Spiderman: The Other

[Zeeks75]

Spiderman : The Other

Ok folks, here’s the deal: I can’t stand Spiderman.

Never could, never will. I hate the way he whines, I resent the constant joking in serious situations, and the boyhood naivety eats away at me when I read stories involving him. I think the character is way overblown, and is more hype than real.

That was until I read The Other.

Without giving too much away in terms of story line, this is a story about life and death. 2nd chances. Beginning anew. Clearing the slate completely and starting over. It’s hard for me to explain exactly why I bought this without going into personal detail, but the trade appeared in a dream to me, so after a couple weeks of deliberation, I happened to be in the Comic Section of Borders Book Store and saw it. For lack of anything else that seemed interesting, I picked it up. I read it in a 24 hour period. Again, for personal reasons, I can’t really go into much detail, but let me just say this: pick it up. This is coming from someone who really can’t stand Spiderman.

The artwork kicks ass. No doubt about it. And there are some very freaky moments in terms of dreams, reality, and creepy crawlies all over the place. If you need one reason, however, It is J. Michael Straczynski, the man who single handedly rescued the Fantastic Four from the devastation laid out in the wake of Mark Waid. Also, longtime spidey scribe Peter David helped create this, and even to the spidey simpleton such as myself, you know this story has balls when you’ve got 2 major power houses joining forces on one story.

This gets 9.75 out of 10 Doombots for a review.

[Porter]

Spider-man has never been one of my favorites. I have always liked characters like Doom-- smart and scheming.