Spider-Man's Tangled Web, Vol. 1 by Garth Ennis

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book collects the first six issues of the early 2000s Spider-man based series, though focusing mostly on secondary characters. It was an anthology series, so a mix of good and bad. This volumes leans darker, particularly in Garth Ennis' lead off story, "The Coming of the Thousand" which has Spider-man running into an old bully with a grunge who blames Spidey for ruining his life and has become well, something quite horrific.

Issue 4 is a noirish story called, "Severance Package" by Greg Rucka and it's the one least related to Spider-man as an experienced hood has failed the Kingpin for the last time and is resigned to his fate.

Issues 5 and 6 form the "Flowers for the Rhino" story in which the Rhino gets tired of his lot as Spider-man's stupidest foe and takes steps to become genius. It's a charmingly done tale that ask if intelligence can buy happiness. It's a good story though it's the weakest in the book, but it's the one that feels most like a proper Spider-man story.

The other four stories are well-written but they aren't terribly fun to read. They're certainly not what I expect from a Spidey book. They're grim and gritty. "Severence Package" could be in any superhero book. In the end, it becomes easy to see why Tangled Web failed: because it doesn't capture what Spidey readers wanted. And no matter how good the writing and art, if the book fails at the measure, it's not going to work.



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