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The
Fanboy Planet Preview Spotlight 07/11/06
brought to you by FanboyPlanet.Comics
of Santa Clara
Each
week we look through the upcoming releases to offer our two
cents as to what's hot and what's not. You can agree with
us or not, but spend your money wisely. The
Sensational Spider-Man #28
Writer: Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
Artist: Clayton Crain
One
morning a science whiz high school student wakes up to what
he thinks will be an ordinary day in his life. The girl
he likes barely knows he's alive, even though she's his
lab partner. Most kids think he's weird. At least he can
depend on the kind woman who raises him to show him a little
love.
After all, she's
his mom. But for Jordan Harrison, this day won't be like
any other. For this day, all over the news, it turns out
that Jordan's favorite teacher has harbored a potentially
deadly secret. Mister Parker is really Spider-Man.
Working in the
shadow of Peter David and J. Michael Straczynski, Roberto
Aguirre-Sacasa gets the difficult task of writing the first
post-unmasking tale of the webslinger. If anybody out there
still has any lingering doubts about Aguirre-Sacasa's way
with Marvel characters, cut it out, because this touching
little tale makes the events of Civil War relatable
in a way the main titles haven't yet.
Told mostly
from Jordan's perspective, "My Science Teacher Is Spider-Man"
gives us the bystander's view of Peter Parker. Especially
nice is the information about Parker's life that the students
have sort of filled in, partially true with a little bit
of embellishment. However, it sort of underscores Joe Quesada's
point about Spider-Man's marriage being a bit unbelievable
for the character, as the conversations Jordan imagines
ring too true.
For a while,
Parker's students have been the most underdeveloped of the
supporting cast. Yet with just one issue, Aguirre-Sacasa
creates a kid that will hopefully be hanging around for
a while, even though we also get to know his future. (It's
nice.)
Oh, yes, there's
villainy, too, tied in thematically. As most of us would
expect, Doctor Octopus reacts poorly to the news that Peter
Parker is Spider-Man. He feels mocked by May Parker, and
hates himself for having unmasked Spider-Man once and rejecting
what he saw.
It all comes
to a head with good writing. As mentioned before, Aguirre-Sacasa
hasn't seemed to hit that storyline that makes everybody
gasp with surprise. Instead, he's been doing the sneaky
thing of just being consistently good. The streak remains
unbroken.
Clayton Crain
also gets better with each issue. His work gets more and
more consistent, with characters feeling real. When he started
on Toxic, things seemed more exaggerated and claylike,
which fit there, but finally his Spider-Man looks believable
without losing any of his weirdness.
A lot
of fans (at least on the internet) have been outraged by
Spider-Man revealing his secret identity. Give it a chance.
If the arc can keep up the strength shown here, Marvel will
be sorry. Sorry they didn't think of it sooner.
Page
2: Firestorm the Nuclear Man #28, Ghost Rider #1, X-Men
#188 and more...
Hey, write to us and
let us know what you think, or talk about it on the
forums!
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