2001-2003

Spider-Man’s Tangled Web #1-22. Kinda had no choice but to do the web gag with a title like that. I misremembered most of this anthology series taking place in the past, so I decided to split it into its own block of books. In fact, maybe 3 or 5 out of 22 are flashbacks, and reading these mostly forgettable or boring comics mixed in with the monthlies instead of back-to-back like this would have been preferrable, but what can you do? A whole bunch of people do 1- to 3-issue Spider-Man stories. Some of them are pretty fun, especially the 2 by Darwyn Cooke, J. Bone and Matt Hollinsworth, but most of them are just kinda there, and a couple are genuinely terrible (Lookin’ at you, Daniel Way and Leandro Fernandez!). Most of them are supposed to be about people in Spider-Man or Peter Parker’s orbit instead of the man himself, with mixed results. What starts as this big deal series that somehow talked Garth Ennis and John McRea into 3 issues of Spider-Man ends on a one-off by people no one’s ever heard of. Star power and quality vary wildly. I don’t even feel like trying to summarize them. Because there were so many tones and art styles, I decided do this one 100% as myself. Usually I try my best to adapt my art style to the time or the title, but this time, it’s just me. One thing I know about myself as an “artist,” if I can’t finish something in, like, a week, I lose interest. This thing was in progress for like a month. Between the uninspiring subject matter and stuff getting in the way, it was kind of a slog. But at least it’s done. They can’t all be winners.