The Penguin Classics Marvel Collection presents the origin stories, seminal tales, and characters of the Marvel Universe to explore Marvel’s transformative and timeless influence on an entire genre of fantasy.
A Penguin Classics Marvel Collection Edition
Collects “Spider-Man!” from
Amazing Fantasy
#15 (1962);
The Amazing Spider-Man
#1-4, #9, #10, #13, #14, #17-19 (1963-1964); “Goodbye to Linda Brown” from
Strange Tales
#97 (1962); “How Stan Lee and Steve Ditko Create Spider-Man!” from
The Amazing Spider-Man Annual
#1 (1964). It is impossible to imagine American popular culture without Marvel Comics. For decades, Marvel has published groundbreaking visual narratives that sustain attention on multiple levels: as metaphors for the experience of difference and otherness; as meditations on the fluid nature of identity; and as high-water marks in the artistic tradition of American cartooning, to name a few.
This anthology contains twelve key stories from the first two years of Spider-Man’s publication history (from 1962 to 1964). These influential adventures not only transformed the super hero fantasy into an allegory for the pain of adolescence but also brought a new ethical complexity to the genre—by insisting that with great power there must also come great responsibility.
A foreword by Jason Reynolds and scholarly introductions and apparatus by Ben Saunders offer further insight into the enduring significance of The Amazing Spider-Man and classic Marvel comics.
The Penguin Classics black spine paperback features full-color art throughout.