(I originally read these comics between late April/early May 2016)
I've been busy reading the two-year stretch of Spider-Man comics picking up just after the 'Clone Saga' and up to before the 1999 reboot of Marvel's flagship character. Trying to make sense of the chronology is damn near impossible, though, with at least five ongoing titles sometimes contradicting each others' events. I found what appeared to be a sensible reading order online, but there are problems even when issues are moved months out of publication sequence. For example, J. Jonah Jameson is beaten so badly in Spectacular Spider-Man # 245 that he requires a hospital stay, yet continues to appear unscathed for a dozen further issues or more. With that in mind, the reading order I present here is my own, retrospective one. It might not be perfect and should I get around to reading this particular patch in Spidey's history again it's always open to revision.
(Yeahhh, I don't have much to say about any of these. They're not much cop. Read on!)
Each of the Spidey titles of the time maintains a different, mostly steady creative team and furthers its own sub-plots. Amazing Spider-Man, by Tom DeFalco and Steve Skroce or Joe Bennett, concentrates on Peter and Mary Jane's home life with Anna Watson (Aunt May is currently dead, but don't worry- she'd get better) and a brewing gang war between the Rose and underworld newcomer, the Black Tarantula. Spectacular Spider-Man, by J.M. DeMatteis and Luke Ross, has the Jack O'Lantern intimidating JJ and family into signing over control of the Daily Bugle to the widely believed dead Norman Osborn and Flash Thompson developing an alcohol problem. Peter Parker, Spider-Man, by Howard Mackie and John Romita Jr. has Pete and MJ returning to university and previously unmentioned relatives of Gwen and Arthur Stacy stirring up trouble. One sub-plot that seems to drag on only to end in a total anticlimax is Peter being bitten by Morbius and suffering from vertigo as a result.
I'd say the strongest of these three titles is DeMatteis' and Ross Spectacular, but while the artist's cartoony style suits the goofy Legion of Losers tale it's less appropriate for DeMatteis' darker, more psychological stories such as that of the Chameleon. Speaking of which, the annual from this period is something of a mini classic, very much in the vein of DeMatteis' own 'Kraven's Last Hunt', as it re-tells the events of Amazing Spider-Man # 15 from Kraven's perspective.
Sensational Spider-Man, by Todd DeZago and Mike Wieringo, tells less continuity-dependent and largely light-hearted stories. The Vulture, having regained his youth through nefarious means four years earlier, reverts to his former aged and follicly-challenged appearance here. Spider-Man Unlimited, meanwhile, was a quarterly title with shifting scribes but mostly drawn by Joe Bennett, and stories are self-contained.
In-between all this, Roger Stern returns to finally reveal the true identity of the Hobgoblin, something he'd been prevented from doing more than a decade earlier, in the three-part 'Hobgoblin Lives'. The 'Flashback' issues (all numbered Minus 1) were part of a line-wide gimmick where continuity was interrupted for a month to tell retro, 'before the powers'-type tales. The Spectacular ish at least ties into the then-current state of affairs, fleshing out Flash Thompson's childhood.
I must admit to having some nostalgia for this period of Spidey as I picked up the odd issue while at uni - mostly the annuals and 'team-up' comics as they were self-contained and didn't require a big commitment. Having said that, this wasn't really a banner period for Spidey and some of the art is just dreadful. Well, it was the '90s...
Carnage: Mind Bomb (1996) # 1 and Carnage: It's a Wonderful Life (1996) # 1 are collected in:
Softcover:
Spider-Man/Gen13 (1996) is collected in:
Softcover:
Crossover Classics: The Marvel/DC Collection Volume Three (UK)
Sensational Spider-Man (1996) # 7-18/-1 are collected in:
Softcover:
Spider-Man by Todd DeZago and Mike Wieringo (US)
Spider-Man by Todd DeZago and Mike Wieringo (UK)
Sensational Spider-Man (1996) # 7-18/-1 are collected in:
Softcover:
Spider-Man by Todd DeZago and Mike Wieringo (US)
Spider-Man by Todd DeZago and Mike Wieringo (UK)
Sensational Spider-Man (1996) # 13-15 are collected in:
Softcover:
Spider-Man: Hobgoblin Lives (1997) # 1-3 are collected in:
Softcover:
Amazing Spider-Man (1963) # 420 and X-Man (1995) # 24 are collected in:
Softcover:
Spider-Man Team-Up (1995) # 7 is collected in:
Softcover:
Untold Tales of Spider-Man Annual '97 is collected in:
Hardcover:
