By the end of this year (2019) Tom Holland will have appeared as Peter Parker/ Spider-Man in 5 movies over 4 successive years. That’s an unprecedented mainstream push for the character (not even counting the Spider-verse and Venom spin-off movies from 2018 which don’t feature this iteration of the character). The Marvel publishing division were clearly ahead of this curve back in 2016, as a couple of months before Holland debuted in the smash hit Captain America Civil War, they launched an all-ages monthly title revisiting the web-spinner’s early adventures while at High School, called simply ‘Spidey’.
Continuity-wise, the largely one-off adventures in each issue take place in the ‘gaps’ between the classic adventures of Stan Lee’s and Steve Ditko’s first couple years of The Amazing Spider-Man. Some liberties are taken; with Gwen Stacy, Hobgoblin and Scorpion all appearing a bit earlier than they did in the original run. All the same, writer Robbie Thompson struck a fine balance of finding meaningful and poignant tales that can exist (mostly) within the constraints of the established canon.
The art is an absolute delight, with issues #1-#3 featuring the hyper-detailed linework and complex page compositions of superstar Nick Bradshaw. For Issues #4-#7, Andre Lima Araujo stepped in, with a style that was much simpler, but wonderfully recalled the awkward weirdness of Ditko’s original. Finally, issues #8-#12 were handled by Nathan Stockman, whose art was perhaps the most cartoonish of all, but who captured the comedy of the young hero brilliantly. In fact, my favourite issue of the run was probably #10, which recounts the first meeting of Spidey and Captain America, leading up to an absolutely classic final gag that I understand Stockman and Bradshaw cooked up together.
The comic lasted 12 months, and wrapped up in early 2017. By this point it was well established that Holland would be reprising his role as Parker later that year in the blockbuster Spider-Man Homecoming, and the creators managed to tie into this nicely, delivering a coming-of-age climax that also occurred against the backdrop of Peter’s High School Homecoming dance. Overall, this series is a very satisfying package that is highly recommended to any parents looking for quality comics they can enjoy with their kids, or for Marvel movie fans who are looking for more of the same.
