5 Days of Death: Spider-Man - Spirits of the Earth

The Marvel Graphic Novel series was an early 80s-early 90's effort, and featured stories on many Marvel heroes. It also introduced several heroes and teams. This particular 1990 graphic novel, Spider-Man: Spirits of the Earth, was written and illustrated by Charles Vess; according to the back blurb, it was 'painstakingly painted over the course of two years'. Wow, a 72 page comic whose art took two years. The art should be outstanding, right? Hit the jump to find out.

Hmm. Well, it's pretty good, yeah, but two years of time to draw comes out at more than 10 days a page. Most artists can turn out the art of a 22 page comic in that time if they work intensively. It's not that the art is bad, just that it doesn't seem to justify the time taken on it. I do like the writing here, though. It's very evocative, making the reader feel like they're swinging through the city, and this can be hard for a writer to do. It's pretty impressive, but ruined a bit by Peter's inane thought 'It's magic tonight!' What's magic? The city is magic? Webswinging is magic? The theme of the story is magic? The third one is true, by the way.

Although we start in New York, the action quickly moves...

Wait, MJ has a relative in Scotland now? A relative called MacLeod... I know that's a fairly common surname, but when I first read this I had to yell 'There can be only ONE!' So, Peter and MJ have to go to Scotland to sort out some legal issues to do with the sale of land. However, there is trouble in the Highlands; The local Laird (lord) Sir Hugh's heir, his only grandson, has gone missing, and there are rumours that faeries or ghosts were responsible. Sir Hugh, for one, believes the rumours, and has a nice little outburst down at the local pub.

I know this is mainly exposition and plot mechanics, but the most impacting thing here is still the mediocre art. A lot of the faces have an odd, angular quality about them; they look like coloured sketches that Vess didn't have time to finish. This gives the story a very unnatural feel, and doesn't really help me get into the plot at all.

Anyway, Peter decides to to check out Sir Hugh's castle (derelict since a fire damaged the roof). He doesn't have more than the briefest of looks, however, before a sinister wailing draws him outside, where a troupe of ghosts has assembled...

And a very big Harro to you too.

Friendly fellow. Also, is it just me, or is Peter's recovery at the top of the third page a little hard to decipher? I mean, I can work out that he spins, webs the wall, turns again to hit it with his shoulder and then turns once more to 'stand' on the wall, but it's a bit obscure. The lack of any background in the second panel doesn't help, either. Final afterthought - Peter's bed back at the hotel is beginning to look real good? Can he see it? That makes no sense.

Anyway, everyone at the town, including MJ, has gone to a meeting to discuss the selling of land. Spidey is watching in the rafters but, when everyone is leaving, another group of ghosts illuminate Peter, and the townspeople chase after him, thinking him a demon...

I don't buy the peril here at all. Spider-Man can leap great distances, and can run faster than a normal human. He wouldn't have any trouble in getting away from the townspeople and hiding somewhere; but then he wouldn't have to be saved by Mairi, the woman from the pub, and then she wouldn't have been established as on his side. Anyway, Mairi convinces the townspeople into letting her deal with Spider-Man, and sends him off to find out just what is really going on in the castle...

Boo to you too? That's like the opposite of badass.

Talk about trial by fire; good thing that ghost wasn't real. Where's the generator that's making all this humming? It must be quite big, say as big as a car? Big as a bus? Big as a building?

Ha! Ha Ha! HA!

That... that subverts ridiculous. That makes ridiculous seem rational. Falling off a helicopter, liquidizing a random old guy and escaping unharmed? Makes sense when compared to someone somehow having the means and motive to build, staff and supply a massive city under a castle in the Scottish highlands without anyone noticing. I mean, there is traffic down there! Is this some sort of civilization? Spidey tries to find out what the heck is going on, and promptly gets captured...

So it was Angus, the nephew of Sir Hugh, who found a massive crystal here and got funding from the Hellfire Club to build a complex machine that will soon be able to harness the power of the crystal and allow him to control nature. Incidentally, he has lasers that can partially harness the power of the crystal to make ghosts appear in the castle. I don't have to explain how absurdly stupid this is, do I? At least it can't get any worse...

*slaps head*

This is really getting to be too much. You can't explain that the magic isn't actually magic, and then explain that it is magic! The worse thing it that it's so well written it almost works, but instead collapses under it's own pretension. Speaking of collapsing under it's own pretension, the ridiculous cavern itself starts falling apart, which gets Spidey out of a tricky spot...
Leaving a dead Sir Hugh, Spidey fights his way to the surface for the final showdown with Angus. I hope that broken arm that is broken won't stop Peter, but he can always use the arm that isn't broken. Y'know, instead of the one which has been established as broken...
Seriously? From the way Spidey is socking Angus in the stomach, his arm isn't broken. What is the point of introducing an injury if you aren't going to bother with obvious continuity issues? I also like the way Peter is thinking about Angus's suicide in past tense, on the same page on which it happened and seemingly before he has actually died. Talk about getting over it fast. As Angus dies, the cavern roof presumably collapses, creating a huge hole that is flooded to form a vast, clear blue loch (lake), but leaving the castle above the surface.

Time for a one page epilogue!
Sorry, but did they just refer to the kid as Sir Hugh? The old guy was Sir Hugh. I've just checked through the comic, and it seems that both characters are called Sir Hugh. What's more, I've also found a reference to the young Sir Hugh being the old Sir Hugh's nephew, when he is also described as his grandson. Why is a prepubescent child a knight? He's the new laird now his grandfather is dead, but being a laird doesn't make you a knight, it makes you a laird. Needless to say, the character continuity is all over the place. This is an ok ending to a very mediocre comic. It's not an awful read, but it won't serve for much more than a half hour's distraction, and has pretty much no reread value because of the silly twists. Read it if it's at a library, I guess, but don't go out of your way.