Comic Review – Spider-Man / Daredevil

Well, my local shop didn’t have any copies of Thundercats, but it did have the Spider-Man / Daredevil #1 one-shot. You know where to find the details.

General Information

Title: Spider-Man / Daredevil
Author: Brett Mathews
Illustrator(s): Vatche Mavlian
Original Publication Date: August 7, 2002
Cover Price: $2.99US, $4.75 Can

Premise

It’s one typical night in the lives of Spider-Man and Daredevil.

High Point

These heroes are still fighting the mundane crimes. That’s not
something I see a lot of in the hero comics I’ve been reading.

Low Point

The title heroes don’t team up as I expected from the premise.
Instead, they just run into each other at the end of the night.

The Scores

When it comes to originality, there’s not a whole lot here
that hasn’t been seen before. I’ve read a grand total of three issues
of Daredevil in my life and I’ve seen some of this stuff before. I’ve
read a few dozen issues of Spider-Man, and I’ve seen everything he did
before. There’s not much new here. I really don’t see the need to go
to all the trouble of making this a seperate one-shot. I give it 2
out of 6.

The artwork is, for the most part, good. There are a few
panels where large details are lost but smaller details remain, which
seems really strange to me. The characters usually look good, but are
frequently off-model. The use of the cover to Amazing Fantasy #15 as
a newspaper photo was a nice touch. I give it 4 out of 6.

Time to evaluate the story. Um… was there a story?
There’s one thread of a story that’s wrapped up very quickly. There’s
really not much here in terms of an ongoing plot. It really felt like
a gimmick issue released to take the people who are still pumped up
from the Spider-Man movie and get them ready for the Daredevil movie
this February. I give the story 2 out of 6.



The characterization is the only part really done well here.
If you want to know about the differing personalities of two Marvel
heroes, this is a good place to become quickly aquainted with them.
If you want depth of character, this is not the place to look. I give
it 5 out of 6, hurt only by that lack of depth.

The emotional response generated by this issue was pretty
poor. There were a few moments that made me laugh out loud, there was
disappointment when the only continuing story thread was resolved out
of the reader’s view, and there was an incredulous “that’s it?” kind
of feeling when I reached the end of this short book. All in all, not
a great way to do it. I give it 3 out of 6.

The flow was well done, but not particularly challenging,
given the situations as written. I do have to give the author credit
for not setting up situations where that would be a problem, though.
I give it 5 out of 6.

Overall, this isn’t bad, but it’s not great. I just don’t
see why it should warrant a release as a one-shot when it could have
been a cross-over in either monthly title. This just really seems
like a way to take the new comic fans that the last Marvel movie made
and haul them into the audience for the next one. I give it 3 out of 6.

In total, Spider-Man / Daredevil receives 24 out of 42.