Savage Spider-Man #1 In the base of my spine, like a chica cherry cola

Joe Kelly’s back on Spidey after his unfortunately truncated Non-Stop run, which did in fact stop, with Chris Bachalo due to illness, and other outside factors, which brings us to this Savage new five issue mini with artist Gerardo Sandoval, so let’s get to it, shall we? 

The issue begins where the last issue of Non-Stop ended, with a grossly mutated Spidey in what I’m assuming is the Savage Land (the Savage adjective works both ways!) where he’s a giant spider who is not exactly sure who he is, where he is, and what’s driving him to do the things he’s doing. It’s all very primal, and the artwork really amps that up with sharp lines, and lots of motion. Joining Spidey is Baron Zemo, his assistant Wülff, and a group of characters that have plans to bring their big brain game global. Think of the motley crew to be like the opposite of Scooby Doo and the gang. Hopefully you read Non-Stop, because if you didn’t none of what’s going on will make any sense here. 

Sandoval has taken cues from Bachalo’ s time on the previous volume and brought his own style and flair with him. If you’ve never read a book with Sandoval on art, he has a heavy manga influence, and he emulates a style that will remind you of Joe Mad, who became super popular, and had a bunch of clones in the 90’s while he was on Uncanny X-Men with Scott Lobdell. You’ll find large hands, and angular body types here. I’m glad to see Sandoval snag some big franchise books. 

The art style fits with Kelly’s script, as it’s all very over the top, bombastic, high octane energetic cinema. If this were a movie, I’d liken it to Jason Statham’s Crank. Unfortunately it’s not exactly new reader friendly, so Kelly’s hoping that you read NS:SM before picking this up, so you might come away confused from this issue. What Kelly does knock out of the park is the humor. This is the guy who helped launch Deadpool into the comic mainstay he is today. It’s a shame the plot didn’t hit as hard as the script did.