Snapshot! Deadly Neighbourhood Spider-Man #1

Snapshot Returns!

I’ll be honest, I was hesitant to return. I have not read a single issue comic since Savage Spider-Man ended. That series BURNT me. Though I did see some positive reviews online, so felt maybe it’s me. Maybe it’s time to take a break. Maybe comics weren’t for me anymore.

When I heard about Deadly Neighbourhood Spider-Man I rolled my eyes. It almost works as a substitute for “Friendly” but my ear just won’t accept it. It’s jarring. Like I missed a step going upstairs.

Then I see a name attached to this new Spider-Man mini. A name I recognised. A name that excited me. That name was Juan Ferreyra (sorry Taboo, musics not my thing. I had to google you). Now I’m interested.  A new Spider-Man mini-series. A fresh start. Let’s go!

Writer: Taboo and B. Earl

Artist: Juan Ferreyra

Depth of Field: Peter, Randy and Janice leave New York and head down to California. Peter’s visiting a local university to assist with an experiment and the newly-engaged couple plan to hit the social scene. While at the university Peter discovers an unusually carved rock, causing the line between dream and reality to blur.

Focal point: The book has two writers, Taboo and Earl, and so it’s difficult to know who wrote what, that being said I suspect Taboo was responsible for the dialogue and Peter’s narration. Like many writers new to the format, they tend to overwrite. There are a lot of caption boxes. However, that’s not a detriment in the issue. The narration is very stylised, and in parts reads like lyrics or poetry. I found myself enjoying the  language used and it really helped add to the dream-scape feeling of the book.

The other writer, Earl, is the more experienced comic writer (most recently a Ghost Rider digital series. I assume they helped build the narrative. We see Peter at work, but also enjoying his time in California. It was fun to see Peter in a new environment, but not in a fish out of water sense. Peter feels almost relaxed at times, and it seems like the weather if is doing him some good.

This is a good start. I was expecting something like Abrams’ Spider-Man, but I’m actually interested to see where this story is going.

Juan Ferreyra delivered. I first saw his artwork over at the Distinguished Competition where he worked on my favourite DC character – Green Arrow. More recently he worked on Spine-Tingling Spider-Man, a Marvel Unlimited release. Ferreyra gets Spider-Man. He drew so many iconic Spider-man possess I struggled to select artwork for this review. I want to share every page. The highlights were Spider-Man riding atop a bus, but also swinging through LA at night.

Then we have the dream sequences which appear throughout the issue. I’m not normally a fan of this sort of thing, as they can seem unimportant, or are used to create false drama, however the artworks sells each of them as being scary or bizarre. Peter believes at first they are his dreams, until they start to move into freaky territory.

Photobombed: The cliff hanger for the issues introduces the series antagonist (I assume). The Demon Bear of New Mutants fame. I assume we will see more of it moving into next issue.

Negative Exposure: If I had to knock the book, some of the dialogue is very “now”. I’m in my late 30’s, and also live in the UK, so I’m sure some of this books “hip” lingo was wasted on me. There’s also a deus ex machina I feel we’ve seen more than 100 times. When the frustrated scientist leaves his lab at the request of his friends, only to find the solution to the problem while out having fun. Not a problem, but also not the most original.

Grade: B+ I think this series has the potential to be fun. I’d recommend it for the art alone, but I’m hopefully that unlike my previous subjects this is going to be more than nice to look at. I mentioned early I found the title of the series jarring, now that I’ve read the first issue, I wonder if that was the point?

Zoom in: What did you think of Deadly Neighbourhood Spider-Man? Let me know in the comments!

Adam