With Spider-Man: Brand New Day arriving in theaters tomorrow, I thought it'd be a good idea to look at the comic storyline the movie took some, not all, but some ideas from.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is a 2008 comic book storyline published by Marvel Comics. While the story arc itself took place in issues #546-564 the entire Brand New Day status quo runs from issues #546-647 and it's also accompanied by tie-ins, one-shots, and annuals. Dan Slott wrote issues #546-648 & #559-561, with Marc Guggenheim writing issues #549-551, Bob Gale writing issues #552-554, 558 & 562-563, Zeb Wells writing issues #555-557, and lastly we had Slott, Guggenheim and Gale all writing issue #564. Then we have a lot of artists doing a lot of issues. One of them being Steven McNiven drawing issues #546-548, Salvador Larroca drawing issues #549-551, Phil Jimenez drawing issues #552-554, Chris Bachalo drawing issues #555-557, Barry Kitson drawing issue #558, Marcos Martin drawing issues #559-561, Mike McKone drawing issues #562-563, and lastly Chris Bachalo & Paulo Siqueria both drawing issue #564.
The story is, after the events of One More Day (🖕👎) Peter Parker's life has changed forever. He's never been married to Mary-Jane Watson and his unmasking during Civil War has been altered. Not only that but he's been struggling with getting a new job since the Daily Bugle is struggling with selling papers and J. Jonah Jameson is refusing to sell the Bugle to new owners, not to mention but thanks to the Superhuman Registration Act he hasn't been Spider-Man for quite awhile. But he'll have to step back into action when new villains appear and put people in grave danger.
- Negatives
I've got nothing here, so just move onto the next part.
- Mix
If there's one mixed feeling I had with this storyline it's the writing. As per usual with this section of this review let's get into the good stuff. Now the one part of Brand New Day is to be an accessible jumping-on for newer readers and it does succeed in that. You can pretty much read this arc without too much knowledge of prior events/stories. Not to mention but it was fun to see the writers experiment with new villains. I actually had a bit of enjoyment with Freak, but the more breakout villain is definitely Mister Negative. There's also some fun to be had with the villain Menace even if they're little too much Green Goblin. The story arcs are also much more self-contained so new readers won't feel like they have to do too much homework. Now here's the part where the slight negatives come in. Firstly the shadow of the ever controversial One More Day lingers. It was hard for me to truly get into these otherwise fun stories, but because I know how we got here it's really hard to fully love these comics. There's also the fact that sometimes Peter is out of character. Sure he's not all around perfect, but he still should feel like veteran at the superhero game. Especially since only some aspects of Peter's life and events were slightly altered, this isn't a full blown reboot to the point where he's a rookie.
- Positives
I'll first compliment the pacing. All of these stories were a breeze to get through and never felt like a drag.
My biggest praise goes to the art. Each artists brought their respective strengths for this back-to-basics relaunch. Steve McNiven brought a polished, realistic, and highly detailed style. His art has that cinematic clarity he brought to titles like Civil War. Phil Jimenez was also highly detailed but his figures were more stylized and expressive. Salvador Larroca brought a good balance of dynamics with a strong sense of character acting and action. Then you've got like Barry Kitson with a clean adventure feel and Chris Bachalo with an even more stylized look adding even more visual variety. But the biggest name that became a standout is Marcos Martin. Who's art has been favorable compared to the very first Spider-Man artist Steve Ditko. Which after reading I can see why. Much like Ditko, Martin's style has the classic slinky acrobatic anatomy, expressive hands, and narrower eye lenses on the Spidey mask. But he also compared more modern elements like McFarlane looking "spaghetti webbing" along with pages that have naturalistic yet highly designed flow. And his action sequences have intentive staging and clean motion. Marcos' art has loads of personality.
While I enjoyed some of Brand New Day, it's not in the top five of my favorite Spider-Man stories. Especially with that One More Day cloud over my head when reading despite it being years ago since both of these were released.
My final rating is, Okay.
That's all for now. Come back on Saturday, Aug 1st, for my review of the movie Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.
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