Spider-Man’s joined forces with some big names over the years. He’s tangled with Superman and Batman, had a heart-to-heart with Invincible, and even encountered Ultraman on two separate occasions. Spider-Man: Meals to Astonish #1 features what might be the web-slinger’s most unique collaboration, as he meets Chef Jose Andres of the World Central Kitchen! “Great Seats, Great Responsibility” features Peter Parker crossing paths with Chef Andres while photographing the opening of Andres’ new restaurant for the Daily Bugle. Unfortunately, Electro picks that exact night to try to shake down Andres for protection money, leading Spidey to step in.
Meals to Astonish was whipped up by Steve Orlando and Roi Mercardo, who strive to bring a good story to the table rather than a glorified celebrity cameo. Orlando manages to write a story that has plenty of Spidey action, while also highlighting the importance of Andres’ work. The chef even gets a monologue that hews close to Spidey’s iconic speech about great power and great responsibility, and holds his own against Electro! Mercado also shines, whether illustrating Spidey battling Electro or perfectly capturing Chef Andres’ likenesses. Readers’ mouth will be watering thanks to Mercado illustrating picture perfect food being placed in front of Peter.
“Great Seats, Great Responsibility” isn’t the only mixture of meals and Marvel heroes contained within Meals to Astonish‘s pages. There’s also another story, “Jeff’s Table”, which features another chef/hero combo in Marvel Rivals breakout Jeff the Land Shark and Chef Paul Carmichael. The duo find themselves at the mercy of Mojo, who’s placed them in one of his cooking shows and forces them to cook for their lives. Thankfully, Carmichael is a skilled cook and Jeff is a capable, if highly chaotic, sous chef. Gustavo Duarte is clearly having a blast writing and illustrating this story, as he draws Jeff as a tornado with teeth. There’s even some hilarious moments involving Mojo and a pair of aliens, in what could only be described as “Top Chef on steroids.”
Marvel
Rounding out the stories are a short about Spider-Ramen by Ken Niimura, and the “T.E.S.T. Kitchen” saga from Marvel’s Infinity Comics by Paul Eschbach and E.J. Su. The former is stuffed with food puns, as Spider-Ramen is a sentient bowl of ramen who fights Doctor Takoyaki (aka deep fried octopus dumplings) and loves Mochi Jane. Like I said: food puns abound. To Niimura’s credit, he does manage to make these visuals stand out, especially when Spider-Ramen’s engaged in a fight. “T.E.S.T. Kitchen” was created to tie in with the food offerings at Avengers Campus, and has a solid hook: chef Anna Ameyama’s life is upended when Iron Man crash lands into her food truck, but the Armored Avenger offers her a job as his personal chef. Eschbach’s dialogue crackles with plenty of comedic elements, and it’s nice to see Su drawing some Marvel characters.
While all of the stories are focused on food and Marvel heroes, I feel like there could have been more Spidey-focused stories; after all, his name is on the comic. For what it is, however, Spider-Man: Meals to Astonish #1 serves up a tasty combo of food culture and superheroic stories, and I highly recommend grabbing something to eat while reading it.
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