RETRO REVIEW: "Spider-Man: Life Story"

RECAP

Spider-Man makes history! In 1962’s AMAZING FANTASY #15, teenage Peter Parker was bitten by a radioactive spider and became the amazing Spider-Man! Nearly sixty years have passed in the real world since that event — so what would have happened if the same amount of time passed for Peter? In celebration of an icon, Chip Zdarsky and legendary artist Mark Bagley spin a unique Spidey tale — telling the entire life story of Spider-Man from beginning to end, set against the key events of the decades through which he lived! From the Vietnam War to Secret Wars and Civil War, all the way through to what just might be a 72-year-old Spider-Man’s final mission, prepare to watch Peter Parker age by the issue

CREATIVE TEAM

Author: Chip Zdarsky
Penciller: Mark Bagley
Inkers: John Dell, Andrew Hennessy
Colorist: FrankD’Armata
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Number of Issues: 6 plus 1 Annual
Publication Date: 2019

REVIEW

In this six-issue (plus one annual) limited series, Zdarsky and Bailey tell the story of Spider-Man and Peter Parker in the span of nearly 60 years of his life, starting with issue 1 when he was fifteen years old to its final issue as a 72-year-old. Each issue is placed against the backdrop of a war, whether it is a human war such as Vietnam and the Cold War, or a Marvel war such as Secret War and Civil War. In this larger world backdrop, Peter Parker struggles with his own personal battles, from deciding if he should join the war effort in Vietnam as Spider-Man or merge Parker Industries with Stark Industries. These struggles also reflect the stage of life that Peter is in, seeing him age in every issue and battling with a different issue that reflects where he is at in his life.

With the countless stories and current runs that Marvel (and DC) currently have, Spider-Man: Life Story is an excellent example of how one can take a beloved character with so much history and tell a self-contained story that doesn’t require much outside reading or knowledge (it definitely helps but it’s truly not necessary to follow along and appreciate the story). It takes some of the most beloved and well-known storylines and characters to focus on under the umbrella of an aging Peter Parker that we rarely see in Marvel comics. The character that is known as being “so relatable” because of his humanity became even more so with his mortality in this story.

Cover Art

Each cover of the individual issues (as well as the trade paperback/hardcover) was created by the writer, Chip Zdarsky (Daredevil, Sex Criminals). They’re iconic covers in that it has a simplistic style but conveys everything you needed to know about the issue. Each issue’s cover uses a primary color overlay, in addition to black and white, as the main art, with Spider-Man on the cover facing whatever struggle he was going up against. And because each issue focused on a different decade, the cover also reflected that as well (e.g. issue 1 covered the Vietnam War, so there were military helicopters on the cover).

Writing

Zdarsky has been on fire lately, and it’s easy to see why. It is quite impressive how he took one of the most beloved characters in comics, grabbed some of the biggest stories associated with said character, and pieced together a new story that didn’t take away from the original but gave it such a great new story. Some of the original stories that he included were the Peter Parker clone Ben Reilly, Doc Ock marrying Aunt May, Secret War, and Civil War storylines, to name a few. What was spectacular about this is it provided Spidey-fans that beloved easter egg while being able to still tell a new story that didn’t rely on previous knowledge for those who are more casual about reading Spider-Man comics. Taking multiple, isolated storylines that never really interacted with each other and making it work with this limited series was a major feat that he accomplished.

With each issue, Zdarsky not only aged Peter/Spidey, but he also matured his problems as well. In the first issue, Peter struggles with how to decide if he should join the war effort in Vietnam as Spider-Man and how his encounters with Flash Thompson and Captain America help provide context and clarity for him. Each passing issue shows how even more complex his problems get as he ages, from being a young adult dealing with decisions and regrets to becoming an older adult in trying to decide what is the best decision he needs to make for the world as well as his family. This series honestly made me wish that we get more stories like this with other Marvel (and DC!) characters because this is really something special that readers can appreciate, tells a rarely explored story that’s coordinated with time and a character’s age/mortality, and is extremely accessible of all variety of fans.

Artwork

No comic is complete without its art and the artwork here is such a crucial piece in making this story complete and moving. With penciller Mark Bagley (Ultimate Spider-Man, The Thunderbolts), inkers John Dell (JLA, The Superior Spider-Man) and Andrew Hennessy (Aquaman, All-New X-Men), colorist Frank D’Armata (The Invincible Iron Man, Captain America), and letters by Travis Lanham (Northlanders, Wonder Woman), there was no way this series was going to miss. Bagley has spent most of his career drawing the web-head so it made sense to have him drawing Peter Parker and Spider-Man on a series about the character through the years.

Although there was so much to love about the art, from the shocking compositions (such as seeing Flash’s tombstone) to the homage to Ben Reilly’s Scarlet Spider, the various Spider-Man suits that we saw in this series were just outstanding. Although I am not entirely sure if these are all suits that we’ve seen before in other issues (I’m a casual fan of Spider-Man comics, but my Spidey-sense tells me that yes, we’ve seen this before), each issue has a new and unique suit that Spider-Man uses. Each one of them was just as beautiful as the ones in the other issues, serving a specific purpose as well as looking just so damn cool! My favorite one was the suit in issue #2 where Spider-Man has the shoulder pads and shin guards. It looks so good, very practical, and definitely gave off some vibes from the Spider-Man 2018 video game.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Spider-Man: Life Story is a must-have for any kind of fan of Spider-Man! Showing how superheroes change and stay the same while they grow old is something we need to see more of, and this self-contained story is a shining example of how stories of legacy characters can still stay fresh with readers at any level in their relationship with the web slinger.