Spider-Man's Tangled Web vol. 3

Spider-Man gets plenty of love around Fish & Spaghetti Industries.  In fact Chet his completely modeled his life after the life of Peter Parker. We still mourn Chet's parents.

Anyway, I could never quite get into Spider-Man.  First it was The Clone Saga.  Then it was Norman Osborne having twins with Gwen Stacy.  Then it was the disappearance of May Parker.  And don't even get me started on how MJ and Pete's marriage ended.

Fortunately Spider-Man's Tangled Web exists.



Y'see Spider-Man's Tangled Web was a title that was devoted to stories that barely featured Spidey at all.  Usually he was a secondary character and occasionally he just cameoed in the story.

Tangled Web was also unique because it featured creators who weren't usually associated with Spider-Man and, in many cases with mainstream comics at all.    This book has all the ingredients for a comic that Skip Serpico would approve of.

I recently read the third volume of Tangled Web.  It's funny because this volume contains the two issues of Tangled Web that got me into the book in the first place.  "The Last Shoot" and "The Collaborator" featured some of my favorite creators (Brian Azzarello and Paul Pope, respectively.)

Things start off kind of slow with "I Was a Teenage Frog-Man." It's a story that honestly just left me flat.  But the next story "Double Shots" by Ron Zimmerman and Sean Phillips was superb.  It's set in a villain bar where three of Spidey's rogues share war stories.  There's a reveal at the end that totally puts the story over the top.

"The Last Shoot" is an awesome story that features a character from Spidey mythos that's largely forgotten.  It's a stark portrait that really sort of makes you hate Peter Parker.  "The Collaborator" is vintage Paul Pope, just set in the Spider-Man universe.

Things wrap up with the two-part "Heartbreaker" featuring Tombstone. It's a prison break story, with characters who have powers.  It's a pretty decent closer and the ending almost makes up for any shortcomings it may have had.

Naturally, in a book with no set creators or characters, the quality of the title will waiver wildly.  Tangled Web has peaks and valleys.  Fortunately the third volume of Tangled Web has more of the former.