1-4. Essential Spider-Man Vols. 1-4Stan Lee's self-hyped "Marvel Age Of Comics" began with the publication of Fantastic Four #1, but it didn't really get its pizzazz until Lee and artist Steve Ditko created teenage nerd Peter Parker and his alter ego, the more confident and charismatic Spider-Man. While Lee milked the high-school soap opera and indulged his passion for slangy dialogue, Ditko created strikingly spare and often cartoony designs for Spider-Man's gallery of grotesque villains. The collaborators got up to speed quick in the 20-odd issues reprinted in Essential Spider-Man Vol. 1, and by the period represented in the second volume, they'd mastered the series' pace and tone, balancing white-knuckle action with slow-burning serialized adventures. Ditko was long gone by the time Spider-Man swung his way into the late '60s, in the stories reprinted in volumes 3 and 4, but those collections are almost as vital for the way they show Lee and artist John Romita engaging directly with their growing college audience, throwing in hipster references and amping up the fun. Re-reading all four volumes–the most essential of the bargain-priced, black-and-white Marvel Essentials book series–is like watching a pop-culture revolution unfold, month by month.