Welcome, dear readers, to another week of comics and commentary at Comics! The Blog! We kick things off, as always, by handing out awards for the Best of the Week – beginning with two Award postings, followed closely by the past week’s Best.
Pulling off an original graphic novel with established superheroes can be a tricky thing. A lot of readers balk at the idea of investing in a comic that’s not “Important,” and OGNs have that hurdle to get over, simply as a consequence of them generally playing in their own universes, with iconic, out-of-current-continuity versions of characters. For a lot of (misguided) comics fans, these books aren’t worth the investment because they don’t “count.” Here is one way OGN creative teams can get around that:
- Tell a well-crafted, three act story that uses the format to its strength by telling a complete beginning, middle and end, as well as utilizing the freedom to be visually distinct without having to worry about whether it “fits” the universe;
- Do ridiculous, crazy shit;
It turns out, Amazing Spider-Man: Family Business, from Mark Waid, James Robinson, Gabriele Dell’Otto and Werther Dell’Edera, is able to do both those things. At first glance, it’s obvious how striking it is; Dell’Edera‘s layouts and Dell’Otto‘s lush, painted art feels like a special event, like something that would have been difficult to make come together in a run of single-issue comics. A key strength of the OGN format is that it can give creators a chance to breathe instead of having to hit a monthly schedule, and that’s on full display here.
Then, you have the story, which is a great kind of insanity: Peter Parker’s apartment is destroyed by paramilitary thugs, and he’s saved by… his sister, Teresa? All of a sudden, he’s on a spy adventure going to 5-star casinos and racing through the desert to stop Nazi atomic robots from destroying the world, because only his DNA can control them, and he and his sister still have to work through their own questions in a ski chalet. Also, the Kingpin is there. There is so much going on, but given the extra pages in which to work without having to build in individual issue structures, Waid and Robinson are able to give those different elements the appropriate time to develop. The actual reveal about Teresa might not be a total shock if the reader has paid attention to the first scene, but what the climax lacks in pure surprise, it makes up for in execution and follow-through, as Peter proves exactly why it’s important he’s Spider-Man.
Family Business is most definitely not a Marvel Universe work in feel. It feels like something different; that’s what makes it special.