ICYMI: Spider-Man 2 #1: A Video Game Tie-In

Leading up to the release of the highly anticipated Spider-Man 2 on PlayStation 5, Marvel released a Free Comic Book Day tie-in book to moisten the palette of hungry fans. This stand alone issue follows the adventures of Peter, Miles, and MJ, following the events of Spider-Man: Miles Morales, as the team go up against a new villain in New York, The Hood. Fans of Marvel will recognize The Hood and thankfully, this issue takes the character in a fresh new direction that is certain to delight fans. 

Christos Gage has a lot of fun with the world of Spider-Man PS4, inserting a lot of nods to special powers, as well as specific references to the events of the prior two games. One of the best references has to be Peter mentioning that he had fought The Tarantula once before with the help of other Spider-Men in Spider-Geddon #0. This fun not not only ties the events of the game into this issue, but it also solidifies that the events of Spider-Geddon legitimately happened. Though it’s unlikely that those events will be referenced in the new game, it’s great to see a creator go back and acknowledge all of the canon that’s come before.

Ig Guara’s art looks like a mix between the game and other comic iterations of these characters. While nothing shocking stands out, the art is serviceable for the story. Fans of the games will have no problem recognizing all the important players here, especially since the issue has Peter and Miles in costume for the majority of the time. The best art in this book has to be the cover art from Todd Nauck and colorist Rachelle Rosenberg. The cover features both Spider-Men jumping towards the reader, fully displaying all the intricacies of their suits. The level of detail here is astounding, from the web shooters all the way down to each piece of protective padding. More than anything else, this cover immediately sells this title by visually distinguishing its characters in an easy manner.

The story here, featuring The Hood, is a lot of fun, with it playing out a lot like a side mission would within the game. Each character gets their moment to shine while the plot unfolds. There is even some fun misdirection where The Hood is shown using technology to imitate magic, only for the reveal at the end to be that he is actually attempting to use magic. This was a fun spin on the source material and added some flair to this book.

While most of this issue was great, there are a couple nitpicks that need to be mentioned, like the exhaustive amount of dialogue featured on each page. Letter Joe Sabino does a great job pushing this to the sides of the panels to let the art flourish, but some pages felt like a chore to get through. Most of this extraneous dialogue is used to over explain plot points established in the games. While some references are fun, the constant reminders of what’s come before can grow tedious when each page is so heavy on text.