If the cover of this issue doesn’t sell you—namely Spidey with sad eyes—then the annual format just might. Typically these are fun, done-in-ones that anyone can enjoy with no backstory necessary. Which, when you consider how complicated the Superior Spider-Man series has been, should put this on everyone’s radar.
Superior Spider-Man Annual #1 (Marvel Comics)
The book opens with an intro to the villain known as Blackout, a guy who has tussled with Ghost Rider from time to time. Then it jumps to Peter and a visit he’s having with Aunt May (which is mostly recap), and that’s on top of the recap page! It’s a full four pages, which seems a bit much from someone who has read every Superior Spider-Man, but what’re you going to do. It’s an annual, which means more pages anyway.
What’s with the hooks?
Christos Gage writes this one, and while the solicit says this story does matter, I’m not so sure that’s true. What we have here is a classic damsel in distress, Spidey comes to the rescue-type story, although it does have a twist: You see, when Spidey enacts revenge, now that he’s SpOck, he does some terrible things to make it clear nobody messes with Peter Parker or his family. There will probably be residuals as far as Aunt May and her opinion of Spider-Man, but when have we not seen her disgusted with the wall crawler?
Weird choice of words Ock, considering you’re her nephew.
Artist Javier Rodriguez does a bangup job throughout this issue, with his work reminding me of Nick Dragotta’s on FF. Characters are just slightly cartoony, but everything is smooth and nice to look at. There are also some nice 8+ panel pages, good use of dark shadows and a whopper of a splash page to boot.
A lot of energy on this page.
7.0
- Very smooth art
- Some minor ramifications going forward
- Opens with a lot of recap and not much progresses
Is It Good?
Well, it’s just okay really. The problem is not a lot happens, and on top of that it ends like so many issues have, with our green villain hanging around screaming that he’s going to do something. The fact that this has started to get frustrating says a lot, because dang, Green Goblin is the bestest.
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