REVIEW: Spider-Punk : Banned In D.C.

Cody Ziglar, I don’t know him personally, but I can say that I’ve found a kindred spirit while reading his latest limited “Spider-Punk”. Now, I dont know if he ever had the experience of not being able to hit a punk show because of an age limit but (walk with me here), I remember at the height of Odd Future’s fame back in L.A., that Tyler had just signed punk legends Trash Talk and I ended up partying in a car with other Odd heads bumping Earl tracks back when he was screaming Sly. Alas, the party ended once I had to catch the train back, and eventually I ran into Lee Spielman and Garrett Stevenson a few times after since I frequented the OF Store on Fairfax and Babylon in Hollywood (still got a scar on my knee from that wooden bowl) in my late teens.

However, it still sticks with me that I never got to hit the pit with those guys. After reading all five issues of “Spider-Punk”, I would think that Ziglar had a similar story to tell. As diverse as L.A. was, I still was in a minority division with either a pink mohawk or afro, my battle jacket filled with buttons, patches, and super glued bottle caps … when reading “Spider-Punk”, I notice how Justin Mason created the majority of the crowds to be just as punked out as the makeshift Avengers that defend their world from Oscorp.

This world Ziglar and Mason have created is distinctly not Earth-1218, because the world doesn’t have the aesthetics to actually look like a moshpit, but everyone could still get it.
There’s a genius behind turning the margins into the majority. Some may see that as selling out, but Spider-Man has always been a mascot, so there’s not much more integrity left with that Peter Parker guy.

Putting the mask on Hobart Brown here, aging him down, was such an intelligent choice instead of going the typical Parker or Morales route.
Similar to how Pepose turned Deathlok into Miles over in his “Savage Avengers” run; switching up identities without any political agenda attached to it is fresh, and Hobart is the perfect Spider-Punk. I mean this is Prowler here! Dude’s name in other iterations is the title of the first track on Maiden’s debut! Then audiences got treated to the gift of a female Daredevil who Mason makes nothing like the puritan version of Elektra Earth-616 has been getting since “Marvel NOW!”; plus Ironheart is out here in the pages with a crop top blasting fascist cops?

If that sham BLM organization would have just had her as a mascot, then I might have went to a couple protests before their mask slipped off, but I digress. Two Venom’s, a Hulk with a mohawk who screams “Hulk Thrash” before getting to the old ground and pound and both Taskmaster and Cap still have that B.K. attitude that made me fall in love with the genre in the first place (if your reading this and you haven’t heard of Jimmy Urine, get Alexa or whatever to play that). “Spider-Punk” is curated with the taste of the human punk in mind.

Again, I don’t know Ziglar personally but after getting down to the last issue of “Spider-Punk”, I feel like I might have caught an elbow of his in the pit once upon a time! To put elements of an underground movement and insert that into the mainstream is a tall task, but Ziglar and his “Spider-Band” were up to the task as they turned a variant cover into a full on limited series.

I don’t really have any qualms with this series other than that I would have swapped Kamala for Spectrum, and it would have been a whole other experience if the multi-billion dollar company that is Marvel would have hollered at AshCanPress’ people and put out some 45’s that inspired each issue like Matt Rosenberg did with “What’s The Furthest Place From Here ? “. That would have been dope, but there’s only so much that can fit in one vial. And with five issues from Ziglar and Mason, I may want more, but I’m surprised I didn’t O.D.

Score : 4.5/5

* The collected edition of Spider-Punk, “Banned In D.C.” arrives 12/13/22. All single issues of the series are available for purchase as of this writing.

(W) Cody Ziglar (A) Justin Mason (CA) Olivier Coipel