Darkhold: Spider-Man By Alex Paknadel (writer), Dio Neves (artist), Jim Charalampidis (colorist), And

Darkhold: Spider-Man by Alex Paknadel (writer), Dio Neves (artist), Jim Charalampidis (colorist), and VC’s Clayton Cowles (letterer)

Reed: “I would have done anything to keep them alive, Peter. Anything. Sometimes I wonder if they were all that was holding me together.”

We’ve almost read to the end of the Darkhold, with just one last issue left in this event: Darkhold Omega. As far as these character one-shots have gone, the Spider-Man issue is definitely one of the better ones. We’re taken to a world where one day, for no reason at all, everything began to unravel - buildings, vehicles, even people. And the only thing that can bind things temporarily back together is Spider-Man’s webbing. Most of the heroes are gone or have lost themselves in a mad cycle, leaving Mister Fantastic and Peter to try to put the city back together. 

To me, this story seems to really be dealing with the concept of grief and how we respond to it. We can be like Uncle Ben and seek out places of stillness, where the quiet allows us to reflect and remember. We can be like Aunt May and throw ourselves into tasks, working as hard as we can in order to avoid remembering. Peter takes the Aunt May approach, sleeping barely 3 hours each night and repeating a ghastly daily fantasy where Gwen, his unraveling wife, thinks that it is always their anniversary. Every day, he does the same routine with her, living with a ghost in an endless Groundhog’s Day style loop. Richards takes a similar approach, throwing himself so much into his work that he abandons human form, becoming just a thinking puddle of bones and organs on the floor. In his grief, Reed has lost his humanity. This comic shows Peter similarly lose his, as he collapses under the immense weight and pressure of being responsible for every person in NYC every moment of every day - the horrific extreme of what it is to be Spider-Man, to have everyone depend on you, to live in a town of ghosts. 

It’s a chilling, somber read - with some brief bits of levity brought on by Peter’s quips, but they still have a tiredness to them, indicating the mental state of our protagonist. The artwork has an almost surreal quality to it, like we’re glimpsing at a dream or a reality that is just slightly out of focus. 

The only real improvement I’d make to this is I would have liked for the unraveling to be a logical progression from Peter’s story, similarly to how both Iron Man and Wasp’s tales had a clear point where you can go “oh, this is where the path diverts.” But overall, it’s a quietly horrific story, which is definitely the vibe the creative team had in mind for this. 

Verdict: Seven out of ten webs

Just ganna leave this here.

Most of us have said this but I wanted to join the fun.

⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀❛ — откуда у вас музыкальная шкатулка…? так вы тот мальчик, который помог нам бежать! это вы спасли анастасию и меня, доставили внучку ко мне — но награды не возьмёте?

ㅤ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ — теперь нет.

ㅤ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ — что-то изменилось?

ㅤ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ — скорее всего, я сам ❜

The Childhood of Homer J. Simpson

ideal couple goals