MARVEL COMICS – @Marvel
WRITER: Dan Slott
ART: Ramon Perez
COLORS: Ian Herring
LETTERS: Chris Eliopoulos with Joe Caramagna
COVER: Alex Ross
28pp, Color, $3.99 U.S. (July 2014)
Rated T
Learning to Crawl: Part One: The Show Must Go On
The core Spider-Man comic book series, The Amazing Spider-Man, has returned. This All-New Marvel NOW series returns with a partner series of sorts, a side-series that retells the story of the early days of Peter Parker’s career as Spider-Man. Entitled The Amazing Spider-Man 1.1 (Learning to Crawl: Part One), this series is brought to readers by writer Dan Slott, artist Ramón Pérez, colorist Ian Herring, and letterers Chris Eliopoulos and Joe Caramagna.
Learning to Crawl: Part One: The Show Must Go On opens shortly after Peter Parker as Spider-Man confronts the man who shot and killed his beloved Uncle Ben (Benjamin Parker) to death. Peter is now in a position where he must put on his Spider-Man costume in order to help his family, where he once wore it as part of a secret new life. As Uncle Ben’s funeral approaches, Peter remains unaware of how people perceive him and his alter-ego, but those perceptions will make his life even more complicated.
The art by Ramón Pérez for The Amazing Spider-Man 1.1 recalls the art of Steve Ditko that first brought Spider-Man to life more than 50 years ago. This is an effective visual style that makes The Amazing Spider-Man 1.1 seem like a comic book that was published during the early days of Marvel Comics, instead of merely being a comic book tied into the launch of The Amazing Spider-Man 2014.
Writer Dan Slott uses this comic book to get inside Peter Parker’s head and to take an intimate look at the struggles of a 15-year-old boy more as a teenaged boy than as a superhero. Whenever Slott brings Spider-Man into the story, it is in the context of teen Parker and not as teen superhero. This emphasis on Peter is best exemplified in this issue when Peter is faced with his late uncle’s generosity at time when he knows that he and Aunt May could use the money Uncle Ben once gave away to those in need. I look forward to more of this series.
A-
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux
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