Thursday, December 10, 2009

SPIDER-MAN #11 - June 1991

Perceptions - Part Four

Credits: Todd McFarlane (story & pencils), Todd McFarlane & Rick Magyar (inks), Rick Parker (letterer), Gregory Wright (colors)

Summary: Peter Parker tries to convince Anna Brooks, Melvin Gooner, and the authorities that a man is responsible for the killings, but his inability to name his source leads all of them to dismiss him. In the woods, Wendigo succumbs to his gunshot wound. Wolverine uses his claws to remove the bullet, then asks Wendigo to help him find another body. Soon, they discover the body of a third boy.

I Love the‘90s: After praising Greg Wright’s colors, Todd McFarlane asks readers in the letters page to write to Marvel in support of computer coloring. Editor Jim Salicrup isn’t sure if the readers will know what McFarlane is talking about.

Panel Count: Sixty-four panels this issue.

Where’s Felix?: I couldn’t find a Felix in this one.

Review: If you thought the last issue was mostly filler, this one proves just what padding is all about. For yet another issue, Spider-Man only appears for some web-slinging shots while in-between Peter Parker’s errands, while Wolverine gets the action. The “action” in this installment just consists of watching Wendigo fall over and then performing surgery on him. The idea that no one will listen to Peter because he can’t name a source is classic Spider-Man, but there’s barely anything else going on in these scenes. McFarlane is trying to make a statement about the media, one that now seems pretty quaint. Spidey muses that the press only cares about the story because a “Bigfoot” is involved, and that no one would pay attention to a standard missing kid story. Oh, Todd. You couldn’t have predicted a dozen twenty-four hour news channels, could you? I suspect this issue was another rush job, as Rick Magyar shows up to ink the first half (plus, at least a few of the original art pages don't have lettering, which apparently happened when a book was late). McFarlane’s art often drops out his trademark detail lines, leaving characters as half-shadows, occasionally standing in front of non-existent backgrounds.

2 comments:

wwk5d said...

Wow, McFarlane can't keep any consistency on Wendigo's face, can he? From the covers, they look like 2 different people...was it that bad within the issues?

And yeah, it seems like he's also way off on Wndigo's personality as well...

G. Kendall said...

Oh, in the next issue, Wendigo suddenly has a perm.

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