Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Spider-Man Halloween Special 2004

Title: Spider-Man Halloween Special 2004
Date: 2004
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Todd Dezago, Sean McKeever, Mike Raicht
Penciler: Jonboy Meyers, Makoto Nakatsuka, Lou Kang, Patrick Scherberger
Inker: Pat Davidson, Makoto Nakatsuka
Letterer: VC's Randy Gentile, David Sharpe
Colorist: Udon's Larry Moliner, Chris Sotomayor, Digital Rainbow, Sotocolor's J. Rauch
Cover: Roger Cruz, Randy Green, Makoto Nakatsuka, Shane Davis, Sotocolor
Editor: Barber, Cadenhead, Cebulski

Not much Halloween-themed in this. It's essentially a preview book for four Marvel Age (Marvel's superhero line for younger readers) series: Spider-Man, Spider-Man Team-Up, Fantastic Four, and Hulk.

Nostalgia was running thick here. I recognized three out of the four stories as reworkings of early-issue stories from their respective characters. First up was an updating of "Spider-Man Tackles The Torch" from an early issue of Amazing Spider-Man. There were a couple of amusing one-liners, but for the most part, Peter and Johnny both act like jerks in a forced attempt to build up a rivalry between them. I didn't like the Marvel-Age look for Johnny, although the interpretation of The Thing worked pretty well.

Second story was a remake of the "assemble the team" sequence from the first issue of Fantastic Four. The new version of the FF-Signal was pretty awesome. Again, I wasn't a fan of the art style for Johnny. The rest of the team was better. Since it's just the opening sequence, not much really ends up happening in this preview.

The last two stories were even shorter, to the point of really just being fragments. I did really enjoy Peter Parker's genuine awe at meeting Captain America in the preview of Marvel-Age Spider-Man Team Up.

A lot of my enjoyment of this book came from having read the original versions of the stories, something the book's target audience might not have done. As a result, this may miss the mark as a preview when taken out of the context of nostalgia.

Rating: 5/10

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