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SPIDER-MAN'S TANGLED WEB #10
"Ray of Light"
Mildly Recommended (6/10)
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Marvel Comics
Writer/Artist: Kaare Andrews
Letters: Comicraft
Editor: Axel Alonso
Price: $2.99 US/$4.50 CAN |
One of my favorite stories from last year was an issue of Peter Parker wherein we see a young boy in a rough situation, and how Spider-Man helps him cope. Andrews has done a similar type of story for Tangled Web #10, although a downbeat tone and some intriguing but ultimately odd-looking computer artwork make it considerably weaker than the Peter Parker tale. This is by no
means a bad story, and with a few changes, it could have been a great story, but
as it stands, it has too many flaws to overcome, leaving it more as an
interesting curiosity, and not up to the high standards of stories set by the
last few creative teams on this title.
Andrews has a versatility to his art that is impressive. Every time I've seen it, it has looked completely different. If you compare his Spider-Man covers, his work on the Writers Bloc anthology, his work on Before the Fantastic Four and his work on Marvel Mangaverse: Spider-Man, you will find very little
similarity. He is clearly experimenting, utilizing manga style, computer
graphics and standard pencilling techniques. However, as with all experiments,
there are bound to be rough edges and outright failures, and his work here is at
least flawed and, depending on the reader's point-of-view, perhaps a failure.
Andrews uses animated style artwork to show a children's cartoon, and contrasts
it with a "real world" story told using photos and computer-generated imagery.
The result is intriguing, but the stiffness and posed appearance of the computer
and photo models ultimately wind up making the piece look clunky, and it's hard
to shake the feeling as you read it that the book just looks wrong.
The story is an interesting
idea, examining a pair of kids and how harsh reality has affected their view of
heroes. Andrews does a nice job of conveying the dynamics of the two brothers,
and it was especially heart-breaking to see the cynicism of the older brother,
given how young he was. The interaction between the two brothers, the bickering
about what's important and what's not, rang very true, and was definitely the
strongest part of the issue.
My reaction to this story may
well be colored by my expectations, as I expected to see some kind of hope or
promise at the end of the story. The story title, "Ray of Light," as well as the
conventions of this type of story, certainly lend one to such a belief. However,
in the end, Andrews delivers an extremely downbeat story, exposing the
limitations of heroes and even family, and leaving me feeling a little
depressed. That may be the goal of the story, but I suspect that the small
victory at the end is meant to serve as some kind of upbeat finale, and instead
that final picture is a crushingly depressing visual.
However, while the story left
me unhappy, I suspect that part of that may be down to a deliberately unhappy
ending. Andrews does give us a story in which the main characters experience
change, and the tale is definitely quite different from what you get in a
standard Spider-Man tale. In the end, for me, the emotional effects seemed a bit
manipulative, and the story not quite sure what it's message was.
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