By Don M. Ventura
Amazing Spider-Man Annual #38
Marvel Comics
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If you write a Spider-Man comic book, in which Mysterio’s helmet is used as an actual fish bowl—I gotta tell ya, you’ve done something pretty damn right.
I was interested in what a post-Chew John Layman would bring to a superhero story, and I got what I wanted: the unexpected. While Dan Slott has continued to establish Spider-Man’s new status quo (a successful career, life without his spider-sense, a steady relationship, etc.), Layman breaks off to tell a not-so-typical Marvel story involving the wall-crawler, Deadpool and the Hulk.
Spider-Man, Bruce Banner and Deadpool have been transported to a familiar yet alternate reality where Earth’s lone hero is known as the Spider—a character who appears to be an amalgamation of Superman and Batman with a Spider-Man influenced costume. Everyone loves the hero—including a certain mustachioed newspaper editor—and villains fear entering into fisticuffs with him.
However, things didn’t play out as tragically for this universe’s Peter Parker. On the surface this is everything the 616 Spider-Man could have ever wanted. But come on, there’s no way it was going to turn out that easy for a guy whose life had never been so much so. Things go dark for Peter in the final act of this three-part storyline, as Peter realizes that the Spider and his accomplice have ensured that this new world will remain protected by one masked man—and that will not change anytime soon.
I certainly hope that Marvel continues to welcome Layman back to Marvel Universe whenever he can pull away from his award-winning creator-owned work. The writer has had a lot of fun with the toys he’s been allowed to play with—especially Deadpool, a character whose humor can often make me wince.
There are some wonderfully funny moments where his inner narration is given advice by a second inner narration. And of course it wouldn’t be Deadpool without commenting on a panel on a following page. I think many writers have a difficult time with Deadpool because it takes an offbeat wit to get the character’s voice right and that is something that is difficult to sustain. I’m seriously interested to see what Layman has in store for Deadpool (and his doppelgänger Death Wish) when the story continues in Deadpool Annual #1.
I’ve also been waiting for Lee Garbett’s entry into Marvel after finishing run on Batgirl last year. Garbett draws a very classic looking Spider-Man, though with slightly larger eyes. I was a little thrown by some inconsistencies in Peter’s face early in the book, but there is a lot to enjoy with his work. He draws an excellent Wade Wilson and Hulk; I’m not sure whose decision it was to have Bruce Banner grasping onto his pants post-Hulk transformation, but that was quite funny (and what I imagine we should have seen much more in Hulk comic books).
I’m a sucker for a good Spider-Man story, and grow nostalgic when I read the word “Annual”, so this book had a lot going for it before I even picked it up. Add Layman and Garbett to the fold and it was going to be difficult to find anything not to enjoy about Amazing Spider-Man Annual #38.
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