J. Michael Straczynski takes on Amazing Spider-Man and a new era unfolds as he kicks off his run with a story that will forever change the way Peter Parker looks at himself—and his ever-amazing alter ego! JMS took over the writing for Amazing Spider-Man starting with issue #30 (or issue #471 for those keeping track at home). It is one of the hotest comic series out there so don't miss out!

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	UPDATED:	7.13.2003
JMS plays around in the Spider-Man universe ... you know it has got to be good! Seems that a lot of people think so because this is selling out left and right. This page starts with the first issue written by JMS until issue #39.
	UPDATED:	7.13.2003
JMS' contract was confirmed for at least a year and he has been cranking these puppies out about every three weeks. This page comprises issues #40-49.
	UPDATED:	11.30.2003
JMS' Amazing Spider-Man is steaming ahead and it looks like he is on board with an exclusive contract with Marvel. This page comprises issues #50-59.
	UPDATED:	12.26.2003
For some reason, Marvel decided to number the issues the old fashioned way after issue #500 (or #59) so things may get a little confusing from now on. This page comprises issues #60-69 (or #501 to 510).
	UPDATED:	11.30.2003
Marvel doesn't seem to issue many bonus issues but they have released a few collected editions that include other Spider-Man titles as well as a number of trade paperbacks that collect the Amazing run. So far, there have been four trade paperbacks released that collect all the issues published which include Issues #30-35, Issues #36-39, Issues #40-45, Issues #46-50 and Issues #51-58.

JMS Speaks about Amazing Spider-Man

JMS AT RASTB5M SAID: MAR.13.2001 I hope that what I do will be satisfactory to the readers. It's certainly my intent, and it springs from one single desire: to do right by Peter, and by Spider-Man. AUG.13.2002 I was a huge Spidey fan for many years, starting with his first appearance right up through about maybe five, six years ago when it wandered away (for my tastes anyway, ymmv) from what I was interested in following. What I tend to do is check with Axel to find out what's current to make sure I don't step on anything significant (though there's so much out there that it's nigh impossible not to step on *something*). For instance, when I did the Doc Ock story out now, I asked Axel for the latest on the doc, what he did and didn't know, what his relation was currently if any with Aunt May, and so on. He checked it out at his end, and gave me the skinny. Which is what a good editor does. The problem with being strict on continuity is that there's so much that has been done in and around the character, for so many years, that it begins to wall you in dramatically. So my take on this is that you have to be mindful of the major themes and major stories and broad strokes of the character's history. They are there and they work for a *reason*. But in the small strokes, you need to have some measure of flexibility. What art is about -- and I'm going to call comics art because I've always believed that's what they are -- is not regurgitation of facts; it's about interpretation. In his plays, Shakespeare took liberty with stories and histories that preceded him, bending them to the story he wanted to tell. Similarly, in present, you'll often see many of his plays presented in modern dress, or with a female in the lead role of Hamlet; you look at what's there and re-interpret things to see how they look when you turn the mirror just a bit to one side. Otherwise, if you don't have this freedom, you may as well have one of those computer programs where you input the names, histories, and powers of the various Spidey characters, input plot complications, and let it keep regurgitating elements of the same formula, over and over. Or you turn the book over to supporting characters, which I think is what happened over the last few years. I think you have to be mindful and respectful of continuity; but a writer's *job* is to reinterpret the world, and the past, in new and interesting ways. If you ain't doing that, you ain't doing the job.

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