Review: Symbiote Spider-Man #5 (of 5)

STORY

This wraps up the presumably first mini series for Symbiote Spider-Man. This story takes place in the time when Spider-Man had brought the alien “costume”“ back from the Secret Wars planet of Battle World. This creature would later bond with Eddie Brock to become Venom. This story takes place long before that in a time when Spidey just thinks that he’s got some cool alien duds to wear. Given that in the past couple of months I gor to meet both Peter David and Greg Land I thought this was the perfect issue for me to review. Both guys are great to meet in person by the way.

In this ussie Mysterio has gotten ahold of some of the symbiote and has bonded with it, enhancing his physical abilities plus it cancels out Spider-Man’s spider sesne. For better or worse Spidey isn’t runing the show and its the symbiote that Mysterio is actually fighting with, not that he cares as long as Spider-Man dies. Mysterio combined with the symbiote is a really dangerous foe, easily proving to be a match for Spidey or the symbiote as the case may be. The combination of his normal illusions and the equivalent of Spider-Man’s power is a devastating combination and its only the appearance of the Black Cat that saves the day, more than once. I’ve always liked Mysterio, ever since his first appearance. He’s quite cool when handled by a good writer and David gives us a peek inside Beck’s head as he monologues to the possessed Peter. It’s a fun perspective to get in this story. David further deepens issues explored back in the original Black Suit Saga, such as the drifting of Parker’s relationship with both Black Cat, who he was dating at the time, and his aunt May. May’s estrangement from her nephew, who she has raised like a son is particularly rough. David has her voice her thoughts in a way she never did back in the 80s. Its a particularly nice moment in the comic, showing a side of May we’ve rarely seen.

Best of all, even when Mystrio doesn’t have his sliver of symbiote, he is shown to be a capable and dangerous villain. Its nice to see him not be treated as a bottom tier threat considering his incredibly long history with Spider-Man.

ART

Greg Land is well known in the industry for producing work that relies very heavily on photo reference. This is quite a double edged sword. He’s not the only one to do this, the most famous person likely being Alex Ross but the difference between them is that Ross has people pose for him. Land seems to rely on Google mostly for images and has a bank of images saved up. So long time observers of his work will see him use many of the same poses and faces over and over again in a number of combinations.

Now this isn’t to say he lacks talent, he does, but it does limit him to a degree. There are parts of the art I really like, there are panels where he has some really nice angles and dynamic poses. His work on Mysterio’s cloak and mists are especially good and I love the symbiote design for his costume. Its as simplified and effective as Spider-Man’s own. Unfortunately there are SO many times when I feel like I’m just looking at Photoshop collages. There are times when the poses are very stiff, especially for civillians, expressions that just don’t work in the panel. Greg, sometimes you have to do more that alter someone’s eyes to make a person who is laughing look like they are screaming. Another issue is that the angle of the photo determines how his panel or page is laid out, and in doing this you give up a lot of control as an artist. While I appreciate the detailed backgrounds I think Land should pay attention to the work of Brian Hitch and Alex Ross. Hitch delivers photorealism without appearing static and Ross knows how to stretch the truth of the photo into something far more exciting.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Definitely worth a look, check it out if you haven’t yet. 3 out of 5!

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

SYMBIOTE SPIDER-MAN #5
Writer:Â Peter David
Art:Â Greg Land
Inker:Â Jay Leisten
Colors:Â Frank D’Armata