Marvel Masterworks: The Spectacular Spider-Man Vol. 8

Visionary creator Al Milgrom writes - and draws - Spider-Man's second ongoing series in the leadup to its historic 100th issue!

Kingpin’s hitmen are closing in, your girlfriend—who doesn’t even want to know the real you—broke up with you, and your new alien costume wants to kill you. What’s that, you say? Yup, it’s just another day for Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man! Writer/artist Al Milgrom spins a series of wonderful web-slinging adventures in the run up to Spectacular Spider-Man #100. He introduces new villains in the Lee/Ditko mold like the Answer and the Spot and (literally) resurrects classic characters like Silvermane as killer cyborg! The Kingpin’s the man pulling the strings throughout. Will his leverage on the Black Cat mean Spidey won’t see issue #101? Also featuring an Annual exploring Aunt May’s younger days and the rare Spider-Man installment of Questprobe.

COLLECTING: THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN (1976) #92-100 & ANNUAL (1979) #4, WEB OF SPIDER-MAN (1985) #1 and QUESTPROBE (1984) #2

Al Milgrom, A.K.A. “Editori-Al,” is renowned as writer, editor, penciler and inker — and held most of those positions on Spectacular Spider-Man. He also contributed to SSM’s sibling Amazing Spider-Man. He penciled West Coast Avengers for four years and inked X-Factor for eight. His artwork has also appeared in Avengers, Captain America, Thor and most X-titles, including the classic Kitty Pryde and Wolverine. As editor, he oversaw Marvel’s Epic imprint and the sixty-issue run of Marvel Fanfare, where his satirical self-portraits made his face as recognizable as any super hero’s mask. At DC, he co-created Firestorm the Nuclear Man with Gerry Conway.

Bill Mantlo began his Marvel career on Deadly Hands of Kung Fu, in which he introduced White Tiger, one of the industry’s earliest Hispanic super heroes. Eventually writing stories for almost every Marvel title, he did some of his most fondly remembered work on Incredible Hulk and Spectacular Spider-Man. He also launched Cloak and Dagger in a pair of miniseries and guided Alpha Flight through some of its most harrowing ordeals. Mantlo excelled at integrating licensed properties into the Marvel Universe, as demonstrated by Micronauts and Rom: Spaceknight, both of which he wrote from start to finish. At DC, he wrote the Invasion miniseries for one of the company’s biggest crossover events.

Beginning as Stan Lee’s production assistant, Herb Trimpe (1939-2015) went on to pencil a seven-year run on Marvel mainstay Incredible Hulk — during which he debuted the future X-Man, Wolverine — as well as 1970s classics Marvel Team-Up, Shogun Warriors and Godzilla. He was equally prolific during the 1980s on Nick Fury, The ’Nam and G.I. Joe; the 1990s saw him illustrate Marvel’s First Family on Fantastic Four Unlimited. Trimpe’s war-story credits also include the introduction of the Phantom Eagle, the WWI aviator hero whose adventures were later chronicled by Garth Ennis.

Kerry Gammill has illustrated Fantastic Four and Power Man and Iron Fist for Marvel, and DC’s Superman. In Marvel Team-Up, he and J.M. DeMatteis introduced Frog-Man and the White Rabbit, and he penciled Louise Simonson’s scripts on Fallen Angels. Moving to the film industry, Gammill served as a special-effects artist, character designer and storyboard artist on such projects as Species II and Tremors: The Series. He also became one of the guiding minds behind Monster Kid Magazine, a publication focusing on classic monster movies of another era.