The Penguin Classics Marvel Collection presents the origin stories, seminal tales, and characters of the Marvel Universe to explore Marvel's transformative and timeless influence on an entire genre of fantasy. A Penguin Classics Marvel Collection Edition Collects "Spider-Man!" from Amazing Fantasy 15 (1962), The Amazing Spider-Man 1-4, 9, 10, 13, 14, 17-19 (1963-1964), "Goodbye to Linda Brown" from Strange Tales 97 (1962), "How Stan Lee and Steve Ditko Create Spider-Man!" from The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 (1964). It is impossible to imagine American popular culture without Marvel Comics. For decades, Marvel has published groundbreaking visual narratives that sustain attention on multiple levels: as metaphors for the experience of difference and otherness, as meditations on the fluid nature of identity, and as high-water marks in the artistic tradition of American cartooning, to name a few. This anthology contains twelve key stories from the first two years of Spider-Man's publication history (from 1962 to 1964). These influential adventures not only transformed the super hero fantasy into an allegory for the pain of adolescence but also brought a new ethical complexity to the genre-by insisting that with great power there must also come great responsibility.
