Web of Spider-Man in the 2000/2010s Primer

After a fourteen year hiatus Marvel brought back Web of Spider-Man for a second volume at the tail end of 2009. The series started off as a primer for the Gauntlet a major story line that was going on in Amazing Spider-Man. The story arc featured the return of some of Spider-Man’s greatest foes with new and updated powers that were sent to attack Spider-Man by the Kravenoff family. Web of Spider-Man in treated each issue as a primer for new readers who might not know much about these classic villains who have been around since the early 60s. It also gave the various creative teams in charge of every issue an opportunity to expand, modernize, and add more depth to the origins of these characters. Which, if you ask me, was a smart move. When you go back and re-read the first appearances of characters like Electro and Mysterio their origins are not only dated they also had very minimal character development. Back in the golden age, villains weren’t as deeply defined as the heroes who fought them.

I suspect that a lot of that had to do with the censorship at the time. The Comic Book Authority Code would quash anything that even remotely glorified crime, so I suspect that deep examinations and the mortal ambiguity of super-villains was not allowed because readers might feel sympathetic or idolize said villains. Back in those days, censors were worried that kids would imitate the comic books they read so villains were usually one dimensional one-trick ponies. They were Communist boogeymen or penny-ante crooks that also happened to shoot electricity from their fingers. Hell, half the time they didn’t even bother giving the villain’s real name. It wasn’t that important back in those much simpler times.

Other than the main feature the title was featured two back-up stories each issue. One was usually a Spectacular Spider-Girl stories that were originally published as digital comics as these stories were not originally published in physical editions.

From issue #8 to 12, the story count was reduced to two per issue. With the Gauntlet over, the stories changed their focus to tales about Spider-Man was well as back-up stories about supporting characters in the Spider-Man family.

The series featured writing talent from Spider-Man writers past and present including. Most stories were written either by J.M. DeMatteis, or Fred Van Lente with Sean McKeever, Tom Peyer, Frank Tieri, Zeb Wells, Joe Casey, Marc Guggenheim, and Roger Stern. They were paired up with some of the best artists of the time including Val Semeiks, Stephanie Buscema, Dan Green, Barry Kitson, Javier Rodriguez, Nick Dragotta, Eric Canete, Fracis Portela, Chad Hardin, Wayne Faucher, Rob Campanella, Jefte Palo, Xurxo Pentalta, Phil Briones, Jim Mahfood, Pat Oliffe, Sana Takeda, and Pepe Larraz.

The first half of this series was a great primer for new readers and the latter half provides interesting stories. They’re not game changers, but they’re decent enough.

Some notes about my index:

Although the majority of his series was published in 2010, it started in 2009 and in order to keep everything together the entire series will be listed in the 2000s era of publications.

I have omitted the Spectacular Spider-Girl reprints as that’s what they are, reprints. I will eventually get around to covering Spectacular Spider-Girl eventually and I will index those stories at that time. I’ve got plenty of Earth-616 comics to document before I get around to doing stories that take place in alternate realities.