I'm just starting to get into comics and would like to buy a spider-man graphic novel however I'm not sure which I should buy -

Either 'Amazing Spider-man Ultimate Collection Book 1', 'Amazing Spider-man: Spider Island' or 'Marvel Platinum: Definitive Spider-man'?

Spider Island sounds a really interesting story however I'm not sure if I should start from the start of Amazing Spider-man, or read the so called best stories in Definitive Spider-man?

Ultimate Collection Book would be your best bet.

@Superguy0009e said:

Ultimate Collection Book would be your best bet.

I was just checking the prices and it seems like the cheapest I can get that is around £20, whereas I can get Spider Island at about £12...

Do I need any background knowledge for Spider Island? (I obviously know the origins and have a basic knowledge of the character)

@ThePartridge: You can follow Spider Island with no extra knowledge, however to truly enjoy it I recommend reading Big Time and Matters of Life and Death first. All of Slott's run has been great

@r3d_rob1nsaid:

@ThePartridge: You can follow Spider Island with no extra knowledge, however to truly enjoy it I recommend reading Big Time and Matters of Life and Death first. All of Slott's run has been great

Thanks, I think I'm going to go with 'Spider Island' as it seems to have lots of appearances of other characters, and as I'm new to it all I would like to see them all in action. I might read Matters of Life and Death afterwards - it doesn't have to be read chronologically right?

@ThePartridge: Things happen to Spidey in "Life and Death" that affect him in Spider-Island. You should have no trouble following the plot though, and you can always get filled in on the wiki here if you have questions

At some point I would give the first volume of Ultimate Spider-man a go, it's a really great series and probably the definitive Spider-man book in my eyes!

Thanks for the advice guys, received Spider Island today and read it all in one day, it was great :)