I love this series because I get my Spider-Man fix without feeling guilty about reading Spider-Man. Great creators get their chance to tell great stories. But why should I feel guilty? It’s freakin’ Spider-Man, for God’s sake. If you don’t like Spider-Man, then I hoped you were working last Independence Day, you filthy Pinkos.

This installment, Paul Pope tells the story of a young girl who loves Spider-Man without the guilt most of us feel about loving the web-slinger. Her dad hates Spider-Man and rips her Spidey posters off the wall. Kind of reminds me of the time my dad tore down my Jason Bateman posters. Sniff…Bastard!

The best Tangled Web stories are the ones where Spider-Man is in the periphery, and Pope focuses on the young girl, showing us her teenybopper-like devotion to Spider-Man (Let’s face it, Spider-Man’s a pop star through and through) and the excitement she feels every time he’s mentioned on the news. The fact the news of the Stag Beetle’s rampage excites her is very charming, as we’ve all done this every time Spider-Man’s faced a new villain… Yes you have, so shut your punk-ass mouth and stop lying.

It’s a quiet minimalist piece, as opposed to the usual over-wrought superhero comics we’re used to, and it’s a nice change of pace. The girl’s facial expressions tell most of the story, and Pope uses this to great effect. We’ve seen the “kid with the Spidey scrapbook” motif before, but Pope keeps it entertaining with a goofy-named Ditko-era style villain named the Stag Beetle (“Cretins! Worms! No one is safe from my fury!”). I enjoyed everything from the forshadowing in the beginning to the heartbreaking conclusion.

Tangled Web is a cool series because it’s like a tribute album to your favorite band, and you’re always wondering how each artist is going to cover their chosen song. If you still have a yen for Spider-Man, this is the series worth reading, and I hope Marvel continues giving us interesting takes from interesting creators. COUGH—Dave Lapham—COUGH—Make it happen, you bastards.

(Jeff Chon)

* * *

STORMWATCH: TEAM ACHILLES #1
Micah Ian Wright /Whilce Portacio/Scott Williams
US $2.95
DC/Wildstorm/Eye of the Storm

I almost didn’t buy this book. Everyone kept mentioning Tom Clancy as part of the high concept, and I hate Tom Clancy. And I haven’t liked Whilce Portacio’s art since he drew Punisher way the hell back in the eighties, when I was young and ignorant about such things. And I find these attempts by superhero publishers to publish superhero books but claim that they’re NOT, in fact, superhero books kind of amusing and kind of depressing.

But writer Micah Ian Wright has shown a sharp sense of humor over on the Warren Ellis Forum with his modified propaganda posters , and he also seemed really proud of the book. Plus, he’s worked on Nickelodeon’s Invader Zim, so I figured what the hell, and I wound up happy I had.

There was a moment, though, where I wasn’t so sure. The first image in the book is of a woman apparently jogging in a midriff-baring T-shirt and cut-off bootie shorts open at the waist, with sick, over-defined hyper-nipples poking through the short. Given the odd “jogging” pose she’s in, she looks like a Hooter’s waitress with an invisible tray.

NOT an ausipicious beginning at all.

The rest of the issue picks up nicely, though, especially if you can look past the art.

This book moves along like a big action movie, but one of the smarter ones -- say, the original Die Hard. Lots of snappy dialogue, lots of things blowing up, and characters who are really nothing but manliness.

So it’s good, if you like that sort of thing. Which I do. But there’s really not much more in this first issue, and Portacio’s art, despite being the strongest he’s done in ages, is still not the easiest to follow.

Fun stuff, for what it is, and highly recommended if you’re in the right mood.

(Matt Terl)

* * *

VERTIGO POP! TOKYO #1
Jonathan Vankin/Seth Fisher
US $2.95
DC/Vertigo

People in Japan apparently have no noses. I had no idea.

This is a very cool book, with some gorgeous (albeit noseless) artwork and a promising premise.  The first issue wasn’t as good as I was hoping for, but it is well worth reading, and will probably read best if it is ever collected into a trade paperback.

There’s an element of a fish-out-of-water story here, an American geek who’s up and moved himself to Japan. But writer Jonathan Vankin makes the somewhat questionable decision not to tell the entire story through his point of view, and to only use his narration while he’s “onscreen”. Which allows for the story to range with a bit more freedom, but also makes some of the non-narrated scenes more confusing than they might otherwise have been.

Aside from that quibble, though, this is a solid first issue. Like just about everyone else, it sometimes seems, I find contemporary Japan fascinating, so it’s nice to see it being tackled in comic book form. And Seth Fisher’s smooth, detailed (except for noses) art and Chris Chuckry’s pastel colors are perfect for it.

In fact, with this, Grant Morrison’s The Filth, and the forthcoming books under the Vertigo Pop! banner, Vertigo as a line is really starting to feel cutting-edge and relevant again, with Fables, Lucifer, and Midnight, Mass as strong representatives of the more “traditional” Vertigo style.

And well past time, too.

(Matt Terl)

* * *

XXXLIVENUDEGIRLS #1
Laurenn Mcubbin/Nikki Coffman
US $2.95
Penny Dreadful Press
 
It’s fashionable to like this book at the moment. It’s being talked about, being promoted, is shortly to become available through artbomb.net and is basically being talked up in a lot of the places that count. This can only be a good thing. It’s a well written, visually fascinating book that does nothing that anything else being published does half as well. It’s interesting, it’s different and it’s actually got some genuine artistic worth.

The problem is, that may not be enough for some people. For others, it may be an active turnoff.

Those people are wrong. This book IS important and IS worth your time.

XXXLIVENUDEGIRLS is a short read, but an utterly haunting one. There’s no overall story here, rather a collection. All are bleary-eyed, Carver-esque stories, taking a snapshot of different women at different stages in their lives. In ‘Drugs’ one struggles to remember why she took the drugs that have taken her memory whilst ‘Sex’ sees another woman faced with an ex-lover in the most mundane of places. Finally, ‘Rage’ sees a third engaged in a fight which is as much a contest of endurance as it is one of anger. All are bleak, desolate pieces which come and go with tremendous speed.

They’re also all fantastic examples of graphic storytelling. The artwork is taken from photographs, twisted and retouched through numerous filters and cut and pastes. All in shades of grey, it gives the world of XXXLIVENUDEGIRLS a vaguely clammy, washed out feel that only serves to heighten the atmosphere.

This is not normal comics and that’s the best recommendation possible. Mccubbin and Cofffman have created something which is bleak without ever being maudlin and artistic without ever being pretentious. It’s not an easy read, but it’s one which is quite unlike anything else on the market. Intelligent, unusual and haunting, this is a tremendous debut.

In short, this book IS important, and is deserving not only of the attention it’s been getting, but of your own. Read it.