During the 2022 holidays, I was gifted with a subscription to Marvel Unlimited – it’s like a streaming service but for comic books. Having access to thousands of Marvel comics, I figured the only sensible thing to do was to pick one character and become a certified expert. Spider-Man seemed the obvious choice, but there was only one problem – Spider-Man’s popularity meant that there were literally over a thousand comic books that he appeared in across nearly sixty years. As much as I love the guy, I wasn’t prepared to dive that deep – but I did my best. To save everyone some time, I read a one-sentence summary for every single issue, and used that to decide which I’d be diving into and which I’d skip. From there, I ended up narrowing down the ones I read to a top ten for each decade – so if you’re ever thinking of jumping into the webbed wonder’s comics yourself, you can do it a bit more efficiently than I did. Look out - here comes the Spider-Man.
Top Ten 60s Spider-Man Issues
Spider-Man: Amazing Fantasy #15, 1962
Doctor Octopus: The Amazing Spider-Man #3, 1963
The Lizard: TASM #6, 1963
The Green Goblin: TASM #14, 1964
High School Graduation: TASM #28, 1965
Starting College: TASM #31, 1965
Goblin Learns Spidey's Identity: TASM #39, 1966
Mary Jane Watson: TASM #42, 1966
Spider-Man Quits: TASM #50, 1967
Peter's Parents: The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #5, 1968
Spider-Man soared onto the scene in 1962, and much of what makes him who he is today comes from those first fifty or so issues. From his origin in Amazing Fantasy to the starting roster of super-villains, it was great getting to see what made Spider-Man such a hit to readers of the time. I read just under 50 issues from this decade, and these issues below are definitely worth your time.
It's crazy to think that so many of Spider-Man's quintessential characters appeared in just these starting years. Doc Ock, Green Goblin, the Lizard, Aunt May, J. Jonah Jameson, Gwen Stacey, Mary Jane Watson - so many of them have been with Spider-Man from nearly the very beginning.
Then there's all the villain debuts that didn't make the top ten:
Vulture
Sandman
Electro
Scorpion
Kraven the Hunter
Mysterio
Kingpin
Rhino
Prowler
The Sinister Six
The fact that all of these guys came out in the first decade is baffling because so many of them still hold a firm spot in Spider-Man lore. In other issues this decade, I also got to see Doc Ock move in with Aunt May for a little bit, as well as watching a romance between Peter and Betty Brant take form and then collapse. Betty's brother gets killed during a Spider-Man fiasco. Spidey isn't able to prevent it, which makes Betty hate him - and Peter can't really wrap his head around that.
By far, though, the biggest thrills come from Green Goblin and Spider-Man every time they're together. Figuring out who Green Goblin was in the first place was a big deal, and then having him be the first villain to discover Spider-Man's identity really gave the story big emotional stakes. Loved that.
Next up is Spider-Man in the 70s, which hold some of his most pivotal moments ever. Let's do it!
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