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When will Peter Parker and Mary Jane remember their past lives and be married again? That's the one story I'm really interested in.
Because it's always in the back of my mind and it's hard to enjoy these new stories.
Combining indie sensibilities with Ditko-esque artwork and an apparent truckload of psychedelic drugs, Brendan McCarthy has created something heartwarmingly familiar yet freakishly original with this first issue of Spider-Man: Fever.
The story begins simply enough, with Stephen Strange obtaining the lost journal of Albion Crowley (a thinly-veiled analogue for the so-called “wickedest man in the world”, Aleister Crowley) from an internet bookseller. Upon opening the package, Strange unwittingly unleashes an ancient evil upon the city of New York – some sort of spider-demon that feasts upon human souls. And as luck would have it, the soul this demonic entity happens to get ahold of belongs to Mr. Peter Parker, better known to us as our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.
The long and short of it? I think Marvel should be commended for releasing a title like this. It flies in the face of conventional wisdom regarding what ought to sell to the average fanboy and instead offers a very unique and artistic vision of two of their most well-known characters.
At first glance, McCarthy’s art style could easily be mistaken for Steve Ditko’s early work on both Spider-Man and Dr. Strange (with perhaps a hint of Richard Corben here and there) but further inspection yields a radical re-interpretation of Ditko’s most famous works. It’s like somebody was taking a bit too much Eye of Aggamotto and everything got turned up to eleven.
The garish colors are beyond belief and only serve to enhance the sense that we have truly stepped through the looking glass. Just as Ditko created disorienting, hallocinogenic worlds for Dr. Strange to inhabit, McCarthy (along with Steve Cook) takes those ideas even further, offering surrealistic visions that would make Salvador Dali’s eyes cross.
The look of the book is perfectly matched by the bizarre tone, which alternates between being totally creepy and tongue-in-cheek. The basic set up of the story is as simple as a Silver Age Marvel Comic, with Spidey being attacked by the Vulture and Dr. Strange carelessly opening a booby-trapped book of magick. The book takes a dark (and somewhat poetic) turn with the introduction of The Arachnix, an ancient tribe of spider-demons, but veers back into humorous territory when Spidey and the Vulture burst into the apartment home of a New York citizen who is less than pleased at the notion of having the police in his home.
Cover art to SPIDER-MAN: FEVER #1 by Brendan McCarthy
All-in-all, I found this issue to be highly entertaining and hopefully indicative of where Marvel Comics’ head is at these days. This could serve as a one-two punch that enlightens more hero-oriented readers to the talents of men like Brendan McCarthy and Steve Cook (as well as putting a little coin in their pockets) and in turn, brings in a whole new crop of potential fans that prefer their sequential art to be a bit more on the esoteric side.
If you’re a traditional comic fan who has become bored with the day-to-day battles of supeheroes and want something a bit left of center, I’d definitely recommend this title. It’s like taking a time machine back to the olden days of the Marvel Universe, as seen through the eyes of the stoned-out hippies and college students who were reading them back in those days. Naturally, it’s a lot of fun.
When will Peter Parker and Mary Jane remember their past lives and be married again? That's the one story I'm really interested in.
Because it's always in the back of my mind and it's hard to enjoy these new stories.
I saw nothing negative in the review. Why only a B rating?
timeobserver:
Pretty sure this is not a post-BND story. I think it's non-canon and out of continuity, so we're free to enjoy it.
Yeah, this seems pretty out-of-continuity to me. So you can imagine it's post-BND or pre-BND or even in a world of your own making if you please.
Nope, nothing negative Lister... I just gave it a B. Nothing against it, it just seemed B-ish. In retrospect, a B plus might've been better though. I enjoyed it more the more I thought about it.
I'm trying to reserve A's for stuff that really knocks my socks off or really puts a smile on my face. Sort of like Netflix reviews where 5 stars (or an A) is "Loved It" while 4 stars (B) is "Really Liked It" and 3 stars is "Liked It"... it's not a perfect scale though, 'cause a C kind of denotes not liking it so much.
Anyway, it was a B.
Sounds like fun! Brings to mind the reboot of another of Diko's creations, Shade:The Changing Man in DC's Vertigo line a few years back. (OMG was it really 20 years ago?!?) Loved that ... this sounds like fun!