Snapshot! Non-Stop Spider-Man #1

Full disclosure before we start, I always prefer the B-title. As a reader I usually gravitate more to the smaller stories, like Paul Jenkin’s Peter Parker or Peter David’s Friendly Neighbourhood. Those are the Spidey stories that matter to me. Where does Non-Stop Spider-Man fit in? Let’s find out.

Depth of Field:

From Joe Kelly and Chris Bachalo the creators of Norah Winters and Shed comes “the most action-packed, pulse-pounding, adrenaline-pumping comic OF ALL TIME”.

While I’m not sure it delivered completely on the promise, it’s certainly fast paced. The story is essentially a race against time as Spider-Man receives a call from an ESU classmate who has potentially just taken a deadly new designer drug. Spidey swings across town with the antidote and battles some “tutorial baddies” while the exposition is delivered through flashback.

Focal Point:

From what research I’ve done into this series’ origin, I’m led to believe that this is Chris Bachalo’s book. That the Spidey office wanted him and asked him to pick a writer to partner with. Bachalo’s choice was Joe Kelly, having worked together on a number of projects before. If you’ve read their previous work, it’s likely you may have already made up your mind about the series. To an extent this certainly feels like their previous collaborations. The opening pages gave me a vivid flashback to Amazing Spider-Man #575 from Brand New Day (you remember Gerta, right?). You are dropped into a busy scene already well underway and the action fills the panel.

The art during the action scenes are the comic equivalent of shaky-cam. The prospective is an extreme close-up. This and the cantered angles do make me feel like I’m seeing a kinetic action sequence unfold. The drawback being I have to really study the page a few times to see the whole picture. That delays the momentum the art was going for.

Another delay is the text. Kelly covered an action packed splash page with thirty (30) caption boxes, which seems counter-intuitive if this is aiming to be a Bachalo showcase. When the action moves to the flashbacks we see a different approach from the art, as Bachalo opts to use a more standard panel layouts to depict scenes from a wake and a library where his bombastic approach really wouldn’t work.

While panel layout is definitely something Bachalo is having fun with, I think his real strength as an artist comes from character design. The villains in the action sequences are very video game influenced, stylised and certainly stand out as being more than the average drug dealers.

The plot is light this issue, Kelly quickly sets up two of Peter’s classmates; Austin and Kel. One recently deceased due to an overdose, another at risk of following the same path. The flashbacks exposited as much as they need to so we could follow the story. We can see from Peter’s dialogue he is angry about the death and is willing to take his anger out on the drug dealers. As we have never met Austin before it’s hard for me to connect to Peter’s grief – even those at Austin’s wake would prefer to talk about their recent Netflix binge. Though to be fair, Kel was introduced in Amazing Spider-Man 833 by Nick Spencer and made such an impact I had to google her to be sure. If Austin has appeared previously please let me know.

I’ve alluded already to the Brand New Day feel for the book, and Kelly’s writing encapsulates that era. Spider-Man’s humour is set to maximum strength. While some of the wit lands and did cause me to laugh, there is too much of it. I like that Spider-Man quips, but every line out of his mouth doesn’t need to be a zinger. He’s not hosting the Oscars. This was Peter’s character during the BND era and doesn’t really fit with how he has been written currently.

This may all sound like I’m down on the issue. When actually I really enjoyed it as a piece of entertainment. It was colourful and fun and a welcome distraction from the Kindred saga unfolding in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man. I’m interested to see how Spider-Man battles a designer drug on campus, and the role these high-tech villains will play. Though as a sister-title to Spencer’s run; it doesn’t fit. Amazing is challenging us to be critical thinkers, look for clues and develop theories. Non-Stop is a popcorn action movie. It’s not bad, but not what we’ve come to expect from a Spider-Man book in the Nick Spencer age. I don’t think Non-Stop is going to bring us anything like what David or DeMatteis gave us in the pages of Spectacular, but I think it could be a fun rollercoaster.

There was also a backup story following a letter from the editor. The backup story introduces the storyline’s main antagonist. No spoilers to preserve the surprise. He’s not someone I’m overly familiar with, but he is appearing in a Disney+ show later this month, so that might catch me up. Synergy!

Grade: C+

Photobombed:

As Peter jumps out of a fifteen story window and changes into Spider-Man during the fall he is accompanied by the Comedian’s Smiley face badge (minus the blood spatter). You’ve got to feel pretty confident in your work to start page one of your new series with a Watchmen reference. Hey, go big or go home. I’ll save my feelings on Watchmen for another day.

I’ve noticed recently Chris Bachlo enjoys dropping characters from his other series into crowd scenes, and as with Amazing Spider-Man 815; Doctor Strange and Zelma are there to see Spider-Man do battle with the “street samurai”…maybe give us an update on your Mephisto investigation while your here, Doc?

Negative Exposure:

I do get annoyed when Marvel up the  price of the first issue. It seems an odd business strategy. Netflix’s don’t charge more for your first month. I’m not saying issue #1 should be a free trail, but surely a reduced cost to get the book into more hands would be a better strategy.

Zoom In:

What did you think of Non-Stop Spider-Man? Full speed ahead, or stalled in place? Let me know in the comments!

• Adam (alias AdamBParker)