By: Chris Yost (writer), Ryan Stegman (artist), Marte Gracia (colors)
The Story: Marvel is going to feel pretty stupid when ripped-sleeved hoodies TOTALLY come back in 2012!
The Review: Marvel is certainly wringing Spider-Man for everything he’s worth. Amazing, Spectacular, Ultimate, Avenging, and with guest appearances on Future Foundation and one of the Avengers teams (I can never keep them straight), it’s clear the brand is doing well. Heck, they even have the dark anti-Spider-Man in Rick Remender’s Venom ongoing. So is there really room for Scarlet Spider? Maybe, but it will need to have a clear, compelling difference from the other existing books to justify its presence on the stands. After reading this issue, while I think the creative has a good reason for their book, I also think they need to do a better job of communicating it.
Right away, the opening did not impress me. The comic opens with several narrow, full-page vertical panels that zoom in on a nondescript port. This hardly takes advantage of the opportunity to showcase Houston, a location never previously explored in Marvel Comics. What follows feels like it was lifted straight from the scene in the Narrows in Batman Begins. Neither of these things are bad, exactly, but they aren’t very inspired.
The first three pages are crawling with spiders. Or perhaps I should say “sprinkled” with spiders. They spiders cast no shadows, and don’t seem to make contact with any surface. They are all similarly positioned, none appearing to scuttle or spin webs or indeed do anything at all. They simply hover between the reader and the story going on inside the panels. After three pages of this, the spiders crawl into the panels, and assemble en masse for our first look at Kaine before disappearing for the rest of this issue. I know what Stegman was going for here, and in the hands of a more experimental artist, this could have been really cool. But Stegman’s work is fairly traditional, and the comic looks for all the world like a preschooler stuck spider stickers all over it.
Not too say all of Stegman’s work is bad. The two-page spread explaining Kaine’s backstory was clever and actually made it sound fun. The vistas of Houston, when we finally get to them, are fresh and warm, and the action flows and bubbles with energy. But first impressions are important, and mine was not enthusiastic.
Chris Yost has a fairly bad start characterizing Kaine as well. Lines like “I didn’t even know Houston had a port. And now that I know, I still don’t care,” had me rolling my eyes right from page one. But as the story unfolded, I slowly warmed to it. Kaine isn’t very likable, but what hooked me was witnessing him struggle with himself. There’s a lot of inner monologue in this issue, but what is left out is very interesting. After talking himself into being selfish, he’ll make an unexplained act of kindness. He waffles on the edge of morality, recognizing his potential to being good again, but cynical about his ability to do good. In one scene, after making a horrific mistake, he distracts himself, never dwelling on guilt. “This is not my problem,” he repeatedly tells himself. Yet from his face, we see the struggle.
The rest of the issue is a mixed bag. The supporting cast, for now, lacks any standouts. The villain has a cool design, and Stegman draws him well, but we’ve yet to see if Yost can make him intriguing. There are a bunch of quirks about this issue (which I’ll list under musings so spoiler-sensitive readers can avoid them), which individually aren’t bad, but put together had me scratching my head and took me out of the experience. There’s plenty of potential here for a really great read, but both Stegman and Yost need to up their game.
Conclusion: An uneven read, this issue is not the solid foundation Scarlet Spider could have used to cement his place in the Marvel Universe. Nonetheless, I enjoyed this issue, and remain hopeful that Scarlet Spider will grow into the book it should be.
Grade: B-
-Jim Middleton
Some Musings: -While sleeveless hoodies are out, fingerless gloves appear to be in! First Miles Morales, now Kaine, it’s only a matter of time before Peter slips a pair onto his red-and-blues…speaking of the costume, the fact that Kaine’s new gigs are supposed to be the Horizon Labs togs he took from Peter, there had better be explanation of why it now looks nothing like it.
-After showering, Kaine gives himself a much needed shave…apparently by passing his hand over his face. I’m not familiar with anything about Kaine predating Spider Island, so tell me, WCBR readers, is this one of his powers? Did Stegman just forget to draw a razor? What’s going on here?
-We learn about most of Kaine’s current power set in the first fight scene. But the fact that Kaine’s spider-sense is gone is revealed later, when a crow cawing behind him startles him. Seriously. You can do better, Yost.
-I’m all about suspending belief for comics, but during the opening fight, Kaine avoids getting shot by what looks like five dozen bullets…by leaping directly at the people shooting them. I have a hard time with this.
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Filed under: Marvel Comics, Reviews Tagged: | Chris Yost, Comic Book Reviews, Horizon Labs, Kaine, Marte Gracia, Marvel Comics, MIles Morales, Ryan Stegman, Scarlet Spider, Scarlet Spider #1, Scarlet Spider #1 review, Spider-Island, Spider-Man, Venom, WCBR, Weekly Comic Book Review
I had mixed feelings on the issue. By way of disclosure, I consider the clone saga the absolute all-time low point of Spider-Man, so this probably isn’t written for me because I’m the dude who rolls my eyes any time Kaine shows up in a Spidey comic.
So….the “story”. It was a big “blah” for me. But, that’s kinda what I expected. I bought it solely for the art and honestly enjoyed Stegman and Babinski’s contributions quite a bit. The think I don’t enjoy is the coloring. I think it screws up the depth because it’s too highlighted and the highlights are at odds with the light sources that Stegman and Babinski are using. This would look a bajillion times better if it were flat colors.
But…I’ll stick with this as long as Stegman is around. If/when he leaves….I’ll reassess based on whoever they bring in.
Dean,
I completely agree about the lighting. I thought the scene with him on the side of the semi was well done, but other than that, this definitely felt a little overexposed. But I’m not sure if I would vote for flatter colors, necessarily. I thought the colors for the skyscraper scenes was great, largely because of the colors. I’ll think more about that when I review issue #2.
The story so far isn’t anything special, but I’m still optimistic that there are at least a couple of good yarns that Yost has ready for us. We’ll see.
That shaving scene kind of bothered me too. I think Kaine was using his “Mark of Kaine” power to get rid of his hair but even then I don’t think it’s so fine tuned that he would wind up with anything but a patchy hack job on his head.
The art in that opening fight was pretty disjointed, but I think it was supposed to be Kaine leaping in a direction up and over those guys shooting at him as opposed to directly at them. Not that it excuses their Stormtrooper-like aim or anything, but other Spider-people have avoided gunfire in the same way.
The biggest problem I can foresee with this title is that we all know Kaine is going to lose that cynical, selfish attitude soon enough (can’t tell superhero stories with a guy that genuinely doesn’t want to help people) and once that is gone he’s pretty much just going to be a travelling Spider-man, helping everyone along his way. This was a decent enough issue, but I still think Kaine’s sacrifice in The Grim Hunt was about the best thing that ever happened to the character.
Greg,
Thanks for the Mark of Kaine info. I agree that the eventually Kaine will have to outgrow his current attitude, but if the story is well told, I won’t mind that it’s predictable. I’m also hoping that he stays in Houston rather than starts traveling. If there’s anything believable that will force him down the road to being a hero, it will be the relationships he forms with others. Keeping him in Houston can allow him to become a part of a community, form attachments, and grow a sense of that all-important “responsibility.”
As for the bullet-leaping thing, but it bothered me in this particular case because it was played up rather than glossed over. we get three panels between the time Kaine leaps out and he makes it over the bullets, each one of them highlighting how close he is to the bullets. Again, like the spider-sprinkles, if the art were more stylized, it could work, but here, it’s just over the top. Just my opinion, though.
I liked the part, when Kaine saves the old lady. It was funny.