Graphic Novel
Pencils: John Romita, Jr. Inks: Scott Hanna
Marvel Comics -- tpb
New York -- ©2001 -- 149pp
ISBN: 0-7851-0806-8
Spiderman faces his strongest, most impressive foe ever and uses brains rather than brawn to defeat his enemy.
I checked this out from my library because it helps me get my comic book "fix" to read an occassional graphic novel. My first reaction is that I am so incredibly under-impressed with the "style" of art in comic books/graphic novels today. I don't know if this style has been defined in any of the comic-related media, but I think of it as "comic book dwarfism" -- body parts, particularly heads, often larger than the rest of the body. While the coloring and inking might be better than that from the comics of the 70's-80's, they actually look less realistic to me.
Then there is the story. While moderately well-told, I couldn't help scoffing at the notion of yet ANOTHER foe, bigger, badder, stronger than anything Spidey has ever faced. How often can we keep coming up with new villains that are more villainous than anything before? The "twist" was that Spidey had to use his brains to defeat this one, and not his might. But what the heck was up with the other super freak? Where did he come from? Why did he die in such a pathetic manner?
Over-all pretty wimpy.
2 comments:
While I hardly think JMS needs me to defend him, and I don't intend to do so, I thought I'd comment on this little review. I find JMS' comics work to be very hit-and-miss and I quit getting Spider-man a few months back. I'm not sure which story this refers to since I read the monthly book and I don't recall which issues this might collect.
But are you really surprised at the idea of a "bigger, badder, stronger" villain? That's a pretty common recurring theme in comics, or probably in any heroic fiction. What would be the point of a story in which Spidey beats up on some jaywalkers? (Wait a minute; is this the Morlon story you're talking about?)
What really stood out to me was your reference to a "style of art in comic books today." While I totally understand what you're referring to, I don't think you can make such a generalized comment about "comics today." Yeah, Romita Jr. has a particular style like that, and there are others as well, there's so much more variety to comic book art styles today than there was in the 70s or 80s. And you know you can trust me on this, since I read about 60-70 new comics a month.
I make that generalized comment about "comics today" not based solely on this graphic novel, but having had a brief foray back in to comic-dom this past year.
I notice you didn't offer any titles to contradict my assessment.
I realize that there is a greater selection of titles than there was back in the 1970's and 80's, when I was reading comics, but from what I have looked through in the stores, and from what I have purchased, I am not impressed with the art. I am not impressed with the art that seems to have been influenced by the television animation -- sharp, angular features. Nor do I care for the style of over-emphasized features that I feel has also been prominent. Are there some that have a more realistic, stnadard feel? Probably. But I don't sense that they are common.
As to the big, badder bad guy syndrome...perhaps that's a reason I'm not a big comic book reader any more. Hard to keep my interest with the same story told in new ways.
Actually, I don't feel that's too common. I really like the new story lines out there in some of those titles. This one just happened to suck.
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