Spider-Man V1 (1990’s)

Spider-Man ran for 98 issues from 1990 to 1998. The series was re titled Peter Parker: Spider-Man with issue #75, but only on the covers, the series was still under its original Spider-Man title in the comic’s legal indicia, printed on the title page, from #75 to #98; the comic book would not officially be titled Peter Parker: Spider-Man until the volume 2 series relaunch.

The series originally was conceived as a showcase for Todd McFarlane. McFarlane, who until then had only been known as an artist, was hugely popular at the time and the series was created by editor Jim Salicrup so that McFarlane could pencil, ink, and write a Spider-Man title of his own, starting with the “Torment” storyline.

The series was a massive sales success with over 2.5 million copies printed. McFarlane stayed on the title until issue #16 (November 1991) in which the story was printed in a landscape format. He would go on to create the character Spawn and help found Image Comics in 1992. He was succeeded on the title by Erik Larsen, who had succeeded McFarlane on The Amazing Spider-Man two years earlier, and would later join him in the founding of Image. Larsen wrote and drew the six-issue story arc “Revenge of the Sinister Six” (#18–23). Writer Don McGregor and artist Marshall Rogers crafted a two-part story in issues #27–28 dealing with gun violence.

After that came a quick procession of different contributors, including writers Tom DeFalco, Ann Nocenti, David Michelinie, J. M. DeMatteis and Terry Kavanagh, and pencillers Ron Frenz, Klaus Janson and Jae Lee. The creative-team musical chairs settled with Spider-Man #44 (March 1994) when writer Howard Mackie and penciller Tom Lyle began a run on the title – Lyle through #61, and Mackie for over 6 years, through cancellation and into Vol. 2.

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