Marvel Comics 2019
Written by J.J. Abrams & Henry Abrams
Illustrated by Sara Pichelli
Inking Assists by Elisabetta D'Amico
Coloured by Dave Stewart
Lettered by VC's Joe Caramagna
Peter and MJ's now teenaged son, Ben, began having some inexplicable problems. First, a bully he only meant to push off another student flew threw a door. Ben got detention and was chastised by his absentee father, in town for a layover—just long enough to tell Ben trying to help makes things worse. The one bright spot in the day was a girl in detention, Faye Ito. That night, Ben awoke from a nightmare to find himself stuck to the ceiling. His great-aunt May helped him down and pointed him to a box in the attic, which Ben had no idea contained the red-and-blue suit of Spider-Man.
I really like this story so far. I can totally understand why J.J. wanted his son to write this with him as a teenage boys perspective is invaluable when doing a story like this. Also I can only imagine the bonding that took place in doing so. When MJ died it left Peter a broken man and he couldn't handle it or cope so he did the only thing he could do and that's run off around the world taking pictures in an ill-conceived attempt to avoid what happened. This, however, from his son's point of view is cause for resentment and the feeling of abandonment and in reality it's completely justified. The writing is so authentic and the emotional power behind it is crystal clear and that to me is impressive.
The way that this is being told is extremely well done. The story & plot development here with how we see the release of information, the introduction of characters as well as how things are set-up to proceed. The character development here is utterly brilliant to see. Each individual is clearly being defined while still leaving plenty of room for growth and development as the story continues. Also just the inner turmoil and angst that plays against that youthful exuberance is sensational. When we add the pacing into this we see the twists and turns not to mention the revelations come at us from a few directions that make this exciting and fit beautifully into the vein of being Parker. The ebb & flow created by all this is great and I really enjoy how easy and fast it is to read this and of course leaving me wanting more when hitting the last page.
The interiors here are a thing of beauty. Sara, Elisabetta and Dave do some truly inspired work here. Cadaverous, the computer screens, and the way he has this really monstrous almost Borg appearance is captivating. The linework that we see is amazing and how the varying weights are being utilised to bring out the attention to detail is rather impressive. Poor Aunt May she really is showing her age but ya know I appreciate how realistic her look is and that she reminds of my grandmother well bravissimo! The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a stellar eye for storytelling. The colour work here is marvellous. The colour blocking is nicely done though I wish we would've seen some gradation or more hues and tones within the colours.
Ultimately I feel as is if this will be about two people discovering how much the need one another. I am more than okay with that too. I just hope that when it's all said and done Marvel doesn't do something stupid and find a way to fold this into the mainstream universe. As it stands this is a great example of storytelling that has an impact upon the reader and is of a level and quality involved with bringing it to life that is rarely seen.