John Romita's first year as penciller on Spider-Man (issues #39-50) had seen one of the most remarkable character makeovers certainly Marvel's history up to that point. While Spider-Man remained much the same Peter Parker was transformed from Steve Ditko's portrayal as a nerdy, unpopular outsider into one of the in-crowd albeit always kept apart from his friends and family by the "great responsibility" of being Spidey.

Volume 6 is this Masterworks series gives us nearly all of Romita's second year at the drawing board and as a bonus we get an intro by the Jazzy one himself which is a far more informative exercise than Stan Lee's intros which are little more than rehashes of his hype-laden "Soapboxes" which appeared monthly back in the day.

When I was reading Spider-Man back in the late 60s and early 70s I couldn't put my finger on what made this mag a cut above the rest. The Fantastic Four were fantastic all right and The Avengers and Daredevil could dazzle with their exploits but Spidey's monthly installments had something extra.

Reading these classic stories now it's obvious of course: no other Marvel title of the era so engaged the reader emotionally in the lives of its characters. While the joke at the time was that Spidey was lapsing into soap opera between the fight scenes, the truth was that Romita and Lee were making the most their 'everyman' superhero and gathering a strong supporting cast around him. Mary-Jane Watson the swinging airhead, Gwen Stacy the deeper, stronger and more settled love interest, Harry Osborne the sometimes cranky but faithful friend and Flash Thompson growing up fast after being drafted into the Army.

And that's just the gang. Add Gwen's canny father Capt George Stacy (NYPD retd.) and Joe Robertson as foils to J Jonah Jameson's usual ranting and raving, along with Aunt May and Anna Watson and the ingredients are right there to be taken advantage of. During the course of the 11 issues contained herein each of these characters - plus John Jameson and Frederick Foswell - plays a crucial role in progressing the increasingly complex and ambitious plots.

With such a strong ensemble cast and Romita and Lee at the peak of their powers these stories hardly need baddies but we get the best: The Kingpin and Dr Octopus are involved in almost this entire volume but there's still room for the return of one of Ditko's most bizarre creations, The Spider Slayer.

Amidst the greatness of the monthly title, the 4th Spider-Man annual struggles to keep pace. As with the previous year, the story is gimmicky and falls outside of the strong plot continuity of the rest of the stories. With 11 stone cold classics on offer though I can forgive this one throwaway.

Don Heck, one of Marvel's most distinctive stylists at the time, finishes the penciling work over Romita's layouts for several issues but the familiar Romita look remains and Spidey's greatest highs would continue past issue 61. ( )