The Doctor is out, and Ben Reilly may have to scrub in to help, in Death of Doctor Strange: Spider-Man #1 from Jed MacKay, Marcelo Ferreira, Wayne Faucher, Andrew Crossley, Pete Pantazis, and Joe Caramagna.
If you believe the song, New York is a hell of a town. In Death of Doctor Strange: Spider-Man we get to see how true that is.
It’s a fun concept. Too many event tie-ins are either completely inessential or too self-important. In this issue, Jed MacKay (the writer of the actual event in question) just takes a simple idea and has fun with it. In the wake of Strange’s death, Spider-Man is given a laundry list of the little things Strange did to maintain New York’s normalcy. He has to be the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man… but this time to New York’s magical underbelly.
The idea of the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man dates back to the beginning of the character’s history, but when Ben Reilly became Spider-Man the first time, he didn’t have a chance to really be that. He went from a huge Mysterio story to Carnage, to the Hobgoblin, to Onslaught, to Norman Osborn. It was a year of Spidey stories that didn’t give the titular hero a moment to breathe.
That’s the strength of this issue. Even though the neighborhood is a bit weird, it’s fun to consider that Doctor Strange was the friendly neighborhood wizard, so asking Peter to check his rounds makes sense. With Peter still in a coma from the events of Amazing Spider-Man #75-76, Ben really has to step it up for the first time as Spider-Man and take on the little things.
It’s a story about Spider-Man as a person, but from a different angle than what we’ve gotten with Ben since the Spider-Man Beyond era began. Ben has to slow down and approach heroics on the micro-level. MacKay bringing in Felicia Hardy to ensure that he has the chops to be that kind of Spider-Man is a great move too, giving the story a layer of emotional depth that a normal event tie-in wouldn’t.
Ferreira and Faucher’s linework is straight from the Marvel house style, but it’s good. They’re extremely expressive, and they had a great sense of pacing on the page. Crossley’s colors are great too, with a layer of realism that makes the supernatural weirdness of the entire issue actually feel relatable.
This is just a fun Spider-Man story, event tie-in or not. It’s great to start to have Spidey stories to look forward to again, no matter how weird New York can get.
Tony Thornley is a geek dad, blogger, Spider-Man and Superman aficionado, X-Men guru, autism daddy, amateur novelist, and all around awesome guy. He’s also very humble.
