I have really enjoyed these Essential Spider-Man books! Sure the originals are the best with the exciting colors, etc., but it is fun to read the continuing storylines in one book. My favorite is the introduction of The Kingpin. It is part of a long storyline running two to three individual comics, all set to the backdrop of the turbulent sixties. Mary Jane, for instance, is a "hippy chick!" If you like Spider-Man, you'll certainly enjoy the thought-provoking stories of Peter Parker's struggles that made this a beloved series.

John Romita (Sr.) took over the penciler chores for "The Amazing Spider-Man" with issue #39, the famous issue where the Green Goblin found out Spidey's secret identity. Volume 3 "The Essential Spider-Man" covers issues #44-68 as Romita and writer Stan Lee try to find a way to follow up that most memorable beginning. What you will find within these pages are more of the multiple-issue story lines that proved so successful in the previous year with Spider-Man taking on the Lizard (#44-45), Kraven the Hunter and the new Vulture (#47-49), the Kingpin (#51-52, 59-60), and Doctor Octopus (#53-56), the new and old Vultures (#63-64), and Mysterio (#66-67).

Looking back at these comic books from 1967-69 from the perspective of the 21st century, it becomes clear that there is a major changing of the guard regarding Spider-Man's main villain. Granted, the Green Goblin is always number one on the list, but he has that amnesia problem. But in this third volume we see what is arguable the last of the great Doc Ock stories (the good doctor takes a room with Aunt May and Spidey ends up with amnesia), and the big debut of the Kingpin, who is featured in five of these issues. Eventually the Kingpin would become the most formidable foe of Daredevil, but at this point in his evolution he is New York City's new crime boss. Stan Lee had come up with several wannabe crime lords for the Big Apple over throughout the Sixties but none of them really worked (remember Fearless Fosdick?). With the Kingpin, Lee and Romita strike the mother lode (and I whole heartedly look forward to see Michael Clarke Duncan play the Wilton Fisk in the Daredevil film).

Besides the standard fare of J. Jonah Jameson's pathological hatred of Spider-Man and Aunt May's continual frail health, the new element in the world of Spider-Man is the emergence of Gwen Stacy as Peter Parker's love interest. Of course, we know what happens to Gwen down the road and what ultimately happens with Mary Jane Watson, but that does not detract from all the soap opera fun this time around. I always think of this as sort of the Archie period for Spider-Man, with Peter as Archie, Gwen and Mary Jane as Betty and Veronica, Harry as Jughead and Flash as Reggie. Think about it, people, it is not that farfetched an interpretation. Note: Pay attention to the evolution of how Romita draws Gwen. There is a as big a difference from what you see of the rather severe looking Miss Stacy in issue #44 and mega-babe who feels weak as a kitten in Peter's presence by issue #68. When it came to drawing the ladies in the Marvel Universe, Gene Colan was always my favorite (especially when he did the Black Widow), but Jazzy Johnny Romita (Sr.) was always a close second.

It's cheap, it's more than 20 issues, and most importantly, you'll love it. You'll speed through this thing faster than you thought possible. The sub-plots, mainly Peter Parker's relationship with Gwen Stacy, is absolutely invigorating. You'll read every last page of this, I guarantee it. John Romita, Sr.'s gorgeous art doesn't hurt, either. Buy it.

What I liked best about The Fifth Man is that it isn't "from Mars." In fact, I slowly began to recognize Mars, not from anything learned at the NASA Web site (although that is a good place to begin), but from my own life as a child in a cold (sometimes horribly cold) climate, where everything is reduced to surviving the cold. Only life forms equipped to survive a level of cold that is essentially anti-life will make it.

Predictably, the four astronauts of the previous book, Oxygen, begin to experience the strain of such a life, now that they have ended up on Mars. They begin to imagine -- or are they imagining? -- that there is a "fifth man" around who is doing terrible things. Could the fifth man be an extraterrestrial? Extraterrestrials might not want Earthlings bashing around Mars. Or are the astronauts slowly going mental under the strain?

Think of this: If someone is on Mars, and you suspect that they have gone bush crazy, you cannot just pick them up and fly them out, the way you can fly them out of the Arctic or Antarctic. Can one person's craziness infect all the others? Or is that the answer to all the strange events? Something to think about as you read ...

I won't spoil the fun by revealing the ending, but I will say that this story should appeal to sci-fi and mystery buffs alike -- as well as to fans of novels of the North.

I received the Olson / Ingermanson duo's first book, Oxygen, in Christmas of 2001. Regardless of the new Lord of the Rings trilogy I was also given (in a collector's edition platinum-issue cardboard box, plus The Hobbit!), I was inexorably drawn to Oxygen. I finished it quickly, loved the characters, and loved the story.

So of course I was blessed to learn that chem/phys whizzes and word wranglers John B. Olson and Randall Ingermanson were already at work cranking out the sequel, The Fifth Man, subtitle: Will they find life on the Red Planet . . . before it finds them?.

The Fifth Man could work as a standalone novel; there's no Batman-TV-show-like "We have already seen . . ." prologue near the beginning. Right away, we're on Mars, with the crew of the Ares 10, year 2014, but with today's technology in full action in an actual Mars mission.

At first things might seem a little disappointing for Oxygen readers. We know that at the end of the first novel, all the psychological warfare and personal conflicts between the members of the Ares 10 crew was resolved. After all the chaos getting to the Red Planet, everyone had finally learned to cooperate, to trust each other . . . they had a bond.

Not so in The Fifth Man. Things are getting a little tight again, and crew members Valkerie Jansen, Bob Kaganovski, Kennedy Hampton and Alexis Ohta are back to fighting. Perhaps they have a good reason. An apparent spacecraft saboteur, a bomb, seeming infections by meteorite bacteria and of course the oxygen shortages were bad enough on the way to Mars. Now it seems that something else inhabits the planet . . . a being, a presence. It's scratching the sides of their buildings, stalking them, it's just out there . . . somewhere.

That alone causes enough misgivings for the crew. Then there's Valkerie's declining of Bob's on-Mars, live-on-international-TV marriage proposal. So both of them are at odds. But most disappointing is Kennedy-he's back to being an absolute jerk. Like the crew, I had just begun to like him at the end of Oxygen.

But don't think I was disappointed in the novel altogether. Not so. The Fifth Man is undoubtedly even better than its prequel. The Olson / Ingermanson duo have done even more homework for this mission, weaving science facts in with a little knowledge of Martian geography; everything is incredibly realistic. But this is also science fiction with characters you want to like-and I just found Kennedy's behavior depressing.

Like one other The Fifth Man reviewer, any readers who expect to see huge tentacles come snaking out of anyplace aren't necessarily going to find them. This is Christian fiction, after all, and many Christ-believers don't hold to the idea of life outside of Earth.

(The theology for this is simple: the Earth is the center of God's focus. Postulations about other planetary civilizations and even Narnia-like parallel worlds are interesting, but the Bible says nothing about these. One could say that if there were Martians, for example, Christ would have to incarnate as a perfect Martian to die for their sins . . . this seems absurd, to say the least.

But who's to say there isn't any "life" on Mars - not necessarily creatures with reasoning capability, but in the form of tiny organisms such as those Valkerie finds early in the novel? Evolution-believers would explain it as even more proof that life evolved there also. But as Bob explains to Valkerie, so what? All we would know is that the organisms are there; it doesn't prove any more evolution except to those who interpret it that way.)

I found it difficult to locate The Fifth Man's exact climax, because it seems to encompass the entire latter half of the story! In addition to the unknown being, the crew has to deal with an apparent raving space loon . . . and of course the conspiracies on Earth threaten the mission even further . . . and will the crew even be affected by back-contamination from unknown Martian microbes?

Everything is weaved together perfectly. Every circumstance has an explanation. The unanswered plot questions left over from the original Oxygen are also resolved perfectly. Regardless, we still don't have the Ares 10 crew safely on terra firma once again. Oxygen and The Fifth Man are spectacular enough, setting new standards in Christian fiction . . . but would The Oxygen Trilogy not sound even more impressive?

I'm holding my breath.

If you haven't read or reread the authors' earlier "Oxygen", take the time to do so--it will help! "The Fifth Man" takes up where the other left off with no "As you remember..." filler. It doesn't waste any time, either. We start in the thick of it, and things get more and more complex as the novel progresses. There are several intertwined plots that work well, IMHO. And there are enough red herrings (well, whaddaya expect? It's set on Mars, fer cryin' out loud!) to lull the reader many times into the delusion that he or she has it all figured out--when the plot goes somewhere else. There are a number of events that seem flatly impossible, but that are explained well and do make sense when all is revealed. There are no sudden plot resolutions to strain the reader's trust in the authors. Everything hangs together quite well. As far as I can tell, there's only one minor plot hiccup, and it can't be avoided. It calls for a bit of suspension of disbelief, but isn't a problem (I won't say more because I hate spoilers). One of the real strengths is that there's no wasted writing at the end, either. The final plot elements don't come to light until close to the last page. And it works. A great read from a great team.

Although this book might help some people, I did not like the conversation format. The subjects seemed to take on a whiny tone and used "psychobabble" such as "I fell into myself" and "He isn't in his heart". I could not read this without thinking about a 70's group therapy session due to the lingo.

Welwood has crafted a masterful book. Although he expands on the material he presented in his previous book Journey of the Heart, this book can be read by itself. Journey of the Heart was like a roadmap of the terrain of intimate relationships. Love and Awakening provides dialogue from some of Welwood's clients rediscovering their personal authenticity in relationship. There are also brief sections throughout the book narrating a quality or observation about relationship that are truly stunning in its poetic clarity. It perfectly echos the truths we all know deep in our hearts. His section on the "Broken-Hearted Warrior" is the most poignant, eloquent and beautiful passage about the path of intimate relationship I have ever read. The real power and magic of this book is that it does not prescribe cures like a doctor towards a patient. It gently guides us to our own center, our own being and provides tools for awakening greater awareness.

This is a very valuable book - not just for those in relationships - but for anyone interested in the path of personal development. Welwood writes lucidly and with authority: therapeutic and spiritual concepts and practices are clearly and accessibly presented. This book usefully develops the ideas outlined in Welwood's earlier Journey of the Heart. The inclusion of 'dialogues' gives readers an insight into the experiences of people Welwood has worked with - and this provides a very helpful practical model for readers wishing to explore their own lives in similar ways. Based in solid scholarship, but designed for the lay-reader, I heartily recommend this book to all who are interested in the 'warrior work' of looking into one's own heart.

A graphic novel isnt usually a piece of work which deserves the rating of 5 stars, however this graphic novel captures one of Spideyz greatest battles. Considering its exact story, it is a very weak graphic novel. The graphic novel does not revolve around a story but around a enemy. But, the novel is still a great book. If ur asking urself if u should buy it, i suggest it.
Because i live in Brasil, i had to order this novel from the internet. But when it arrived i loved it, it was exactly what i expected it would be, maybe even more. When i had to order it i wasnt completly sure but after i read most of the VERY LONG (and boring) reviews(nothin against the people who wrote it), i decided to make a shorter one. So the basic idea is that the author created a amazing story which, to me, helped inforce the "amazing" of the amazing spider-man.

Here is the deal: J. Michael Straczynski took over as the writer of Volume 2 of "The Amazing Spider-Man" with issue #30 and has been effectively "re-inventing" the character (but in a decidedly different way than what you find being done by Brian Michael Bendis in "The Ultimate Spider-Man," which is more a "re-imaginging"). "Coming Home" reprints issues #30-35 of the title, in which Straczynski come up with a striking new interpretation of the Spider-Man mythos. Clearly, then, the point of this trade paperback volume is to help new readers get on board and if not totally up to speed, at least within shouting distance. Taken together with the follow-up volume, "Revelations," these two books can do the trick.

"Coming Home" suggests that there is great significance to the fact that Spider-Man has been fighting villains like Doctor Octopus, the Vulture, the Lizard, the Scorpion, the Rhino, ad infinitum, all these years. Peter Parker meets Ezekiel, one of those mysterious stranger types who brings havoc to a superheroes life, who suggest that Spider-Man's powers might not be quite as unique as he thought. In other words, the idea that a bite from a radioactive spider would give someone the powers of a spider is a bit far fetched and there is another explanation. To drive the point home Spider-Man has to tackle Morlun, a being who feeds on the power of humans with totemistic powers and apparently the only way to survive the encounter is to hide his powers from his new opponent.

Unlike what Alan Moore did with Swamp Thing, the twist on Spider-Man's origin that Straczynski has come up with does not threaten to unravel the entire Spider-Man mythos. At that same time that Peter is being told that Spider-Man may well be the avatar of the Earth's spider population, he also takes a job as a high school science teacher. Meanwhile, there are still those marital problems with Mary Jane and at the end of this book Aunt May finds Peter him bruised, beaten, and bandaged, in a deep sleep, his tattered Spider-Man costume at his feet. This sets the stage for the next trade paper back collection, "Revelations," as Straczynski and artist John Romita, Jr. continue to turn the world of Peter Parker and Spider-Man upside down and inside out.

This is a great read! This is Spider-man the way I remember him.
Up against the odds with his sense of humor in tact.

I began disliking the main character in this plot - Morgan - largely beause he was rude about the Welsh - too much of that in the world today. But as the book progressed I liked him more and more.
So many wonderful funny almost farcical situations which made me laugh outloud (a lol experience). Morgan gets into scrapes and digs himself deeper into the mire. The excellent thing is, and this why I began to like him, he eventually resigns himself to the outcomes, throws in the towel and takes it all on the chin. Pure freedom comes for him even though he's still in the poo.
Another great book from William Boyd, which strips away the myth of the British having any dynamic role abroad, meddling in the affairs of other countries. It all ends in tears for the establishment , and they bloody well deserve it too.
Boyd knocks the tired old hierarchies of British society: public school, accents - the usual bull. The irony is that the only person who even tries to gets things done is the working class boy made good (well almost). The humour comes when Morgan fails at everything.
I recommend this book.

I laughed so hard I cried. One of the funniest books written.

There are few enjoyments in life better than a direct, unfettered comedic form told in literary style - here is an example. No pretense, no glossing over the low points of life - however base - but never yieldng in style. It is possible to be really funny and intelligent at the same time. A great run-through of the British pretense for class and superiority - there is absolutely nothing superior in the end that has anything to do with these British Foreign Service types pretending to be somebody in third world Africa. Morgan Leafy's pretensions and attempts to satisfy his inner cravings - inevitably ending in disaster and ever plunging disgrace - often foiled by the good Dr. Murrary (who is everything Leafy should be but is not) are hilarious. Boyd's descriptions of Leafy's drunken bumblings and the horrible hangovers that ensue are just plain funny. The social commentary on British attempts at understanding - much less improving - the "colonial" cultures they presume to lead is priceless. Sad that this great and funny read is out of print - but well worth tracking down a copy in the "used" section.

I thought this a good book that showed how math is valuable in the real world. The author tries to avoid reading like a text book to try and make math come alive. He is moderately successful, but it is hard not to have some mathy jargon and notation, which I think will discourage those who don't have some motivation to think about math to start with. Overall a good book and I will try to read his first book if I get a chance.

I always tell people they don't realize how much mathematics they use in everyday life. Beyond Numeracy really makes that clear. It's a kind of mini-encyclopedia for most everything a recreational mathematician would find interesting, the nature of pi and e, prime numbers, matrices, elementary probability and logic, functions, game theory, statistics, paradoxes, chaos theory, combinatorics and so on and so forth.

I thoroughly enjoyed "Innumeracy," Paulos's first contribution to educating the general public in math. "Beyond Numeracy" picks up where "Innumeracy" left off, but the book does not continue the excellence so characteristic of the Paulos's first. Many of the explanations are less than perfectly clear (very much unlike the case in "Innumeracy"), and the later chapters on more obscure topics, while still interesting, can get tedious and repetitive.

Don't get me wrong-"Beyond Numeracy"'s flaws do not make it unworthy of a read. It's a fun book, and one capable of illuminating many topics in math. If you do choose to read the work, however, don't worry too much about skipping a chapter here and there. The short chapters ensure that you don't miss too much, and again, the repetition that I mentioned can get tiresome.

Overall, an interesting read; I have found no better work about math "in general." Paulos is for the most part clear, concise, focused, and capable of relating the subjects of his many chapters to the real world. Good stuff.

Probably one of the first examples of journalistic fiction, Defoe's "A Journal of the Plague Year" is a pseudo-eyewitness account of the London plague of 1665. Writing this in 1722, Defoe casts himself into the role of his uncle whom he calls H.F. and who recounts the events in grisly detail but with magnanimous compassion. Aside from the prose, the book has a surprisingly modern edge in the way it combines facts about a sensationally dire historical event with "human interest" stories for personal appeal. It seems so factual that at times it's easy to forget that it's just a fictitious account of a real event.

The plague (H.F. writes) arrives by way of carriers from the European mainland and spreads quickly through the unsanitary, crowded city despite official preventive measures; the symptoms being black bruises, or "tokens," on the victims' bodies, resulting in fever, delirium, and usually death in a matter of days. The public effects of the plague are readily imaginable: dead-carts, mass burial pits, the stench of corpses not yet collected, enforced quarantines, efforts to escape to the countryside, paranoia and superstitions, quacks selling fake cures, etc. Through all these observations, H.F. remains a calm voice of reason in a city overtaken by panic and bedlam. By the time the plague has passed, purged partly by its own self-limiting behavior and partly by the Great Fire of the following year, the (notoriously inaccurate) Bills of Mortality indicate the total death toll to be about 68,000, but the actual number is probably more like 100,000 -- about a fifth of London's population.

Like Defoe's famous survivalist sketch "Robinson Crusoe," the book's palpable moralism is adequately camouflaged by the conviction of its narrative and the humanity of its narrator, a man who, like Crusoe, trusts God's providence to lead him through the hardships, come what may. What I like about this "Journal" is that its theme is more relevant than its narrow, dated subject matter suggests: levelheadedness in the face of catastrophe and the emergence of a stronger and wiser society.

Daniel Defoe's A Journal of the Plague Year is an interesting volume that blends fact and fiction quite indiscriminately, as the author intended. It is easy to forget it is fiction as it reads as fact (and it seems likely there are enough actual facts strewn throughout as to enhance this perception). Defoe was less concerned about these issues concerning fiction and non-fiction than modern readers and writers and it is fascinating to see an example of the early beginnings of novel writing. The style could frustate some readers (there is virtually no attempt at characters and only small strands of a narrative per se) but the descriptions of a town in crisis were both gripping and fascinating. An unique volume.

When a subject is gruesome it attracts notoriety. Unfortunately, if it is real, it loses it. This story of the the affects of the Plague in London in 1665 should be required reading for all people of all civilized countries. How the Plague started, how its spread was covered up initially and why, how the government was forced to respond, what happened to the economy and the outlying regions - these things could happen any day in any year in any country. Look at the news archives of the spread of SARS, how the government in (I think) Indonesia enacted house quarantines, how the Chinese economy was distablized. This is a very real warning and will not lose its timeliness as long as people build cities and economies. He is not just describing what happened but giving us warning and ideas for how it can be handled better.

After the stellar "Planetary, Book I" I had high hopes for this hard to find follow-up. It does not quite deliver the punch of the first, but it serves admirably to set up book 3. It starts off with a dissapointing story, but gets better with each chapter and finishes quite strong. Ellis continues to recast familiar comics lore in his "X-Files on steroids" world of Planetary (in Book 2 he tackles Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, the origin of Superman, Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D., giant ants from the sci-fi flick "Them", and cameos of characters who resemble Swamp Thing, Cyclops, the Impossible Man, Medusa, C3PO and others in Chapt. 1).

If you liked the first, its worth getting a hold of this one and by all means get in line for the 3rd book!
Also recommended: Kurt Busiek's "Astro City " series.

As the comic book series collected here has been plagued by interminable delays trade hardcover and paperback collections are likely the best way to follow the story of Elijah Snow as je seeks to recover his lost memories, and solve the mystery of the incredibly wealthy organization that sends him, the seemingly indestructible Jakita Wagner, and the annoying Drummer, on thier amazing missions.

In this volume we finally discover the identity of the mysterious Fourth Man, who bankrolls the efforts of the Planetary Foundation, in it's quest to discover "the secret history" of the planet, and the true agenda of the organization. By the end of this volume, the battle lines are drawn, and we wait with baited breath for the final battle to come.

I just wish it would get here. It's been nearly a year since the last issue collected here was published and since then only two new installments of the story have seen the light of day. Intriguing stories, great art, but a drag to wait for,....

I have often been asked by many of my friends about why a man of my age would even bother to spend time reading a comic book. Usually, my response is to lend them a copy of something by Warren Ellis.

In my opinion, this book and the one that precedes it are great examples of the very best that western adventure comics have to offer. Ellis skilfully constructs a hidden history and slowly draws the reader along, often leaving us gasping for more. He satisfies the comic lover with his exploration of some of the genre stereotypes, while, At the same time, giving us a great thriller/mystery that the not-so-comic-versed can also enjoy.

All this and great art too. Cassaday really adds immeasurably to the words on the page.

This is a strong piece of work that you should really look into.

If you know John Byrne, you know he likes to alter and change superhero origin stories, when the original stories done by the original writers were much better. This is such a case, Byrne takes Superman and basically makes him a Marvel-wannabe character. No wonder the Man of Steel has never recovered from this drek of a retelling of his origin.

John Byrne does not reinvent Superman in this collection. He returns the character to what he originally was. He strips away much of the mythos which only came into Superman's life after Siegel and Shuster left DC (Superboy, Supergirl, Krypto, multi-colored Kryptonite, god-like power levels, and Kryptonian heritage), and leaves us with the character as he was meant to be when he was created.

John Byrne's strength as a writer/artist is that he sees clearly to the heart of the character. Here, as he did with the Fantastic Four, he not so much re-invents as clarifies the character. All of the fat and foolishness is stripped away, and new details are added that fit so well that you wonder how the feature went fifty years without them. Byrne is totally respectful of what has come before, and yet makes it all fresh and new. This is truly Superman reborn and reinvigorated. Landmark comics, and also a great "starter" book for the fledgeling comics reader.