Spider-Man...The Birth of the SpartanNerd

What is my origin story?

Here goes!  My nerd life officially began with the purchase of a Value Pack of marvel comics at
Wal-Mart, in about....1990ish.  (Also....Wal-Mart was sort of new in Spartanburg at this time, on trivia buffs and historians!)

If you have been reading my blog, and some people have been apparently, (I am very grateful!), then in my post about "How I see comics..." I mention some of my history with the medium.  So here is a more detailed story, and how Spider-Man #6 and #7 were the official birth of the SpartanNerd!

1.  My first comics were without a doubt, the Mini-Comics that came with Masters of the Universe figures.  I was three or four years old at this point.

2.  I stumbled across the Sunday Funnies page at some point around six or seven years old.  It became a sort of ritual to read them every Sunday.  I remember reading "The Phantom," as my first "serious" taste of comics, but to this day I can't remember a single story.  All I remember was his swag.

3.  At about eight or nine years old, I got some collected editions of Masters of the Universe comics, and Transformers comics.  Oh if I still had these today!  But I remember them!  The He-Man stuff featured some nasty vine creatures.  To this day I have not seen this story archived or discussed on the internet.  The Transformers book had what was apparently the Marvel origins story of the Transformers...This was also my first Spider-Man book....It featured Spidey in the black costume, Pre-Venom!  So this was that brief stint of time between Secret Wars and Venom.  (I know this now....Back then I had no clue!)  Spidey mentions that the costume is a "cinch," and that all he has to do is think about becoming Spider-Man in order to change.  I'm sure this was purposely reviewed so that non-comics regulars like me at the time might understand why he was in a black costume, and some of the powers it had.

4.  Knowing that I was trying to get into reading comics, my uncle got me some for Christmas at around the age of 8 or 9 as well.  I read them a few times, then my mom caught me.  They were "WWIII."  Highly gory and lots of foul language.  She put those things in the garbage!  Sorry, Uncle!
This was my first awareness that not only kids were out there reading comics.

5.  So at around 12 years old I got this value pack of Spider-Man books.  This was a collection of five random books.  I'm pretty sure one of them was Wolverine, one of them was ghost rider, and then there were the real gems....Spider-Man #6 and #7.  There was also an re-print of a vintage crossover book that featured both Spider-Man and Ghost-Rider.  (You see, there was some rhyme and reason to this little packet!)

6.  I became a full blown comics addict, buying these value packs every time I could go to Wal-Mart, or off newstands when I could find them, eventually amassing a few hundred books. Eventually my interest waned a little and I sold them off to the Tangled Web for gas money, (which was a new store at the time.)

7.  Spurts of interest in comics would come and go.  I got all into "The Death of Superman," and "Reign of the Supermen."  I was allergic to the Spider-Man clone saga.  But I read it anyway, at least some of it.

8.  And now I am an old SpartanNerd who subscribes to lots of comics.  But I weigh every single comic I read against my two favorite comics, Spider-Man #6 and Spider-Man #7, either conciously or subconsciously.  To me, these are the pinnacle of the medium!

My next entry will be a review of why these two are so special to me!

"Gobbling like a Hobgoblin!"