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I wish I waited lol. I've gave this series so much money at this point, but it is a great series, so I can't be too mad.
A Special Encore Return to the World of SPIDER-MAN: LIFE STORY by the Original Creative Team!
SPIDER-MAN. He's a threat. He's a menace. And J. JONAH JAMESON will do whatever it takes to make the world see it! But in this companion piece to last year's hit miniseries SPIDER-MAN: LIFE STORY, will the decades of his obsession bear fruit for Jonah...or be his destruction?
CHIP ZDARSKY and MARK BAGLEY reunite for this story told in a world where Marvel's beloved characters aged in real time!
Rated T
Spider-Man: Life Story Annual #1 serves as a great character piece for J. Jonah Jameson, and returns to one of the best modern-day Spider-Man stories in the process. Zdarsky continues to prove himself as one of the strongest writers in Marvel's stable, and I'm game for more of his Spidey stories. It's clear that he has a deep love for the web-slinger and genuinely inventive ideas for what to do with him and his supporting cast. Read Full Review
It's almost a tragedy that the nature of these books demands an ending, because no matter how poignant or beautiful that ending is, it's hard to say goodbye. This is the beautiful, poignant epilogue to a nearly-perfect series. Read Full Review
Spider-Man: Life Story Annual is an unconventional superhero story, but one that needs to be told. So many people hold resentment, anger, and even guilt so close to the chest they forget to breathe. This is a story about a man filled with those feelings and how he finds the courage to be better. Read Full Review
"Spider-Man: Life Story Annual" #1 is able to capture an entire lifetime of a Spider-Man supporting cast member with a refreshing level of honesty. Read Full Review
As the issue, and decades, go on it is interesting to see Jonah struggle with his demons. While he never truly accepts what he did to Spider-man was wrong, he does learn how his hatred destroyed his relationship with his son and grandchildren. The prison visit between Jonah and his son is particularly heartbreaking. Read Full Review
It's a character study that resonates almost entirely within cinder block walls and with small affected gestures and expressions as one of Marvel's most human characters also proves to be one of its most resonant. Read Full Review
Brilliant! A perfectly written story that is powerful and moving. Fantastic artwork as well making this a must own comic book in my opinion
No complaints here. A shame that Zdarsky said he would never write ASM
I really enjoy to read this issue...absolutely amazing
A perfect bow to put on a near-perfect series.
This is great. So great I'm going to rebuy this series in hardcover just to have it!
I wish I waited lol. I've gave this series so much money at this point, but it is a great series, so I can't be too mad.
I was extremely excited for it and it's right up there with Spider-Man Blue for me
Yeah, I wish I had a copy of Blue, but I just can't justify the price right now. In fact, I think there's an omnibus of all the Color miniseries that costs less than the Blue trade.
Yeah, I was thinking that, but I don't have the love for *all* of the color anthologies the way I do for Spider-Man Blue.
I try to keep my physical collection stunted a bit, only adding things that I really do enjoy.
This is gonna be a lengthy review about not just this comic, but Zdarsky's work on Spider-Man. Zdarsky is probably the only writer in the past decade that truly understands Spider-Man as a character. Slott had his moments, but his run went off the rails pretty quick. Spencer's run seems to be more focused on dragging itself out telling a story that could be finished in 3 arcs. Zdarsky's Spectacular Spider-Man run, Spider's Shadow, and Life Story shows that Zdarsky understands what makes Spider-Man such a great hero and character. The humor, the character moments, the story itself are all perfect. Not only does he understand Peter, he writes all of the surrounding Spider-Man characters perfectly. He writes all the villains perfectly, laying out their motivations and why they are antagonizing Spider-Man. He also provides them with some humanity so we can empathize with them as well. If Marvel had any sense, they'd put him on Amazing and be done with it for the next 5 years. The art here is also so good. Bagley's art style has aged so gracefully. I have to give a shout out to the colorist as well. The warm colors here really provide a great throwback vibe to the story. I can't recommend this issue enough, but you'd probably want to read Life Story first before reading this. more
He's also said that he's basically told his Spider-Man story already, and that's what Spectacular was. Maybe he'll be inspired though, as he seems to come back to Spidey pretty often, with miniseries or having him show up in other comics.
The creators of Spider-Man: Life Story swing back to fill in a few holes in the original series in this portrait of J. Jonah Jameson. They do it masterfully, locking multiple puzzle pieces into the previous narrative like they were always meant to be there. It's beautifully drawn and written. Everybody knows Chip Zdarsky writes a damn good Spider-Man. What this comic spotlights, though, is that he writes THE BEST Jameson, full stop. This is perfectly enjoyable as its own story, as an epilogue to the original, and as a remarkable piece of comics craftsmanship.
At the risk of being spoiler-y: Is this the first we've heard about the fate of Life Story's Gwen Stacy clone? I was obsessively interested in what happened to her when I was reading the original. more
Imagine if Spencer's ASM was even a fraction as good as this.
Wow. This was good. Probably one of the best comics ive read in a little while. Such emotion and just a great read about Jameson.
This is really good! Zfarsky's take on JJJ is well done just like his Peter Parker Spectacular Spier-Man Annual from a few years ago with the Allreds. Bagley's pencils look really good here because Hennessy's inks and Milla's colors were fantastic!
I'm always up for more Zdarsky Spider-Man and this was a pretty solid Jameson story. Makes me want to go back and see how this overlaps with each issue of Peter's life.
Not bad but at the end of it, just as at the beginning my first question was if this issue really was necessary at all.
Life Story was how many years ago? Why did we need it now? It wasn't bad or anything, don't get me wrong, it's just that with Spider's Shadow I didn't think we needed yet another otherworld Spidery tale. To be honest, just from my point of view, I wasn't the biggest fan of Life Story. It was decent and I appreciated how Zdarsky made a synthesis of so many years of story but I remember not liking a lot of his choices there.
It does make sense it being planned pre-Covid, at least it was closer to the main story in time. Btw, I saw your comment on allenquanobi's review on Superman Son of Kal-El. Since I don't want to start a whole new thing on that guy's review but I felt your comment was about my review, I feel the need to tell you that even though you consider me "biased" based on my "political, religious" views, you're wrong. It's not about that, not at all. I've explained to Mout on my review there my reasoning.
When you decide to insert YOUR political opinions in a comic as a writer, you deserve the scrutiny. You don't get to just preach to people and expect them to "get with the program". It's a two-way street. So if I read something and it clearly doesn't hold up to scrutiny, yeah, I'm going to comment on it. It's not about bias, it's about engaging in a dialogue. And Taylor has this habit of not thinking things through.
Hey, congrats from me for embracing being a Christian, it's not something a lot of people do these days, a lot of them seem embarassed of it. I did notice your "about me" section but did not want to touch upon it. That being said though, why would you, as a Christian, be upset about the part with sins and judgment? I don't really get it but I would be curious about an explanation, if you want.
I kind of disagree with you, though, about what you perceive as "bias". Like I said, I think that when a writer proposes a political/social topic he and his writing should be subject to scrutiny. Because their ideas influence people and if they're ideas that I consider damaging for society I think I should be allowed to express that. It's not about ideology, because despite me tilting a certain way, I don't get butthurt about people putting forward left-wing views.
I think 90%, if not more, of the writers today are leftists. I can agree to disagree with them on that front and still being able to enjoy their comics. Al Ewing is a lefty for sure and I can still appreciate his Immortal Hulk. Taylor is a green and I loved his Injustice. King has a certain political affiliation and I liked his first half of Batman's run and other works from him.
My problem isn't their political views, my problem is that there's a certain line between sprinkling your books with them and going full propaganda. And people like Taylor or Cantwell go sometimes in that second direction. And I think that they have some strong influences on the mind of young people so to quote MCU Cap "if I see a situation pointing south, I can't ignore it". That's kind of my view of it.
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