I tell people that three things made me a lifelong Spider-Man fan. There’s Sam Raimi’s first Spider-Man film, which still holds up as a prime entry into the superhero film canon. There’s Spider-Man: The Animated Series, which is getting its own continuation in the form of Spider-Man ’94. Finally, there’s the one-two punch of J. Michael Straczynski and John Romita Jr.’s initial run on Amazing Spider-Man, and Brian Michael Bendis amd Mark Bagley’s Ultimate Spider-Man. Of the two, it’s Straczynski’s Spidey that stood out the most; he wrote Peter Parker unlike any other writer I know, and knew how to throw new threats at the web-slinger while still keeping him the quipping and thwipping hero we all love.
Straczynski’s run has seen plenty of praise over the years, so the fact that he’s returning to pen Amazing Spider-Man: Torn is a pretty big deal. What makes it even more interesting is the fact that it’s set in Spidey’s college days, back when he was rooming with Harry Osborn and figuring out his feelings for Gwen Stacy. Torn introduces a new villain as well, who undergoes her own startling transformation after a battle with Spidey and swears vengeance upon the wall-crawler.
From the very first page of Amazing Spider-Man: Torn, Straczynski shows that he still has a handle on Peter Parker’s character. He still cracks wise. He still has a deep sense of Justice, especially when fighting masked terrorists. He carries the weight of the world on his shoulders. In short, this is the Spider-Man I, and countless other fans, fell in love with. Straczynski does bring a somewhat heavy hand during a sequence where Peter, Gwen, Harry and Mary Jane Watson talk about their future. When Gwen says she wants to do something that matters with her life, her dialogue is all but telegraphing her infamous death; ditto Harry, whose desire to build something for himself will be moot once he embraces his father’s legacy as the Green Goblin.
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The villain is also lacking a clear definition, other than the fact that she wants a mysterious book that contains menacing powers. It’s not the first time a Spider-Man villain has sought an artifact with incredible power. However, it does call back to Straczynski’s early years on Amazing Spider-Man, which pitted Spidey against mystical foes like the vampiric Morlun and the sinister Shathra. In a way, Straczynski is returning to his roots with this miniseries.
Amazing Spider-Man: Torn #1 also bears some great artwork, courtesy of Pere Perez. Perez actually manages to match the vibes that Steve Ditko was going for when he drew Amazing Spider-Man, as Peter’s clothes and haircut harken back to that era. Gwen’s even sporting the design Ditko whipped up for her before receiving her iconic hairband and green coat. As for the villain, Perez draws her appropriately menacing, whether in human form or her new altered, magical form.
Perez’s standout sequence comes when Spidey has to save a group of hostages from a terrorist attack. He displays Spidey as a force of nature: one panel has the web-slinger crashing through a window and kicking a terrorist in the face, while another sees him dodging gunfire before webbing up two more terrorists and slamming them together. Paired with Guru-eFX’s bright colors, it’s a sequence that truly feels like Spider-Man.
Amazing Spider-Man: Torn #1 sees the welcome return of J. Michael Straczynski to the web-head’s adventures, and a story that harkens back to past glories in more ways than one. It’s a strong start, so here’s hoping Straczynski and Perez can continue to build on the momentum they’ve set up.
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