When I first heard of the Essential volumes those many years ago, the name "essential" conjured up something else besides "printing every issue in sequential order" -- I thought it would mean the "best and most significant issues featuring the character".

Isn't that the problem with the "Best Superman Stories Ever Told" or "the Best of the Fantastic Four" type volumes? They look for short, self-contained stories that won't take up too much space so they can fill up a regular sized graphic novel and hit the $20 to $25 price point. But they rarely feature the actual "best" stories -- a Best of the X-Men volume would be too small to contain the full Dark Phoenix Saga, Days of Future Past, etc. stories since they fill trades themselves.

A few weeks ago, I wwas talking with Fraxon and Mahoney about my FF collection of trades -- I'm not a hardcore FF guy but want the best stuff. I layed out that I had the Lee/Kirby in Essential/Masterworks format, the Byrne run, the Waid/Wieringo run and the Millar run. They agreed that except for the Simonson stuff, this is pretty much all you need.

So, what are the actual "Essential" stories for the various characters? Not just the "best ones" but stories that are needed to fully understand the character's history? For example, you might not think the Death of Gwen Stacy is all tyhat good of a story, but you'd need it in an "essential" library of Spider-Man comics, no?

So, what's what?

I think the only essential Spider-Man is Amazing Fantasy 15 and the first 33 issues of his first solo title.

Yeah, the omnibus covers that need quite nicely (although not terribly practically, it really would have worked better as two volumes)

Doomed Planet.
Desperate Scientists.
Last Hope.
Kindly Couple.

Anything else is filler.

I do think you need the next few issues to resolve the Green Goblin storyline, no?

Nah.

It doesn't really need to be in there, IMO. However, I'd argue the Romita/Lee era as a whole is just as "essential" as the Ditko run. It's not until Spidey grows an extra pair of arms that Amazing ever really suffers a hiccup though, to me.

I first discovered Spider-Man having an extra pair of arms and that is how I know the character. It should have never changed and I will never forgive whatever EIC did that.

In response to the OP, that's one reason I loved the Marvel Fireside books -- those were how comics should be discovered. A selection of the best, most representative stories, with essays by Stan Lee in between explaining the context and why he chose them.

I got Marvels Greatest Superhero Battles at a used book store as a kid, for something like $1.50. I read that thing until the cover fell off, taped it back together and read it until the pages fell out and taped them back in. That book was a treasure of my youth, I wish I still had it.

I do still have those books!

Well give them back!

I would stretch this until the Death of Gwen Stacy. One of the first times a significant character was killed. I read so many Spidey reprints in the 70s, that I think Gwen is Peter's true love not MJ.

She was.

No.

As a Spidey fan, I wouldn't miss:

Marv Wolfman w/ John Byrne & Jim Mooney...heck, I guess all of Marv's run.
#189, 190 are the JB ones...you get a nice flashback to JJJ and John when he was a boy.

Roger Stern, John Romita Jr. 'Nuff said. 1982, 1983 are great years for Spidey comics! A bit before my time, but my favorite period to collect, back in the day.

If you would like to find the most Ditko-esque Spidey artist, refer to the '84 ,'85 Ron Frenz issues that follow (into the 280's).

Marcus v Bully: North Carolina's Greatest Battle Begins!

I think this usually depends on the era when you discovered the characters.

I'm sure that, for some people, the issues where Ben Grimm was wearing his Thing suit is the "Essential" FF, for example.

To me, it's the whole tone of the stories from a particular era that define the "Essential" nature of them. My favourite Spider-Man is the one we see in the first twenty or so issues of Spectacular Spidey, for example, even though I first discovered the character via reprints of the Lee/Ditko issues. I don't know why this is. I first encountered the 70's "Hulk Smash" Hulk, yet think of the early version (Gamma Base, Rick Jones, underground lab with foot-operated 'Hulk Ray' gizmo) as the 'real' Hulk, even though I found him later on. To me, John Byrne's FF is 'the' FF - I'm not sure why this is....it's just the way it is for me.

My essential Spider-Man is Ditko's stuff--period.

My FF run would be Lee and Kirby--period.

My Thor would include both the Lee and Kirby run (and you can skip early issues with other artists) plus the two Neal Adams issues and Simonson's run. All other runs are redundant (though some are pretty nice to look at).

My Hulk run starts with the first issue and ends when Trimpe leaves the book (#193).

X-Men the first ten, followed by the run Neal Adams drew and then Giant-Sized X-Men #1 up through the last Claremont/Byrne/Austin issue. The only short run I might throw in was the one Paul Smith drew.

Daredevil--issues drawn by Gil Kane and Frank Miller and ones written by Frank Miller. The Colan issues are pretty--but there are few well-written issues in that run.

Nice choices, Erik. I have a hard time leaving off the Lee/Romita Spider-Man stuff...but that said I've certainly not revisited it as often as the Ditko run.

Sometimes I wonder if comics should "die" with their creators like other countries -- like Astro Boy stopped when Osamu Tezuka stopped doing it. Didn't Tintin stop when Herge stopped? Peanuts wouldn't be done without Shultz, etc.

Sometimes you get something great when other creators redefine the concepts -- this seems to happen mostly with DC heroes -- but really, is Spider-Man ever going to be better than when Stan Lee did the book? Will the Fantastic Four ever be the creative juggernaut it was under Jack Kirby?

i'd add the Wally Wood issues; not only are they gorgeous but they also have Daredevil #7, still the defintive DD story.

Thing is--it would JUST be that issue--the others around it, though well drawn, are pretty dumb.