Spider-Man: Worst Enemies

Background

This is the companion to Spider-Man: The Amazing Story, released by DK books in 1996. Both are the same physical format in terms of size and page count, the major difference being that this book is a "Level 2" reader, while the other was "Level 1".

Story Details

This book is 6" x 9", 32 pages. It doesn't so much contain a story, as a sequence of short articles on Spidey villains. Each is illustrated with couple of clip art pictures of varying quality from various Spider-Man comics from 70's through to recent. The accompanying text is instructive and not particularly appealing. Example:

Most people know that Spider-Man is a good guy. But some people think he is bad news. Professor Spencer Smythe believes that Spider-Man is trouble. he invented robots called Spider-Slayers to destroy Spider-Man. But Spider-Man was much smarter than the robots and beat them easily.

Well, where to start with factual errors and omissions? Smythe built the robots because JJJ paid him to. The radioactive materials gave him cancer and drove him mad. Spidey was only a little smarter than the robots, if at all - and he certainly didn't beat them easily!

You get the general idea. The others aren't much better. At least the book lives up to its name: this certainly is the Worst book of Spider-Man's Enemies I've ever had the misfortune to review.

General Comments

Details are misleading or incorrect. The final result is a blurred impression that a bunch of guys hate Spidey and want to kill him. I was neither educated nor entertained. I struggled to find anything redeeming in here, which is a shame since Spider-Man: The Amazing Story by the same author was a fine little story.

Overall Rating

A mishmash of artwork from different genres gives this book a messy, patchwork feel. The text is uninspiring at best, and total inaccurate at worst. No more than one measly web for this poor effort.

Footnote

The Rhino is called Alex O'Hirn. That stupid little name still keeps popping up. I guess his real name "Aleksei Mikhailovich Sytsevich" was too hard for the target audience. Or else maybe the DK guys didn't bother updating their research.