written by Zeb Wells
drawn by Patrick Gleason
colored by Marcio Menyz
Having been stabbed by Kraven the Hunter with a spear magically imbued with Norman Osborn's evil essence, Spider-Man becomes the darkest version of himself that he has ever been. He dons his black suit once more and sets out to take his revenge on Kraven's clone for his father's act of burying him alive lo those many years ago. Meanwhile, Norman Osborn tries to stop Peter from trodding a road Norman knows all too well, but he can never catch him in time.
I was in grade school when Marvel published the highly influential Spider-Man stories "The Death of Jean DeWolff" and "Kraven's Last Hunt" but they were kind enough to reprint them over the years and as a result I was able read them both. In particular, it's "Kraven's Last Hunt" that leaves the greater impression. To my mind it's one of the best Spider-Man stories ever, and I totally get why Marvel is revisiting it with this story. Zeb Wells doesn't even have to do that much this issue besides call up nostalgia from that seminal 80s story, but he deserves props just the same for evoking just the right atmosphere.
The real star of this issue, though is Patrick Gleason, whose moody art, ably supplemented by Marcio Menyz's color palette pays proper homage to Mike Zeck's and Bob McLeod's fantastic artwork from that story. Visually, this issue is simply flawless to my mind.
Yes, Marvel have done "dark Peter" a number of times before, to varying degrees of success, but there's a different twist to this, and I am really interested to see where they will ultimately take this.
9/10
No comments:
Post a Comment