How old is Peter Parker ? And the stick knows it. The likely answer is probably “around thirty.” Sometimes it is rejuvenated, sometimes a bit aged. Nevertheless, the peasant is well, considering Spider-Man first appeared in the fifteenth issue of Amazing Fantasy .from 1962. Originally, the superheroes were said to be aging, but due to the popularity of the titles with them, Marvel never implemented this plan. So the years pass, and they all go on and on and on. At one point, the House of Ideas found an official explanation for this temporal phenomenon. Well, it is referred to as “sliding timescale”, according to which some events took place at some point in the past and that moment is constantly “sliding” in time. For example: the departure of the Fantastic Four into space in the depicted world will always take place thirteen years from the current time of the action.
Like Vivaldi’s Seasons
Spider-Man: The Life Story breaks out of the diagram above. Writer Chip Zdarsky (I wonder if his Sex Criminalswhenever it goes to Poland …) presents the story of the aging Peter Parker, where each issue is a different decade. Fortunately, the banality was omitted and the reader does not have to see the bite of a radioactive spider again. Instead, the story begins in 1966, when Parker is nineteen years old, and ends today. Everything between these points is a kind of spider’s “the best of”: a battle with Green Goblin, unfortunate clones, the debut of a black suit, the last hunt of Kraven, a fight with Morlun and, finally, fresh things such as the appearance of Miles Morales and Doctor Octopus taking over Spider-Man’s body. I must praise Zdarsky here that he does not literally cite the works of his predecessors, but in a creative way combines these events into a perfectly functioning whole. There is also a bit of a life story characteristic of the series in the form of relations with Gwen Stacey and Mary Jane. If that was not enough, other heroes also appear on the pages of the comic. It is interesting, for example, to show the first conflict between Iron-Man (oh, Zdarsky must not like Stark because he writes him like a villain) and Captain America, which takes place during the Vietnam War.
A lot of it all, and the formula used “one notebook = one decade” means that none of these cornerstones of Spider-Man’s story have enough space to properly resonate. This not all of the elements fall out equally well. For example, Gwen’s death, so iconic, was written in a very gimmicky way, and the plot itself ends without conclusions.
Tell me life something nice
Mentioned in the introduction, X-Men: The Great Project stands out, among others, by an amazing graphic layer with a clear styling for period comics. Spider-Man. Unfortunately , the history of life presents a much more clichéd approach. Mark Bagley has a lot of experience drawing the Spider as he was one of the leading artists in the Ultimate line. His production lines, however, in no way enrich Zdarsky’s story. For a title in which time skips are extremely important, individual decades differ very little from each other. It is asking that in such a project each notebook would imitate the times in which the action takes place.
But the cover is beautiful. Minimalistic but memorable. Additionally, it is enriched with convex elements where there is a mesh on the costume. Such a volume could be boldly presented in the collection from the front, if only space allowed for it [*].
Please don’t rush like that, give me some rest
It’s hard for me to call The Story of Life a full title. It’s more of a fan fiction that somehow has been released on a large scale. Zdarsky’s work is aimed at fans of the Spider Man, who, seeing classic elements in a new configuration, will be able to shout “ha, I know it!” A reader who avoids Parker’s adventures has nothing to look for here. The individual stories are too short and require knowledge (even a cursory) of the originals to better understand what’s going on. Spider-Man from Zdarsky is far from a bad title, but this is nothing more than a curiosity that can be read, but not necessary.
