Snapshot! Savage Spider-Man #3

Writer: Joe Kelly

Artist: Gerardo Sandoval and Mike Bowden

I’ve made my peace with this book. Is it a waste of time and money? Yes – except as an art book. They definitely tried my patience when they used two pages for the credits and previously on. What a waste! If you want an “important” or “interesting” Spider-man book, there are others out there. That being said – I set myself a challenge; does this book tell us anything about Peter Parker? Does this book have a reason to exist? Answer: kinda.

Depth of Field:The Immaculatum clash with Zemo and his new minion the Savage Spider-Man.

Focal point:This is the middle issue of a five issue arc. It’s mostly a fight scene that slowly moves the “plot” forward.

During the fight; Zemo takes out one of the Immaculatum and for reasons the book doesn’t really explore, Zemo decides to use this as an opportunity to submit his CV. The Immaculatum, a group of killers that have spent their existence trying to destroy Zemo, have allowed him to join their team. Zemo, a nazi, has agreed to join a team made up of every ethnicity. I’m sure this will go well, and neither side will pull a double-cross.

I teased earlier that I decided to assess this book on “does it show us anything about Peter?” For the majority of the issue, it doesn’t. Peter is a mindless monster, fighting for the sake of fighting. However when a set of missiles flies on a collision course for the city, the Savage Spider-Man’s subconscious takes over and convinces him to sacrifice himself to save the innocent people. That was a tiny “hell yeah” moment. Even as a mindless savage Peter is able to access the great power/great responsibility part of his brain and do the right thing.

Like other Peter has turned into a monster stories, the Savage Spider-Man is mortally wounded and so forms a cocoon around himself. As Zemo and his new team fly away, the Savage Spider-Man escapes his cocoon, and though his mind appears to still be animalistic, his body had returned to Peter’s default setting. Will he keep the organic webbing? Does he have any new powers? Will this book effect the status quo? The editors didn’t ask those questions, so you certainly don’t need to worry.

While the story is nothing to get existed about – I do like the art. Gerardo Sandoval is channeling the mood of Chris Bachalo while being able to tell the story in a more satisfactory manner.

B Roll: None existent. Weren’t Doctor Strange and Norah Winters helping Spider-Man with this case? Looks like they decided to leave him to it…

Photobombed: I just need to take this opportunity to let people know – this isn’t me. I am not negative by nature. If you want to spend some money on comics I have recommendations. The current Moon Knight book is fantastic, Robin from the distinguished competition is a lot of fun. If you want a working class hero balancing life and super heroics Radiant Black from Images delivers. That being said…

Negative Exposure: This book doesn’t need to exist. And I know it’s entertainment, nothing needs to exist. But I feel like Nick Spencer and Zeb Wells had something they wanted to say. About love and partnership or individuality vs corporations. This book is about race, but offers nothing new – the characters aren’t even committed to their ideologies. It may be interesting to explore Peter’s point of view while fighting villains whose agenda is to destroy people from multiple races. Those seen as “impure”. However to do this we’d need Peter to actually be in the story. Zemo is the main character here, but Marvel know no one’s paying $4 for a Zemo book.

Grade: F – Two pages for the credits and previously on. That is padding pretending to be prestigious!

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What did you think of Savage Spider-Man? Let me know in the comments!

Adam