the plot: Amazing Fantasy #15 redux. In case you didn't know, Marvel attempted a sort of "Ultimate" styler revamp of Spidey's origin a few years back, written, penciled and inked by famed artist John Byrne. In the new version Peter was bitten by a radioactive Spider following an explosion during a botched experiment by Otto Octavius, who in the process became Dr. Octopus. The rest of the origin basically followed AF #15, with slight deviation.

This series was met with wide critical distain, from both fans and comic related press (Wizard rated it as a D-, and even current Editor in chief doesn't have a great deal or fondness for it.) Unlike Byrne's Man of Steel mini-series that redid Superman's history from stratch, Chapter One simply retconned certain events, while the current stories continued. Chapter One appears to have been written off, however, as even Byrne's co-creator on the core Spider-Man titles, Howard Mackie, seems to have gone back to the core origins, as have current writers Paul Jenkins and J. Michael Straczynski.

Chapter One seems to be looked back upon as one big "what if?" storyline, still for new fans it provided a foot in the door, and a decent introduction to the Spider-Man mythos.

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