Tuesday, April 23, 2013

CBR Spider-Man Reign

 

Been a long time since I reviewed a Marvel Comics for a change.

Here comes yet another tale of a Spider-man from an alternate world!

For more stories of AMAZING FANTASY check those out!!

Comic title: Spider-Man: Reign
Art by Kaare Andrews & Jose Villarrubia
Story by Kaare Andrews

Published by Marvel Knights/Marvel Comics
From 2006/07
Lineup Spider-man
Format: Trade paperback collecting issues #1–4 of Spider-Man: Reign.

Announced in 2006 through the more adult and separate brand Marvel Knights, Spider-Man: Reign is yet another tale from an alternate universe's wallcrawler.

While the previous books I reviewed in the past featured other versions of Spider-man this one follows our regular Peter Parker at the end of his career.

What could best be summarized as "What if Paul Verhoeven had directed a Spider-man movie".


The story takes place in a futuristic dystopian New York City.

In a world where the mayor of NY had to take over the city's control to finally make it safe after decades of superhero activity and superpowered criminal running amok.

It was all to make it save, you see? For the good of the people!

New York is now run like a mega-corporation. Separated from the rest of the United States. A private force patrols the streets, to make it safe.

Crime is now inexistent.

But people still remember the day magic filled the streets. And children can still be seen sprayed messages to the long gone heroes.


It had been more than 30 years since Peter Parker last put the suit.

He is now a tired old man with a beard. Back to wearing his old glasses.

Mary Jane doesn't appear to answer back and stays mute (or is she...??).

That is until an old friend came to see him.

Soon, he is forced to take part against a corrupted city, face the Sinner Six (a convicted Kraven, Scorpion, Electro, Mysterio, Sand-Man and Hydro-Man turned into an armed organized milice!) and stop an alien invasion...

The Reign is here to help the citizen.

The fascist mayor is about to have the WEBB go live, and close down New York, both in and out. No more crime, no more freaks running the streets.


A story full of twists and turns into this dark bleak future.

It has been compared to Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns both by critics and Marvel in their own advertisement alike. There even appears to be some direct allusions in the story that Kaare Andrews had fun throwing in there.

It's a very captivating story if a bit bizarre by moments and really dark. But there's still some hope at the end of the tunnel!

I really liked the TV news segments that reminded me of RoboCop (or Frank Miller or Todd McFarlane's comics in the late 80s/early 90s).

There's some clever twists (like MJ..) as well as some pretty weird stuff. Such as the sordid turn of events that killed someone dear to Peter or J. Jonah Jameson's church(?!) or the way the Venom symbiote grew insane over the years.

The art is probably the best part. Absolutely gorgeous and fitting for this tale.

All in all, a pretty different look on Spider-man.


Overall, a pretty original "What if...?".

It's probably not the best story ever, at least not the most optimistic Spidey you'll find. There's a lot of problems, like some things appear to be thrown in there just to shock or gross you out. (Octopus's "sons", his arms out of control carrying his dead carcass behind)

But I liked the story personally.

And let's not kid ourselves, it's full of post-9/11 fears and thematics. (the mayor out of control willing to make a deal with the devil, literally, to avoid any similar catastrophe to ever happen again)

Decent alternate world Spider-man.

I give it:
2 / 3 SpiderHams!
Posted by at
Labels: , , , , , , , , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)