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A review by grantcrawford
Spider-Man: Blue by Jeph Loeb
2.0
Better writers than me have already talked about how this is a disappointment, but then, better writers than Loeb have told a lot of his stories and he's still written stuff like Spider-Man: Blue. This is in theory a retelling of the innocence, and loss thereof, of the Spider-Man supporting cast of the 1970s-- it's even supposed to be told from Peter directly to Gwen after her death, except of course that Gwen is barely in it and is practically forgotten about in a jumble of boring fights and lame narration from a Peter who kind of comes off like an asshole.
The Spider-Man college years have always had the individual components of an incredible story, even if the circumstances of their original telling weren't perfect, and they've long been ripe for a retelling that unifies plot threads and themes for all the resonance they rightly deserve. Peter and Harry's rooming together, their unique friendship and love triangle with MJ, Peter and Gwen's relationship, Harry's relationship with his father, Norman's obsession with Peter, the way Gwen's death changes the group-- none of it was ever mined for the depth that it really had in the original run, although later writers (especially JM DeMatteis' Harry-centric arcs in Spectacular in the 90s) would suggest a lot of things off-panel. Why isn't there a definitive retelling of such a potent story? Loeb starts his book here pretending it's going to be that, and then not only is it not, it does a worse job of telling the story in the first place (outside of Sale's excellent artwork of course).
The Spider-Man college years have always had the individual components of an incredible story, even if the circumstances of their original telling weren't perfect, and they've long been ripe for a retelling that unifies plot threads and themes for all the resonance they rightly deserve. Peter and Harry's rooming together, their unique friendship and love triangle with MJ, Peter and Gwen's relationship, Harry's relationship with his father, Norman's obsession with Peter, the way Gwen's death changes the group-- none of it was ever mined for the depth that it really had in the original run, although later writers (especially JM DeMatteis' Harry-centric arcs in Spectacular in the 90s) would suggest a lot of things off-panel. Why isn't there a definitive retelling of such a potent story? Loeb starts his book here pretending it's going to be that, and then not only is it not, it does a worse job of telling the story in the first place (outside of Sale's excellent artwork of course).