Saturday, April 24, 2010

Spider-Man Noir Review

Hey everyone, welcome back to my Red Hood, this time for a review of Spider-Man Noir. I've been talking about reviewing this all week and I don't wanna prolong this review any longer so let's get to it. And for those who haven't please go check out Nagash's Spider-Man Noir interpretation over at his super sweet blog that you can get to by clicking this.
Spider-Man Noir takes place in 1933, during the Great Depression. Our story starts with the editor of the Daily Bugle, J. Jonah Jameson found murdered, standing over him holding a gun is... Spider-Man? And that's how we start off with the roller coaster of twists and turns. Long time Spidey fans will appreciate seeing the way their favorite characters were tweaked to fit into this era. Whether it's May Parker, the soapbox preaching Liberal, Felicia Hardy, the owner of The Black Cat lounge, or Norman "The Goblin" Osborn, a big time mob boss, a lot of classic Spider-Man characters find their niche in Spider-Man Noir.

The scene where Peter inevitably gets bit by the spider is amazing. No other word can describe it. I'm gonna post a scan of it at the bottom of the review (X-Man Style!) so you can see, because that was a truly awesome scene. I really loved the allure of mystery that was shown during this comic as well. Never knowing who you can and can't trust is always something that I love when I'm reading a comic and this was one of those comics, the second you let your guard down you get surprised by someone's actions, to me that's the mark of an exciting comic. Little things were important as well, as whenever Peter got his Spider Sense set off, instead of the little squiggly lines by his head, he had the outline of a red spider, which was a very awesome visual.

The explanation of Spider-Man's rogue gallery was well done as well. The Goblin, aka Norman Osborn has a bunch of guys working for him, namely Kraven, The Vulture and some more of Spidey's well known villains. The explanation is that they were mostly circus folk, which explains Kraven's abilities and strength, The Vulture's sharp teeth and predator like behavior. Just the fact they were able to make these guys work in a real setting is a commendable effort. The artwork is very gritty, I didn't like it when I first started but by the time I finished the first issue it'd grown on me and it truly does fit the Noir tone of the comic.

As for what I thought? I loved this comic, I can honestly say it was one of the best Spider-Man stories I've ever read, and I'd recommend it to anyone to check it out. It easily gets a 10/10 from me, and I'm definitely hoping they continue this some day and have more Spider-Man Noir stories. There's nothing else I can say about it so I'll leave you with the previously mentioned scan. (You should be able to click it and give it a read.)
Also, it's that time of the week so don't forget to vote on the new Weekly poll on the right. The weeks question is, which dead DC Character do you wish had been resurrected in Brightest Day? Your choices are the former Aqualad and Tempest, Garth, Bart Allen's arch-rival, Inertia, The Former Question, Vic Sage, The recently deceased Prometheus, and former Blue Beetle, Ted Kord. Also, for those curious of last week's results to the question "Who would you like to see become the main character of their Legacy?"

4th Place with 0% - Connor Hawke/Queen, looks like you aren't eveyone's favorite Emerald Archer.
Tied for 2nd Place with 27.3% each - Kyle Rayner and Bart Allen, even the fastest man alive couldn't out run the former Ion.
And your winner with 45.5% of the vote - Dick Grayson. Looks like he does deserve the Cowl after all.

Well thanks for voting everyone, I look forward to seeing how this week's poll turns out. Until next time, Stay Classy, because You've just been Gobsmacked!

- Jason Todd

46 comments:

  1. Awww can I so borrow this from you? THis sounds like a damn good read. Plus I'm on a spider man kick after watching it this morning. Damn good review sir.

    Also that scan.....epic. I hate spiders as you know but that was quite baller. Lol.

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  2. Sure you can babe, I'm sure you'll like it. And I freaking LOVE that scan, seeing his face explode with the spiders was pretty sweet.

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  3. Edit: Just found out there's a continuation to Spider-Man Noir, and I'll be picking that up first thing tomorrow, along with Wolverine: Enemy of The State.

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  4. Glad to hear this was a good book...I'll probably read it sometime in the near future. I also think you would really like Batman: Nine Lives, an Elseworlds story set in this same time period. Without spoiling too much, it does something very similar to Spider-Man Noir with Batman's rogues gallery which I think you'd enjoy. Also glad to hear you're picking up Enemy of the State! I'm sure you'll love it.

    And as for the poll, I'm pretty sure you can guess which one I voted for. :)

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  5. Hm... I've heard of that before but I never checked it out, I thik I'll take your advice though Marc. I did read Batman Thrillkiller which was also kinda in the same vein as well. And yeah you guys convinced me to get Enemy of The State as well so don't be surprised if I start talking about that after I give it a read.

    Haha, yeah it's much easier with only two people voting so far. I was conflicted because besides Tempest who I don't know alot about, I really liked the other four characters alot.

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  6. I haven't read Thrillkiller. Would you recommend it?

    I should review the Question trades someday. the first one is sitting on my bookshelf about seven feet away from me right now.

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  7. If you like elseworld stories and can find it for less than ten bucks yeah I would, it's pretty interesting, but if not I wouldn't. In all honesty I'd probably give it a 6/10.

    I'd definitely love to read those reviews, Hell I need to add more Question comics to my collection.

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  8. I just did a bit more research on Thrillkiller. I see it's set in the '60s and that it has Dan Brereton on art, both of which are decent sells for me. I'll try to get ahold of it for cheap at some point.

    Along with Animal Man, The Question was definitely one of DC's best books in the '80s. They're both relatively easy to find either in trade or single issue form these days.

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  9. Awesome, glad I could recommend something for you for once, haha. Don't make the mistake of paying fifteen bucks for it like I did...ah I was young and naive.

    I've been an Animal Man fan for a little while, any specific arcs you'd recommend?

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  10. Yeah, check out the three trades written by Grant Morrison. They contain the first 26 issues of the series. Along with Doom Patrol, that book was basically Morrison's breakthrough into the mainstream.

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  11. Now I'm conflicted because you have good taste but you know how I am about Grant lol, I'll check them out if they have em at the shop I go to tomorrow.

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  12. You might check out your local library for Animal Man too. The trades were first printed over ten years ago, back before trades were really a common thing, so I know of a good deal of libraries that have them.

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  13. Thanks for the advice man, will do. I haven't been to the Library in a while and I used to always go, hell that's where I got Identity crisis which is what hooked me onto comics.

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  14. I got hooked on comic book characters as a kid through the library as well. And then when I started really collecting in the early 2000s, it was thanks in large part to Earth X, which I had gotten from the library too. In conclusion, libraries really are a wonderful thing. :)

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  15. Agreed, and the fact their free is just icing on the cake.

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  16. This was a trade/comic that was NOWHERE on my radar, but with a 10/10, it is now! As a matter of fact, I'll probably toss it into my shopping cart before I sign out tonight before I forget.

    That poll was TOUGH, JT! My first instinct was to vote for Inertia(of course)but since I don't recall even seeing him during BN, I suspect that he's either not dead, or that Geoff has plans for him and that he'll be back pretty soon. The other four were all great choices as well. I loved Vic Sage from the 52 series, Prometheus died when he could/should have become a constant/reoccuring threat, Blue Beetle is Blue Beetle! And then there's Tempest... So who did I pick? Tempest! :P That's right, I don't make any sense!!!

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  17. Man that means a hell of alot to me that you'd get it based on my rating, thanks for that vote of confidence.

    Good point, we did discuss that but I forgot, he was nowhere to be found during Blackest Night so he must not be dead...Lol I added Tempest last second. I hated that he was finally ready to take over and got killed. That's ate away at me, and he didn't come back. So I'd agree with any of the returns dude.

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  18. I think the problem is that after Vic's death, DC haven't done much, if anything with Renee - I mean, seriously, there really hasn't. And it hasn't really been that good the stuff they've done with her either... Which is a damn shame. And why people would want Vic back.

    Blue Beetle - I think they've got a plan for him, the Booster Gold series probably has something along those lines. Maybe during/after Time Masters.

    Tempest - damn shame he was killed, and DC are really lacking at writing water characters. Just leaving them up, things happening that make no sense (you know, the whole bit with Tempest and his powers, the Dweller in the Deep etc etc). Urgh...

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  19. Why isn't Elongated man on your poll?!?!?!?!?

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  20. Agreed Nagash, definitely agree with everything you said, especially about them hardly doing anything with Renee since she became The Question.

    Jozeph - I forgot about him to be honest.

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  21. Thanks for the plug ^^

    I can't vote for one, for the reasons given. I didn't mind Vic dying, but they've wasted Renee, meaning Vic should come back, but then he'd be wasted too. So, er, yeah...

    Elongated Man doesn't need to come back. I thought there should have been a Ralph & Sue Dibny: Ghost Detectives spin-off series. Or was that just me?

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  22. No problem sir. I owed ya one anyway.

    Lmao, Ghost Detectives. I'd probably like that as long as it was a comedy and wasn't taken too seriously or something.

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  23. Because you dared my dare? No, wait, we already did that one...

    Definitely not a comedy. But a more supernatural form of detectiving, something neither of them have experienced, especially Ralph, and him applying his usual methods to it...

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  24. Lol please don't bring that up again.

    I feel like that;d get old kinda quick. Because I mean what can they do after solving it if their dead? Unless they can possess bodies like Deadman.

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  25. Mwahahaha? :D

    What if others can see them? Or they leave messages for others. No, wait, that's stupid...

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  26. Lol yeah it seems weird since they can't interact with the living so theoretically cases would stay unsolved.

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  27. Well, it was just idea, more than anything. Not all are winners...

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  28. It would help if at least one was :P Hahahaha *runs*

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  29. Oh I finally voted sir. I voted for Prometheus. I always like to see conflict. would've been sweet to see GA and him bump into one another.

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  30. Agreed, Then I guess Ollie could go back to Star City since Prometheus wouldn't be dead...

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  31. That could be a possibility but I could see Prometheus turning Star City against Ollie for good if he was allowed back.

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  32. Hm... that'd be pretty interesting. I don't think we've seen the last of Promentheus, even if he is dead.

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  33. Prometheus couldn't be brought back during Blackest Night because I'm pretty sure that he was killed off the same month blackest night ended

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  34. I know dude, but Prof. Zoom came back during Blackest Night even though he was already alive due to being in Blackest Night Rebirth. Either way it's just a poll voting on who you wish would have came back.

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  35. You know, I'd totally buy the first few issues of Ghost Detectives... Simple way around the whole being dead problem would be to either create a character who could communicate with the dead(fortune teller or goth girl or something)and have Ralph and Sue report back to them. Then you could have stuff like the living person getting into trouble by helping out the Dibny's, etc. Or just have a magical character(NOT Detective Chimp though!)working with them. That could work, right?

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  36. Ah, clever X. Lol @ Goth girl. Goth girl talking to Ralph Dibny seems odd. But yeah, give em a good writer that could keep it serious and make a few jokes like Bryan Q. Miller and I'd definitely read that.

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  37. Yeah, Bryan'd be great for that! I could see Gail Simone possibly writing that as well. The perfect pick though(in my mind at least)would be Peter David! He turned X-Factor into a private eye team, so I KNOW he'd be able to take Ghost Detective and make it mind-numbingly awesome! As for Goth Girl, who better to be talking to ghosts? ;-)

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  38. Ah what is the Goth Girl is Raven? Lol She'd actually be doing something instead of turning evil and back good for the 100th time. Or that chick from Young Justice who could turn into smoke or whatever, I liked her

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  39. Hell, I'd be fine with either of them. That girl was Secret, JT! And you think you can challenge my spot as King... HA!

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  40. Lmao! I couldn't remember, Mr. William Hand :P At least my person hadn't been mentioned, yours was the Center of BLACKEST NIGHT!!!! :P

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  41. Because they usually have no other use?

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  42. "Because they usually have no other use?" HA! It's funny 'cause it's true!

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  43. Lol you know it man! It;s like all they ever do is sit around and mope.. I think that's how it's spelled. And imagine DIbney having a conversation with Raven, it just seems odd.

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  44. Well that's a load of bull hickey. Although, again, appeal...

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