The Death Of Gwen Stacy. Spider-Man No More. Kraven's Last Hunt. Peter Porker: The Spectacular Spider-Ham. There's no shortage of classic storylines in the canon of Spider-Man, and everybody knows it: almost all of those iconic arcs have been adapted or otherwise plundered for the countless cartoons, video games and movies the web head had starred in over the years. A great Spider-Man comic will exemplify everything it is we love about Peter Parker - his bad jokes, his rogue's gallery, his stellar supporting cast, his tragic origin, and the commitment he has to the great responsibility hoisted onto him by his great powers. Thanks to those storylines, most people know all of that about Spider-Man. But those stories have been played out a little, thanks to the aforementioned constant translations, references and call-backs. Was anyone really shocked by the end of Amazing Spider-Man 2, having read the comics from thirty years ago? Did anybody think Peter Parker would ever really give up his superhero mantle any of the many, many times he's threatened to? It's nice to return to the classics every once in a while, but Spidey's a character who's been around for nearly half a century, and appeared in countless titles of his own (not to mention all the crossovers). We're just saying, there's a wealth of wall crawling material out there. This isn't an exhaustive trawl through that entire history - because that would take, like, twenty lists - but we wanted to shine a light on some of the lesser-known gems in that vast library of Peter Parker tales. These are ten of the most criminally underrated Spider-Man comics ever.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
