Welcome back, Wednesday Warriors and True Believers! We are back with another edition of the Marvel Rundown! This week in Marvel is full of multiverse, monsters, mutants and men and maidens in arachnid themed tights! For our main event, a team of spider heroes have come together to face new foes in Spider Society #1. But that’s not all, we’ve got a Rapid Rundown of other noteworthy releases including Miles Morales, Werewolf by Night, and the latest from Marvel’s Merry Mutants in X-Factor #1.
Spider Society #1
Writer: Alex Segura
Artist: Scott Godlewski
Colors: Matt Milla
Letters: VC’s Joe Caramagna
Here is the thing about Spider-Verse books. They have never been as good as the films. They are not what I want out of a Spider-Man story. For me, the character works best on small, personal scales. But Marvel is not interested in telling those stories right now—and the money is obviously in the Spider-Verse. So to read Spider Society #1 means going in with my preconceptions and biases cleared. What does the book present on its own merits? Thankfully, the story has a strong creative team, including journeyman comics writer and novelist Alex Segura and the cartoon stylings of line artist Scott Godlewski. I was optimistic to jump into this one given the talent.
Unfortunately, this book is off to a rocky start. In part because despite being a number one, it reads like a middle chapter, and there is no help to be found on where to catch up and read the preceding chapters. The recap page explains that Spider-Man 2099 has been tasked with saving the Web of Life and Destiny by Madame Web, but has been captured. We pick up with Miles Morales and Ghost Spider being called in by Madame Web for a Spider Society emergency. Unfortunately, it’s a trap set by a multiversal super team of villains calling themselves the Sinister Squadron.
There’s some exciting action and Godlewski handles the huge cast of Spider heroes and various villains well, clearly choreographing the page and making the characters easy to track. The creators smartly follow just a few battles in the big dustup so that we are not playing “Where’s Waldo?” on every page trying to track individuals. Gwen and her Goblin stand out on a page, bursting out of the center surrounded by smaller panels, with only one or two side characters in the background. Godlewski’ s figures are expressive and dynamic, and his crowd shots are impressively rendered without being overstuffed. The decision for a minimal use of backgrounds helps a lot. There’s a few funny visual gags when the Spider Society is gathered together. I was most impressed by the way he draws the villains. He relies on striking silhouettes and iconography, which allows them to stand out on the page and showcase their archetypes.
Matt Milla’s bright colors give the issue a cartoony, pop art style that feels like classic slam-bang superhero comics which is exactly what this low cal action figure bashing adventure calls for. Joe Caramagna’s letters weave through all the big action scenes but more importantly he keeps a sense of order in the pages full of exposition.
Though it isn’t explicitly marketed as such, the book very much feels targeted at younger readers who may be more interested in the Spider-Verse movies or ready to graduate from the children’s shows on Disney Plus than longtime comic fans. There’s not a lot here, storywise, to sink your teeth into, but there are some smart structural and storytelling decisions that elevate it. Segura introduces some compelling new villains and even packs in a decent surprise reveal by issue’s end but the smartest thing he does is lure readers in with the familiar favorites, Gwen and Miles, before pulling the rug out and following a ragtag group of distinctive variants. I’m more interested in where this book leaves off than I was with the familiar swing through New York we started on. The strength of Segura’s script is in the dialogue and character interactions and there’s lots of room to play with this cast. I just wish I knew where to go to catch up on the story that’s already happened! If you’re trying to draw in new readers, it is editorial malpractice.
Final Verdict: BROWSE. There’s stuff to like here but it is heavy on setup. It will probably read better in a collected edition where you can easily catch up on what came before it and roll right past this tablesetting. I believe these creators have a fun story up their sleeves in the long run.
Rapid Rundown!
- Miles Morales Spider-Man #23
- It’s been a while since I’ve checked in on our young web-slinger and after the events of Blood Hunt, I wanted to see how his new status quo was working out. SPOILERS if you haven’t kept up with the events of Blood Hunt and its side titles. First, vampires can walk in the Sun, second Miles is a vampire now. Turned by a possessed Blade, besides everything that goes with being a Spider-Person, Miles has to contend with a hunger for blood now and writer Cody Ziglar and artist Federico Vicentini weave this new thread into Miles’ continuing tale expertly. Ziglar doesn’t waste time having Miles show his uncontrolled level-up and Vicentini highlights this with a beautifully rendered 2-page spread of a fantastic, overpowered frenetic venom punch for the ages. And still, we get as grounded a book with a romantic storyline setting up a tragedy and the return of a certain feathered grandfather. – GC3
- Werewolf By Night: Red Band #1
- Turns out the difference between Marvel Comics and Marvel’s Red Band series is 2-3 pages of illustrated gore, but beyond that nothing else. For a comic with Elsa Bloodstone in it, there’s no cussing; not even a little grawlix used to communicate the idea. As for the content, there’s next to nothing darker or more adult in Werewolf by Night than there is in an average Amazing Spider-man issue. If anything, curiosity grows more about why Marvel is pushing Red Band versions out when their Marvel MAX imprint is right there. To be honest, I can recall Sentry ripping a hero in half with more gore and viscera depicted (Siege #2) than what scribe, Jason Loo, has Werewolf by Night do in this first issue. This pilot was shorter than sweeter with such unsure exposition that it resorts to basic efficiency techniques like overly florid language in establishing location, repeating connective tissue/past histories, and having characters internalize “my name is…” This is writing that cares less about immersion and more about table-setting a status quo. Pencilled by Sergio Dávila, the page layouts are cramped with panel compositions aiding in the claustrophobia, but for seemingly no purpose when so many panels are comprised of wide vistas, crowd shots, and shadows on a wall. Looks like Dávila went overboard on detail and underdelivered on compositional focus– a failure that disproportionately falls on Werewolf by Night’s trio of inkers: Jay Leisten, JP Mayer, and Craig Yeung. Seems the inking team here couldn’t agree on a hatching or outline style, so consistency is out the door, though this breakdown is in the minutiae, which some will argue is imperceptible to most readers. My rebuttal is always: readers might not be able to put a finger on why pages feel different, but most can tell… and it can pull them out of the story! Add digital colors that look more like 2010s era Batman coloring than 2024 Marvel comics, and the pages achieve a muddled malaise that drags the reading experience, but not the vibe. This of course is the signature of industry vet, Alex Sinclair, who tried to sail this one home, but couldn’t decide between highlighting buckle shines and compositional focus. VC’s Joe Sabino likewise abets here with a stock standard Marvel lettering approach, but makes the visually difficult choice of a warm gray box with a 1 px red stroke and a yellow orange box with a 1 px teal stroke for character specific caption styles. These are not colors that clash or complement in interesting ways, but instead vibrate enough to increase the busyness of each page. All in all, with the table set, and the pilot in the books, maybe the real Werewolf by Night can come out by the next full moon. — Beau Q.
- X-Factor # 1
- The current “From the Ashes” era of the X-books is steeped in nostalgia for probably the most commercially successful era of those books. The titles so far have been call backs to different runs from the hard sci-fi New X-Men era to the X-Men’s time in the Outback. Now comes X-Factor #1 writer Mark Russell and artists Bob Quinn and Jesus Arburtov returning that title to the early 90s government sponsored team concept. The series tackles a new government sponsored team trying to entice mutants to the United States as a new homeland for mutants. But Mark Russell seems interested in both meanings of that term X-Factor, the term used to describe both mutant powers and star power. That latter term sums up the real approach of this book; mutants as a product to be sold which Russell tackles satirically. His approach recalls the Peter Milligan and Mike Allred run on X-Force/X-Statix, a comic similarly interested in the intersection of celebrity culture and satire. This issues recalls the first issue of that run in a few ways that should be obvious to fans of that particular run. Russell knows how to write a funny book but the visuals by Quinn and Arburtov don’t really capture the black comedy of the script. Quinn nails the boredom in Angel having to join yet another team but fails to really sell new team member Xyber’s horror at being thrown into action. A moment late in the book should be more visceral than it is but Quinn’s art and Arbutov’s colors render more sympathy than revulsion. Still Russell sets up so many compelling themes and threads in issue #1. Mutant mercenaries! Return to Krakoa protestors! Mutants in the age of post capitalism! X-Factor seems like it might be the most surprisingly compelling book of the “From The Ashes” line. – D. Morris
