Introducing… THE SPIDER’S WEB

A new column that swings back to Spidey’s beginnings…

When 13th Dimension launched back in 2013, I made sure to carve out a little section where I could write about Batman to my heart’s content. I originally called the feature Gotham Tribune, after the first newspaper to show up in a Batman comic. But that didn’t feel right, so I renamed it Batman’s Hot-Line, after the old Detective Comics letter column:

Thing is, for quite some time, I’ve wanted to do the same for Spider-Man — hands down my favorite Marvel character — but I’ve never really felt knowledgeable enough to pull that off.

Then a funny thing happened while I was perusing Facebook recently. Alex Segura — you know him as Archie Comics’ co-president, author of the Pete Fernandez mysteries and writer of various Archie series — posted a great piece about an issue of Amazing Spider-Man he’d just read. (He’d been doing them periodically.) I clicked “Like” — and just like that, a jolt went through me as if I’d been bitten by a radioactive spider: I messaged Alex immediately and asked him if he wanted to turn his posts into a column. At the same exact time, he messaged me, asking me if I wanted to do something with his posts at 13th Dimension.

That, as they say, is kismet.

So, to echo Batman’s Hot-Line, we bring you a new column, The Spider’s Web, after the classic Spidey lettercol:

Alex’s columns will analyze specific periods in the web-slinger’s development, with the first installment covering his first several years. And we invite your feedback, whether in the comments section of each column or in the social-media thread where you find a specific installment.

The Spider’s Web will appear periodically — at least once a week to start — and we’ll be collecting the links below, so you should bookmark this post.

THWIP!

LINKS

— The Days of DITKO to the Reign of ROMITA. Click here.

— The Birth of the PROWLER — and the Coming of the KANGAROO?! Click here.

— Revisiting the Death of CAPTAIN STACY. Click here.

— Six Arms and the DRUG ISSUES. Click here.

— The Timeless Brilliance of GERRY CONWAY’s Launch. Click here.

— The Enduring Power of the CONWAY-ANDRU Team. Click here.

— Swinging High With the ORIGINAL CLONE SAGA. Click here.

— How Len Wein’s SPIDER-MAN Stacked Up Against Gerry Conway’s Run. Click here.

— GREEN GOBLIN III: Len Wein’s Crowning SPIDER-MAN Moment. Click here.

— SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN’s Launch Wasn’t Exactly Spectacular. Click here.

— MARV WOLFMAN Had an AMAZING Handle on SPIDER-MAN. Click here.

— The Ups and Downs of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #200. Click here.

— INSIDE LOOK: DENNY O’NEIL’s Offbeat, Uneven SPIDER-MAN Run. Click here.

— SEEDS OF GREATNESS: Roger Stern’s Sterling Run on SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN. Click here.

— A TRUE JUGGERNAUT: The Launch of Roger Stern and John Romita’s Powerful AMAZING SPIDER-MAN Run. Click here.

— ENTER THE HOBGOBLIN: Stern and Romita Jr.’s Superb Achievement. Click here.

— TOM DeFALCO and RON FRENZ: A Solid SPIDER-MAN Run Hampered by External Forces. Click here.

— SPIDER-MAN’s 1980s Roller-Coaster: A Gang War, a Wedding and a Funeral. Click here.

— KRAVEN’S LAST HUNT: A SPIDER-MAN Epic for the Ages. Click here.

Author: Dan Greenfield

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5 Comments

  1. I’m a fan of Spider-Man and Alex’s work with the Archie Franchise! Looking forward to the new Spider-Man 13th Dimension feature!

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  2. Found this series of articles for the first time, right in the middle of an 80s Spidey craze. What a gem.

    Big thumbs up and congrats for the fantastic work.

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  3. Funny how this series stalled at the exact same place as my most recent Spider-Man re-read stalled. Not because I didn’t enjoy Michelinie, but because his issues were still so familiar to me.

    Michelinie’s long run on ASM (and to a lesser extent, Conway’s concurrent run on Spec/Web) was where I started reading comics as a kid. I couldn’t pick up every issue (when you’re 7 years old, going to the corner store and spending $1.25 every week isn’t always easy) but I would re-read the ones I did have over and over. Those issues from McFarlane, Larsen and Bagley are etched on the backs of my eyeballs.

    Like Alex, my childhood interest in Amazing Spider-Man waned about halfway through the Clone Saga. I did pick up one early Ben Reilly issue, but then I didn’t buy another superhero comic until 2001.

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    • I actually owe Dan another one of these – I kept reading, powering through most of the McFarlane and Larsen runs, but then skipping over my original reading (right around the end of the Clone Saga). I just finished the Byrne/Mackie era, and started JMS (which I’d read as it was coming out, but never to completion). So, more soon!

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