10 Essential Storylines To Read If You're Just Getting Into Spider-Man

2. To Have And To Hold

To Have and To Hold may be a difficult issue to track down physically, but in terms of one-shots, it might just be the best Marvel have ever had.

Set during a tumultuous time in the wall-crawler's publishing history (in and around the New Day debacle), To Have and To Hold isn't just a celebration of one of the medium's enduring relationships, but a distillation of what marriage means in a milieu that, at the time, wanted nothing to do with the concept. The story's writer, Matt Fraction, expertly navigates the web-slinger's history in a clear and succinct way, chronicling the evolution of Peter's relationship with Mary Jane and laying the case for why the pair really are - and should be - inseparable.

It's what Peter's always been about, and while there are certainly more grandiose Spidey comics out there, the wall-crawler's books are at their best when the story is driven not by the Sinister Six or some other character's villainous machinations, but by Peter himself. Fraction makes a concerted effort to examine MJ's agency in the wider Marvel canon and, for that reason, To Have and To Hold is no simple Spidey comic. It's so much more, and while it tends to slip beneath the radar, owed to the fact it's yet to feature in any wider Spidey collection, it's a single-issue all Marvel fans should take the appropriate time to marvel at.

You won't find a better love story in the company's history. Promise.