AMAZING SPIDER-MAN EPIC COLLECTION: RETURN OF THE SINISTER SIX (The Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection) Paperback – February 9, 2016

First, the art..... Erik Larsen is phenomenal. Every page is eye candy. Mary Jane is sexy as ever, and venom is bad to the bone. Some fantastic story lines as well. The sinister six series is a lot of fun to read over and over again! Highly recommended

A fun and dynamic blast from Spider-man's 90's past. Really kinetic artwork from an old favorite. I thoroughly enjoyed this collection. Thumb's up!

This volume collects the Marvel Graphic Novel Spirits Of The Earth (1990) and then seventeen consecutive issues of Amazing Spider-Man # 334 to #350 (1990 and 1991). All in a thick (over 500 page) volume with a card stock cover and quality paper with sharp reproduction.The Graphic Novel is from Charles Vess who wrote and illustrated it in his beautiful fine line style with painted water color art. This story is outside the regular continuity and involves Peter and Mary Jane visiting Scotland. This is a nice little story with beautiful art. Unfortunately this is the first Graphic Novel reprinted in a Epic Collection which suffers in comparison to the original. While it does look pretty darn good, shrinking it down to standard comic book size and not using the shiny paper stock takes away slightly from the intricate art.The rest of the volume looks better then it's source material. David Micheline continues his very solid run featuring almost every major rogue in Spider-Man's gallery. The art for sixteen of the seventeen issues featured here is by Erik Larson down just prior to his Exdous for Image and launch of The Savage Dragon. 25 years ago I dismissed his work here as lackluster clone of Todd McFarlane's breakthrough work on the book. Now I realize that Larsen is a quite a good artist on his own and these pages have a fun energy to them. Mark Bagley does one issue in a very similar style.Since this is period is when Peter and Mary Jane are happily married and Mary Jane has a job on a successful soap opera they have few problems. So much of the sub plots focus on Aunt May and her love life and they newly established couple of Flash Thompson and Felicity (The Black Cat) Hardy. Felicity starts dating Flash in a move to hurt Peter but it quickly evolves into more.Amazing Spider-Man #334 through #339 is the six part Return of The Sinister Six which ran in the six bi-weekly issues then ran during the summer of 1990. This is the second appearance of The Sinister Six who first appeared in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1. The team included five of the original members with Doc Ock, Mysterio, Vulture, Electro and the Sandman. For this appearance Hobgoblin has replaced original member Kraven The Hunter. Both the Kingpin and the Shocker show up during these six issues, but not as members of the group. The sub-plots happening during this story revolve around a murder at Mary Jane's TV show and the death of Aunt May's fiancé Nathan Lubesky.Amazing Spider-Man #340 serves as bridging story between the Sinister Six and the next three parter. The villainess group called Femme Fatale created in a Marvel Presents story are featured here.In Amazing Spider-Man #341 Peter decides rather abruptly to get rid of his Spider Powers. This saga runs through #343. The villains include the above Femme Fatale as well as The Tarantula and The Scorpion. The Black Cat helps our depowered hero. Also Aunt May gets a new suitor in the form Mailman Willlie Lumpkin.Amazing Spider-Man #344 and # 345 introduce new Hero and or villian Cardiac. #345 is guest penciled by Mark Bagley. The true villains of these issues are The Rhino and The Boomerang. Meanwhile in the back story Venom is preparing to make his reappearance.The showdown with Venom runs in Amazing Spider-Man #346 and #347. While Spider-Man #348 features the return of Sandman who is trying to reform and calls in a couple Avengers.Amazing Spider-Man #349 brings back the thief The Black Fox who winds up stealing an emerald belonging to the Ruler of Latveria. So Doctor Doom is the final nemesis in both Erik Larsen's run and this volume in an oversized Amazing Spider-Man #350.In summary this is an excellent run of Spider-Man with nary a clinker in the bunch. It is so much better then I remembered it and gets My Highest Recommendation.

Some of the best. Nobody did Spider-Man (and Mary Jane) like Erik Larsen. Great story. Probably the best Sinister Six arch. Cameos by Iron Man, Thor, etc. What's not to like?

As far as I'm concerned, this Epic Collection is the quintessential 1990's Spider-man collection. It features many of his most recognizable villains, including the Sinister Six (Doctor Octopus, Hobgoblin, Mysterio, Electro, Sandman, Vulture), Venom, and Doctor Doom. The writing reflects the fun tone of the art; this is what Spider-man comics used to be.I highly recommend this collection if you're looking for classic 1990's Spider-man. 5 stars.

Fase espetacular pós Todd McFarlane, com a entrada de Erik Larsen no título e o David Micheline mantendo o nível do texto

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.

The book opens with a graphic novel, Spirits Of The Earth, where Peter and Mary Jane visit Scotland in a quite unforgetable and unnecessary adventure absent of any real excitement or logic. On the upside, the rather average artwork has some excellent colouring.The rest of the book is, thankfully, much better. Erik Larsen is the artist for most of the issues, which provides some consistency that these volumes often lack. And while I've never been a fan of Erik Larsen's artwork, he does draw Spider-Man quite well. The Sinister Six storyline, from which the book got it's name, is quite good - with the exception of the tacky ending where Peter Parker, as a science student, saves the day instead of Spider-Man.As fine as the Sinister Six storyline is though, the highlight of the book is the two-parter story where Venom takes Spider-Man to an abandoned island for a (supposed) final battle. This is still one of the finest Venom stories I've had the pleasure of reading.In conclusion, this is overall a fine book. I would have given it 4/5 if not for the out-of-place graphic novel and Erik Larsen's at times distracting artwork.

Very GOOD read, Highly recommend.