SPIDER-MAN'S TANGLED WEB #5
"Flowers for Rhino, Part One: Rhinoplasty"
Highly Recommended (9/10)
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Marvel Comics
Writer: Peter Milligan
Artist: Duncan Fegredo
Colors: Steve Buccellato
Letters: Comicraft
Editor: Axel Alonso
Price: $2.99 US/$4.50 CAN |
You know the Rhino, right? Big dumb guy. Looks like a rhinocerous. Kinda silly looking, isn't he? Gets beat time and time again by the rakish Spider-Man. It's kind of funny, really... but not to the big dumb guy. Milligan explores the human side of an inhuman villain, and it makes for an entertaining and touching story. Tangled Web is shaping up to be a great series.
The Rhino is hired by a mobster to rescue his daughter, kidnapped by an underworld rival. The Rhino is beaten and mocked by Spider-Man in the midst of the rescue, and that's the straw that broke the camel's back. The Rhino's tired of being laughed at, tired of his ugly and cumbersome body, and most of all, tired of being stupid. He turns to an underworld acquaintance for help.
Fegredo does a great job with the art here, shifting from super-villain action to sadness to silliness. The visual shifts among these various moods is quite impressive. His sketchy style brings an air of maturity to the story. And that cover... yet another stunning Fegredo image.
There's an excellent sequence in the story in which Milligan pokes fun at super-hero comics conventions. The "evil" scientist that the Rhino approaches has a much more practical view of what he does, and what he can do. And that cliffhanger scene... very funny stuff.
The greatest strength of this story is Milligan's treatment of the Rhino. He explores his human side, getting the reader to empathize, but he doesn't go too far. We're reminded that the Rhino is a bad man, happy to inflict pain and to kill. The brute isn't transformed into a saintly figure. He's presented as a person, as someone who tends to make some major mistakes. Nothing more, nothing less.
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