{"id":26150,"date":"2022-07-12T08:00:11","date_gmt":"2022-07-12T08:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=26150"},"modified":"2022-07-11T16:46:18","modified_gmt":"2022-07-11T16:46:18","slug":"spider-man-blue-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2022\/07\/12\/spider-man-blue-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Spider-Man: Blue"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" \"\" \"\"
\nBy Jeph Loeb<\/strong> & Tim Sale<\/strong> with lettering by Richard Starkings & Comicraft\u2019s Wes Abbot<\/strong> and colours by Steve<\/strong> Buccellato<\/strong> & various (MARVEL)
\nISBN: 978-0785134466 (HB\/Digital edition)<\/p>\n

The creative team of Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale have tackled many iconic characters in a number of landmark expansions\/reworkings. In Spider-Man: Blue<\/strong> Loeb & Sale set their nostalgia-soaked sights on the beginnings of Peter Parker<\/em>\u2019s tragically brief romance with Gwen Stacy <\/em>and ever-maturing relationship with eventual wife Mary Jane Watson<\/em>. It encompasses that transitional period when Steve Ditko\u2019s creepy, plucky outsider grew into a wholesome, straight-shooting, hard-luck hero as re-designed by John Romita Senior – who also provides the Introduction (first seen in the 2004 release) for this 2019 remastered collected edition. Also included are a full cover gallery by Sale and many of his preparatory sketches, plus a sketchbook section at the book\u2019s end, featuring commentary from writer and artist revealing their process, in crafting \u2018Cover Concepts\u2019<\/em>, \u2018The Girls\u2019<\/em>, \u2018French Posters\u2019<\/em> (focussing on European editions) and a prodigious \u2018Sketch Gallery\u2019<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Part of a colour-themed project based on Marvel Super-hero beginnings, Spider-Man: Blue<\/strong> gathers the 6-issue miniseries from 2002: a slight but extremely readable tale reconstituted from and built upon pertinent snippets from Amazing Spider-Man<\/strong> #39-49 – plus a smidgeon of #63.<\/p>\n

It opens on one gloomy February 14th<\/sup>, as happily married but momentarily melancholy Peter records a message to a former girlfriend he hasn\u2019t really gotten over\u2026<\/p>\n

Successive tapes to murdered Gwen follow issue by issue, taking the form of a reminiscence of the days when he first emerged from his solitary shell. Parker recalls how he found – and lost – a few friends while inadvertently growing closer to MJ, all whilst pursuing a pure, innocent and unlikely love for a seemingly unattainable dream girl.<\/p>\n

\u2018My Funny Valentine\u2019<\/em> begins in modern days of muted blue, before memories of Parker\u2019s first showdown with Green Goblin<\/strong> Norman Osborn<\/em> erupt in vibrant full colour, with the epochal moments concluding as – whilst visiting the now amnesiac villain in hospital – \u201cGorgeous Gwen\u201d first notices something special about staid, standoffish Peter\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2018Let\u2019s Fall in Love\u2019<\/em> sees that relationship grow whilst adding a major complication with the long-anticipated, oft-delayed first meeting with flirtatious Mary Jane, before \u2018Anything Goes\u2019<\/em> sees her \u201cwild-child\u201d vivacity steering our shy boy\u2019s social life, making him almost popular with fellow students and even more intriguing to Gwen even as MJ (innocently?) aids and abets his secret life and career\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2018Autumn in New York\u2019<\/em> follows Parker leaving Aunt May<\/em>\u2019s home to share an apartment with Harry Osborn<\/em> (troubled son of the Goblin, and his eventual successor) with MJ inviting herself along as Harry\u2019s official girlfriend, after which \u2018If I Had You\u2019<\/em> sees Parker\u2019s youthful associates growing up a bit before concluding reverie \u2018All of Me\u2019<\/em> shows how a climactic clash with a lurking stalker on another St. Valentine\u2019s night led to the birth of a love for the ages\u2026<\/p>\n

Along the way – and as formerly depicted in the Lee & Romita classics – Spider-Man fights a formidable array of super-foes, including The Rhino<\/em>, Lizard<\/em>, two separate Vultures<\/em> and ultimately Kraven the Hunter<\/em> (rather uncomfortably and implausibly re-imagined here as the kind of sinisterly patient, brooding mastermind that he simply could never have been). Loeb & Sale in-fill, expand and often radically rework those battles with the advantage of revelations culled from stories by others over the intervening decades.<\/p>\n

Regrettably but crucially, the end result is clever and pretty but offers no real sense of tension, because even the newest readers already know the inevitable romantic outcomes whilst the attempt to weave a number of isolated super-baddie clashes into a vast master-plan over and above what Lee & Romita envisioned feels clumsy and ill-considered. Don\u2019t take my word for it: the original tales are readily available for your perusal and delectation in numerous collections as assorted Marvel Masterworks<\/strong> and Epic Collections<\/strong>, should you feel the need to contrast and compare\u2026<\/p>\n

Loeb & Sale rightly enjoy a prodigious track record for retrofitting, rationalising and restating pivotal moments of comic book icons: especially distilling turning points of iconic characters and careers into material palatable to modern readers, but here it\u2019s simply a waste of their time and talents. The originals are simply still better than the rehashing here. This is not one of their better efforts, and often comes perilously close to being maudlin far too often for comfort.<\/p>\n

Although Sale\u2019s art is always a joy to behold, and Loeb\u2019s gift for dialogue is undiminished, Spider-Man: Blue<\/strong> falls short of their best. A solid, casual affair but, sadly, not a patch on the real thing \u2026
\n\u00a9 2019 MARVEL.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale with lettering by Richard Starkings & Comicraft\u2019s Wes Abbot and colours by Steve Buccellato & various (MARVEL) ISBN: 978-0785134466 (HB\/Digital edition) The creative team of Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale have tackled many iconic characters in a number of landmark expansions\/reworkings. In Spider-Man: Blue Loeb & Sale set their … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Spider-Man: Blue”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[79,127,148,39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marvel-superheroes","category-nostalgia","category-romance","category-spider-man"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-6NM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26150"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26157,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26150\/revisions\/26157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}