It’s A Not So Wonderful Life? – Reviewing ‘Spectacular Spider-Men’ #3

Spider-Man stories are weird. Sure, they are big, bold, emotional, and powerful in many respects. But really, they are weird.

When there are clones, multiple arms, multiverses, robot parents, devil divorces, and every animal themed villain you can shake a tail at…how can they not be weird?

So, it’s fitting that Spectacular Spider-Men is really tapping into that weirdness. It’s a jarring dreams come true timey-wimey affair from Greg Weisman, Humberto Ramos, Victor Olazaba, Edgar Delgado, and Joe Caramagna.

Peter and Miles together is always a delight. We don’t get enough of that, and this title does a great job of bridging their worlds, where their own titles and the rest of the universe doesn’t as much. We’re thrust right away into a clearly ‘wrong’ world as Peter is married to Gwen Stacy (with two kids) with her father still alive and Miles is going out on a date and kissing his BFF Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel.

Other writers might have been tempted to go with dreams that are closer to reality, to throw the readers off, but Weisman said “Nope” and went in full bore. Strangely though, while odd just based on the ‘reality’ of the universe, both dreams have logical thought and foundation to them. We know that Peter has often dealt with the “What if-ness” of his relationship with Gwen. Miles and Kamala maybe feeling more feels off, but they would not be the first friends to move from sibling-like friendship to more.

All along we were meant to assume the villainous pair behind potential clones and VR were Jackal and Arcade. Keeping them in shadows was brilliant not just because we, the readers, felt we knew the secret that wasn’t’ a secret, but of course let the actual reveal hit harder. Mentallo and Arcade are such a natural duo that it’s honestly odd that it hasn’t happened till now.

Also, I love the goofy comic bookness of the fact that despite seeing their real faces and lives, Mentallo and Arcade can’t discover who the Spider-Men really are. Even though Peter Parker famously is known to have been the guy taking photos of and palling around with Spider-Man (something a quick Marvel Universe Google-like search would bring up). It doesn’t’ matter, it’s funny goofy comics stuff, and I’m fine with that. Bring on more of that.

I still can’t believe there was a version of me that was put off by the artwork of Ramos, especially on a Spider-Man book. It just works so well for the Spider-Men. Just a baked in fluidity that is needed for characters that zip and bounce around constantly. A dash of exaggeration mixed with a healthy dose of realistic is the good stuff. It has weight and depth as the world around feels grounded, but the characters are allowed to be lanky, stretched, wide, or whatever to fit the moment.

Even as we bounce around in time, the panel work and delivery feels so solid. Ramos takes what could be a silly or off-putting story gimmick and gives it more power. Hell just the opening sequence of Peter and Miles before doors, seemingly in the same space, before their separate dream reviews is golden. Olazaba’s ink work gives that extra dash of weight and depth to the work, without taking anything from it.

Mixing in Delgado’s colors brings it all around. I loved watching Ramos and Delgado working together on Strange Academy for years. They created something moody and special there, and that carries over here. But only carries over in the sense that they are creating something special, because the color profile is very (naturally) different.

Both tapped into a solid mix of light meets darkness, but the work here is very street and comes with a good solid heft feeling. Allowing each setting to have its own feeling and personality, making great shifts to the lighting for that touch of reality.

Spider-Man books are rife with conversations, and a lot of banter. Caramagna is no stranger to Spider-books and it shows. Everything just flows so smoothly, both in page placement and how it sounds as the voices come to life. There is a bounce to it all, feeling airy and powerful simultaneously. Characters feel authentic, as we assume they should sound, and unique. Not to mention all the fun little flairs mixed in to give things that comic book goodness of colors, shifted bubbles, and more.

Just a truly delightful read from start to finish.

Spectacular Spider-Man #3 is now available from Marvel Comics.