Spider-Man: Life Story #1 // Review
The sliding timeline of the Marvel Universe is one of the quirkier side-effects of serialized comic-book storytelling. Despite having been a teenager when he debuted in 1962, Peter Parker is never older than a vague mid-20s. Spider-Man: Life Story imagines a world where Peter’s life isn’t frozen in amber, and where the heroes of the Marvel Universe aren’t entirely as separated from real-world events to stunning effect.
This first issue features Peter as a college student in 1966. Not far from where Peter was in the stories of that era by Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, and John Romita Sr. Just like in those comics, Peter’s lab partner is a standoffish Gwen Stacy, his best friend is classmate Harry Osborn, and Harry’s father Norman is secretly the Green Goblin. Unlike those stories, though, the war in Vietnam is more of a presence than just a nebulous thing for Peter’s fellow students to protest, but a constant presence. The issue centers around Flash Thompson’s enlistment, and Peter’s questions of whether or not he should do the same.
Chip Zdarsky, who has established his bona fides as a Spider-Man writer with last year’s excellent run on Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man, displays a strong understanding of what makes Peter and his supporting cast tick. In fact, Zdarsky’s takes on Peter, Harry, Gwen, Norman, and J. Jonah Jameson feel exactly like the vintage Stan Lee versions of the characters--a wise choice, grounding this series in classic Spidey lore before subsequent issues diverge more sharply (each chapter takes place in a later decade).
Another smart decision was the choice of penciler Mark Bagley and inker John Dell to draw this series. Bagley and Dell have been one of the (ahem) ultimate Spider-Man art teams for the past thirty-plus years, and their work here helps give the series a vintage feel. Colorist Frank D’Armata does an excellent job putting the Bagley and Dell’s more modern art into the 1960s, capturing the color palette of that era beautifully. Much of this issue is devoted to Peter’s inner monologue, but the lettering by VC’s Travis Lanham is understated and straightforward and keeps the narration out of the way of the gorgeous art.
The concept of the series--Spider-Man and a Marvel Universe aging in real-time, with issues a decade apart--is fantastic, and Zdarsky, Bagley, Dell, D’Armata, and Lanham are clearly the team to pull it off. This issue is a solid start, using familiar characters and beats (with one extremely tantalizing swerve on the last page) to set up what will hopefully be an exciting study of what makes Peter Parker tick.
