“Webs in the Blood”
creators: Marc Andreyko, Jeremy Haun & Francis Manapul
released: January 2014
publisher: DC Comics
This is the second issue of the debut arc for Andreyko, Haun & Manapul, and while the pace moves maddeningly slow, the team pays visually stunning homage to Kate’s origin and JH Williams III’s art during his run. It’s up to you if that makes this issue buy worthy.
We last left Kate in #26 plunging out of a window, drugged by new villain Wolf Spider – whatever’s been injected into her system causes Kate to spiral into a series of hallucinations as she falls through the air. Her hallucinations lead to simply beautiful artwork that surely harkens back to JH Williams’ run. Her visions, bleeding over several double-page spreads, include her origin, dishonorable discharge from the army, and Alice. Haun and Manapul do an absolutely beautiful job here, really a visual treat; it is quite admirable how they pay homage to the previous creative team without completely giving up their own style. There was a lot of boldness and sensitivity in these pages. As a whole, they nicely encompass BW’s past but I wonder if new readers will feel more lost and overwhelmed, rather than inspired to read her previous story arcs. Hopefully the latter.
Unfortunately, once BW snaps out of her hallucinations, nothing else really happens in this issue – BW is able to save herself with some conveniently placed trash cans (someday, there needs to be a supercut on YouTube of how often this happens with superheroes (hint: all the time)), and we learn that Wolf Spider is under the employment of a mysterious fellow named Nathan. Not much there, to be honest.
While I loved gazing at the art, it is one of my pet peeves when an issue feels compeltely like a bridge, and does very little to push the story forward. One could also call them “trade paperback” issues, because they really are only meaningful when reading the entire arc as a whole. However, Andreyko’s writing from issue 26 was very strong issue, and seeing Haun and Manapul deliver on the art in this one is very, very promising; plus, I’ve heard rumors that he’ll be bringing in another superhero named Kate, and I’ve got to stick around for it.
Reading Art 