written by Gerry Conway
illustrated by Carlo Barberi
The Spider-Man character has fifty-three years of publication history and has thus been handled by many creators over the years, both writers and artists alike. Apart from co-creator Stan Lee, however, few of them have left a truly indelible mark on the character especially considering how many reboots and status quo changes he has been subjected to over the years. Gerry Conway, however, who took over writing duties from Lee sometime in the 1970s, is one of those writers who has truly left a mark on the character, and on the greater Marvel Universe in general. This is the man, after all, who wrote the story of Norman Osborn killing Gwen Stacy, and who co-created (with Ross Andru and John Romita) Frank Castle, better known as the Punisher.
Prior to late last year, Gerry had not written a Spider-Man comic book in several years. He's not exactly retired; he's still a relatively spry 63 and has been busy primarily writing television shows, as well as comic books from rival publisher DC.
His return to Spider-Man is a rather welcome one, though, especially considering that regular series writer Dan Slott seems to be slumping a bit in his form.
"Spiral" is, at its heart the story of police detective Yuri Watanabe, a character created by Slott and introduced in The Amazing Spider-Man #600 several years ago, who also moonlights as the vigilante the Wraith, and the journey she takes as her precinct finds itself engulfed in a gang war involving Tombstone, Hammerhead, Mr. Negative and erstwhile good guy turned burgeoning crime boss the Black Cat. Spider-Man, fresh off his universe-hopping "Spider-Verse" adventure, teams up with the the Wraith to address this rather serious threat, but even their combined efforts may not be enough to stop the criminal onslaught.
I remember reading a new Fantastic Four comic book written by Stan Lee about four or five years ago, and I was really take quite aback by how atrocious the dialogue was. The guy was basically stuck in the 60s. Conway, in contrast, pretty much has a bead on how people talk today, which is not to say that everyone talks like a "hipster" but simply that the dialogue shared among the characters sounds like conversations one would hear from English-speaking people these days. I suppose the fact that Conway's been writing more than a newspaper comic strip over the years has helped keep his dialogue sounding fresh and contemporary.
More importantly, though, Conway's storytelling prowess seems very much intact, even in this day of decompressed storytelling. After all, this is someone who told stories in the heyday of done-in-one stories, or those that only needed very few issues to tell something complete. More than a few of the five issues of this saga deliver pretty satisfying endings even as the greater narrative continues. Most of the storytelling, as stated, focuses on Yuri Watanabe's growing frustration with the limitations of playing by "the rules" which her job as a police officer requires. Perhaps it's Conway's background in police procedural dramas talking, but Watanabe is a lot more interesting than she was when Slott was writing her. Spider-Man is the voice of conscience here, and his own personal, tragic history makes him all the more authoritative (though of course Watanabe doesn't know any of it). Conway makes good use of the Slott-creations Wraith and Mr. Negative, and ironically, it's his own creations Tombstone and Hammerhead who get minimal face time here (though Hammerhead is pretty prominent in the second issue of the series). Outside of Wraith and Mr. Negative, the Black Cat, who remains the single most significant negative fallout from the entire "Superior Spider-Man" storyline, has the biggest role, and Conway handles it quite well. Of course, his Spidey "voice" is just as spot-on as it's always been. Welcome back, Gerry.
I wasn't too crazy about Barberi's art; he comes across too much as "Mark Brooks-lite" but his character work is serviceable and Marvel could have done a lot worse in terms of choosing artists.
I was a little peeved at this ".1" marketing strategy, which they pulled with this and with the "Learn to Crawl," the prequel miniseries Marvel launched parallel to Peter Parker's return to the webs last year, but I get it; the idea is to get more people to buy these miniseries than normally would if the series was sold as something outside the regular title. Well, it worked in my case; I have both those miniseries.
I wouldn't mind seeing Conway back on TASM for a slightly longer stint, and I'd really be happy if he came with an A-list artist next time, like Arthur Adams who did the covers of the first two issues. Oh, to dream...
8.5/10
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