Amazing Spider-Man Complete Comic Book Collection Win/Mac

5 Comments

1. Michael Kozlowski says:

   August 14, 2010 at 9:40 am

   Review by Michael Kozlowski for Amazing Spider-Man Complete Comic Book Collection Win/Mac
   Rating:
   All of these Marvel complete collections on DVD-ROM are insanely great values, but this one is even better than the others. Like all of them, you get the classic stories from the ’60s, the decent stories from the ’70s and ’80s, and the horrible stories from the ’90s.

   But whereas the Fantastic Four and Uncanny X-Men have been fairly undistinguished in the ’00s, Amazing Spider-Man has had a superb run by J. Michael Straczynski. Straczynski’s run up to 2006 is collected in ten graphic novels, which are… well, you can look the price up here on Amazon, if you want a precise number. But suffice it to say that if you just wanted to read those modern comics, and didn’t care about the Lee/Ditko era or anything else before the turn of the century, you’d STILL be saving piles of money.

   As far as the quality and ease-of-use of the comics go, my expectations have been met and exceeded, and I’m picky. The scans are high-quality two-page spreads (including all ads and letters and Bullpen Bulletins, which are interesting in their own right — I can’t wait until I start reading Hostess Fruit Pie ads) and show about as much detail as actually exists in the source. Plus, these are regular ol’ PDFs, so there’s no need to install some weird proprietary application on your computer (and Adobe Reader in full-screen mode on a 1600×1200 display is absolutely perfect for reading a two-page spread).

   I bought this along with the Avengers, X-Men, and Fantastic Four sets, and am reading them all in parallel month-by-month, starting at the beginning. This doesn’t quite fulfill my childhood dream of having every Marvel comic ever published and reading them all in order (though it’ll get even closer once they release their Captain America, Hulk, and Thor DVDs), but it’s a heck of a lot closer than I ever thought I’d get, for a heck of a lot less than I ever thought I’d have to pay.

   I can’t recommend these sets — and particularly this one — enough to any fan of Marvel superhero comics.

   One very mild caveat: Like a few of the earlier reviewers, the version I got only went through mid-2006, not through the end of the year as in the picture and description above. On the one hand, that’s unfortunate, as Straczynski’s comics are good and worth reading; on the other hand, mid-2006 is already up to the point where it’s into the “Civil War” stuff, which is crossover central (the Road to Civil War print collection that was just released, for instance, includes a few issues of Fantastic Four and two issues of Amazing Spider-Man (which actually are included on the DVD), so if you want to read those FF issues, you’d pretty much have to buy the print collection anyway). I wouldn’t fuss about the missing months too much.
   
2. Dan Cimino says:

   August 14, 2010 at 9:41 am

   Review by Dan Cimino for Amazing Spider-Man Complete Comic Book Collection Win/Mac
   Rating:
   Amazon made an error in describing a new edition of this dvd that goes through December 2006. I contacted the manufacturer, GIT, and they said there is no second version. The dvd only goes thru June 2006. So nobody is being cheated
3. A. Mak says:

   August 14, 2010 at 10:02 am

   Review by A. Mak for Amazing Spider-Man Complete Comic Book Collection Win/Mac
   Rating:
   This set has got everything. Almost every major Spider-man moment is in this collection. From Spider-man’s first appearance in Amazing Fantasy #15, his wedding, and not to forget those great super-villain battles with the Green Goblin and Venom.

   Each issue is scanned in .pdf format. It has all the original colors, ads, and fan mail printed. They are all organized by year and it says they are all printable. If you are looking for the entire Stan Lee and John Romita Sr.’s run, here it is. It is great to see where Todd Mcfarlane, the creator of Spawn got his start on old webhead. J. Michael Strackzynski, the writer of Babylon 5 also takes a crack at Spider-man’s life.

   The collection covers the beginning from Amazing Fantasy #15 to Amazing Spiderman #531, which is around the start of Marvel’s Civil War.

   Instead of spending thousands of dollars on purchasing back issues, you can own this entire collection for around $40-$45. If you have the ink, you can print out any issue to your heart’s desire.

   The only drawbacks are around the 80s when several spider-man books begin to crossover. You only get a part of the story in Kraven’s Last Hunt or Maximum Carnage. One major moment of Spider-man’s life is left out, where he fights Harry Osborn as Green Goblin. The conclusion of that story took place in The Spectacular Spider-man title. That problem is going to fixed in the future as GIT Corp. has plans to release a complementary collection dvd that includes The Spectacular Spider-man, Web of Spiderman, and Peter Parker: Spider-man. They say on the boards that it will be out by fall of next year, but you never know with this company. I waited about six months for this dvd after it was delayed from its original release date from march.

   Now that I have it, I cannot wait to dig into the mythos of the old webhead. I recommend this to anyone who loves comics and loves Spider-man.

   Be sure to look out for the Ultimate Spider-man collection and there are a few others like the Hulk, Daredevil, Iron Man, and Captain America collections that are due out next year.
4. errorfound482 says:

   August 14, 2010 at 10:23 am

   Review by errorfound482 for Amazing Spider-Man Complete Comic Book Collection Win/Mac
   Rating:
   I’m not a Spider-Man fan. I love POWERS, THE ULTIMATES, SUPREME POWER, PLANETARY and other stuff by Warren Ellis, Brian Michael Bendis, et.al. So when I bought this, I wondered if spending a whopping $49 would be worth it.

   I wanted to read Straczynski’s recent run of Spider-Man, but if I was going to spend about $20 on a graphic novel, why not spend a little more for the whole thing. And that’s just what you get. In addition to getting Straczynski’s 4-year run (which includes Spider-Man’s evolution and discovery of his totemic powers), you get everything leading up to JUNE 2006 (which is just like 3 issues ago!). And all on 1 DVD-ROM.

   True, the Cons are that when it comes to Crossovers, you only get the Amazing Spider-Man stories and reading it off your computer isn’t as fun as reading the actual comics — but that doesn’t compare to getting the entire run. It’s like complaining about getting a free PS3, XBox360 AND Nintendo Wii, because the box didn’t come with it or you’re missing one controller.

   $50 may seem steep, but if comics cost $3 now, so for the price of like one or two months worth of comics — or for 2 books, you get everything. And it’s true, you can just print out the pages if you want (so if you want to abuse your office or school’s printer, go for it!)
5. Charles Jenkins says:

   August 14, 2010 at 10:48 am

   Review by Charles Jenkins for Amazing Spider-Man Complete Comic Book Collection Win/Mac
   Rating:
   I bought this product because I wanted to catch up on stories from the 90′s. Unfortunately, at that time Marvel ran several Spider-Man titles each month and the story lines moved between them. Because this collection contains only issues of The Amazing Spider-Man, you will find that you get the beginning of a story, but not the middle or end, because those were carried out in other comics; or the end but not the beginning. This product indeed contains the complete run–but it is made up of frustratingly incomplete stories. Also, each page appears with a horribly intrusive watermark. Save your money.