I remember when Spectacular Spider-Man debuted (or Peter Parker the Spectacuar Spider-Man, as it was called then). The series' initial raison d'être was to focus on the "Peter Parker" side of "Spider-Man." I turned my nose up at it (same as I did with Marvel Team-Up) reasoning that anything significant would happen in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man. I had a change of heart circa 1982 and began collecting it on a monthly basis. I eventually dropped it circa 1986, but in retrospect I wish I would have done so sooner. I never really regretted dropping it, but consequently I wasn't buying it during the DeMatteis/Buscema run, and I did come to regret that. J.M. DeMatteis had been my favorite writer for a time (back when he was writing both Captain America and the Defenders, and although Sal Buscema was never my very favorite artist, I always appreciated his work. He was never a "fan favorite" but he was a prolific Marvel mainstay who has illustrated virtually every character in Marvel's stable. Who is today's Sal Buscema? Answer: There isn't one.
Back in the early 2Ks Tracy and I attended the Pittsburgh ComiCon; it was the first time we met Rich Lane (and his son Pat) face-to-face. I snagged a whole stack of DeMatteis/Buscema Spec Spideys out of some dealers dollar box, then took them home and never read them. Today I know why. As soon as I got home from my LCS today with the omnibus, I sent a subliminal message to my past self not to read them, but to wait another two decades or so to read them in a superior format. (Come to thnk of it, I should have sent a message slightly further back it the past and told myself not to buy them in the first place.) Anyway, looking forward to reading these at last.
Replies