Chip Zdarsky was given his own Spidey title by Marvel and many people thought it would be the answer to Dan Slott’s Amazing Spider-Man. This promised to be the grounded, back to basics Spidey book that Slott’s ASM is very much not. However with issue two having come out this week, Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man may not be the book we were looking for.
Spider-Man may not be Tony Stark but he’s certainly not Deadpool either. Zdarsky’s voice for Peter is as if the “Merc With A Mouth” wrote the dialogue himself in order to mock him. It’s amping up the wrong characteristics of Peter.
The dialogue may be funny at times, but better suited for a Deadpool series. Even the narration and forward feels like a carbon copy of Deadpool comics in their heyday. Parker may be a corny wisecracker, but that’s not his only character trait.
This may not be such an overwhelming issue with the comic if it weren’t so heavily drenched in dialogue. Between overloaded panels and Chip’s notes, word balloons overpopulate every page. There’s entirely too much “telling” and not enough “showing.”
Visually there’s not much to grab onto either. If you can push past the text, nothing of note is even happening. There are a number of panels where the web lines on Spider-Man’s suit are just a mess.
I think Zdarsky is a fantastic writer, especially when it comes to comedy. However, he’s pouring it on entirely too heavy just two issues into this series. Marvel may have misfired on this hiring.
Those who think Slott’s Spidey book is too far from Peter being himself and too much like Tony Stark will find little solace here. This is too extreme of a shift just to oppose the other title.
I had high hopes for this series given its creative team, but these first two issues have been rough. It’s still early enough to turn it around, but it’s unlikely to drastically alter its tone.
