Marvel Comics 2017
Written by Chip Zdarsky
Illustrated by Adam Kubert
Coloured by Jordie Bellaire
Lettered by VC’s Travis Lanham
Spider-Man and the Human Torch are following a trail of terrifying tech, and the trail takes them to… WILSON FISK?! The former Kingpin of Crime is still quite a force to be reckoned with…but what is HIS connection to all this?
This is why I give a series six issues as a general rule of thumb. That gives me time to truly evaluate a series properly. Let’s face it it’s also got Chip and Adam and they are making one hell of a great team here. I was wary after the first issue why we needed another Spider-Man title but now it’s issue three and the characterisation is settling in nicely and the story has become that mixture of fun and serious that it really needs to be. So what i’m saying is at issue three i’m officially on board with this series and consider myself a fan.
Opening up with a kind of hip and modern J. Jonah was an interesting choice. I mean a laptop and that medicine ball to sit on there’s something about that that I just can’t help but like. We also see him as determined as ever in his crusade against Spider-Man which is perfect to me. That’s a staple plot point that should never go out of style, or fashion because it’s so ingrained as a part of his history and that familiarity makes this more accessible.
I’ll be the first to admit I never read the arc with Teresa so this is my introduction to her. That she and Peter may not be blood but do consider each other siblings is great. I like this because it does add another factor to Peter’s life and cast of supporting characters. Girlfriends aside he needs someone like her in his life on the regular. Johnny is great, more so since the FF are in limbo, and his relationship with Peter is utterly on point through Chip’s gaze. All the dialogue and interaction that we see here from every character is so well done and has that feel of being utterly real and natural in nature.
Adam has found a place where he’s comfortable with this book already. The use of the page layouts are great, his use of angles and perspective are interesting and show off his eye for storytelling. The utilisation of backgrounds here are used extremely well to give us the bigger picture. Plus his attention to detail here is phenomenal and I love that we get from facial expressions to the backgrounds to the gadgets every inch of this is well conceived.
I’ve been a fan of Chip’s for a while now and he continues to show me his growth and evolution as a writer and I just think so much highly of him with each new project. The structure of this story is superb and the ebb & flow of the “story” part and the action is extremely well done. The way plot points are introduced and revelations are revealed make for some extremely interesting and tense moments. There’s high intrigue here as well as the whole fighting and detective work trying to track down the source of the phones.
There’s a reason this is call The Spectacular Spider-Man because the series is well Spectacularly well done!