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The Amazing Spider-Man (1963-1998)
Amazing Spider-Man (1963-1998) #31
Spider-Man starts college! But before he does, the web-slinger must track down some crooks who have recently acquired nuclear cargo. With Aunt May ill at home, and Peter's personal life in disarray, will Spider-Man be able to tackle freshman year and a new villain by the name of Master Planner?
21 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 1, 1965
About the author
Stan Lee
7,578 books2,363 followersStan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber) was an American writer, editor, creator of comic book superheroes, and the former president and chairman of Marvel Comics.
With several artist co-creators, most notably Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, he co-created Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Thor as a superhero, the X-Men, Iron Man, the Hulk, Daredevil, the Silver Surfer, Dr. Strange, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Scarlet Witch, The Inhumans, and many other characters, introducing complex, naturalistic characters and a thoroughly shared universe into superhero comic books. He subsequently led the expansion of Marvel Comics from a small division of a publishing house to a large multimedia corporation.
With several artist co-creators, most notably Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, he co-created Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Thor as a superhero, the X-Men, Iron Man, the Hulk, Daredevil, the Silver Surfer, Dr. Strange, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Scarlet Witch, The Inhumans, and many other characters, introducing complex, naturalistic characters and a thoroughly shared universe into superhero comic books. He subsequently led the expansion of Marvel Comics from a small division of a publishing house to a large multimedia corporation.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 22 reviews
March 1, 2018
The start of what looks to be an interesting and exciting story line, introducing the mysterious Master Planner! Plus Peter goes to college and Aunt May falls ill! It does get a little dull in the middle but the epilogue makes me excited for the next issue!
November 6, 2024
IF THIS BE MY DESTINY
December 1965
Part 1 of 3.
A New Era!!
Could either be Peter enrolling at his University or the first appearance of Harry Osborn (kind of) and Gwen Stacey!
The story fueled by the worsening health of Aunt May and certainly picks up speed in the next two issues.
The secret villain is quickly identified in the next issue.
December 1965
Part 1 of 3.
A New Era!!
Could either be Peter enrolling at his University or the first appearance of Harry Osborn (kind of) and Gwen Stacey!
The story fueled by the worsening health of Aunt May and certainly picks up speed in the next two issues.
The secret villain is quickly identified in the next issue.
July 19, 2023
love seeing the balance between peter’s personal life and his life as spider-man. despite the storytelling tropes having aged quite a bit, especially with the unnatural way everyone talks, these old spider-man comics are always decent fun.
January 21, 2020
THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #31-33 (If This Be My Destiny)
Wow…
This is by far the greatest comic book storyline I have read of the Silver Age. This sets the stage for the entire future of comic books; by putting the pieces in place to slowly transform the comic industry, Stan Lee has finally been able to create what at the time was the greatest comic storyline ever published, and still ranks highly to this day.
The art style is unheard of at this point in comic history. Gone are the crammed panels, filled with so many text boxes and speech bubbles you can’t even see the artist’s work, which was demanded by the nearly half century of comics which preceded this. Here the text is minimal, letting the reader really process the visual storytelling on the part of Steve Ditko, one of the greatest illustrators who’s ever lived. He’s also not required as many panels per page, meaning he has a lot more space for illustrations. Regularly he’ll create these magnificently painted images that span only 3 panels, sometimes even just 1 beautiful panel, per page.
Let’s talk about the story; if Stan Lee took your wee little human heart, tied it to the back of a pickup truck, and then went off-roading, you’d have some semblance of the emotional exhaustion he puts the reader through. Brilliantly this story both comes full circle with everything in the Spider-Man mythos to this point, allowing Peter to show more character growth than he’s ever shown in a previous story. Familiar tropes of Spider-Man stories are gone by the end of this one, allowing Peter’s newfound growth in this one to serve as the start of the next one.
Lee achieves this by bringing back many Spider-Man characters from previous storylines, and having every single Spider-Man conflict in place at that point explode head-on in this story: his college career, his relationship with the emotionally scarred Betty Brant, his finances, his Aunt May’s health, the Bugle’s attempts to slander him, the hatred of his peers, and most importantly… his responsibility for Uncle Ben’s death; it’s so much conflict for one person, really making you share the overwhelmed state of emotion he’s in.
It revolutionized the comic book industry forever. Stan Lee started this thing called the Marvel Universe with the hope that one day comic books could be used to tell truly great stories, as opposed to weekly schlock; after almost half a decade of shaping and reshaping the comic book industry, one ground-breaking innovation at a time, the seeds have finally been put in place to tell that impossible story he’d been dreaming of: this is that story.
Wow…
This is by far the greatest comic book storyline I have read of the Silver Age. This sets the stage for the entire future of comic books; by putting the pieces in place to slowly transform the comic industry, Stan Lee has finally been able to create what at the time was the greatest comic storyline ever published, and still ranks highly to this day.
The art style is unheard of at this point in comic history. Gone are the crammed panels, filled with so many text boxes and speech bubbles you can’t even see the artist’s work, which was demanded by the nearly half century of comics which preceded this. Here the text is minimal, letting the reader really process the visual storytelling on the part of Steve Ditko, one of the greatest illustrators who’s ever lived. He’s also not required as many panels per page, meaning he has a lot more space for illustrations. Regularly he’ll create these magnificently painted images that span only 3 panels, sometimes even just 1 beautiful panel, per page.
Let’s talk about the story; if Stan Lee took your wee little human heart, tied it to the back of a pickup truck, and then went off-roading, you’d have some semblance of the emotional exhaustion he puts the reader through. Brilliantly this story both comes full circle with everything in the Spider-Man mythos to this point, allowing Peter to show more character growth than he’s ever shown in a previous story. Familiar tropes of Spider-Man stories are gone by the end of this one, allowing Peter’s newfound growth in this one to serve as the start of the next one.
Lee achieves this by bringing back many Spider-Man characters from previous storylines, and having every single Spider-Man conflict in place at that point explode head-on in this story: his college career, his relationship with the emotionally scarred Betty Brant, his finances, his Aunt May’s health, the Bugle’s attempts to slander him, the hatred of his peers, and most importantly… his responsibility for Uncle Ben’s death; it’s so much conflict for one person, really making you share the overwhelmed state of emotion he’s in.
It revolutionized the comic book industry forever. Stan Lee started this thing called the Marvel Universe with the hope that one day comic books could be used to tell truly great stories, as opposed to weekly schlock; after almost half a decade of shaping and reshaping the comic book industry, one ground-breaking innovation at a time, the seeds have finally been put in place to tell that impossible story he’d been dreaming of: this is that story.
January 9, 2023
Reread for My Marvelous Year Five: 1966 pt.1
Part 1 of a 3 issue arc. This issue primarily sets the stage, but holds an important place in spidey history with Peter’s first day of college, and the introduction of both Harry Osborn & Gwen Stacy.
Read for Peter’s social struggles and fun battles with goons. Essential reading for Spidey fans, marvel historians
Part 1 of a 3 issue arc. This issue primarily sets the stage, but holds an important place in spidey history with Peter’s first day of college, and the introduction of both Harry Osborn & Gwen Stacy.
Read for Peter’s social struggles and fun battles with goons. Essential reading for Spidey fans, marvel historians
February 21, 2021
Amazing #31 is a key issue in the history of the Web Crawler. Peter heads off to college, not that he can concentrate on his first day as Aunt May is hospitalised again after fainting, and we have the introduction of future friends Gwen Stacy and Harry Osborn. We also have the first appearance of Professor Miles Warren, a character that you could argue ends up with having an equal impact on Peter's life. In the b story Foswell, in his Patch alias, gives Spider-Man a tip of a theft of nuclear devices which Spidey stops.
We end on the cliffhanger of the Doctor's claiming May "can't last much longer!" as they run May's tests.
Its curious that Ditko doesn't get the "plotted by" credit as with previous and subsequent issues, as it was definitely the case that at this point he was coming up with both the visuals and story as Stan Lee notes in the introduction of the fourth volume of the Marvel Masterworks "While I wrote the dialogue and captions... The basic story structure was by most part fashioned by the dizzying talent of Mr. Ditko".
We end on the cliffhanger of the Doctor's claiming May "can't last much longer!" as they run May's tests.
Its curious that Ditko doesn't get the "plotted by" credit as with previous and subsequent issues, as it was definitely the case that at this point he was coming up with both the visuals and story as Stan Lee notes in the introduction of the fourth volume of the Marvel Masterworks "While I wrote the dialogue and captions... The basic story structure was by most part fashioned by the dizzying talent of Mr. Ditko".
May 16, 2024
Di volume ini, Peter Parker sudah menjadi mahasiswa Baru di Empire State University dengan beasiswa karena ia adalah murid berprestasi. Di sana, ia bertemu Flash dan tokoh baru--yang kelak menjadi pacar Peter--bernama Gwen Stacy dan--yang kelak menjadi sahabatnya--Harry Osborn. Sayangnya, di hari pertama masuk kuliah, pikiran Peter dipenuhi dengan kekhawatirannya kepada Bibi May yang sedang sakit. Ia tidak bisa berkonsentrasi belajar dan berkenalan dengan teman-teman barunya di sana. Gwen dan Harry pun menganggapnya sebagai mahasiswa sombong yang tidak bisa bersosialisasi.
Selain itu, musuh di volume ini masih misterius karena yang ditampilkan adalah para anak buahnya yang sedang mencuri benda-benda tak biasa.
Selain itu, musuh di volume ini masih misterius karena yang ditampilkan adalah para anak buahnya yang sedang mencuri benda-benda tak biasa.
August 27, 2021
Seperti yang dikatakan oleh Stan Lee di halaman pertama, nomor ini menandai era baru dalam kehidupan Peter Parker/Spider-Man. Peter memulai kehidupannya sebagai mahasiswa di E.S.U dan di sana muncul dua tokoh baru yang juga akan berpengaruh dalam cerita Spider-Man selanjutnya. Untuk pertama kali Harry Osborn dan Gwen Stacy muncul di komik ini. Sementara itu, Bibi May yang beberapa waktu ini berusaha menyembunyikan penyakitnya dari Peter akhirnya tumbang dan harus dibawa ke rumah sakit. Spider-Man menghadapi musuh yang lebih serius dan misterius. Kali ini musuhnya tampak lebih terorganisir.
March 31, 2022
I feel like the Betty drama has been drawn out for too long. We get it, Peter has a tragic life, but Betty is barely even a character in his life and I couldn't care less that he doesn't get to be with her. I'm happy she gets to be with someone who is actually nice to her.
On the other hand, I'm really interested on this whole Master Planner guy and all this mistery that seems to build up. I enjoy that much more.
On the other hand, I'm really interested on this whole Master Planner guy and all this mistery that seems to build up. I enjoy that much more.
June 24, 2023
Although there's the usual stuff with Peter worrying about his Aunt May, and somehow being oblivious to the effect he has on women around him, this sets up an intriguing, and intense, episode for our web-slinging hero. A good start to university life is denied by Aunt May's illness and everyone around Peter assuming that his distracted mindset is just him being anti-social and thinking he is above everyone. Enjoyable stuff.
June 18, 2018
A solid beginning to one of the most memorable arcs in Spider-Man history! This issue features the introduction of both Gwen Stacy and Harry Osborn, and teases the mysterious “Master Planner.” Aunt May is sick, and Pete’s got a lot on his mind, which makes for a great comic filled with inner turmoil and action.
November 27, 2023
So…I’m on a mission. My goal? To read every comic Harry Osborn makes an appearance in. This was my first step, the kickoff, the beginning of a very long quest of which I desperately hope I will be able to finish. Anyways, I love the nostalgia that the simple, early Marvel comics bring. It will never not be good. Great story!
November 6, 2022
Okay, now this is really feeling like a refresh. Flash and Harry are being annoying, but it’s interesting how Peter doesn’t fall head over heels over Gwen right away (and she notices) as he’s distracted by what’s going on with Aunt May.
February 7, 2025
Much improved over the last two issues. This one begins weaving in some long-term storytelling threads, which is when the series is at its best. These aren’t the best versions of Harry and Gwen by a long shot,but it was still exciting to see them pop up.
April 5, 2019
Following the breakup with Betty last issue, Peter finally starts university and meets all the gang... sort of...
January 1, 2022
I’m doing a Gwen Stacy read-through, starting with her first appearance here!
October 15, 2022
Gwen ♡
February 17, 2023
They did Harry DIRTY with that hairstyle
March 18, 2024
Title: El primer día de universidad
Me parece una genialidad que dediquen más tiempo a Peter Parker que al hombre araña.
Stars 5.0
Me parece una genialidad que dediquen más tiempo a Peter Parker que al hombre araña.
Stars 5.0
March 14, 2026
probably my most anticipated storyline in this omnibus. split between 4 and 5 stars but seeing harry and gwen is fun
Displaying 1 - 21 of 22 reviews