Writer: Matt Fraction
Artist: Salvador Larocca
Publisher: Marvel
Price: $ 4.75
Ah, the Annual. Not like the annuals of my youth, of course. Those were hardcover things, with two or three comics stories in them, a couple of text stories, some puzzles and a couple of pages of facts that were only vaguely related to the character. A reprint in a Spider-Man annual would have been the first place your reviewer first read “The Night Gwen Stacy Died”, for instance, or Spidey’s famed epic battle with Firelord. Or Spidey’s slightly less famed epic battle with Stegron the Dinosaur Man, for that matter.
This Spider-Man annual doesn’t have puzzle pages, text stories or pages of tenuous facts. It doesn’t have super-villains. It doesn’t even have much Spider-Man, to be honest. Just Peter and Mary Jane, and the story of their love.
No, wait. Don’t dismiss it straight away. This is really something quite special. There have been pages upon pages posted on message boards in all corners of the internet discussing and dissecting the “Spider-Marriage”, and in this annual Matt Fraction has produced quite possibly the best argument for the marriage to stay possible.
Set right in the middle of current Spider-continuity with the black costume and the dying Aunt May, the story features Mary Jane and Peter going out for two very different cups of coffee. MJ bumps into an old friend with a new job, and Pete meets up with Detective Lamont (From JMS’ run on Amazing) and asks for a favour. Circumstances lead both halves of our happy couple to look back over their early days together, and we’re off and running in the wonderful world of the comparative flashback.
Fraction is already impressing a lot of people with his work on Punisher War Journal together with that done alongside Ed Brubaker on Immortal Iron Fist, and on the strength of this annual he’s definitely welcome to come back to Spider-Man any time. He seems to understand Peter and Mary Jane the young married couple, and that being happily married needn’t be the end of their problems. He also seems to get Spidey’s classic supporting cast – there is an appearance here from Gwen and Harry and some great references back to those early days.
Adding to the pleasure of the flashbacks is Salvador Larocca, paying homage to some of the greats of Spider-Man artwork. The annual ends with a special thank you to John Romita Sr and Ross Andru which is well-deserved, as Larocca’s pages have a definite flavour of those days without descending from tribute into rip-off. Extra special mention must also be made of Paco Roca’s wonderful colours, which change dramatically from scene to scene and add warmth and feeling to Larocca’s pages.
If it wasn’t obvious, this comes highly recommended. Even an appearance by Stegron the Dinosaur Man couldn’t improve this.
Much.
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Russell Hillman was born in London but now lives in Coventry. His hobbies include precious little. He doesn’t get out much, but thinks reading a lot of comics makes up for it. He’s wrong.