In a completely selfish hope that Marvel Comics' new high end collectible Wolverine Adamantium Edition may be followed by a Spider-man Web Slinging Edition I’m taking the opportunity to highlight the stories that I think are representative of what makes Peter Parker “Amazing”. I’m sticking exclusively with the mainstream Spider-man most people know of and worked hard to keep the page count as close to 720 as possible. I’m also working in publication order so that we can see the character growth and development as it happened. Last week I chose Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-man #74, “Fantasia”.
A year later in January of 1984 we were treated to a very special back up story in the pages of Amazing Spider-man #248 titled “The Kid Who Collects Spider-man”.
This is an 11 page story that’s told simultaneously in the form of a newspaper article about a nine year old boy named Timothy Harrison and the visit he receives from Spider-man as a result of that news story. It’s a revisiting of Spider-man’s origin and history and some vague histories. Spidey shares his whole story with Tim; his purpose and powers, his web shooters, and even his identity as Peter Parker.
Tim Harrison is a nine year old boy who has a full chest of Spider-man mementos and souvenirs. Tim Harrison, according to the article, has Leukemia and only weeks to live. It's a very touching story that is written well and works on several levels.
And here we are exploring Peter’s character again. This boy isn’t a friend of his, he’s never met him, but secret be damned he’s willing to give the boy his dream come true. In the time it took to have a 11 pages worth of comic panel conversation Peter sized up that boy and knew that even sharing his secret, there would be no fear of exposure. Spider-man may not be a “real” person but it sure makes me feel better knowing that there are people out there like that. This has long been an inspiration for me.
Michael R. Murray has been buying and collecting comics for over 35 years. At one point his collection included two copies of Amazing Spider-man #1, and one copy each of Amazing Fantasy #15, Fantastic Four #2, Avengers #4, Showcase #22, and dozens more high grade and key issues. The collection has grown to include original art pages, as well as statues and busts, with the current emphasis on collecting original drawings from appropriate artists on the inside of his hard covers. His personal collection of graphic novels consists of over 2,000 hard covers and trade paperbacks. He has attended all of the Boston and New York Comic Cons and experienced Philadelphia, Chicago, and San Diego. He has championed comic books in the local schools and was very proud that both of his children read at least three years above their grade levels, due nearly exclusively to comics. He’s quick to point out that none of this makes him an expert, but that his love of comics is most enjoyable when he can share it. Follow on Twitter at mycomicstore001 or like his Facebook page.