Meet The Amazing Spider-Man (Big Golden Book)

Background

Writer Michael Teitelbaum pops up all over the place as the author of various non-continuity Spider-Man books for kids. This one is from 1996 out of "Golden Books". This hardback book is 8 1/4" x 11", 20 pages.

Story Details

Each page or double-page spread has a couple of simple paragraphs, and the rest is a full rich color drawing that spreads from edge to edge with no margins. The coloring is clean rich computer-shaded art which probably looks great to kids.

Here's the text from the first double-page spread as an example: "Traveling swiftly and silently above the city, the amazing Spider-Man protect people and fights crime wherever he finds it. He knows that his great powers give him great responsibilities, too."

That sets the tone for the rest of the book. There's a page giving the basics of Pete's origin (just the radioactive spider, no mention of the complex Uncle Ben thing). His costume, his climbing, his strength, spider-sense and webbing all get a page, plus web-slinging.

Then we're into villains, Kraven/Chameleon and Mysterio are the first two highlight villains, with a bit more stuff about webbing (and the trusty Spider-Signal) thrown in. Then a two-page Scorpion picture, then Hobgoblin (with Spider-Tracers mentioned), Rhino, a two-page Doc Ock, and then a Venom to finish.

General Comments

There's much that's missing and inaccurate here, if you're judging by "official" continuity. But that doesn't really matter. The simplified version presented here is pretty much consistent with the 90's TV Show, and various other kids Spidey interpretations.

As I've mentioned, the art is full-on and color-rich. The language is clear without being patronising. All-in-all you've got a great book for an 8-10 year old Spider-Fan. Of course, it's now twenty years old, so it's a hard-to-find collectible. But back then it would have been great gift!

Overall Rating

Nicely done. Clear and bright. A bit hard to find these days, but probably not expensive when you do come across it. A well-constructed book and a good collectible for those that collect Spidey books as I do. Three and a half webs.