Espiderman #3

Background

Enrique V. Vegas is a bit of an alt-comics star in Spain. Starting in the early 2000's, he released various runs of parody comics, featuring a drawing style he calls "Cabezona" (Big-Head). The early books predominantly spoofed Marvel characters, but he has recently stretched further afield into DC and other pop-culture icons.

This five-part Spider-Man parody "Es-Piderman" (later "Espiderman") was released every couple of years over the course of nearly a decade from 2002 to 2011. It is available in the original Spanish, and in a 2011 Italian translation – Speederman.

Let's load up Google Translate once more, and see what new adventures await our Hispano-Hablante Arachnid Amigo in issue #3.

Story Details

We open above the sky-scrapers of New York, as Spider-Man patrols the city once more - driven by his desire for justice, his love of liberty, and his steady supply of licorice. Although from a heroic point of view, he has somewhat lost the limelight. Strangely, the Daily Bugle has decided that Venom is the new champion of the city. Easy come, easy go, I guess.

Anyhow, this is Manhattan and a good super-heroic fight is never far away in the Big Apple. So it's a matter of a mere panel or two before Spidey stumbles across the Avengers fighting a giant robot. Oh, correction. This is one of those giant robots from the "The Incredibles" movie (2004), and Mr. Incredible himself is part of the battle. This comic is 2005, so this is a "topical reference".

Thor has snapped his hammer, and things aren't going well. Spidey leaps in to the battle, web-tangles the robot to the ground... unfortunately dropping it right on top of Hawkeye and crushing him. Blissfully unaware of this calamity, Spider-Man proceeds to removes the robot's distributor with his handy screwdriver, as per the instructions in his "Home Mechanics" magazine.

*Bzzzz*

Hmm... a pesky fly. *Bzzz*. SPLAT! With spider-speed, Spidey squashes the... oops. Spider-Man has also squashed "Wasp", beloved member of the Avengers. A second tragedy. Tough day at the office for the Avengers.

Scene change. At the "Daily Burguer" Peter Parker is given a dressing-down by J.J.J. In this version of things, Peter is an unpaid intern at Jonah's paper, and Jonah is a bully in the style of a Sergeant Major. Clark Kent makes a cameo appearance as a wannabe newspaper intern.

In fact, really the whole comic book is a series of cameo appearances and pop-culture throwaway references – which is why I'm not getting too far into the details of the plot. Because there isn't much of a plot. The story is little more than a setting for one-panel visual gags and absurdist non-sequiturs.

Peter heads off to "Central Pork", but all his "friends" (MJ, Gwen, Harry, Flash) are reading the Daily Burguer and talking about how ugly Spider-Man's costume is.

So instead, Spider-Man challenges Venom to one-on-one combat. The winner gets the right to be the local super-hero. The game... checkers! Oh, wait. Turns out Spider-Man isn't very good at checkers. OK then... brute force! Hmm... nope, Venom is better at brute force too!

Fortunately, Daredevil is there to lend a helping hand. Or in fact, a helping piano. A grand piano. Dropped on Venom's head. A grand piano complete with piano player. And what does Daredevil want in return? A copy of XL-Men #1. And Spider-Man is true to his word. Well, I mean, Daredevil is blind, right. He'll never know the difference between XL-Men #1 and some worthless second-hand 10¢ Mickey Mouse comic book. Surely?

But Daredevil does figure it out after all. And when Venom regains consciousness he's furious too. Maybe the next issue isn't going to be a very comfortable one for Espiderman.

General Comments

As said, the comic is driven by absurdity and snappy one-liners. Pretty much every gag is a throwaway.

The book keeps up a fast and furious pace for 24 pages, and after three issues you should know what you've signed up for. We're in this for yucks and giggles – nothing more, nothing less.

The art style by now is free-flowing and confident. It's still monochromatic, but there's great use of shading.

Overall Rating

Espiderman does exactly what it claims on the tin. It's a flurry of ridiculous parody.

Don't take it too seriously, and you'll come out just fine. Three and a half webs.

Footnote

The covers are in color, but all interior pages are black and white artwork.