Spider-Man: Chapter One
![[1]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:AmazingFantasy15.jpg){kind=link}
Spider-Man: Chapter One is the name of a Comic Book miniseries starring Spider-Man published by Marvel Comics for 13 issues (#1-12, and a #0 between #'s 6 and 7) from December 1998, to October, 1999.
The entire series was written and drawn by John Byrne. In some ways it can be seen as an attempt to repeat his previous success with Superman in the 1986 miniseries Man of Steel. In a fashion similar to that previous series Chapter One was an attempt to revive interest in the Spider-Man character by revamping aspects of his backstory.
The stories in the series were retcons; they retold Spider-Man's earliest adventures and changed some key aspects, with the editors of the time declaring that the new versions had supplanted the original stories as official Spider-Man canon.
An example of the changes introduced was the tying of the origin of Doctor Octopus to that of Spider-Man.
The comic was controversial. Some fans objected to Byrne's perceived tampering with the classic Spider-Man stories produced by his creators Stan Lee and Steve Ditko and complained that the original 1960s stories did not require any updating at all.
The series also disregarded the then recently finished Untold Tales of Spider-Man series, rendering its stories non-canonical. In some ways similar to Chapter One, Untold Tales also featured stories from Spider-Man's early career, but instead of replacing the original comics they added to them, telling stories which occurred at the same time. Untold Tales was popular with many of the same fans who criticised Byrne's miniseries.
However Chapter One was a modest sales success and it finished out its run as planned, even adding an #0 in April, 1999 between #6 and 7.
Since Byrne left the Spider-Man titles, his successors have shyed away from making any references to the miniseries, and it is now commonly assumed that the original stories have regained their canonical status.
A postscript of sorts to the series can be found in the success of the Ultimate Spider-Man series Marvel launched a year later in 2000. Yet another attempt to retell Spider-Man's origins, the newer series sidestepped the canon/non canon continuity question by setting its stories in an entirely new universe. Ultimate Spider-Man by Bill Jemas, Brian Bendis and Mark Bagley was a critical and sales success which continues to be published today.
Yet another retelling of early Spider-Man stories came in 2004 with the launch of Marvel Age Spider-Man, (later retitled Marvel Adventures Spider-Man). This title, which is aimed at younger readers, also retells many of Lee and Ditko's stories (as Chapter One did), though the series is clearly meant to be set outside mainstream Marvel continuity.