The Definitive Chronological List Of Every Spider-Man Comic Book

Say you’re up late one night and you decide you want to read every Spider-Man comic book ever published but only if you can do so in chronological order.  Not publication order, mind you, but in an order that has all 2,000+ issues make sense as a single story.  Because this is what you do when you’re up late.  Don’t blame me.

Before today you had two options.  First, you could find some online reading orders but they can be lacking so that option is out.  Second, you could read every issue and then try to put them in order as you go but that defeats the purpose of reading them in order.

As of today, you have a third option.

One of the secret projects I’ve been working on for Gabbing Geek has been this definitive Spider-Man reading chronology. The goal is to incorporate as many canonical appearances as possible in an order that someone reading Spider-Man for the first time could follow.  Interested?  Find out more after the break.

In creating a definitive list of Spider-Man appearances some choices have to be made.  Like what to include and what not to include.  Because there’s a difference between being useful and just being ludicrous.

So what isn’t included?  First up: cameos.  While cameos can be interesting, I didn’t want to clutter up the chronology with issues where Spider-Man appears in one panel stealing a piece of cake.

Did you think I made that up?

But there are exceptions to every rule and in this case if there’s a cameo that makes sense, I will include it in the list.  It has to have more substance than pie theft.  Maybe cake vandalism.  Some of these cameos are actually important enough to note so I also have a series of “Spiders, Spiders Everywhere” posts which call out some of the best Spider-Man cameos.

Most cameos are not on the list but one thing I chose to include are Spider-Man featured What If? issues. I find the What If? issues interesting and I tried to slot them in a place where they made sense. If you don’t care about What If? stories then you could always skip them.

Some other things to bear in mind when considering this list:

One of the first things you learn when trying to complete a project such as this is that it is impossible (‘natch). I’m one of those people that wants everything to fit perfectly into a chronological order like pieces of a puzzle, but this can never be done. Especially when you get into the 90’s when Spidey is appearing in like 300 books a month and in the new millennium when he is joining numerous Avengers teams and the Fantastic Four. As many of these books have different writers and editors, it is not hard to imagine they don’t keep everything straight.  (Or even really attempt to for the most part.)  So sometimes you have to make a best guess, or accept the fact that there is no way it is going to make sense and just let it go. Trust me, I struggle with that. 🙂

The other thing that makes it impossible is guaranteeing every appearance is included.  I am constantly coming across new guest appearances and the like to include.  I will update the chronology to fill in oversights as needed.  Also, be sure to leave a comment if you find something that you think has been overlooked or is incorrect.

I’ve also tried not to slice and dice issues so that you have to read a page from book X then some from book Y then back to X, etc. It happens in a few instances, or I note where it could happen. I value my sanity too much to attempt that.

The chronology will have two components.  First, the raw list of issues beginning with Spider-Man’s first appearance in Amazing Fantasy 15.  Secondly, as I update the list I will do a separate post with my continuity notes that people may or may not care about, but that allowed me to place an issue as accurately as possible. Often times it can be something quite silly like “this issue has to take place after issue X because MJ is wearing a new cool hat”.  Keeping the lists and updates separate will help from making the list too bloated, but also the annotated list is rife with spoilers for future issues. Does anyone really care about spoilers for comics that came out potentially 50 years ago? Probably not. But I tried to create this as if someone was completely new to Spider-Man (i.e. Jenny) and was starting with a clean slate from the beginning.  Yes, this rule gets broken as well.

Without much further ado…the list…

Variant Steve Ditko Amazing Fantasy 15 cover.

1. Amazing Fantasy 15 [Spider-Man story only]
2. Spider-Man – Mythos 01
3. Spectacular Spider-Man Magazine 01 [Story 2]
4. Amazing Spider-Man Family 01 [Story 1]
5. Amazing Spider-Man Family 03 [Story 1]
6. Amazing Fantasy 16
7. Amazing Fantasy 17
8. Amazing Fantasy 18
9. Amazing Spider-Man 001
10. Fantastic Four Annual 01 [Spider-Man story only]
11. What If? – V1 – 007 – Someone Else Had Been Bitten By The Radioactive Spider
12. Amazing Spider-Man 002
13. Peter Parker Spider-Man Annual 2001
14. Amazing Spider-Man 003
15. Amazing Spider-Man 004
16. Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Annual [Story 1]
17. Amazing Spider-Man 005
18. Strange Tales Annual 02 [Spider-Man story only]
19. Amazing Spider-Man 006
20. What If? – V2 – 072 – Spider-Man Became A Murderer
21. Untold Tales of Spider-Man 01
22. Untold Tales of Spider-Man 02
23. Amazing Spider-Man 007
24. Strange Tales 115 [Spider-Man story only]
25. Untold Tales of Spider-Man 03
26. Amazing Spider-Man 008 [Story 1]
27. Untold Tales of Spider-Man 04
28. Amazing Spider-Man 009
29. What If? – V2 – 076 – Peter Parker Had To Destroy Spider-Man
30. Amazing Spider-Man 010 [Pages 1 – 5]
31. Untold Tales of Spider-Man 05
32. Untold Tales of Spider-Man 06
33. Untold Tales of Spider-Man 07
34. Amazing Spider-Man 010 [Pages 6 – 22]
35. What If? – V1 – 001 – Spider-Man Joined the Fantastic Four
36. Untold Tales of Spider-Man 08
37. Untold Tales of Spider-Man 09
38. Amazing Spider-Man 011
39. Amazing Spider-Man 012 [Pages 1 – 3]
40. Untold Tales of Spider-Man 10
41. Amazing Spider-Man 012 [Pages 4 – 22]
42. Untold Tales of Spider-Man 11
43. Untold Tales of Spider-Man 12
44. Untold Tales of Spider-Man 13
45. Amazing Spider-Man 013
46. Spider-Man – Human Torch 01
47. Untold Tales of Spider-Man 14
48. Amazing Spider-Man 014
49. Untold Tales of Spider-Man 15
50. Untold Tales of Spider-Man 16
51. Tales to Astonish 057 [Spider-Man story only]
52. Amazing Spider-Man 015
53. Sensational Spider-Man Annual 1996
54. Untold Tales of Spider-Man 17
55. Amazing Spider-Man 016
56. Untold Tales of Spider-Man 18
57. Amazing Spider-Man Annual 001
58. Untold Tales of Spider-Man – Strange Encounter
59. Untold Tales of Spider-Man 19
60. Amazing Spider-Man 017
61. Amazing Spider-Man 018 [Pages 1 – 2]
62. Untold Tales of Spider-Man 20
63. Untold Tales of Spider-Man 21
64. Amazing Spider-Man 018 [Pages 3 – 22]
65. Untold Tales of Spider-Man 22
66. Amazing Spider-Man 019
67. Amazing Spider-Man 020
68. Untold Tales of Spider-man 23
69. Avengers 011
70. Amazing Spider-Man 021
71. Amazing Spider-Man 008 [Story 2]
72. Untold Tales of Spider-Man Annual 1996
73. Amazing Spider-Man 022
74. Untold Tales of Spider-Man 24
75. Amazing Spider-Man 023
76. Untold Tales of Spider-Man 25
77. What If? – V1 – 019 – Spider-Man Had Never Become A Crimefighter
78. Amazing Spider-Man 024
79. Amazing Spider-Man 025
80. What If? – V2 – 082 – J. Jonah Jameson Adopted Spider-Man
81. Webspinners Tales of Spider-Man 07
82. Webspinners Tales of Spider-Man 08
83. Webspinners Tales of Spider-Man 09
84. Amazing Spider-Man 026
85. Amazing Spider-Man 027
86. Amazing Spider-Man 028
87. Amazing Spider-Man Annual 002
88. Amazing Spider-Man 029
89. Amazing Spider-Man 030
90. Amazing Spider-Man 031
91. Amazing Spider-Man 032
92. Amazing Spider-Man 033
93. Spider-Man – Fantastic Four 01
94. Amazing Spider-Man 034
95. Amazing Spider-Man 035
96. Amazing Spider-Man 036
97. Amazing Spider-Man 037
98. Daredevil 016
99. Daredevil 017
100. Amazing Spider-Man 038
101. Amazing Spider-Man 039
102. Amazing Spider-Man 040
103. Amazing Spider-Man 041
104. Amazing Spider-Man 042
105. What If? – V1 – 046 – Spider-Man’s Uncle Ben Had Lived
106. Amazing Spider-Man 043
107. What If? – Aunt May Had Died Instead Of Uncle Ben
108. Amazing Spider-Man Annual 003
109. X-Men 027
110. Amazing Spider-Man 044
111. Amazing Spider-Man 045
112. Amazing Spider-Man 046
113. Amazing Spider-Man 047
114. Daredevil 027
115. Amazing Spider-Man 048
116. Amazing Spider-Man 049
117. Amazing Spider-Man 050

 

Be on the lookout for further updates coming soon.  And you will always be able to find the Complete Chronology in it’s permanent home under Big Projects in the menu under the Gabbing Geek banner.