The Stop Button

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.

CREDITS

Insecticide; writer and artist, Brendan McCarthy; colorist, Steve Cook and McCarthy; letterer, Cook; editors, Tom Brennan, Joe Quesada and Stephen Wacker; publisher, Marvel Comics.