Peter Parker: Spider-Man #42 synopsis

the plot: During a Spring Break party sponsored by Sonic TV, the Sandman attacks, having regained control of his ravaged form after falling apart and washing away (see issue 22 for more on this.) In the end, Spidey defeats the Sandman, and frees the captive music idols that Sandman uses to control his form.

the review: A fill in issue by the much-touted winner of Wizard Magazine's filmmaking contest, Zeb Wells spins a tale designed to lampoon the outragiousness of the music industry and it's hot pop icons. Unfortunatly such a story, while a well-meaning and potentially hilarious one, does not fit in well in a Spidey book, and a core titles at that. I liked the fact that the story followed up on a thread from an earlier issue in this series, but the fact that the Sandman was reduced to little more than a bad joke was a great turn-off. Not only that but some of the parody names were so corny it would, to quote the World's most famous fanboy, "make Stan Lee blush." I mean, seriously. Crisco? N Step? Please. This is one funny book that just tries too hard.

The art however works really well with this story. Jim Mahfood's angular style fits in well, and manages to be both accesibly cartoony, and alternative enough that it'll catch the eye of a jaded reader. I only wish he had done the covers as well, which, I might add, suffered terribly from dreadful coloring. My one complaint is Mahfood's tendency to draw the women wearing little more than ropes with thongs, though that isn't entirely a bad thing. I hated his "hipster" Sandman though.

So, while done with the best intentions I'm sure, Peter Parker: Spider-Man #43 was still an uninteresting mess, and gets *1/2 out of *****. You can skip this one and you won't miss much.

send all email to John Cage
this page is best viewed at 800x600, so you can see everything.