In 1987, Stan Lee, David Michelinie, and a team of writers and artists finally did a series of stories where Peter Parker married Mary Jane Watson, both in the regular comic book series, the newspaper Spidey comic strip, and a live event at Shea Stadium with the New York Mets. featureing artwork by John Romita, this is a funny/romantic story and has been generally regarded as one of the most important Spider-Man stories ever published. I hope film maker Sam Raimi recreates this event on film with the Spider-Man movie or in one of the sequals.

This book is a good introduction into the world of Spider-Man. It tells a tale of one of his first battle against the tentacled Doc. Ock. It is well written and illustrated. Kids will love this new book about the tales of The Amazing Spider-Man. This book will also bring new kids into reading about super heroes. It is very good and tells the origins of Doc. Ock. It tells how his arms were fused to his body and how he blames the entire world for this incredible freak accident that caused his very disturbing abilities with controls over his arms with his mind.

As a long time fan of John Lee I really looked forward to reading this book. Unfortunately the writer spent more time editoralizing about the sins of America in general and the south in particular and very little time on the actual subject of the book. The writers bias against the U.S. came across very clearly.

There are sections in the book that go on for pages without even discussing John Lee or his music. If the author had stayed off his soapbox he could have covered the same material in 100 pages instead of the 480+ pages he required. All in all I found the book very boring and a chore to read. I was glad when it was over. I love John Lee but hated the book.

With the exception of B.B. King, this was one of our last links to the true Blues greats. This book really misses out on the opportunity to expound on all the pathes crossed and the people he met along the way. This book is written very eloquently and there is no sparing of words. John Lee Hooker was a grass roots person, and this book should have been written that way. I looked forward to reading this book, but I have to admit that it was a very boring read. Hard to believe a book about John Lee Hooker being boring. I hope someone else picks up the pieces and put's another book on the streets.

Murray did a lot of research, which is commendable-he tackeled a lot-but the truth was that John was not happy with it...he said that he did not authorize it-his manager did- and that there were a bunch a lies in it-to sell the book...

Among true Marvel Zombies, the name John Romita is synonymous with clean, attractive art and great storytelling. He's contributed to just about every character Marvel has, and his run on Spider-Man (Filling the spot vacated by Spidey co-creator Steve Ditko! Not exactly a cushy assignment; Talk about having tough shoes to fill!) is the stuff of legends. For fans who haven't been reading comics since they were in diapers, this is a great collection- It presents Romita's first four issues (Where the identity of The Green Goblin is at last revealed, The Rhino is introduced, and Spidey butts heads with the pumped-up son of his eternal nemesis, J. Jonah Jameson, and we finally get a look at the future Mrs. Spider-Man, Mary Jane Watson.), along with a selection of five other issues, including the classic "Spider-Man No More!", a two-part Kingpin story, and Romita's favorite Spider-Man story, the two-part Flash Thompson Vietnam story co-starring Dr. Strange.

For old fogeys like me, though, the book is just OK. I've seen these stories a million times before; That's ok, since they're classics, but I was expecting interesting behind-the-scenes tidbits from Mr. Romita, and aside from a few small blurbs that introduce the stories, there's really nothing new here. The stories are newly re-colored, but aside from a STUNNING looking color job by Digital Chameleon in the last chapter, they stay a little too close to the original limited-palette, and end up looking bland by comparison. (The color job in that last chapter makes Romita's already gorgeous art look simply staggering!)

All told, this is a feast for fans of Spider-Man and John Romita, as well as fans of the immortal prose of Stan Lee. Just as an aside, I'd like to thank Mr. Romita for the years of enjoyment I've derived from his exquisite art. It's been a great ride, and I hope there's more to come!

"Spider-Man Visionaries: John Romita Sr" provides nine examples of the artist work on "The Amazing Spider-Man" drawing the stories written by Stan Lee. Included are the first four issues drawn by Romita, which includes the classic two-parter where the Green Goblin discovers Spider-Man is really Peter Parker, who learns his arch foe is Norman Osborn, father of his best friend Harry: #39 "How Green Was My Goblin!" and #40 "The End of the Green Goblin!" There was certainly no time for fans of the webhead to complain about Steve Ditko being replaced as the comic's artist when the first illustration we see from Romita is the classic cover of #39 with the Goblin carting away the unmasked Spider-Man. This pivotal story is followed by 41 "The Horns of the Rhino!" and #42 "The Birth of a Super-Hero!" where John Jameson is turned into a superhero type by his father's meglomania. Then we have another one of Romita's best covers and stories in #50 "Spider-Man No More!" This is followed by #68 "Crisis on the Campus!" and #69 "Mission: Crush the Kingpin!" the second encounter with the round ball of muscle destined to become the crime boss of New York City. Finally, we have #108 "Vengeance from Vietnam!" and #109 "Enter: Dr. Strange!" has Spidey trying to help Flash Thompson, who is wrongly blammed for the shelling of a temple in Vietnam and the death of the Holy One. Dr. Strange, Master of the Mystic Arts, comes along to provide, uh, spiritual guidance. So, on the one hand we have the top three issues drawn by Romita you would want (#39, #40 & #50), but the rest of these are fairly pedestrian. What you will discover is that while Romita might not have the superb compositional skills of Ditko, nobody ever drew Gwen Stacy any better. I have a slight preference for the art of Gene Colan when it comes to drawing females, but Romita is a close second and his drawings of both Spider-Man and Peter Parker have become the standards by which all succeeding Spider-Man artists have been judged (even Jr.).

This interesting black-and-white blast from Marvel's Silver Age past is thankfully uncolored, either by Ted Turner or anyone else -- but the appalling number of typos make the book irritating to read. Can't Marvel afford proofreaders, or is all their money going to publicize the Spider-Man movies? The contents page lists the reprint as "relettered," leading me to wonder if the typos were faithfully copied from the original or were added in the relettering, or a mixture of both. Pages 32 and 33 alone contain 6 typos, leading to such enlightening exchanges as "It's Mr. Jameson. He has any appointment." "My story will make you for a shoo-in for office." "Yes, yes. Or course." My own favorite is Captain Stacy's comment, "May heaven protect us from those they know all they need to know...about anything." Heaven protect us, indeed.

This is a reprint of the over-sized black & white "Spectacular Spider-Man" comic magazine that Marvel put out in 1968. With story by Stan Lee and art by John Romita (Sr.) and Jim Mooney, this is an election year tale of a slick politician coming out of no where to take the lead in the race for mayor of New York City. Of the guy is running a major scam, having himself attacked at his public rallies as a way of building sympathy and support (Lee must have penned this script before RFK's assassination that year). But as the web-slinger discovered, the candidate is also creating an army of super soldiers so he can take over the entire world. There was a lot of fanfare about this comic when it came out, but we were all pretty disappointed with the effort. The new villain is not a super villain per se and it is hard to get excited about a new guy when you have the Green Goblin and the Kingpin running around (the Goblin pops up in the much better second issues of this limited run series; THAT is the one you want). But then the political realities of 1968 made this story seem such a trifle in comparison. So this ends up being more of interest from the standpoint of nostalgia and history (the first "second" Spider-Man title) than anything else. This 2002 reprint also includes an updated Spider-Man origin by Bill Everett.