Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #298 – Most Wanted

Merry Christmas to all!  I’ve got some downtime before Santa rolls in, so I’m going to do a quick rundown of my first Spider-Man comic!

The Cover

Adam Kubert and Morry Hollowell did the duties for this issue, and it looks pretty neat.  We have the Black Panther standing over a beaten down Spider-Man, implying that the two may come to blows in this issue?  Maybe Black Panther is there to help?  Tough to say, but it speaks to an action packed issue!

The Art

This issue is drawn by Adam Kubert and Juan Frigeri.  There are a lot of really good scenes throughout the book, but others just seem a little raw or not quite finished.  They just don’t feel like they are as clean as they should be in a Spider-Man book.  The scene where Peter is being broken out of jail is one of these.

Of course, later in the book we have another scene where Spider-Man is fighting Whiplash, and it looks great!  Spider-Man looks graceful and athletic as he makes his way through the villains whips, spouting witty banter the whole time.  The page captures Spider-Man perfectly.

This issue seems to be strung between being perfect art for a Spider-Man comic on some pages, and missing something on others.  All told it looks good and is supports the story well, but based on some of the pages it could have been better.

The Story

So it looks like I bought an issue mid-arc, which can sometimes be confusing, but there is a quick synopsis of the previous couple issues at the beginning.  Chip Zdarsky handles the writing duties on this one.  Peter Parker has been arrested, apparently has a half-sister who is a spy, and has told J. Jonah Jameson who he is.  Also the Tinkerer is involved somehow.  The issue begins with Peter in a holding cell awaiting interrogation.  Soon he is left alone, and his half-sister and Johnny Storm arrive wearing Ant-Man suits to break him out.  They only bring two suits so Johnny stays behind.  Peter and Theresa spend the rest of the issue on the run, and are soon cornered by The Vulture and Whiplash.

The villains soon have the upper hand, but help arrives in the form of the Black Panther, who offers them safe haven in Wakanda.  All told this issue was a fun read, and not quite as heavy as a lot of the recent Spider-Man stuff I’ve perused on the shelves.  This feels a lot more like the Spider-Man comics I remember from years ago.  I especially loved Spidey’s remarks towards Whiplash when he was taking him down, remarking that when a guy is used to fighting a guy with four appendages rather than two.  This issue really seems to capture the spirit of what makes a good Spider-Man comic, and if this is what it’s going to be like going forward, I’d definitely check it out again.