After about a ten year absence from the world of the web-slinger, I picked this up in 2001...Oh, my God! You never will want it to end. It's a "modernization and revamp" of Peter Parker's genesis as the Amazing Spider-Man. It is a little bit different from the original Stan Lee stories (and the movie), but it's very well done. I highly recomend you snag all three volumes of this and V.1 & 2 of the Essential Spider-Man, if you're new to the world of Spider-Man. But this is a great place to start.