Spider-Man: Blue's Clues (Part 1)

The review NO ONE was asking for, the comic that EVERYONE loves. A little background first... 

The early 2000's were big years for Spider-Man, he had a new movie coming out, the Amazing Spider-Man series was doing well with Sins Past... Ok, maybe it wasn't doing well, but JMS was still a good writer for the series. Ultimate Spider-Man was doing pretty well, and Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale did something incredible, a mini-series that takes us back to when Gwendolyn Stacy was still alive, and when Mary Jane first showed up.

Jeph Loeb is a pretty controversial figure in Marvel, but this is generally considered to be one of his best works.

Tim Sale, beloved artist that did some incredible art on stories like Batman: The Long Halloween, Superman: For All Seasons, Hulk: Gray, Daredevil: Yellow, and of course, this story. He unfortunately passed away in 2022. Tim, wherever you are, we all love you and your amazing work.

A bit of a mandela effect, though it could be just me misremembering shit, or it could be another case of child me hallucinating a fake product that doesn't exist, but I could've sworn I saw a story called Spider-Man: Red by the same crew... I wasn't the brightest kid, in fact, I was as bright as a black hole.

So... Spider-Man: Blue. The comic that made thousands cry.

These are not issues, these are books... Which is why they are only like 30 pages long each and have ads... I guess a book can be shaped and done however it wants, so I guess it's fine. The cover for this comic titled "Spider-Man: Blue" has strangely not enough blue. Still, I really like this cover.

The comic begins with Spider-Man swinging through the city while Peter Parker narrates through his recorder. He is talking to us about his funny valentine, Gwen Stacy... Wow, last time we heard that name was when the Jackal made a shitload of clones of her!

We get a flashback to the events of an older comic that no fan in 2002 could afford (Unless they get a reprint, but I'm not sure about how common those were prior to 2007), as in, this is a flashback to the events of Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 1) #40, a classic, and as you may recall, Peter fights the Green Goblin right after they discover each other's identities, this was the second issue drawn by artist John Romita Sr. Of course, since this still needs to be a fresh new comic, they have reimagined the story with brand new dialogue and just beautiful colors. Thankfully, the editor of this book wasn't as annoying as Nick Lowe and spared us the corny "This happened in THIS issue" notes*.

So, Peter sends the pictures of his fight with the Green Goblin to the Daily Bugle and then goes to the hospital to see how Norman's doing. Harry and Peter have a nice chat about friendship, and as Peter walks away, he lays eyes upon the prettiest woman in the world, Gwendolyn Maxine Stacy. It was pretty much love at first sight... Well, like 6th sight, but Peter is finally interested in her.... I wouldn't be able to tell you if this happened in the original issue because I haven't read it in over 5 years.

Fun biology fact: Spiders buy fancy motorcycles in order to impress potential female mates, and this is represented in the comic because Peter buys a cool red motorbike, and Gwen is immediately swooning over our protagonist... While I was researching for this review, I saw that SpiderFan describes Gwen as "Visually Attractive"... I mean, I don't disagree, but I don't see many encyclopedias acknowledging the attractiveness of characters. 

Later that night, some Watson girl visits Aunt May's house in order to meet this Peter Parker kid... He's not there, so Peter and the reader don't get to see her face until much later.

The art was great, and the story was also great, I really enjoy looking back on those early Spider-Man stories by Stan Lee and John Romita.  9/10.

One thing I really like about this and a Fantastic Four TPB that I own is that there is exclusive content in these books, for the FF one, we have a little introduction by the translator of the book, Memo Garcia. As for Spider-Man: Blue, we have a little article by a writer named Uriel A. Durán, in a section titled "Aracnofilia", where he takes time to talk to us about something related to the comic, in this case, he explains to us the behind-the-scenes story and how this comic came to be. Basically, Jeph and Tim saw success with Batman: The Long Halloween and decided to present the idea of the "colors" series to Marvel, they said yes, and here we are. I was gonna say something about how I wish more comic translators did stuff like this, but then I remember that the FF Trade I have came out in February, so chances are that they are still doing this stuff.

Another thing from the first issue that isn't in the Spanish version and isn't anywhere in the TPBs is "Jay Leno and Spider-Man", an insert that according to Henrique Ferreria from SpiderFan, it isn't very funny. Part 2 of the storyline is included here, Part 1 is on Spider-Girl #47 and Part 3 is on Spider-Man: Quality of Life #1. I unfortunately don't own the english versions of ANY of these, and I don't see myself getting them soon unless YOU buy them for me or donate to me, anything helps... Though, if you wanna email me comic scans, I won't say no... 

ANYWAY, Issue 2.

This is the cover, featuring Spider-Man swinging while Gwen Stacy's face is in the background.

Book two opens with Spider-Man reading a newspaper about the supposed death of the Green Goblin.

Suddenly, a mysterious man shows up and demands to know about this Spider-Man. MEANWHILE, The whole normal Spider-Man formula from the classic comics, Peter is flirting with Gwen, and then this Flash Thompson shows up to be a dickhead. Doesn't matter because Peter is in LOVE with Gwen.

We then see a remake of the classic story where the Rhino first appears. Spidey manages to take down Rhino for a while and manages to create a web formula that will dissolve Rhino's costume that made him so strong. The formula works, and Peter goes home... Someone's waiting for him at the door, and it's none other than the ACTUAL most gorgeous woman in the world, Mary Jane Watson, who also has Visually Attractive in the SpiderFan page.

Looks like Peter just hit the Jackpot.

THIS. This is how you reimagine classics from the 60's. This is an example of what Jeph Loeb can do when he's actually trying hard. If you wanna see an example of his BAD work, just have a look at Ultimatum. And Tim Sale's art is just great, and I also really like the colors. 10/10.

Next time, I take a big look at my second favorite visual novel, Doki Doki Literature Club.