The latest multi-title Spider-Man crossover is now out in a single hardcover, and will later be available in two trade paperbacks. Is it worth it?

General Information

Title: Spider-Man: The Other

Authors: J. Michael Straczynski, Reginald Hudlin, and Peter David

Illustrators: Mike Deodato, Pat Lee, and Mike Wieringo

Original Publication Date: The hardcover version was release on April 19, 2006. The individual issues were published as
Amazing Spider-Man #525-528, Marvel Knights Spider-Man #19-22, and Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man #1-4 between October 2005 and January 2006.

ISBN: 0-7851-2188-9

Cover Price: $29.99 US, $48.00 Can

Buy from: Amazon.com or Amazon.ca

Past comic reviews can be found here.

Premise

Peter Parker learns he has a life-threatening condition just before Morlun returns. The combined experiences throughout the story result in the revelation of new (or, perhaps, previously untapped) powers.

High Point

Logan’s counselling techniques.

Low Point

This suffers the “too many chefs” syndrome. We’ve got the collosal continuity gaffe of an arm that is clearly broken and put in a cast one issue, only to be completely healed in the next issue. We’ve got hints that Morlun is protecting MJ, though there is no real reason why. We get the indication that Peter’s life threatening condition is of an unusual nature, but there’s no follow-up to that. Most irritatingly, we get the jarring artist changes every single issue. The styles of these three artists (two of whom I really like) are not at all compatible. It’s somewhat like A.I.: Spielberg and Kubrick are both great directors, but their styles don’t blend. When you alternate between them in the same project, you get a style clash that doesn’t hold up.

The Scores

The originality is good. We are often promised stories that drive characters in “Bold New Directions!” that don’t actually deliver, though this one will be nearly impossible to ignore. There’s even a new villain on the loose. (I suspect we’ll see a return to some of these plot threads once the Civil War is over.) Some may not think these changes are for the better (I’m undecided on that), but they can’t claim it’s been done before. I give it 5 out of 6.

The artwork is mixed. I love Deodato and ‘Ringo, but their work doesn’t blend well together. I’ve seen Pat Lee’s work in a few places, but I’m not impressed by it. It’s his faces that irk me; as long as everyone’s in costume, it’s fine, but take the masks off and everyone suddenly has Prince Charles’ ears. These three artists are very different, and they don’t blend together very well, leading to jarring changes with every new issue. I give it 4 out of 6.

The story seems to have been based on a good plan, but switching writers and artists so often seems to have befuddled things. Many aspects are unclear at this point, including the exact nature of Peter’s terminal disease (SPOILER: which, by the way, didn’t cause his death the way you’d expect), why Morlun was manipulating MJ’s life in this way, and so forth. I get the distinct impression that JMS planned the whole thing, and that the other writers weren’t entirely sure about which pieces of the puzzle their chapters were supposed to reveal, and how those revelations were supposed to work. I give it 4 out of 6.

The characterization is very well done. Only Morlun doesn’t seem to fit well into his past role, but we knew so little about him in the past, that it’s not a big deal. The characters we do know well all fit together very nicely, so I suspect that Morlun would have acted this way had we seen him in similar situations before. I give it 6 out of 6.

The emotional response maintained some interest, in spite of the constant disruptions in the art, and the lack of some pieces. I give it 4 out of 6.

The flow is where the changing creative teams really pound on this title. I give it 2 out of 6, due to all of the problems mentioned above.

Overall, it’s not a bad story, but it should have been better. Had any individual creative team written these 12 issues over a year, it would have played out better, but then it would have begged the question of why these events were being ignored in the other titles. I give it 4 out of 6.

In total, Spider-Man: The Other receives 29 out of 42.

Additional Notes and Comments

The next such story Marvel is releasing is the Ultimate Power miniseries this October. I’m not as excited about that as I was when I first heard about it, now that I’ve seen the issues with rotating creative teams here. Let’s hope that some of these problems were caused by the sudden switch from Mark Waid to Peter David on Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man, and that the chosen creative teams for Ultimate Power (JMS, Brian Michael Bendis, and Jeph Loeb on scripts, and artists not yet named) will be able to take more time to hammer out and finalize details before they start their individual scripts. (Note: That interview I just tracked down for the above link does imply that JMS did design “The Other,” but that there was a lack of communication after that which they will try to correct for the “Ultimate Power” miniseries.)