I had really low expectations for Spider-Man Unlimited, and here's the really frustrating part: Half of the book lived down to them. Spider-Man Unlimited is a perfect example of why split books, anthologies and other multiple creative team or multiple short story books are such a crap shoot, because even if one story is out-of-this-world fantastic, the other one could be a crap sandwich and then you've got a book that you don't know what to do with. At any rate, the lead story here isn't phenomenal and the second story isn't terrible, but they're both on their respective ends of the scale, as Joseph Goodrich turns in a touching (and yeah, maybe a little manipulative) story about Spidey helping out a terminally ill kid and Brian Lynch turns in an obvious, painfully unfunny story of a third-rate villain making his play for the big time.
Spider-Man Unlimited starts strong with "Human Interest," an excellent one-shot story by Joseph Goodrich. Goodrich chooses to focus on the aspect of Peter Parker's personality that led him to become Spider-Man in the first place, his need to help others. You can see this not just in what Peter does for Stella, a little girl who has shut down since she was diagnosed with leukemia, but it's just as obvious in little moments, like the one that sees Peter assuring Stella's parents that he and Ben Urich won't abuse their trust by putting their private pain into their news story.
The way Peter's personality is encapsulated in one line is indicative of Goodrich's economy of story, which is also evident in the way he sets up his entire story, even throwing in a neat but unecessary detail when describing the origin of the Derleth House for terminally ill children. The story could be seen as a little manipulative, tugging on the heartstrings with the universally sad story of a young girl dying before her time, but Goodrich's story feels genuine to me, and had the desired effect of being uplifting and poignant, as well as showing a different kind of heroism.
"Human Interest" also has great art, courtesy of Sidekicks artist Takeshi Miyazawa and Runaways colorist Brian Reber. I've mostly seen Miyazawa's work in black and white, so I was pleased to see how well it worked in color. His characters have a youthful, manga look, but his Peter Parker and Ben Urich are still distinctive, and I thought he did excellent action work with the sequence that pits Spider-Man against a gang of thieves (well, sort of).
Actually, good artwork is the common denominator in both stories, as veteran artist Sean Chen provides the art for Brian Lynch's "Slyde into Destiny" in a more realistic, straightforward super-hero vein. He does a nice job on the action, particularly in terms of Spidey's motion, but he also does a nice job of capturing the comedic side of the story. The Slyde redesign isn't an over-the-top parody, it's actually a pretty decent costume, but it also has a sort of repetitive ninja feel that helps the gag about Slyde's inferiority complex, and Chen has Spider-Man saying a lot with his eyes, expressing confused amusement throughout most of the story.
If only that subtlety were to be found in Lynch's story. His concept of Slyde having an inferiority complex (exacerbated by an event that's revealed on the last page) is a good one, and this is definitely a story that could fit in the limited space that Lynch has to tell it. Unfortunately, the dialogue is forced, and the humor comes across even moreso. It just reads as someone trying to hard, and I'm not just talking about Slyde and his desire to be a badass villain. To be honest, what ir reminds me of more than anything else is the work of Ron Zimmerman, as it has the same desperate "look at me, I'm funny!" quality to it. It's like a stand-up comedian in the last couple minutes of his laugh-barren five-minute set, desperately trying to dispel the dead silence from the audience by throwing out every single joke he can think of in rapid-fire succession rather than nailing just one punchline.
