The British SpiderMan Comics Are Actually a Lot of Fun
I’m pretty used to the reading modern comic books. These days most comics have gone down the path of progressively becoming more “real.” And by real I mean brutal. The general tone of the stories and how the images are depicted is getting more and more rugged. And I imagine it’s because that’s what we like. Marvel and DC general comic lines are becoming grittier, and both of those companies have offshoot subsidiaries where they REALLY get brutal. And then there are companies like Dark Horse, Wildstorm and Avatar where they’ll pretty much show any old kind of thing the writers and artist can dream up. This is all different from the sex skewed comics like Cherry Poptart, but it’s where things seem to be going. I have no problem with the direction of things. That’s the way the culture is going, and the comic book culture has to keep pace otherwise they’d become irrelevant.
But one of the things I DO kind of miss is the fun that used to be in the pages of comics. I seem to remember that in days past you didn’t just get the story in a comic book, you might get a second or third short story in the back, you might get some “posters” or games/puzzles, or you might get some silly chat from Stan Lee. Just junk that made the books more than a solitary story. Now, on the one hand I prefer all available space being used to pack as much story into each issue as possible. But then there’s the other hand. Not long ago I got a copy of Spectacular SpiderMan
And there were these character fact sheets
And there were these posters
Plus they had puzzles and games
There’s some coloring book elements going on!
And they even had a little interactive action. Normally the letters section is where that happens. But here you see the kids can send in art.
OK, so you see all that stuff and your first thought is; this stuff is geared towards kids. Yeah, but ALL comic books are kinda geared towards kids. Some comics are intended for older kids and some for younger kids. But pretty much the market is kids. What’s unique about these British Spidey books is they really pack a bunch of stuff in there for the kids to enjoy BEYOND the story. I think that’s pretty cool. I really don’t know if this is done for all the Marvel UK books, or just for this particular book of Spidey because the fan base for that character can be a marketing person’s dream come true-in terms of target demographic isolation, but I like it. I think its fun and it really takes you back to the old days. Here’s a Captain Marvel fun page from 1941!!!
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