Steve Ditko was magnificent but Ditko was also a little strange, his hero all bones, sharp angles and weirdness. You could believe this was a guy J Jonah Jameson could easily get away with painting as a bad guy. But the thing with strange is that it can put people off. Enter John Romita Snr.

This collection’s from the point at which Romita Snr found his groove with Spider-Man, fleshing him out so that he looked a little more conventional, sanding the slightly strange edge off that attracted the kids in the first place and offered a reason to keep reading when endless fights got dull. Spidey’s far more conventionally heroic in this collection, which perhaps plays a little against him being the wish-fulfilment nerd outcast of Ditko’s version. The wisecracks seem to be more an attempt to play on the minds of the villains rather than pure bravado, even though the discrepancy between thought and speech often remains. You can argue that the thought bubble falling out of fashion is a sign of comics becoming more sophisticated but there’s a certain something lost with it, the touching vulnerability even in battle. On the other hand you can buy this version kicking seven bells out of the likes of Kraven and the Vulture far more easily and it makes the rest of what Romita brings far easier to accept.

Ditko himself was clearly far more interested in the Nietzchean superheroics than the background character stuff; in an ordinary individual fighting back where conventional laws and means are inadequate. Romita’s quite the opposite, if anything this is where the actual character work Lee and Ditko had wound into the DNA of the strip pays off. Drawing heavily on the romance comics he’d worked on, Romita’s Spider-Man puts far more prominence on Peter Parker’s ordinary life (one ‘next time’ trailer promises ‘Peter Parker’s pad!’ rather than any supervillain thrills). There’s a certain amount of development Peter’s ordinary life (moving out of his aunt’s, having a job offer) but for the most part the character relationships remain in stasis, which can irritate when for seven issues Mary Jane and Gwen appear to be simply trying to impress without him noticing them. I know, having been a teenage boy, that they can be ignorant but over the months what begins as amusing ends up a touch irritating. What’s fascinating though is the story arc woven in here, little touches of Peter doubting whether being Spider-Man is worthwhile or not. It culminates in issue 50, which gives the title to this collection, where he gives up his mask and webbing. Modern comics insist on big events for significantly numbered books so for issue 50 to be a character piece which quietly restates Spider-Man’s motivations is a pleasant, nostalgic thrill. He encounters no supervillains (Kingpin makes an appearance at the edge of the story) and only foils minor crime. Slang and developing techniques may have aged the presentation but it’s a small reminder of what mainstream superhero comics have largely lost. In that sense this is a well-chosen period piece that’s a perfect example of what Romita brought to the Marvel universe. ( )