As an ongoing title, “Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man” is the most continuity-laden of Zdarsky’s Spider-Man stories, so it has the highest barrier of entry to a new reader. Case-in-point: the confusing numbering. The book starts to use its “legacy” numbering on its seventh issue, counting back all the way from “Spectacular Spider-Man” stories first published in the 1970s.
It’s also drawn by a succession of different artists, which has its ups (you can experience different art styles in a single series) and downs (a lack of aesthetic consistency). However, that’s not to say it’s a bad comic book.
Highlights include issue #6 “My Dinner With Jonah” (drawn by Michael Walsh), where Spider-Man agrees to an interview with muckraker J. Jonah Jameson and the two men bare their souls. The final issue of the run, “Finale” (drawn by Zdarsky himself), is a film student interviewing New Yorkers about their thoughts on Spider-Man for a documentary. Zdarsky draws on his journalism background for the two most emotional chapters of his run.
For a more action-oriented story, issues #301-303 comprise “Amazing Fantasy” (titled after the comic Spider-Man debuted in). Peter travels back in time to his early days as Spider-Man — artist Joe Quinones opts for a simpler art style to reflect the bygone era of the story’s setting.