Tangled
Web #22: “The System”Script: Brian Patrick Walsh
Pencils: Alberto Dose
Inks: Steve Buccellato (who inked the majority of tangled web)
Story: So here it is the last issue of tangled web, and what do we get? A big bang frenzy that will cause fans to remember tangled web for the genius it was, or a flat story that looks like a 3 year old drew it? Well it’s not the big bang I would have liked but its okay. This very “severance package” like issue sees the seedy underside of Spidey’s fight against crime, and how the lawyers are now using Spiderman assault’s as a chance to get their clients out of court. But fear not in the end justice prevails thanks to the bugle and the “crims” are sent down.
The Good: This issue has a distinctive severance package feel to it, which is defiantly a good thing. It deals with spidey in relation to the law, which is something all the good issues of tangled web have touched upon and as a result already stands-out as a good ish. However it doesn’t take it far enough to get those elusive 5 webheads, but the issue is far from bad. The art is some of the best featured in the web with dose’s gritty yet simple characters enhancing the story that was already pretty good on its own. Some of the best bits are the good-cop/bad-cop routines performed by the police heroes Harrison and Donovan.
The Bad: It would have been nice if Marvel had brought out something really big for the last issue of this series that has been interesting yet on the whole a little hit and miss. I just felt they would have attempted something daring before axing this series which had such potential.
Rating: Where’s the bang?. 4 webheads out of 5.
Tangled
Web #21: “T’was the fight before Xmas”
Script: Darwyn Cooke
Pencils: Jay Bone
Inks: Matt Hollingsworth
Story: Following in the foot steps
of previous issues like open all night (valentines special) Marvel give
us a distinctly Christmasy issue. It’s the night before Christmas and
Peter’s off doing his errands when he stumbles across a group of lost
children so where does he take them the bugle of course before heading
off to continue his santa-esque spidey work. Meanwhile a mystery villain
is using Medusa and Flash Thompson dressed as Spiderman to hold up a
mall, but who should turn up to stop him the Fantastic Four. Anyway
mayhem ensues spidey shows up to stop the fighting, Thing catches the
villain who turns out to be PUPPET MASTER. And everything ends happily
with Jonah looking after the kids and every one smiling on the last
page. (I did say everyone even the puppet master gets paid a festive
visit in jail by his daughter Alicia.)
The Good: This is your typical
festive story in which there’s a fight and then a big happy ending in
which Jonah looks like a sweet guy. But what does this issue have that
sets it apart from other spidey Xmas books? For a start it has a cameo
by the fantastic four and most of the Richard’s family including
relatives like medusa and crystal. The arts very cartoony but suits the
festive nature of the story and for a change something else stood out.
This something else was the letters, it was good to finally see a comic
that didn’t have the standard letters but instead featured something a
little more fun.
The Bad: Overall the story wasn’t
great and got a bit confusing at times, and the art was so cartoony that
in places like fight scenes it looked stupid but other than that the
issue was okay. Anyway it is Christmas.
Rating: Christmasy. 3 webheads out
of 5.
Tangled
Web #20: “Behind the Moustache”
Script: Zeb Wells
Pencils: Dean Haspiel
Inks: Steve Buccellato
Story: what is it that makes
Spiderman’s arch nemesis tick? Well this issue is about to find out
when we go behind the moustache on the man that is J. Jonah Jameson.
After suffering a heart attack JJ is forced to seek physiological help
(its about time) or pay the extensive medical bill himself. Being the
skinflint he is Jonah goes to see a shrink and via the art of hypno-therapy
we learn why Jonah is how he is and why he despises heroes.
The Good: Its and interesting issue
that delves into the past of the bugle editor and looks at what makes
him the monster he is to day. It talks about the way he was treated by
his drunken army hero dad and how he eventually stood up to him and
inadvertently turned himself into the man he is today. The issue
features some good bits, for example when a spidey fan give Jonah a
heart attack and Jonah’s very own style of lighting a camp fire. But
other than these few parts the issue is nothing special, it’s nice for
the sheer novelty of learning about Jameson.
The Bad: The art is nothing special
and there is no real action, or spidey for that matter but other than
this the issue is good. However it’s not ground breaking, it’s a
nice issue but there is nothing in it that make sit stand out form any
other issues of tangled web.
Rating: Good, but not great. 3 ½
webheads out of 5.
Tangled
Web #19: “Call Of The Wild”
Script: Robbie Morrison
Pencils: Jim Mahfood
Inks: Steve Buccellato
Story: Grizzly’s out of jail and
ready to turn his life around, he’s done the courses and now its time
to live a crime free life. But guess who’s living across the hall and
keeps turning up at all of his favourite places- RHINO. After a series
of stolen job opportunities and a hilarious online dating mix up rhino
and grizzly become best of friends while turning back to their lives of
crime.
The Good:
in my opinion the best thing this comic had
going for it was Mahfood’s name on the front. There’s just something
about the way this guy draws, his style is so simple and clean. Don’t
get me wrong I love the complexity of someone like Salvador Larroca but
just seeing a page full of nice clean art greatly improves any story.
Sure it was nothing groundbreaking, but it didn’t try to be. If you
liked this try reading some of Mahfood’s other work like “stupid
comics”.
The art wasn’t the only thing this issue had going for it the story
amusing right the way through and fitted perfectly with Mahfood’s
style. It was also good to see some of spidey’s old villains being
taken out and given a good airing.
The Bad: For fans of action spidey
this isn’t really one for you, it lacked any real fighting (and for
good reason). But this wasn’t that kind of comic, this was an issue
designed to give people a quick break from reality nothing more, nothing
less.
Rating: Just NICE!. 4 webheads out
of 5.
Tangled
Web #18: “Alphabet City”
Script: Ted McKeever
Pencils: Ted McKeever
Inks: Steve Buccellato
Story: A language
analysing psycho bumps in to the spelling vigalante, typeface and
immediately tries to set himself up as his side kick. However typeface
isn’t too happy with his over communicable helper and ends up tying
him to a lamp post for spidey to pick up.
The Good: hmmmm it was a spiderman
comic.
The Bad: What more
can I say than YUK! Sure it’s a harsh thing to say but other than the
cover (which isn’t that great) this issue is bad. The art and story
are scrappy and as for the subject matter, a story about heroes that
spell, come on. Okay its always good to see a new hero being introduced
even if they are the badly named spellcheck, but with the lousy art all
the humor just died. Sure some people like this gritty style of drawing
and it has its place, but not in this issue. Maybe if it had been drawn
neatly the story might have been okay, but I just found myself getting
lost in the mass of scrawl that dominated each page. The story its self
was too simple and the reason it was able to fill an issue was because
of the inane over complicated drivel coming out of spellcheck’s mouth.
This issue makes “megalomanical spider-man” look more readable with
every page.
Rating: Very poor. 0 webheads out of
5.
Tangled
Web #17: “HeartBreaker”
Story: With the betrayal of
Tombstone at the end of the last issue we see our antihero in solitary
confinement as guard Sangesse and the Kangaroo shift the balance of
poser and exact some revenge. Meanwhile Ohnn is at his parole hearing
and getting out thanks to squealing on tombstone who takes a turn for
the worse and ends up on the medical bay ready to be shipped to the main
land. In the med-bay Tombstone makes a deal with guard Mckenna to teach
kangaroo a lesson and to have Sangesse riding in the ambulance with him.
So Mckenna slips kangaroo some fake information, which gets him stuck in
a vent (and on the receiving end of the prison, lady-boys recreational
activities). Meanwhile tombstone is on his way to the hospital when
suddenly the ambulance crashes in to a mysterious portal, freeing
Tombstone and putting Sangesse in line for some serious beatings whilst
teleporting the ambulance to Switzerland. Seven weeks later we find out
it was ohnn’s (aka The Spots) portal that freed tombstone, who was
then able to get his operation in Switzerland and return to Harlem to
meet up with The Spot. Who makes the mistake of asking for a favor and
ends up with a snapped neck.
My 2 cents: when the first part was
as good as issue 16 the second part needs to be great and believe me it
was. The issue was very dark and for some reason only had a PG rating.
This issue contain quite a bit of prison humour like the part where
kangaroo’s stuck in the vent but all in all this isn’t a funny issue
with vicious beating cropping up frequently. The art is yet again
stunning from start to finish, which is something all spidey comics have
in common. Anyone who has watched five minutes of “OZ” will easily
see where this prison related issue got its inspiration, and in my
opinion its all the better for it. Like “severance package” “heartbreaker”
is a must own for any comic fan even if they don’t like spidey.
Rating: The darker side of spidey. 5
webheads out of 5.
Tangled
Web #16: “HeartBreaker”
St
ory: This
issue sees the return of Tombstone to Spider-Man comics as he bursts
through the doors of a hospital on a stretcher having suffered a heart
attack during a bank robbery. After that he’s whisked away by
helicopter and dropped from a helicopter on to an island fortress where
he’s probed by the what looks like the new Doc Ock arms from amazing
43. He’s then sent to his cell, which is shared by Ohnn who’s not
too happy about sharing. Soon after Tombstone has a run in with Kangaroo
and gets a beating in return, but with the help of his new crew (Rocket
Racer, Hypno Hustler and Big Ben) he plans to get himself instant
credibility by killing Kangaroo. The plan goes smoothly up until the
point where the guards burst in as he’s trying to kill Kangaroo.
The Good: My 2 cents: a dark and
scary issue this month, which is set to get even darker next month. The
sadistic guards and gruesome in mates make this a great issue which is a
lot like the TV series “OZ”. This OZ like feel caries on through the
whole issue and its pretty clear this is one of the places Way got his
inspiration. The issue has some funny bits to break up the dark content
like tombstone hiding some scissors with the help of some Vaseline (you
do the math). Other good moments are every time Kangaroo talks in that
dodgy incoherent Australian accent. This could easily be one of the best
tangled web story lines yet with the art looking great and perfectly
fitting the subject matter.
Rating: Highly Recommended. I can’t
wait for the second part.
Spider-Man's
Tangled Web #15 "The Collaborator"
The Good: Well, this book has always
been good. Period. Every story worked in its own unique way, the art
magnified it and it always left you with a new look at the wall-crawler.
Not this one.
This is a story of, well, heck it doesn't even really follow one single
person like most of the other Tangled Web issues did. According to all
previews I read before the book was released it is about Heather Krolnek,
who doesn't appear until about 8 pages in to this book. She loves
Spider-Man, has him on the walls, has scrap books, the whole deal, I
suppose.
Her father, superintendent of the building they live in, hates the web
spinner. After spending some time building stuff in the basement he goes
to his daughter to send her to bed, finding all the posters. After an
angry fit he tears them down. Heather pretends to be asleep until her
father grabs his duffle bag where he put his strange contraptions from
earlier and sneaks out, then she proceeds to get up and put together all
the posters she can. While doing so she hears reports on the radio about
a super villain making a stand at a bank not too far from her home.
Looking through her scrap books she determines this "Stag
Beetle" must be a new one, and heads down to the bank.
Overjoyed about the idea of her first super-villain, she rushes to the
scene and tries to sneak past the police barrier.
Meanwhile mayhem ensues between the police and our new armored menace,
the "Stag Beetle." Amidst the confusion, Heather sneaks
through into the bank where the new guy turns into after a long battle
with the boys in blue. He huffs his way through the partially destroyed
bank and grabs a familiar duffle bag filled with cash. After the
"Stag Beetle" has left Heather's area, we see her sneaking
around, with a bit of red and blue sneaking around behind her. The best
part by far is when Spidey finally shows up in his nine panels in the
last 4 pages of the book. Almost silent as well, with only Heather
telling him which way the villain went. At the end, Heather recognizes
the duffle bag finally, and screams "dad." Spidey saved this
book.
The Bad: Lengthy set-up at the
beginning, for an ultimately weak ending. The story was left unresolved,
and as far as I can tell, it isn't a multi-part story. I wouldn't even
want it to be a multi-part story, the "villain" was weak, but
we can deal with that. The main character of this story, Heather, was
whiny against her dad, but was bold enough to sneak through a fire
fight. She didn't level out to me. The art seemed to fit, but wasn't
good, except for the panels with Spidey in fullcolor.
The Ugly: So this is where I get to
complain some more. This title has always been good, in my opinion. I've
always thought it was quite original getting another look at Spider-Man
through these other characters for a one shot or a couple of issues at a
time. But this issue went so far against the caliber of this title's
consistency, that I suggest you only pick it up if you are indeed a
collector.
Rating: I give this book 2 out of 5
Spidey Heads, just based on the fact that the Spidey's hand panel would
make a cool poster.
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Tangled Web #11-14
