Each had a lead story of around 25 pages then a bunch of smaller stories featuring Spider-Man related characters. These are also included.The lead connected storyline is written by David Michelinie and spins out of characters and concepts from his then current Iron Man run. The art is by Guang Yap for the first and last part and Marvel Legend Marie Severin for the middle section. The story is about Roxxon Industries creation of a synthetic Vibranium . Spider-Man teams with Iron Man and the Black Panther to take on Sunturian, The Ghost, The Kingpin and Ultron.The backups are a good idea in concept , but turn out to be mostly a waste of space. We get four different three page "the origin of...." stories with Spider-Man, Green Goblin, Hobgoblin and Venom. Venom gets another story "The Truck Stop Of Doom " which is just as good as the title suggests. Fred Hembeck does a story of young Peter Parker story which is fun. My favorite is The Outlaws three part story. The Outlaws are a bunch of quasi heroes and reformed villains from the pages of Spider-Man. They are Silver Sable, The Prowler, Will-o-wisp , Sand Man and Rocket Racer. Rocket Racer also gets his own solo story battling Speed Demon. Steve Ditko does a Chance story. And even The Rhino gets his own story which is really just a Spider-Man story, since Spider-Man appears on page two defeats Rhino and it over.When Erik Larsen left Amazing Spider-Man it was decided to bring Mark Bagley over to the book following his 25 issue run on New Warriors. Amazing Spider-Man#351 and #352 starts Bagley's run as regular artist for the book with Michelinie as writer. In the story Nova teams up with Spider-Man to battle a three headed Sentinel.Nova returns for guest writer All Milgrom's six part "Round Robin" story (Amazing Spider-Man #353 to #358 )which ran all summer as the book came out every two weeks. This story featured a bloated All Action adventure against The Secret Empire and Midnight who died in the pages of Moon Knight and is brought back here as an evil cyborg.Also guest starring are a bunch more of the 90's Who's Who with Nova, The Punisher, Darkhawk and the hero who's name sounds like a Porno Movie title Night Thrasher.At this point Mark Bagley had now done eight issues in five months so Chris Marrinan comes in for Amazing Spider-Man #359 and #360 . This two part story welcomes back David Michelinie and Cardiac. My favorite part of this story was the use of Peter Parker's supporting cast of friends and Daily Bugle work mates. Up until this story only Mary Jane and Aunt May had been used.Finally we close with the strange graphic novel "Fear Itself " which should not be confused with the recent 100 part Mega Event. The story is plotted by Gerry Conway and scripted by Conway and Stan Lee. If anyone knows the back story of Stan's involvement, I would love to hear it. I can't imagine in 1992 Conway got behind and Stan just came in to help out. Anyways the plot reads like something out of an Alistair MacLean adventure novel. Spider-Man and Silver Sable explore an old castle in Germany and battle Nazi's and Ninjas. The art by Bronze Age Spider-Man legend Ross Andru is some of his best and the last time he would draw Spider-Man before dying in 1993.One of the problems that all these stories share is a carefree and happy Peter Parker. This is not the character I know and love. I think his biggest worry is Aunt May's new infatuation with Pro Wrestling.For supplemental material you get information and samples of Mark Bagley's try out book entry, covers done for collected editions and Spider-Man related trading cards.Recommend for fans of Mark Bagley or "Die Hard " Epic Collection collectors.

The first comic I ever bought was Amazing Spider-Man 353 - which is collected in this volume. I've read all of these comics before, and I still have a soft spot for them. Personally, I would say this is a five-star collection. But I'm lowering it to four-star for most people. These stories honestly aren't the greatest, even if they're very fun.The collection opens with the three Spider-Man annuals from these years - The Vibranium Vendetta. The story is a bit weak, and seems mostly like an excuse to pull in a variety of guest stars. Each of these annuals has supplemental features. Short stories with a variety of Spider-Man affiliated characters. These stories aren't great, but I love having them. I love getting a more complete version of these comics.Then we get a two-part team-up with Nova. It's an enjoyable story, mostly for the undercurrent of Nova needing to learn to be a better hero.Then there's the meat of this book. The Round Robin storyline. Lots of guest stars. It's kind of pleasant, since the characters all figure into the stories for more than just a panel or two. There are some nice little interactions between Night Thrasher and Punisher, which helps to establish his pull between being more or less violent. Darkhawk gets a similar treatment as Nova, needing to learn more about being a responsible hero.The one complaint I have about this story is that it ties heavily into some issues of Moon Knight which have never been collected in trade, so I've always been curious to know exactly how this storyline started.Then there are two issues with Cardiac. This is part of the early 90s phase in which Marvel tried to be a little more proactive in a corporate responsibility messaging. They had been doing it for awhile already, but this felt a little more heavy-handed.The collection closes out with Fear Itself, a Spider-Man graphic novel. I had never read it before. It uses Silver Sable, a white ninja, and Baron Zemo. A strange story. The artwork is nicely done, but the story is underwhelming. Still, it's nice to finally read it.For nostalgia purposes, I love this collection, and I'll probably re-read it plenty of times. But for anyone who didn't grow up with these comics, the writing is a bit clunky, there's a lot of time spent having characters summarize what happened before, and The Secret Empire isn't an especially menacing villain. Neither is Midnight.But man... I love that Marvel is putting these collections out. They're so much more comprehensive than the Essentials volumes, and I find myself buying more volumes than I normally would.

The latest Epic Collection returns us to the world of Peter Parker, bringing us Volume 22 in the eventual complete chronology and collecting material from 1991-1991. As usual with this line, the collection itself is wonderful, with quality reproduction on good paper and a completionist-friendly mindset. However, as with so many superhero offerings with the nineties, I feel that these stories are not exactly the webhead's finest hour.We kick off the book with the three Spidey annuals (Amazing, Spectacular and Web Of) from 1991; all three contain a mixed bag of tales from several artists and writers. As well as shorter stories starring Spidey or his villains, such as Venom, and a retelling of several character's origin stories, we have a couple of longer ones that run across all three annuals.The first sees Spidey team up with Iron Man and Black Panther in a tangled tale about the wonder metal vibranium, bringing the three heroes into conflict with crime boss the Kingpin and the mad robot Ultron. It's certainly not terrible, but for all the big hitters in the story, seems to lack urgency and conflict. The other triple-annual story does not even feature Spider-Man, but instead sees mercenary Silver Sable recruit a team of ex-villains as the Outlaws. Spidey being edged out by guest stars is a recurring theme with this particular collection, as are the number of VERY nineties-style characters being given an obvious push.After the annuals, though, normal service resumes on Spidey's monthly series, and we see new artist Mark Bagley, later to have a fantastic run on the Ultimate version of the character, join regular writer David Michelinie on Peter's adventures. Bagley has a clean, fresh style, and certainly manages to capture the kinetic action of the webswinger's life. Again, though, the series seems more concerned with focusing on guest star Nova than on Spidey's rematch with the Tri-Sentinel from his cosmic days.The title six-parter has guest writer Al Milgrom paired with Bagley for a story about an old sidekick returning for cyborg-style revenge. The work is again fine, if a little repetitive in its repeated fights and chase scenes, but this time Spider-Man has to share page space with Moon Knight, Nova, Night Thrasher, the Punisher and Moon Knight (!). With that many superheroes to fit in, it's no wonder that, save from perfunctory appearances from Mary-Jane and Aunt May, Peter's wonderful supporting cast is largely neglected in this volume.The final monthly two-parter has Spidey tangle with doctor-turned vigilante Cardiac as our hero's sense of justice conflicts with the other's lust for revenge. It is again, perfectly fine work, just not vintage brilliance.The collection wraps up with the Fear Itself graphic novel, a longer work with the wallcrawler joining Silver Sable on an international mission against a mysterious villainess in possession of a terrifying fear-based weapon. While the story is co-written by Stan Lee, it seems to lack his usual exuberant flourishes, although the art, by Ross Andru, hearkens back to more classic Amazing Tales.To round off the collection, the book also gives us the original Fear Itself cover, details on Bagley's winning of Marvel's Try-Out contest, the cover, introduction and pin-ups from the original Round Robin trade paperback, and Spider-Man-related trading card art from the relevant years. So, while I might have been somewhat down on the material presented here, I have nothing but good things to say about the presentation itself.Completists will, of course, be adding this to their Epic Collection shelf, and there is certainly nothing out-and-out terrible here, but for everyone else, this is a less than essential period of Spider-Man's life.

One of the least impressive Marvel collections I have read to date, it's nice to see them actually remembering to feature the lead character occasionally.It started off reasonably OK with Spidey, Iron Man, Black Panther, Slver Sable and The Ghost taking on Ultron, Rhino and the Kingpin in an industrial espionage caper involving the highly dubious company Roxxon who have been featuring in the recent Marvel films. That story spanned the three 1991 annuals of Spidey's titles and they could have bypassed the small featurettes with Rocket Racer and others that added nothing of real value.Back to Spidey's own main title and it's straight to the return of the Tri-Sentinel (featuring Nova) then into a six part story with The Secret Empire and Moon Knight's old partner Midnight who has been slightly augmented and the dreary armoured Seekers. Fear not, Spidey is not alone here, he is joined by Moon Knight, Punisher, Darkhawk, Nova, Night Thrasher (even Spidey makes a joke about that name) even Captain America gets a look in but probably left as it was just too crowded and there was no room for him to swing his shield.It gets back on track with a decent tale featuring Cardiac that also sees the birth of Carnage, but dips at the end with the Fear Itself tale featuring Silver Sable again and a new Baron Zemo.It's almost as if they were obliged, especially when the tales went fortnightly to ensure every story had at least one guest star but it was more annoying than anything else. Thankfully at least the main background characters still featured, albeit to a lesser degree, but the stories need JJJ, Mary Jane , Flash Thompson and even Aunt May to add some muscle to the skeleton.It's memorable only for the first brief appearance of Carnage.There's a few extras at the back of the book, some re-prints of artwork and an interesting article on how comic book fan Mark Bagley won a talent prize and finally found his way into the career he had longed for.

This volume collects Spider-Man stories from 1991/92.First up is 'The Vibranium Vendetta' story which ran across Amazing Spider-Man Annual #25, Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #11 and Web of Spider-Man Annual #7. David Micheline is the writer whilst Guang Yap (parts 1 and 3) and Marie Severin (part 2) provide the art. Spidey, Iron Man and The Black Panther team up against The Ghost, Ultron and The Kingpin. I always enjoyed Micheline's tales and whilst they're nothing that memorable they were a satisfying read. All the back-ups from the Annual's are included as well. Nice to see them all complete although they range from fair to poor and feature the likes of Chance, Venom, The Rhino, Rocket Racer and a three part tale with The Outlaws.Next up are Amazing Spider-Man #351 - #358. Micheline again writes #351/#352 and we see Mark Bagley come on board. Good team-up tale with Nova. The book became bi-monthly with #353 as Al Milgrom takes over the writing and feels more like Marvel Team-up with guest stars including Darkhawk, The Punisher, Night Thrasher, Nova (again) and Moon Knight. This is the 'Round Robin' part of the book and its entertaining enough.#359/#360 feature the return of Micheline writing and art from Chris Marrinan. I wasn't impressed by the art but its a good story and I was quite interested in the Cardiac character. There's an early glimpse of a character we would later know as Carnage as well.The Marvel Graphic Novel 'Fear Itself' finishes off the book. Gerry Conway and Stan Lee put the story together and Ros Andru provides the art but its not that good. Good to have it collected but I doubt I'll be reading it again soon. A smorgasbord of extras are included at the back including some Bagley art, the original cover art for the nineties trade paperback as well as Al Milgrom's introduction, a pin-up gallery and trading cards.Whilst I didn't enjoy it as much as the previous 'Cosmic Powers' volume, there's still enough entertainment contained here to make it an enjoyable read. At 488 pages for the price you can't go wrong really.

Lectura esencial para los amantes del trepamuros, de los cómics Marvel y del cómic en general. la EPIC COLLECTION recopila la serie AMAZING SPIDERMAN desde sus comienzos en los años 60. Imprescindible para coleccionistas. Los volúmenes son perfectos de tamaño, manejables y a buen precio.

Great