The Amazing Spider-Man is a 2014 comic book series from Marvel Comics, written by Dan Slott and with art by Humberto Ramos. It's the third The Amazing Spider-Man series since the character's debut, and was launched under the All-New Marvel NOW! brand.
Set in the shared Marvel Universe, the series begins in the aftermath of the Superior Spider Man arc. Peter Parker is himself again, no longer controlled by the personality of Otto Octavius, the supervillain known as Doctor Octopus. But the time Octavius replaced him has significantly changed Peter's life.
He's inherited the tech empire Octavius built. He's also inherited the distrust of allies and adversaries who have recently had bad experiences with a very different 'Spider-Man'. In particular, the Black Cat—his long-time on-off girlfriend—hates him and is hellbent on revenge for what the Superior Spider-Man did to her. And to make matters worse, Morlun—one of his deadliest adversaries—is back... and this time he's brought his entire family for dinner.
As well as the usual numbering, the series includes a set of 'decimal point' issues published alongside them - 1.1 to 1.5 are the "Learning to Crawl" arc, an interquel set at the very start of Spider-Man's career.
The series ended when one of Marvel's Crisis Crossovers, Secret Wars, paused all of the ongoing Marvel Universe comics.
It was subsequently relaunched as a new series, The Amazing Spider-Man (2015).
- Spider-Verse: A Bat Family Crossover in which Spider-Man joins an Alliance of Alternates.
Collections
- Vol. 1: "The Parker Luck" (#1-6)
- Vol. 2: "Learning to Crawl" (#1.1-1.5)
- Vol. 3: "Spider-Verse Prelude" (#7-8, Superior Spider-Man #32-33)
- Vol. 4: "Spider-Verse" (#9-15)
- Vol. 5: "Graveyard Shift" (#16-18, Annual #1)
- Vol. 6: "Spiral" (#16.1-20.1)
The Amazing Spider-Man provides examples of:
- The Adjectival Superhero:
- The series is The Amazing Spider-Man, a Recycled Title from Spider-Man's first series, and the very end of interquel arc "Learning to Crawl" (set at the very start of that original 1963 series) emphasises the adjective with a Splash Panel ending showing Spider-Man telling himself that the future is "going to be Amazing!". Just to hammer it home, the "Amazing!" is far bigger than the other dialogue, and in exactly the same logo style as the front cover.
- The "Learning to Crawl" interquel arc shows how Peter Parker develops his wise-cracking Spider-Man persona. It ends with a handwritten note left stuck to a webbed up supervillain, signed by "your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man", something that later becomes a standard way to describe him.
- Face–Heel Turn: Felicia Hardy, having been beaten and humiliated by the Superior Spider-Man, swears revenge on Peter — not believing he'd been bodyjacked — and sets out to become the Queenpin of New York City.
- Full-Frontal Assault: In the first issue, Peter clashes with the White Rabbit and her supervillain team, the Menagerie. One of the members, Skein, uses her powers to unweave his costume, leaving him wearing nothing but a mask. He rapidly improvises some underwear using his webbing.
- I Hate Past Me: During the Spider-Verse tie-in, Peter finds himself forced to work with his time-displaced past self, the Superior Spider-Man, the two of them coming to blows a few times over leadership of the Spider-Army. For a time, Peter is able to exploit Otto's arrogance to convince him that he (Peter) is the past self, SpOck being unable to conceive that he would return Peter's body to him, but the truth eventually comes out and the doc doesn't take it very well.
- Honest Corporate Executive: Inheriting Parker Industries from Otto Octavius, Peter resolves to have a different management style and to philanthropically use his tech to try to make the world a better place — namely by rehabilitating and de-powering his rogues gallery, starting with Electro. However, one of his employees, Sajani Jaffrey, preferred Otto's ruthlessness and tries to undermine his control of the company by working with the Black Cat and Ghost.
- Internet Stalking: In the "Learning to Crawl" arc, Clayton Cole (aka Clash) uses cyberstalking to find a phone number for Polly, a girl he's met once, so that he can call her and invite her on a date. Clayton lies about how he got the number.
- Interquel: The "Learning to Crawl" arc is set at the very start of Spider-Man's career, just after his debut in Amazing Fantasy #15. The first chapter features Uncle Ben's funeral.
- Kayfabe: In "Learning to Crawl", Clash sees Spider-Man take on wrestler Crusher Hogan and draws some incorrect conclusions about how costumed heroes operate. After creating his own costumed identity he tries to hire Spider-Man for a filmed, semi-scripted rooftop battle, which he's supposed to win. Spider-Man doesn't stick to the script and, worse, assumes that Clash's subsequent appearance at a science fair is a real supervillain attack.
- Outdated Outfit: Exaggerated in the "Learning to Crawl" Interquel arc. Set in the days right after Peter first got bit, and focusing on his earliest trials of being Spider-Man and engaging with another budding superhero/villain named Clash, the series features art that's a deliberate throwback to the Lee/Ditko era, while simultaneously talking about posting Spider-Man's first fight with Crusher Hogan on MeTube, texting, going viral, etc.
- Recycled Title: It's the third series to be called The Amazing Spider-Man, following on from the original 1963 Spider-Man series and the 1999 relaunch. Collected editions for the 2014 series disambiguate by using arc names as their subtitles.
- Remember the New Guy?: Remember Clash? That sound-based supervillain who was Spidey's first real adversary following Uncle Ben's death? No? That's because Dan Slott retconned him into Peter's origin in Learning To Crawl.
