Marvel Comics 2017
Written by Chip Zdarsky
Illustrated by Adam Kubert
Coloured by Jordie Bellaire
Lettered by VC’s Travis Lanham
Last issue while stopping a criminal in the sreet Spidey met up with Ant-Man who introduced him to Mason. Mason’s the goog guy version of his brother the Fixer and helped Spidey fix his webshooters. While he was there he also got a bead on the unhackable Stark Phone that was hacked and had a bunch of apps for bad guys on it. This led him to the home of Ironheart. Oh yeah and Johnny and Teresa were at Peter’s apt waiting for him.
So Peter’s silliness and his penchant for witty banter has made him a target for those with hoity toity attitudes like Tony Stark. Yeah well we all can’t be womanizing drunks who are that full of ourselves now can we? Even if it is just a Tony Stark A.I. based on his real personality it comes across like you want to slap him. But okay enough about that it is kind of nice to see Spidey being his usual flippant self, which is a defense mechanism he has used his entire life as he’s never felt worthy of the great power and great responsibility.
While I wasn’t sure last issue if I was going to like this I do like Chip and what he’s capable of. So naturally I’d be sticking around through the first arc to see how it goes. This is a marked improvement for me and I now see where he’s going with the character, well to some degree in my own mind. So yeah i’m here i’ll be sticking around too because I like the characterisation, the way we see his defense mechanisms come into play, his bestie Johnny and his well non-sister Teresa being here too. A possible new love interest or at least someone to reintroduce him to the dating pool is a welcome sight as well.
I love Adam’s work on the interiors here. Seeing Ironheart in the armour that makes her look like a man is fantastic. Spidey’s just perfectly represented here and he’s able to capture that sense of movement and motion that makes him who he is. The use of page layouts through their angles and perspective are done so very well and the backgrounds in play make the whole story seem fuller to me.
I never realised how insular Spidey’s world was before this. I like the direction this seems to be taking and it’s got hella potential to mix what was him at the start with him now in ways that don’t need to make him dark, brooding or overly angsty. Just the guy in tights with the quick remarks and the offbeat sense of humour doing his best to save the day.
Not sound flippant or trite but there’s a serious fun happening here that’s been missing. Yeah the story has a serious nature to it but the fun is back in the character, his personality and his interactions with others. It’s not stupid fun it’s serious fun and I have to say it’s about time that we started having fun reading Spider-Man again it really feels like it’s almost back to basics here.