This comic book features what must be one of the strangest stories ever to feature the ol' wall-crawler.In Spider-Man: Fever, our hero is having what he would consider a normal day: hanging around, making jokes and fighting one of the members of his rogue's gallery.
At the same time, Dr. Strange is examining a new discovery - a book with mystic connections to a horrific dimension. When that dimension reaches into ours, it leaves Spider-Man the victim of a truly horrible fate.
Writer and artist Brendan McCarthy (with colorist Steve Cook) has put together a genuinely disturbing story here, and his surreal art manages to tap into that Steve Ditko / unearthly dimension feel that not many artists can capture.
He also teams up two characters who shouldn't work together. Spider-Man is a "street-level" character, working best when he's dealing with real-world problems. Dr. Strange is at home in weird dimensions, fighting bizarre creatures and tackling magical menaces.
Yet for some reason they both work well together. Perhaps it all goes back to the fact that both characters were created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, or perhaps they just have good chemistry together because they're such an odd couple.
Whatever the reason, this comic works (against all logic), and it sets up a heck of a cliffhanger. It might be too disturbing for young readers, but if you're looking for something out of the ordinary, this is a good place to start.
Grade: A-
2 comments:
They do seem an odd couple... I've been keeping an eye out for an old "Untold Tales of Spider-Man" issue for a few years now, I think it was an annual or special or something... It also features Spider-man and Dr. Strange, somehow I missed it when it first came out... I believe the story was by Roger Stern and Kurt Busiek (checking comic.org... yup). Can't really miss with those two.
Kyle, good call on that issue - I have it here somewhere, I'll try to dig it out. You're right, anything by Stern or Busiek (either together or separate) is almost always worth reading.
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