Spider-Man: Life Story

The Christmas/Birthday period of December was a gainful time of year as I was gifted with four new graphic novels. This was raised to five when I spent the last of my trade budget (Yes, I even budget for trades) with the purchase of Firefly: The Sting the day before New Years.

Since then, it's been tough going getting round to these new additions to my shelves due to prioritising comics in need for review over at Pipedream Comics, real life work regarding my family and occupation and also the struggle to actually decide what I should read next (which I've talked about previously).

Spider-Man: Life Story tpb

However, this week I managed to both make time and a decision and made the time to read through Chip Zdarsky and Mark Bagley's Spider-Man: Life Story.

For anyone, not yet in the know, Spider-Man: Life Story is, essentially, the retelling of the Spider-Man story from his beginnings to present day. However, unlike the original series, this 6 issue mini asks the question 'what would happen if Spidey and all of his supporting characters actually aged with the times of release. What follows is an ever-aging Spidey taking part in some of the most monumental stories from his entire run and showing us how they might have ended differently if time flowed normally.

(So, obviously, while I will try and keep spoilers to a minimum, they will be here for...... well, a LOT of Spidey comics from years gone by. Just to warn you)

Now, a couple of things drew me to this series once it was released in trade. The first was that it was written by Chip Zdarsky who, while I've never actually seen his art (expect for a single issue of Sex Criminals), wrote one of my favourite series of recent times in Marvel 2-in-1. The second was the amount of praise I saw this run was getting as the singles were being released which, along with the fact it was a guaranteed 6 issues, was what gave me incentive to get this as a print trade to add to my now space limited trade shelf.

The thing is, I did enjoy this series. It was a great read and lots of fun. However, I didn't think it was as great as I was led to believe from the hype (reinforcing rule #1: NEVER listen to the hype!!!)

I really enjoyed the concept. It was cool seeing Peter Parker truly grow and evolve in a natural way (i.e. not a comic 'non-aging' way) and I also loved how the entire story integrated events which related on/were originally based in the various decades in which Peter passes through. Now, I have to confess that not all of these events seemed perfect to me. For instance, I had kind of wished that Gwen's canonical death had managed to be fitted into the plot somehow (I would have said a 'Harry' went off the deep end and killed in the Green Goblin guise). Regardless though, it was still cool seeing Peter deal with events like the Clone Saga and Kraven's Last Hunt and even Civil War with the added benefit of experience and greater 'responsibilities'.

Possibly my favourite panel of the entire series,
inspired from Kraven's Last Hunt. (I couldn't get
a decent photo, so this was taken from the internet)

In fact, I also loved Bagley's art in this series. Just as beautiful as I remember his work from Ultimate Spider-Man, Bagley's style really works perfectly as it gives the series greater weight and presence all the while giving classic scenes this truly epic look. That said, I won't lie and say that as much as I loved this artwork, I do think it would have been equally awesome to see various styles which were each fitting the house styles of those time periods (like Allred for the 60's, someone Miller-esque for the 80's, Liefeld or Lee for the 90's and so on ).

However, while I did enjoy Life Story, what stopped being truly excellent in my eyes was that it was very brutal and a little depressing. As I think back over reading it, I have to confess that I wonder if Zdarsky was trying to double down and remind us that, in the end, superhero comics aren't real (I know, right?!). This is because I just found this to be a little brutal as we witnessed bitter Reed Richards, absent May Parkers and pathetic(lly evil?)Norman Osborns. By the end I felt that, while it came across as hopeful in a small way, this world was a rather ugly one and that maybe this is what happens as we get older, our cynicism destroys the beauty we used to see (deep stuff huh?).

Also, just as a side note, seeing Spidey age also made me wonder if the old Parker Luck is simply a case that Peter acts self-destructively out of a sense of guilt?

Anyway, the deeper questions/quibbles aside, Life Story was indeed a fun reads, kind of reminding me of book/film 'One Day' (which is a good film, you should watch it). Of course, it does make me ponder as to what happened in between all those issues. I would certainly love to know

Who knows, maybe we'll get an ongoing to fill in those gaps.

(Well, maybe not. But I can dream.)