2006-2007

ASM 532-538, SSM 28-34, FNSM 11-16, New Avengers 21-25, Civil War 1-7, Punisher War Journal, Vol. 2 1-4. So, the philosophy of these things, at some point, became “I’ll draw literally everyone who appeared in these comics.” For the much-hyped Civil War event pitting all the heroes against each other in a contrived and unsatisfying battle, that would’ve been extremely busy, as usual. But Civil War isn’t really about Spider-Man. He’s a big part of it, but he’s mostly a pawn in it. So I decided, before I drew this, before I drew the last one, that this would focus on what mattered to Spider-Man. Thusly did I arrive at what I think is a really nice image that tells the story of Spider-Man instead of the story of Civil War. And that’s Iron Man and Captain America’s battle over the Superhuman Registration Act, an embarrassingly childish attempt to comment on the “freedom vs. security” debate that had largely ended in the US by the time this came out, but also him unmasking on TV to show his support for Iron Man, the villains who come after him and his loved ones once his identity is public, JJJ suing the crap out of him, and Aunt May getting shot by an assassin Kingpin sent for Peter after he switched sides and the family became fugitives. I threw a couple notable members of each side of Civil War in there, but otherwise, kept focus on Peter. During the idiotic conflict between Iron Man and Captain America over superhuman registration, Doctor Octopus and no less than 3 different Mysterios (One of them undead!) attack the high school Peter works at, Chameleon putting together a gang of Electro, Rhino, Scarecrow, Swarm and Will O’ The Wisp to kidnap Normie Osborn and draw Spider-Man into a fight, Deb Whitman returns with a tell-all book about how badly Peter treated her, and Vulture attacking her book signing to draw Spider-Man into a fight (Real theme going). Flash Thompson’s mysterious girlfriend “Ms. Arrow” is apparently revealed to be the weird woman made of spiders in the Other, Betty Brant turns back up. And it ends with Aunt May shot. Grim times. No swipes this time, sort of. I realized that I had unconsciously swiped Erik Larsen for the Spider-Man figure. I tried to hew to Morry Hollowell’s coloring in the main Civil War book, including his baffling insistence on giving all men five o’clock shadow at all times. I think Luke Cage is as close as I got to Hollowell’s style. There’s a buncha textures in there, ‘cuz that’s comics coloring in this period. On Iron Man, on Cap’s shield, on the newspaper, on the wood floor, on the background. Overall, one of my favorite drawings in the series despite its abysmal subject matter.