For two years in the mid-90s, Kurt Busiek and Pat Olliffe worked on a Spider-Man series set in the webslinger's earliest days. The stories were threaded in and around the Lee/Ditko issues of Amazing Spider-Man, expanding on developments in those stories, while also introducing some other characters. Not just additional villains, but some of the other high school kids. Granted, mostly kids who hung out with Flash Thompson and made Peter's life miserable, but at least they got names, personalities, and their own subplots.
The stories were largely done-in-ones, but with those subplots running through the background until they were ready to take center stage. Peter's halting relationship with Betty Brant as he tries to find time for her, when he isn't having to brush her off to save the day, and then it comes to a bit of a head when her brother's old friend shows up as a souped-up mob enforcer. One of Peter's classmates is a bit of a thrill-seeker, which manifests first in an attempt to be a superhero, then a photographer like Parker. The fallout from that prompts another of his classmates to go through a rough stretch.
It's a nice mixture, and Busiek's very good at drawing a parallel between whatever problem Spider-Man's facing and Peter's problems. Although the other high school kids are so largely a bunch of jackasses it stretches my suspension of disbelief. Even Flash Thompson can't be that much of a prick.
Olliffe gives Peter the more lanky physique he had in the Ditko years, before he got beefed up by Romita Sr. and later artists. Peter's rocking the suit jacket and tie looks he had in those years, definitely not cutting an impressive figure. Especially since Olliffe captures that slumped shoulder, hangdog look Ditko was so good at. Peter walking away, lost in his own depressing thoughts, hands jammed in his pockets, while the other students talk shit about him.
The series runs about a 50/50 mix between pre-existing villains and new ones. I think Vulture might get the most play of Spidey's classic rouge's gallery, but Busiek brings in oddballs like the original Black Knight and the Scarlet Beetle alongside the classics like Doc Ock and the Sandman. I'm a little disappointed that, other than the Headsman (who popped up in Thunderbolts post-Secret Invasion), none of the new villains got much play outside the book.
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