GN Review -- Spider-Man: Torment / Todd McFarlane

When you're one of the most high-profile heroes of the day, you're bound to make a few enemies.  In Spider-Man's case, there are more than a few.  He has one of the most formidable rogues galleries around.  But what happens when you have a new, mysterious enemy hunting you, attacking you, and you have no idea who she is or what her reasons are for her vendetta?

This is the question he faces in Spider-Man: Torment, in which he is attacked by the Lizard, an enemy he already knows as a vicious and dangerous foe.  What he doesn't realize until later, though, is that the Lizard is being controlled by another person, a dangerous and apparently crazy voodoo witch, who he'll later come to know as Calypso a former lover of Kraven, another member of his rogues gallery.  Using her control over the dangerous beast, she succeeds in poisoning, tormenting, and nearly destroying Spider-Man in a single evening, until he manages to pull a desperate turn-around at the last second and hold them both off.  Calypso brings the building down upon herself, leaving Spider-Man injured, bewildered, and wanting for answers about his vicious assailant.

This storyline is known as the 5-part arc that started the Spider-Man title that artist Todd McFarlane both drew and wrote in 1990, and I think it amply shows some of the problems McFarlane had with writing in the beginning.  Many of the situations, dialog, and overall plotting suffered from lack of coherence, sophistication, and more than a hint of "I'm in charge and I want to do this my way because I can," as opposed to the focus being on telling a good story.  The overall concept isn't bad, but many of the particulars caused me to furrow my brow, rub my head, or otherwise perform gestures of confusion, annoyance, or dismissal.

One example are the thought boxes, which are overused and inconsistent in perspective.  Occasionally McFarlane will use a different color to indicate a shift in perspective or who the thinker is, but more often than not you get no clues or hints as the internal thoughts of Spider-Man go from his own first-person perspective to a third-person omniscient narrator, to a mildly sinister second-person perspective with no rhyme or reason.  It strikes me as a novice mistake, made by a guy whose primary trade until this point has been in illustrating.  It's forgivable in light of this being essentially a rookie writer, but it doesn't erase how distracting it was from the flow of the narrative.

I also found McFarlane's narrative choices to be questionable at times.  More than a few times, I was wondering what the point of having Mary Jane in the story was at all.  She served no purpose, other than to remind the reader that Spidey has a hot, red-headed supermodel wife, who instead of waiting nervously for her superhero husband to return home, buries her worries and goes out dancing without him.  I understand the need to portray MJ as more than just a stay-at-home, hand-wringing loved one, but in the context of this story, she just comes off as, at best, unnecessary, and at worst, self-absorbed.

The overall story--Calypso controlling the Lizard to fight Spider-Man and bring him to her so she could torture him--was actually quite good.  I enjoyed the interplay between Spider-Man, who kept looking for Dr. Curt Conners inside the Lizard, and the Lizard, who only responded on an instinctual, animal level.  There was no Conners for Spider-Man to reach out to in this story.  The brief recounting of Calypso's acquisition of supernatural powers through the sacrifice of her younger sister was also interesting, though if you blink you'll miss it.

Art-wise, I can't claim to be a huge McFarlane fan.  For every time he draws an awesomely posed, dynamic Spider-Man swinging through the air, I see another instance of his work on everyday people that I dislike.  I seem to remember one picture of MJ that makes her look like she has a lazy eye!  The Lizard is done viciously well, often with McFarlane utilizing the black of shadows to emphasize his gleaming fangs.  And Calypso, for all her crazy and malice, looks dangerous and beautiful.  McFarlane clearly likes putting a lot of detail into his work, from long tails to plenty of flowing chains.

Overall, this isn't a bad story.  It suffers from some poor decisions in scripting and narration, but the overall concept is worth checking out.  The art, while it has its flaws, also has its high points, and when McFarlane hits those, he really shines.  Spider-Man and Todd McFarlane fans should definitely know about this story, if not have already read it.  Other readers might enjoy it, but probably don't absolutely need to read it.  Recommended.

GN Review -- Spider-Man: Origin of the Species / Mark Waid and Paul Azaceta

What happens when a plethora of your enemies plans to steal your best friend's newborn son so that he can be experimented on?  How do you begin to keep that child safe, even with the best of intentions and spider-powers, when numbers, the media, and the police are all working against you?  Peter Parker sees just how far he can go to outstrip the infamous Parker Luck when a child's life is on the line in Spider-Man: Origin of the Species.

Peter, dealing with the typically tough trappings of his new life--money troubles, a hard-headed roommate, and a reputation both in and out of costume as a horrible human being--meets his friends for coffee, when the untimely arrival of Menace--aka Harry's ex, Lily Hollister--heralds a struggle with higher stakes than anyone is prepared for.  Before we know it, Spider-Man has grabbed the newborn child she's delivered, and is put through his paces to keep the boy out of the clutches of some of his deadliest foes--and the Looter--all of whom are working for Spidey's arch-nemesis, Doctor Octopus, who wants to use the newborn's unique biochemistry to cure his withered body.  It becomes both a physical and an emotional roller coaster ride as Spider-Man evades foes, loses the child, and becomes obsessed with both revenging himself upon anyone who had a hand in the baby's kidnapping and searching for and recovering Harry's son.

I have to say, this was a fun story.  I mean, I know the idea of Spidey swinging frenetically around the city with a newborn baby in his possession while he tries to avoid enemy after enemy who wants to either kidnap the kid or pound Spidey's flesh into the ground should be alarming on some level--I seriously doubt a newborn would survive that kind of ride without some form of injury, or even death--but you have to admit, if there's a better setup for a gauntlet, it's really hard to imagine what it is.  Plus, we get to see Spider-Man using his wits against the apparently brilliant Doc Ock, using him as bait for the Lizard near the end.

Also of paramount importance is the discovery that, near the end of the story, newborn Stanley Osborn is not the son of Harry's father, Norman.  This is significant not only because it means he won't be in any further danger due to his genome--Doc Ock thought he was the product of Norman Osborn and Lily Hollister, both of whom had unique genetic properties due to their ingesting various permutations of the Goblin Serum--but it also means that, despite all of Norman's efforts to take Lily from Harry, that Harry is after all looking after his son, and not his brother.  It's a heartening end to the Harry-Lily-Norman debacle, one that will hopefully herald better things for Harry and his family.

I didn't think I was going to like Paul Azaceta's artwork at the beginning of the story, as it seemed flat, simple, and with no real depth at first.  But as I read on, I found that it works pretty well with the story being told, with Spider-Man rushing into and out of trouble, desperate to find and rescue the baby, and all manner of volatile events happening in the blink of an eye.  With so much going on, the style actually works--the looks on the villains' faces as Spidey hunts them down in vengeance are particularly memorable--and the use of darkness and shading really works towards some of the end action scenes.  I think those who take their time to read and peruse the artwork may have issues with it, and I'm not sure how well it would be received in a slower-paced, more measured story arc, but I really do like it in this story.

Overall, I think this story will stand as a good example of how difficult life can be if you're Spider-Man.  Peter's attempts to keep baby Osborn alive, while somewhat comical, also take a turn for the dark, and his life out of costume is no picnic, either.  It kept me turning the pages, and the heart-warming resolution leaves the indelible conclusion that, while life is often hard for both Peter Parker and Spider-Man, it's always worth it for both of them to try their hardest to help others.  Highly recommended.