10 Best Spider-Man Comics That Explored Forgotten Eras

The Amazing Spider-Man comic volumes usually provide something new to Spider-Man‘s mythology, always pushing Peter Parker’s life forward. However, many miniseries jump back in time to explore various points in Spider-Man’s past, usually looking at iconic eras through a new lens.

Spider-Man: The Lost Years documented Ben Reilly’s life through Spider-Man’s Bronze Age. Spider-Man: Blue added more heartbreaking context to Peter and Gwen Stacy’s relationship shortly before her death. Ironically, some of the greatest Spider-Man comics have looked to the past instead, strengthening Spider-Man’s world through retroactive alterations and additions.

10 Gwen Stacy Was A Pillar In Spider-Man’s Life

As tragic as Gwen Stacy’s death was in Amazing Spider-Man #121, Spider-Man: Blue added scenes, context and commentary that made her death even more heartbreaking. Gwen Stacy was the love of Peter’s life. Spider-Man: Blue emphasizes their relationship and really shows readers how much she means to Peter.

The Spider-Man action was simply background material, while Gwen Stacy took center stage. Spider-Man: Blue retroactively adds meaning and emotion to what was already a turning point in Spider-Man’s life and publication history.

9 Marvel Age Replays Spider-Man’s Earliest Adventures

Marvel Age Spider-Man was not a reboot like Ultimate Spider-Man. Instead, Marvel Age provided updated versions of Spider-Man’s first comics. The first time he battled classic foes like Lizard, Doctor Octopus, and the Green Goblin were recreated with new art and updated technology to present these classic tales to modern readers.

Did Spider-Man’s first comics need to be remade? Not necessarily. But Marvel Age Spider-Man exists as an interesting alternative take, allowing writers and artists to add their own spins to Spider-Man stories that would otherwise be classified as “untouchable.”

8 Ben Reilly Returns As The Sensational Spider-Man

When modern Spider-Man comics continuously paint Ben Reilly as the villain, making him the new Jackal in Clone Conspiracy, only partially redeeming him as an anti-hero Scarlet Spider, then doubling down and transforming him into Chasm, it’s time for old-school Ben Reilly fans to look to the past.

Thankfully, legendary Spider-Man writer J.M. DeMatteis had the same thought. Ben Reilly: Spider-Man is a five-part miniseries that takes readers back to when Ben Reilly was the Sensational Spider-Man and the main Web-Head of Marvel Comics, battling Scorpion, Lady Octopus and more.

7 John Byrne Takes Over Spider-Man’s Origin

In 1998, just a few years before the release of Ultimate Spider-Man, John Byrne created Spider-Man: Chapter One, a 13-issue comic series sold as a retelling of Spider-Man’s origin and earliest adventures. At the time, many readers were upset by Byrne’s interpretations and alterations.

However, Marvel readers soon warmed to the idea of alternate versions of Spider-Man origins after Ultimate Spider-Man and Marvel Age Spider-Man debuted with success. Chapter One is an interesting time capsule. Love it or hate it, Marvel should consider allowing its top creators to produce their own versions of iconic superhero origins.

6 The Symbiote Controls Spider-Man

Modern readers know all about the symbiote, where it came from, and where it would end up: bonded to Eddie Brock to become Venom. They know more about the symbiote today than the writers did in the 1980s when it debuted. Symbiote Spider-Man takes readers back to the 1980s and adds some modern-day context to the period when Peter Parker wore the black costume.

Symbiote Spider-Man fits within Marvel’s comic book canon, adds a previously unseen confrontation between Spider-Man and Mysterio, and uses what readers know about the symbiote against Peter Parker in the past. The symbiote is alive, sentient, and controlling Spider-Man.

5 Symbiote Spider-Man Vs. Hobgoblin

The “Alien Costume Saga” holds so much untapped potential, and Marvel Comics knows it. Symbiote Spider-Man: Alien Reality picks up right where its predecessor left off: Peter Parker unknowingly wearing an alien creature around as his new Spider-Man costume. This time, Spider-Man battles Hobgoblin and gets mixed up with Doctor Strange.

Like the first Symbiote Spider-Man miniseries, Alien Reality seamlessly fits within Marvel canon while retroactively adding modern symbiote knowledge to the Alien Costume Saga. New readers should absolutely read these Symbiote Spider-Man miniseries alongside the original Spider-Man comics from the ’80s.

4 J.M. DeMatteis Returns To Kraven The Hunter

J.M. DeMatteis, the writer of “Kraven’s Last Hunt,” one of the darkest Spider-Man comics of all time, returns to the legacy of Kraven the Hunter with Spider-Man: The Lost Hunt. Marvel has loved revisiting old Spider-Man eras these last few years, with DeMatteis writing many of those projects.

Set during Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson’s trip to Portland, The Lost Hunt picks up story threads left after “Kraven’s Last Hunt.” Revisiting old eras can spotlight characters and recontextualize past events. Spider-Man: The Lost Hunt does both for Kraven.

3 A New Version Of The Spider-Man Clone Saga

Everyone, even the original creators of the 1990 Clone Saga, agrees that Spider-Man’s Clone Saga grew uncontrollably. By Ben Reilly’s death at the saga’s end, readers lose interest in who the clone was and who the true Spider-Man was. The Jackal was an overused villain, and cloning was a shallow gimmick.

In 2009, Marvel attempted to correct any wrongs of the ’90s by publishing a new Spider-Man: The Clone Saga miniseries to streamline the original story. The Clone Saga focuses on the key players of the story arc, Peter Parker and Ben Reilly, leaving any unnecessary plot threads on the floor.

2 Ben Reilly Before The Scarlet Spider

Whatever happened to Spider-Man’s clone from the Original Clone Saga? For years, readers believed he died. But the Clone Saga and the Spider-Man: The Lost Years miniseries confirmed that the clone survived, learned the truth about his existence, and avoided anything Spider-Man-related for years.

Spider-Man: The Lost Years is retroactive storytelling at its finest. Marvel took Ben Reilly, a character that fans believed died, added him back into Spider-Man’s life, and created a character that has gained a cult following thanks to his later appearances as Scarlet Spider and the Sensational Spider-Man.

Spider-Man: Life Story reveals how pivotal moments in Spider-Man’s life would have changed had Peter Parker aged normally through real-life events. The Vietnam War and fictional events like the superhuman civil war and “Kraven’s Last Hunt” all play out differently, thanks to the lack of a sliding timescale where characters age very slowly.

Spider-Man: Life Story is one of the finest Spider-Man miniseries of all time, delivering amazing action from longtime Spidey artist Mark Bagley and intense, emotional story beats. In just six issues, readers experience Spider-man’s entire life, and longtime readers get to revisit their favorite eras, now slightly altered around this aging Peter.