Originally posted on Irish Comic News (17/Aug/2017)
Written by Robbie Thompson.
Line art by Nathan Stockman.
Colour art by Jim Campbell.
Letters by VC’s Travis Lanham.Poor ol’ Spidey. All he wants to do is drop off Aunt May’s dry cleaning and catch a movie. The dry cleaning has only just been taken care of when the Spidey-senses go into over-drive. It seems every thief in New York chose that night to stage their latest robbery.
This is one of those Spider-man comics that is just a fun Spidey story. I generally like when Spidey faces down your run-of-the-mill thief. It usually allows for some fun staging of the fight sequences with some entertaining dialogue from Spider-man.
Thompson delivers a story that isn’t a million miles off the very early Spider-man comics. Parker is struggling to have a life outside of his spider related activities. The dialogue was pretty funny which is always a big plus for me in a Spider-man story. There’s also some funny moments that are down to how the artist is playing out the action.
The art is does a great job on both the action sequences and comedic moments in the story. Stockman is really fast becoming a personal favourite to have drawing Spidey. He has a real knack for conveying expression through Spidey’s mask, particularly the lenses. There’s also a really good page layout that a clever choice for the section of the story where Spider-man is crime-fighting his way across the city.
Campbell drops the colours over the line art. Almost all the story happens at night and I really liked the use of purples for the sky. It really made Spider-man quite prominent in the panels where a dark blue or black might not have worked quite as well. There’s also some use of blues or orange in a number of action panels where it really amplifies the events of that panel.
The lettering is done by VC’s Travis Lanham. As you probably surmised from the review so far, there’s plenty of dialogue and action. There’s an energy and momentum to the story and Lanham does a great job in making sure that the lettering is well placed and easily read so the reader get the best experience of the comic possible. The sound effects positioning is well done. The readers eye moves through the panels and the sound effects are placed in such a way that is really natural to the panels.
As already mentioned, this story is one of favourite types of story. Plenty of action and funny dialogue with a bit of mystery to keep you moving through the comic.
If you enjoyed the Spider-man Homecoming movie then odds are you would most likely enjoy this comic.