Monday, February 15, 2010

WEB-ZINGERS

I own every issue of Web of Spider-Man. Including the annuals. eBay can do strange things to a man. Although this book doesn’t technically fall into the “Chromium Age” category (it just limped along into that time period), I thought it could be an interesting series to explore. In 1985, Web took the place of Marvel Team-Up, the peripheral Spider-Man series that did exactly what the title said and rarely focused on the life of Peter Parker. The “real” Spidey stories were being handled by Amazing Spider-Man and Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man. Two books featuring a franchise character is defensible, but by the time you get to the third, you’re in the “spin-off of a spin-off” category. The title was edited in the early days by Jim Owsley, who had what could be called a “shaky” experience on the job, as detailed on his website.

For years, the book wasn’t able to maintain a creative team, which didn’t exactly help the “gratuitous spin-off” label. Although Marvel recently revived the title, it seems like this book has never been held in very high regard by fandom. I actually view the book more favorably than a lot of people, since I began reading it during the very consistent Gerry Conway/Alex Saviuk run. I looked forward to Web just as much as Amazing and Spectacular during my days as a Spider-fan. Were my favorite issues just a brief respite during a dismal run? Is Web wrongly maligned? Should I be embarrassed for enjoying a comic about Spider-Man and the Rocket Racer fighting a blob made of Nazis? It could be fun to explore.

I think the evolution of artist Alex Saviuk as mainstream tastes changed is also worth a look. The same guy drew all of these comics…

So…Web of Spider-Man #1. Coming soon.

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3 comments:

  1. Tegan O'NeilFebruary 15, 2010 at 8:29 PM

    I remember Web being very good in places, despite the fact that no one was paying attention. I especially recall the late double-digits as being a nice stretch, full of preposterous faux-espionage and crime tropes filtered through the prism of Spider-Man. This should be good.

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  2. MattFebruary 16, 2010 at 11:56 AM

    Hooray, I look forward to this! I enjoyed David Michelinie's brief run on this title before he took over Amazing (the earliest Venom hints appeared here), as well as the Conway era -- I'd go so far as to say I looked forward to Web and Spectacular more than Amazing at the time since, even though I liked Michelinie, I hated McFarlane. I even liked Howard Mackie's work on this title in the 80s-90s (though admittedly I was never much of a Mackie-hater with regards to Spider-Man until after the 2000 reboot).

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  3. Austin GortonFebruary 18, 2010 at 1:12 PM

    Web was definitely the red-headed stepchild of the Spidey comics for me back in the day as well, so I'm interested to see what you find!

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