Rating this album with 3 stars would break the heart of 7-8 year old me :( This Todd McFarlene's run defined Spider-man for me (this + Torment). I was completely captivated by his imagery - dynamic poses, weirdly shaped faces, and amazing details. It has changed how Spider-man was drawn forever. After all these years, the art still looks great but the rest is not as impressive.

The first part of this album, Inferno crossover, illustrated by McFarlane takes my nostalgia score to the max. By itself, it deserves 4 stars and finishes with the 2nd coming of Venom which was one of my favorite issues. The only difference is that in the early 90. Poland it was printed on the cheapest paper and all colors looked like different shades of gray ;) Here, the colors are crisp and vibrant, making it all look phenomenal. The first ~200 pages were pure joy for me, bringing me back to the best moments of my childhood. The only problem is that the context of the whole Inferno is missing, as it was more X-men storyline than Spidey, so there is no explanation nor conclusion to the strange events happening in NYC.

The next part of the album consists of random stories out of context + Silver Sable storyline, which is repetitive and rather anticlimactic. Even though the art is mostly solid here, I can't connect with the story. There is almost no Peter Parker here and this makes half of the protagonist missing. This brings my final score down.

This collection ends with the graphical novel Parallel Lives, released in Poland as the first Spider-man special issue. Here, it doesn't feel so remarkable. It's just a retelling of an origin story we already know... because there is a second one earlier on in this album. It's not bad, not great either, but somehow IMHO doesn't fit very well with the rest.

The first half of this book is solid, the second one is "meh". It made me travel 30 years back in time and it was an amazing journey. However, I don't feel like doing it again anytime soon. It's not a material that stands on its own, even though I respect McFarlane's illustrations a lot. ( )