Maybe I don’t give Marvel enough credit. I mean, really… Spider-Man: Fever is a wacky book. It’s a good comic–but there are some pacing issues and maybe McCarthy could use a co-writer, but it’s also a really wacky comic.

McCarthy’s art is a little mixed media, but it’s mostly sixties influenced figures over some very intricate psychedelic, hyper-real stuff (the realm of the spider-demons is psychedelic, Manhattan is hyper-real–the inverse might have been more interesting, but who’s complaining). It’s a joy to look at, definitely, but McCarthy gets some great stuff going in the writing.

There’s a funny little reference to The Fly, but then there’s also Spider-Man assuming someone’s a concerned citizen who’s not. Then McCarthy leaves the scene with the citizen becoming concerned… at the Vulture’s expense.

McCarthy intentionally goes overboard–look at Dr. Strange’s expository dialogue–but it works.