The Good
Comics just plain look different today than they did forty or fifty years ago. This is clear to anyone who’s taken a look at the various and extensive collections from the Silver Age of comics, but if there’s one thing that’s changed even more: it’s the cartoons. From the stiff, flat animation of Spider-Man’s 1967 outing all the way up to the more fluid, slick style of the modern Ultimate Spider-Man (and that’s the cartoon for those keeping score), even the way the Wall-Crawler is portrayed has undergone a massive change. Christos Gage crafts a tale of the latter, and Miles Morales (that’s the COMIC Ultimate Spider-Man, keep up!) entering the primary colored world of 1967 cartoons to recruit, as Ultimate Spidey puts it, “Mad Men Spider-Man.” And it works so well and on so many levels. Gage absolutely nails the dialect, even the parody of it, and the flow of one of these episodes to a tee. We even get some of Ultimate Pete’s mugging/breaking the fourth wall, which is something nice for Miles and ‘67 Parker to bond over.
Combining such disparate visuals can’t have been easy, but Dave Williams’ pencils sure does make it look that way. While Miles and Ultimate Peter look out of place, it’s apropos and actually does a great job of playing up the fact that this is another dimension, making them look even more like outsiders. He also does a fantastic job balancing how stiff and awkward all the ‘60s characters look with how smooth and kinetic the two modern ones do, even though they’re all in a static medium. Dexter Vines’ is a prolific inker and this issue shows why: the lines are defined, sure, but again these are very, very different styles that need to come together and look like they belong, but not TOO much. Vines’ inks are different across all the characters and settings and let the reader know, at a glance, that this is not a usual situation. Finally Chris Sotomayor’s colors fuse the styles perfectly, using bombastic primaries for the 60s and darker, more subtle palettes and shadows for the two interdimensional travelers.
We also get a tale of Spider-Gwen meeting up with a Peter Parker who, in the face of her death, wound up killing not only Green Goblin but metaphorically killing Spider-Man and taking on the mantle of the Goblin for himself. Gerry Conway does a great job with very little space of heightening the tragedy of these two characters (Gwen, of course, is driven by the blame she places on herself for her dimensions’ Parker’s death) and allows both of them to both grieve and, briefly, celebrate finding each other again. Steven Sanders’ linework frames the frantic tale that scarcely lets up on the rushed pace, and Andrew Crossley’s colors are appropriately dour and dark both for the setting, characters and story.
The Bad
If it seems like one of those stories got the short-shrift one of those stories, it’s only because that’s how the issue felt. It feels like this should have been an over-sized issue with a higher price point, because while the first story is a wonderful romp that does a great job not only of setting up the characters, but the universe it takes place in AND manages to throw in a story worthy of the source material. The second one feels rushed and way, way too frantic. It feels like the characters are just starting to make an impact and the story is over. It's not just that the story ends before it begins, it ends JUST as it's getting good. There’s also something of a whiplash effect transitioning from the light-hearted jaunt of the first story into the intense tragedy of the second.
The Verdict
Both of these stories are still good if not great, it just feels like there should have been more of the second one. The first one stands strongly enough that the issue is absolutely worth checking out, however, and both stand as further strengthening the characters involved in Spider-Verse. The second story is still a solid one, it just doesn't have a chance to make a real impact. The creators across the board do a great job with what they’re given, it’s just unfortunate that one team had much, much less space to work with.
