I try to be objective in this reviewing gig, but sometimes I go in being pretty sure I'm going to dislike a book. Marvel Knights Spider-Man was one of those books, not only because the last thing the world needs is yet another Spider-Man book but because the last thing I really wanted to see was a more "realistic" Spider-Man or one that positioned the character as the butt of jokes, and I wasn't sure that Millar had it in him to do something of a straight Spider-Man story. As it turns out, Millar has written one of the best pure Spider-Man stories I've read recently, taking some of the unrealized potential created by Paul Jenkins and J. Michael Straczynski, fusing it with the style and humor of Brian Bendis's Ultimate Spider-Man and mixing it up with gorgeous artwork by the Dodsons into a nifty little plot that has "potential classic" written all over it.
Within only a few pages, I got exactly what Millar's take on this character was, and it was pretty close to perfect. Here's the guy who, no matter how beaten up he is, no matter how rotten his day has been, will always, always get up and save the innocent. There's a nice creepy element to seeing Spidey beat up like that, weakly trying to warn a couple of folks, but it's even cooler when the adrenaline surges and he moves, and Spider-Man is the hero that we all like to believe in. I would have been a little happier if Spidey's wit had come through in his dialogue instead of in the narration, but in general, I thought this was a pretty good take on the grown-up Peter Parker.
Millar does include a bit of shtick here, such as Spidey getting a little audience participation, but I have to admit that it cracked me up. The guy who suggests using a mailbox and then complains at Spidey for doing it seems the perfect metaphor for the armchair quarterback set (or... ahem... comic book critics) who always see the faults in others but not necessarily their successes. But he also includes a lot of welcome realism, such as Peter's physiological reaction to his beating when he gets back to Aunt May's house or the very touching way that Mary Jane reacts to her husband's selfless bravery. I also really enjoyed Millar's take on Peter and his small family, and though I found his Aunt May to be a bit of a callback to the doddering aunt role she used to play rather than the stronger and more interesting character that Straczynski has made her, she didn't really feel inconsistent with the current portrayal.
I was very pleased to see Millar handling some of the aspects that Stracynzski introduced in his run on Amazing and then dropped in favor of way too much mystical mumbo-jumbo. Things like seeing Peter in the classroom for something other than an afterschool special storyline, or more of Peter hanging out with Mary Jane and Aunt May, really made this issue click with me. However, the real interesting aspect of the plot, the one that makes me think we could be getting something truly special here, is the introduction of the bad guy. A mystery bad guy is always a dicey proposition, because you've got a lot of scary build-up and you need to deliver on that, which is tough, but the central proposition here is one that I like. One thing that Marvel editorial and creative forgot in their rush to unmask all their heroes a few years back is that the secret identity can be an effective storytelling tool, and it looks like Millar may be hanging a "Born Again" style story on this notion for Spider-Man. Given that the last time somebody figured out his identity, Peter lost the love of his life, this storyline has even more potential. It also has potential to be repetitive, but so far I'm inclined to trust Millar, because this is a solid first issue.
The Dodsons haven't really had much luck with the Spidey franchise, being affiliated with the M.I.A. Spider-Man/Black Cat and the less-than-good miniseries Trouble. However, this time out, they seem to have hit the jackpot, because they've got a good story and they really do a great job with it. Their detailed backdrops of Manhattan and Queens gives the book a necessary sense of place, and the attention that the Dodsons pay to giving characters individual facial features really helps the characterization side of the book come to life. Of course, they're also quite capable at some of the simpler and more important aspects of superhero comics, namely a really nice fight scene (you can really "feel" the heavy mailbox crashing in on the Goblin's head) and the sexiest Mary Jane since Todd McFarlane jazzed up the '70s Romita look.
