Spectacular Spider-Man #24 Review

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Reviewer: Tim Byrne
Story Title: Sins Remembered : Sarah’s Story, Part 2

Author: Samm Barnes
Penciled by: Scot Eaton
Inked by: Cam Smith
Colored by: Chris Solomayor
Lettered by: Cory Petit
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Publisher: Marvel Comics

Yikes.

What to say?

Following on from the recent ‘Sins Past’ storyline, and the first instalment last issue, Peter and Sarah continue to stroll around Paris, while various suspicious figures lurk nearby, just waiting for trouble.

I don’t like writing negative reviews. I always try to bear in mind that dedicated professionals put a lot of time and effort into every issue that I pay $4.00 (Australian) for.

That said, oh boy does this suck.

This whole advanced-aging thing invented by JMS in the ‘Sins Past’ is seeming more and more like a cheap-ass way to get a Gwen Stacy-type to slum around and look attractive to Peter.

The problem is that the aging-really-quickly issue hasn’t been dealt with in nearly enough detail. Does anyone remember the Robin Williams movie ‘Jack’? If you don’t, I don’t blame you, but it was a comedy / drama that tried to deal with the issue of a child with a condition that caused his body to age at multiple times the normal rate. And guess what? He might have looked like Robin Williams, but he acted like a little boy. Wasn’t interested in girls, just basketball.

Merely looking like a twenty-something year old does not give you the intelligence, maturity or knowledge of someone who is that age. No mention has been made by either of the authors (Barnes or previously JMS) that one of the effects of the mystical ‘Goblin Formula’ has been to give Sarah (and Gabriel) extraordinary powers of intelligence. Even if she is super-intelligent, someone of Sarah’s age should not be talking with implied knowledge about flirting, sex and cafes. She certainly wouldn’t have the know-how or wherewithal to make deals with illegal drug-dealers.

Once the card of Sarah’s ‘age’ is removed, this whole house of cards comes tumbling down. How can the upstanding Peter we know be attracted to a child like Sarah? How horrible does it make Mary Jane look to imagine that she is jealous of someone like this?

And even more than this, Barnes has decided that Peter would just swing around Paris with no mask and no costume. His explanation?? ‘Nobody knows my face here’. Are you serious?? Heard of digital cameras? The internet?? At least when Mark Millar depicted Peter without his mask in Spider-Man, he emphasised the urgency of the situation and the desperation of Peter. Here, it just seems like he doesn’t care.

I want to complete the run of Spectacular Spidey, but boy is it hard with this stuff.

This art is perfectly adequate, with Eaton’s sketches of the ladies being similiar to that of the Dodsons. But again, there are depictions of Sarah that are supposed to be sexy, but instead make me wince at the colossal misjudgements involved in this story-line.