By Paul Tobin, Roberto Di Salvo, Matteo Lolli, Terry Pallot & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-5257-6
Since its earliest days Marvel has always courted the youngest comicbook audiences. Whether through animated movie or TV tie-ins such as Terrytoons Comics, Mighty Mouse, Super Rabbit Comics, Duckula, assorted Hanna-Barbera and Disney licenses and a myriad of others, or original creations such as Tessie the Typist, Millie the Model, Homer the Happy Ghost, Li’l Kids or even Calvin, the House of Ideas has always understood the necessity of cultivating the next generation of readers.
These days however, accessible child-friendly titles are on the wane and with Marvel’s proprietary characters all over screens large and small, the company usually prefers to create adulterated versions of its own pantheon, making that eventual hoped-for transition to more mature comics as painless as possible.
The process began in 2003 when the company created a Marvel Age line which updated and retold classic original tales by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, merging it with the remnants of its failed manga-based Tsunami imprint, which was also intended for a junior demographic.
The experiment was tweaked in 2005, becoming Marvel Adventures with the core titles transformed into Marvel Adventures: Fantastic Four and Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man. The reconstituted classics were then replaced by all-original yarns.
Additional titles included Marvel Adventures: Super Heroes, The Avengers and Hulk, running until 2010 when they were cancelled and replaced by new volumes of Marvel Adventures: Super Heroes and Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man which carried on the established continuities.
This digest-sized collection collects issues #13-16 of that second iteration and sees Paul Tobin firmly in the driving seat, deftly blending action with humour and even inserting a little low level soap opera romance as 16-year old Peter Parker continues his first steps as reluctant yet driven superhero Spider-Man. Even after all the time he has prowled the streets and skyscrapers of New York, fighting crime and injustice, he’s still just a kid learning the ropes and pretty much in over his head all the time…
Illustrated by Roberto Di Salvo, the drama begins with our hero and his Aunt May vacationing in Britain. Whilst the senior Parker checks out antiques shops and farmers’ markets in Devon, her poor nephew has found a spot of bother on Dartmoor, beside British “Scooby Gang†T.U.F.F. (Teenage Ultimate Forteans Forever).
Following reports of monster sightings on the moors, Spidey and Co. unite with jungle lord Ka-Zar and his smilodon ally Zabu to crush a ring of exotic pet smugglers selling dinosaurs stolen from the Savage Land in ‘Raptor of the Baskervilles’.
A tricky task at the best of times, their valiant endeavour almost ends in disaster when the thieves bring in mutant maniac Sabretooth to kill the pesky, interfering kids…
Back in the Big Apple, the Web-spinner then teams up with Police Captain George Stacy to stop a run of armoured car heists perpetrated by Mysterio. ‘The Illusionist’ (Matteo Lolli & Pallot) had liberally dosed the heroes with hallucinogenic gases but was unaware of Spider-Man’s secret weapon: Peter Parker’s mutant girlfriend Sophia Sanduval who can communicate with animals and works as a part-time operative of the Blonde Phantom Detective Agency. “Chat†has got a lot of unusual animal resources at her disposal and is more than willing to lend some assistance…
The critter-whisperer is of even greater use when Doctor Doom seizes control of the UN whilst she and Peter are attending on a school trip. With delegates held hostage and a deadly bomb hidden on the premises, Chat and her bestial buddies play a key role saving the day in ‘Council of Doom’ (Di Salvo art) whilst all Spidey has to do is keep the Iron Dictator and his deadly army of robot doubles distracted. Well, that and not die…
Wrapping up the narrative action is ‘Magically Suspicious’ (Lolli & Pallot) as insane enchanter Baron Mordo seeks to open the gates of hell and let the Elder Eldritch Ones loose on Earth.
To facilitate their return he has pre-emptively unleashed a horde of demonic wraiths to take out the world’s superheroes, leaving only Spider-Man, Chat and Sorcerer Supreme Doctor Stephen Strange free to lead the extremely messy resistance…
These Spidey super stories (accompanied by a cover gallery from Barry Kitson, Patrick Scherberger, Edgar Delgado, Ale Garza & Chris Sotomayor and a big bundle of pin-ups by the likes of John Romita Senior, Terry & Rachel Dodson, Salvador Larroca and more) are all exceptionally enjoyable escapades, but parents should note that some of the themes and certainly the violence might not be what everybody considers “All-Ages Super Hero Action†and would perhaps sit better with older kids…
Fast-paced and impressive, brightly and breezily leavening light-hearted action with loads of sly laughs, this book shows the alternative web-spinner at his wall-crawling best with the violence toned down and “cartooned-up†whilst the stories take great pains to keep the growing youth-oriented sub-plots pot-boiling on but as clear as possible.
Never the success the company hoped, the Marvel Adventures project was superseded in 2012 by specific comics tied to Disney XD television shows designated as “Marvel Universe cartoonsâ€, but these collected stories are still an amazing and arguably more culturally accessible means of introducing character and concepts to kids born two or three generations away from those far-distant 1960s originating events.
© 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.