Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #310 Review.

Writer:  Chip Zdarsky

Artists: Chip Zdarsky

Editors:  Nick Lowe

E.I.C:  C.B. Cebulski

Crawlspace Reviewer: Chi-Town Spidey

Crawlspace E.I.C: Brad Douglas

Starts off with panels of different people giving their take on Spider-Man.  Some like him, some hate him, some think he’s Daredevil.  We then cut to Spider-Man stopping a robbery and catching all the crooks.  The last one is just a kid who was the lookout and is pretty shaken up that he’s been caught.  Spider sympathizes and lets him off.  He’s just a kid.  We then cut back to the narrative of more people sharing their thoughts on Spider-Man.  A hotdog vendor that Spidey saved and now gives him free hotdogs for life..so now he complains about Spider-Man showing up to cash in EVERY DAY.

The panel focuses on one particular person, the mother of the kid that was the lookout to the robbery Spidey stopped.  She begins to explain that Spider-Man has given him a second chance and he’s using it wisely.  Well behaved now, instead of angry.  He’s kinder, better and is actually getting good grades in school now.  Why, because to the mother’s surprise, Spider-Man is actually tutoring him.  More panels of narrative showing what people think of Spider-Man and a surprise cameo from Captain America.  The mother shows up again to give her thoughts and starts to cry.  When Spider-Man showed up to check on her kid and tutor him, he wasn’t in the room.  The mother tells Spider-Man that he was murdered by the crooks in that robbery and blamed the kid for getting caught.  Angry, Spider-Man goes after them and catches them.  All these narratives are from a student who is doing a documentary on Spider-Man for school and actually interviewed Peter Parker.

Wow!  Grab a tissue folks!  I even shed a couple of tears on this one.  I had my doubts that Zdarsky would deliver the goods on his last issue.  Never been more happy to be proven wrong!  His last issue was BETTER than Slott’s last issue of ASM!  Well done  Mr. Zdarsky, well done indeed!  He bids a found farewell to his love of this character and closes his curtain on this series.  Hey!  He can draw too!  So let’s dive right in and show you how good he did it.

A second chance.  I want to dive right into this point because people may have conflicting ideas on this matter.  We all know Spider-Man failed to stop the crook and in turn that killed his Uncle Ben.  It’s the hard lesson he learned.  In this issue, he gives this kid a second chance by letting him off.  I know what you are saying “Wait a tick, Chi-Town.  Spidey doesn’t do that!”  I would say that you are correct.  Spider-Man has responded back to may thieves “You should have thought about that before…” when they begged to be let go.  Those were adults doing this thing time and time again.  Here, we have a kid.  A scared kid that got way over his head.

So Spidey grants him a pass.  HE’S A KID.  A kid’s father was a crook.  He went down the wrong path.  It’s Spider-Man generosity that get’s this boy a second chance.  This kid (Kyle) actually changed his tune.  He was once angry, but now better behaved.  Kinder and does good grades in school and Spidey HELPED with that.  This is Spider-Man showing responsibility!  Yes, he let the kid go, even though he was just a look out, he still took part int he crime.  Spidey feels it’s his responsibility to make sure this kid stays on the straight and narrow and he’s been doing that!

It’s also good to see different point of views from other people on Spider-Man  We as the reader KNOW Spider-Man is a hero, but Zdarsky nails that other people don’t.  Some like him and some hate him.  Some wish he would just go away and others think the world is better off with him here.  Different opinions that capture the humanity of this world.  Spider-Man represents that humanity.  Zdarsky doesn’t play around with just ONE person encountering Spider-Man, he dabs on many.  Especially on a kid.  All kids love Spider-Man.  He’s the hero they can look up to.  The friendly neighborhood kind.  I like how Zdarsky reminds the reader that, even in comics, all things are not sunshine and rainbows.  Especially when Kyle’s mom informs Spider-Man of her son’s death.  Murdered (least that the impression I got).  Spider-Man keeps his anger in check and nails down the murder’s and I’ll tell ya.  That should be very thankful Spider-Man caught them…what if they ticked off The Punisher?!!!  Spidey keeps his morals in check, but when business is done, he let’s it all out.

Very emotional if you ask me and represents the character very nicely!  I do give a lot a crap to ZDarsky on this series, but his last issue here…a home run.  Truly reminds us of who Spider-Man is and how we should learn from that.

Grade: A