PETER PARKER: SPIDER-MAN 2001
"It's Good To Be King"
Neutral (3/10)
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Marvel Comics
Writer: Fiona Avery
Artist: Juan Roman Cano
Colors: Avalon Studios
Letters: Chris Eliopoulos
Editor: Axel Alonso
Price: $2.99 US/$4.50 CAN |
After decades of super-hero adventures, I would imagine it gets harder and harder for writers to come up with new challenges, new villains and new situations for characters with such long histories. It's why DC and Marvel sometimes hit a cosmic reset button or impose 10-year timelines on characters. Some writers, whether it's someone who wrote during the Silver Age or a newer name putting a script together today, take the characters to exotic locales for a new adventure, but in the process, they hinge their stories on such a huge coincidence or some other hard-to-swallow plot element that defies belief.
This Marvel annual is one such story.
Back during his high-school years, Peter Parker took a summer off to work with the Red Cross in the Peruvian jungle. On his first day, fate and some faulty brakes conspired to bring him together with a tribe of spider worshippers. The spider people, led by a princess named Taran, had lost their sacred temple and its immensely powerful amulet to a rival tribe of snake worshippers, led by a malevolent man named Faire De Lain. With his secret exposed, Peter agrees to help Taran and her people by facing him.
Cano's art reminds me of the styles of Richard (Startling Stories: Banner) Corben, Mike (Damned) Zeck and John (The Monarchy) McCrea. And yes, that's a good thing. There's a darkness in the art that I'd like to see at play with a stronger, more mature script. Avalon Studios also reinforces the strength of the art, especially when it comes to conveying hallucinogenic perceptions as called for by the script.
Avery's script bring these characters -- some of them highly unlikely -- to life. It's not hard to understand why Peter is taken with Taran. Her strength and openness comes shining through. Avery also has an excellent grasp on the everyman attitude and sense of responsibility of the title character.
In the end, though, the story isn't compelling because it asks far too much of the reader. The notion that a kid from New York with spider-powers happens upon a secret spider-obsessed Peruvian tribe in his need of his skills stretches one's ability to suspend disbelief to the breaking point.
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