I was so excited, the day in 1986 I found a copy of Amazing Spider-Man #123 in the back issue bin at Amazing World of Fantasy, For the first of only three times, I attempt to barter with Gordon, the owner. I’d read advice recently then about asking if a shop owner wants to negotiate on back issues you want to collect, especially on older, slower-moving back issues. “That’s part of the Death of Gwen Stacy storyline!’ protested Gordon, with a whip of his long brown hair. I couldn’t argue with that. I’d have to settle for paying the most I ever had for a comic book: $3.50, as I recall. Maybe $4.50. New issues are holding the line at seventy five cents, so this was a big move in my little hobby world. I didn’t regret it, though. I now had the oldest copy of Amazing Spider-Man, yet- from before I was even born! Better, the art benefits from John Romita, I believe finishing Gil Kane’s pencils. Gerry Conway was settling fandom on its ear with that trilogy: the kidnapping and acci...

Spider-Man’s Best Team-Up Stories: 1964 Spidey & Torch in the 60’s are the closest thing to the Superman & Batman of Marvel, where heroes don’t so much team-up as encounter one another. Teams working closely together is more of an 80’s Marvel depiction. And the tradition of Spider-man paired up with darn near Everyone starts with probably his 3rd Torch encounter, in Strange Tales Annual #2 (ASM #1 & 3- Johnny, a.k.a. the Torch for those who don’t know, visits Pete’s Midtown High to speak). I didn’t think much of the villain, but The Fox at least challenges the boys to use their heads, nowhere in their league physically. Here, also, is where annuals turn into popular places to team up heroes. What better example than Fantastic Four Annual #3 (1965)? I think every active Marvel hero turns up in those pages, only one of which has mushy vows and the rest feature Dr. Doom’s greatest threat yet: send every hostile super human possible to attack with no organized plan. Sp...

The first decade of Spider-Man's Best Team-Ups, by year Spider-Man's 1962 debut in Amazing Fantasy #15 precedes Amazing Spider-Man #1. He tries to join the Fantastic Four, so this in his mind will be a colossal team-up. In the Marvel Universe, at this point, there's only Thor, Hulk, Ant Man and the Wasp out there, besides the FF and Spidey. So this would've been an awesome new direction, right? And very Issue #1! I am not so sure Spidey asking to make a check should've stopped them from working with him, but this is the start of him having a real attitude towards the popular, accepted F antastic Four (at worst, disliked by say, 50% of the populace, and praised greatly by others). This is the beginning of him taking a loner path. So, funny to call it his greatest team-up of 1962, but there's only three stories to pick. And that would be if comics on the March, 1963 cover dates from Marvel also fell within '62. Based on patterns of 'pull-d...