Top 10 Spiderman Covers of all Time

Comic Book Resources is doing a poll asking readers to submit their lists of the ten best Spiderman covers of all time. It's a celebration of his 50th anniversary this year. Anyway, I submitted a list and thought it'd be fun to post my whole list so I can see it at least if nothing else. If anyone else wants to submit a list here's a link: http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2012/03/01/vote-for-the-50-greatest-spider-man-covers-of-all-time/comment-page-1/#comment-887648 They will begin revealing the winners on March 21st, you have until the 20th to submit a list. For my list I tended to shy away from the really iconic covers. I will spoil the contest right now and tell you that Amazing Fantasy 15 is going to be #1, even though the list is only supposed to be purely for cover and not for impact. People really think they're voting that way, but I just can't agree. If that was Amazing Spiderman 43, nobody would cast many votes for it, you can't convince me otherwise. So there's no Amazing Fantasy 15, or Amazing Spiderman 39 or 50. I recognize they're good covers, but they just don't make my personal top 10, though they'll be in the final list for sure.
Comic Book Resources is doing a poll asking readers to submit their lists of the ten best Spiderman covers of all time. It's a celebration of his 50th anniversary this year. Anyway, I submitted a list and thought it'd be fun to post my whole list so I can see it at least if nothing else. If anyone else wants to submit a list here's a link: http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2012/03/01/vote-for-the-50-greatest-spider-man-covers-of-all-time/comment-page-1/#comment-887648 They will begin revealing the winners on March 21st, you have until the 20th to submit a list. For my list I tended to shy away from the really iconic covers. I will spoil the contest right now and tell you that Amazing Fantasy 15 is going to be #1, even though the list is only supposed to be purely for cover and not for impact. People really think they're voting that way, but I just can't agree. If that was Amazing Spiderman 43, nobody would cast many votes for it, you can't convince me otherwise. So there's no Amazing Fantasy 15, or Amazing Spiderman 39 or 50. I recognize they're good covers, but they just don't make my personal top 10, though they'll be in the final list for sure. Comic Book Resources is doing a poll asking readers to submit their lists of the ten best Spiderman covers of all time. It's a celebration of his 50th anniversary this year. Anyway, I submitted a list and thought it'd be fun to post my whole list so I can see it at least if nothing else. If anyone else wants to submit a list here's a link: http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2012/03/01/vote-for-the-50-greatest-spider-man-covers-of-all-time/comment-page-1/#comment-887648 They will begin revealing the winners on March 21st, you have until the 20th to submit a list. For my list I tended to shy away from the really iconic covers. I will spoil the contest right now and tell you that Amazing Fantasy 15 is going to be #1, even though the list is only supposed to be purely for cover and not for impact. People really think they're voting that way, but I just can't agree. If that was Amazing Spiderman 43, nobody would cast many votes for it, you can't convince me otherwise. So there's no Amazing Fantasy 15, or Amazing Spiderman 39 or 50. I recognize they're good covers, but they just don't make my personal top 10, though they'll be in the final list for sure.

10) A lot of classic covers could have gone here, but I like this one for a lot of reasons. I like the way this exciting new villain the scorpian is attacking, the way Spiderman's body is contoring, and the swimming pool effect created by the cover. This cover is by Steve Ditko, the original Spiderman artist.

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9) Ah, a Mike Zeck cover. Mike Zeck is an 80's artist that I particularily liked, but he never really seemed to hit as big as some of his contemporaries. He's been away from comics for years, I best remember him from Marvel's Secret Wars, and he had a nice Captain America run as well. This cover is great because of the image of Spiderman coming out of the grave yard, it really highlights how awesome the black costume is, if he was in his original costume, it just wouldn't look as cool. The rain coming down, the lightening in the background, the ominous 'here lies Spider-Man' engraved on the tombstone. Wonderfull cover.

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8) Now this cover is an absolute classic, it is widely regarded as an all-time great Spidey cover, which actually hurts it by my estimation. I do like the cover, but I've seen it so many times, I tend to focus more on it's flaws than what it does well. The sparse background, Peter's face and hair, the Goblin's head. Still, I can't deny it's a great cover, despite these flaws. It's a John Romita Sr cover, he's the second Spiderman artist, he took over for Steve Ditko. This is actually his first cover and first issue of Spiderman, because Steve Ditko left the book over an argument with Stan Lee as to what the identity of the Green Goblin should be. Ditko wanted it to be a new character, and Stan wanted it to be Normon Osborne, a character tied to Peter's personal life. Stan of course won, and this issue ushered in the John Romita Sr era (though back then we just called him John Romita)

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7) The only non-Spiderman cover to make my list, of course it's a painted cover by the great Alex Ross. This image immediately became a modern classic. Alex did such a great job of capturing an emotinaly charged moment in Spidey's history: The moment when the Green Goblin, Spidey's greatest enemy, has captured Gwen Stacey, the love of Peter's life. The Goblin's hands around her unconsious throat hint at the fate that soon befalls her.

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6) John Byrne is an 80's legend, he was the artist on the X-Men when they made their move from niche cult following to the best selling comic in the industry. Byrne has been all over the place, having landmark runs on the Fantastic Four , Superman, the Avengers and many others, but Spiderman he spent only a brief time here and there on. This cover is one of his rare efforts. Clearly he enjoyed playing with the blacks and whites of Spiderman and New York City after dark. Only the garrish yellow logo disrupts this masterpiece. The issue itself is absolutely nothing special, but a great cover.

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5) When I first started collecting comics, Todd McFarlane's Spiderman was the hottest thing going. Admittedly it took me a while to warm up to Todd's style, but I eventually came around. A ton of McFarlane covers were considered, but it was ultimately this image of Venom, with his bleeding hand standing over Spiderman. I remember this issue very well from when I first bought it, reading it in Florida in a car trip to a camp site with my dad and my boy scout troup. I remember htis cover actually made me scared for Spiderman, which is really the most you can ask for from a cover.

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4) Eric Larson followed Todd McFarlane on every book he ever did for Marvel. Larson was a good artist but never considered McFarlane's equal, though his art did improve drastically from his intial attempts on the title. It's a little surprising that a Larson cover gets a higher place on my list than any McFarlane cover, and it was close, but Venom really came into his own under Larson. In the above image you can see he has a much cleaner look; essentially Spiderman with teeth. Larson added the tongue and the drool that we've come to associate with Venom. It's a little ironic that Venom achieved the height of his popularity thanks to Larson, but Larson famously hated the character.

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3) Another painted cover, this one by Ron Frenz. The building is coming down in flames, and at the center of it all stands the Hobgoblin, his face properly demon-like, Spiderman laying crumpled at his feet, defeated.

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2) Two Venom covers are followed up with two hobgoblin covers. It's fitting, really, Spiderman has always been defined by his great rogues gallery. It's no coincidence that they are featured prominently in some of his best covers. This issue has the first appearance of the Hobgoblin. He came out of nowhere, readers had no idea who this was, they had only this incredible image of this new villain ripping Spidey's uniform in half. This is a very early cover by John Romita Jr. JRJR is still very active in the comics business, he never really left Marvel and is currently drawing an Avengers serie, and his style now looks completely different from this.

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1) Another issue that doen't have a lot of significance story-wise, but is still a great cover. This is another cover by John Romita Sr, by this time he has had many years drawing Spiderman under his belt. He perfectly captures Spidey's sense of anguish, the corpse on the floor is very striking, the reflection of Spidey's back in the mirror seems to add to the sense of loss. I could stare at this cover for hours.