by Tom Taylor, Juann Cabal, Yildiray Cinar, Marcelo Ferreira, Andrew C Robinson & Nolan Woodard
collects Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #1-6
volume reviews one | two [complete]
Tom Taylor’s Spider-Man is back to basics, and it’s one of the best Spider-Man books I’ve read.
Taylor, along with Cabal’s simple expressive lines, effortlessly brings us a story that reminds us why we love Spidey in the first place – bad puns and pants jokes, a simple date night with Mary Jane, and showing up for Aunt May; he knows the folks going through homelessness on his block, he’s great with kids (the final issue is a bit of a tearjerker). But most of all, what makes Peter so great isn’t the life saving heroics, but the dignity and small gestures he makes after the fact – accompanying kids on the bus to talk about bullying, asking folks to donate the cash they want to give him. This is Peter Parker through the eyes of Mister Rogers, and it’s how he deserves to be written.
There are occasional superhero cameos, but otherwise Taylor introduces us to some new faces, including a hilarious new roommate (was Peter really thinking through that decision?!) and a new badass heroine who isn’t defined by her seniority, I only mention it because older female heroes are so dang rare, I want to see more of her! We also meet a *big* new setting that seemed just a bit…too big to be new. The plot lost me there a little bit, but the story otherwise is so earnest and true to Peter, I was willing to go with it.
Cabal and Ferrera’s pencils are light and kinetic, and Woodard and other colorists bring that feel to life with his airy and cheery colors. Together they bring some visually stunning, wordless action scenes (particularly a double spread in the final issue)
There’s a big development with Aunt May that I hope gets its due diligence in the next volume, leading to some more growth for her character along with Mary Jane. So often these events from (usually female) secondary characters really only focus on how it’s affecting the (usually male) protagonist, but May and MJ deserve their own individual growth. I’ve already read issue 11, which is also an excellent one shot about MJ, and it hopefully carries through to the other issues.
Reading Art 
2 comments