Writer: Peter David
Artist: Ronan Cliquet
Publisher: Marvel
Price: $4.10
In an absolute coincidence with no connection whatsoever to the recently released movie, Spider-Man is currently in his black costume in the comics. In further total coincidences, the movie villain Venom is to appear in a forthcoming issue of Sensational Spider-Man, fellow movie villain Sandman appeared in a recent storyline in Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man, and has his origin told in this annual.
Or maybe it’s just a marketing thing. Either way, this annual focuses on the background of Sandman taking us from his childhood, through to the early days of his criminal career. Sandman has had a long and varied history in comics, first appearing in a 1963 issue of Spider-Man and later going on to become a member of the Frightful Four, before reforming and becoming a reserve member of the Avengers.
Here, we follow Sandman through his childhood, raised by an alcoholic single mother, and his developing interest in sand sculpture, through his teen years as a minor hoodlum, his time in jail and his reunion with his estranged father, all the while interspersed with a battle against Spider-Man.
Peter David seems to have a knack for writing this type of story, taking what we already know about a character and working back to fill in the blanks, or working forward to find the next logical course of action. (Many of the bare bones of this tale were laid out previously in a story by Tom DeFalco, a fact David himself is quick to acknowledge.) Many of the blanks in Sandman’s life are filled in, including the reason he called himself Flint Marko instead of his real name of William Baker, and why he didn’t just break straight out when Spider-Man sucked him up into a vacuum cleaner at the end of their first battle, with David giving understandable, logical explanations for both that expand on Sandman’s personality.
Ronan Cliquet is not a particularly well-known artist (A quick Google search brings up very little beyond a few issues of City of Heroes and articles about this annual), but on the strength of his work here he deserves to be given a shot on something else this high profile. His art has a touch of Alan Davis around the early days of Excalibur, which is high praise indeed.
Not the most essential purchase of the month, but an enjoyable read nonetheless. Annuals rarely seem to sell too well, so hopefully this will be collected in a trade at some point to give this story the wider audience it deserves.
-
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.