Spider-Man: Legend of the Spider-Clan #3

Background

Manga, extreme violence. Swords, martial arts. Hey, sad to be the one to break the news - but there's more than that to making a story worth buying. Somebody has to mould the parts into a coherent whole, and that just ain't happening with Spider-Clan.

Story Details

Following from last episode's fight in the subways - Spidey beat the bad ninjas, and was picked up by the Shadow Clan, not so bad ninja. He has "the amulet", and will be their strongest fighter - but first he must learn to give into violence and blood - which he does, in our opening double-page spread splash page. Funny old thing, the martial arts, eh?

Daredevil the demon-hunter goes to see Aunt May. He's gonna go save Peter by killing him, since he is under the power of the amulet. May says that Peter's mother was under the power of the same amulet. Guess it runs in the family.

Peter has bad dreams. Doc Ock is just a teacher. Harry and friends are hitting the rave scene. Norman Osborn's (whose troops failed as before mentioned to capture the amulet) kills his assistant as a sacrifice and becomes the Green Goblin for real, complete with a horde of little goblins.

Daredevil and some short lady martial artist in white are down in the sewers. Felica heads down too. She was killed in episode one, by DD, who said she was a demon, but there's no sign of that. Somebody has given her a new cyber-body, and told her to go get the amulet, so she heads down too. Meanwhile, Manga-Venom is re-assembling his own clan... he's planning to (Quote) "Take the Shadow Clan from behind.. and mop up whatever is left." Unquote. Hmm... we'll if you're gonna take 'em from behind, I guess mopping up is the decent thing to do.

DD has found Peter, and he sinks some blades in his chest. *SPLITCH*. Black cat turns up. Add Shadow Clan Warriors. But Peter isn't quite dead, as his black costume oozes over him. He explodes. Yep. *THWOOM*. Peter releases his anger. Venom's gang attacks. Massive scrap in another double-page spread.

Final page, the woman in white approaches Peter and reveals herself. Yes, it's Aunt May. She's a ninja too. I kid you not. Peter can't control himself... it's face-pizza time, Aunt May flavour. *CRUNCH*.

General Comments

It's not often that a comic manages to be tasteless, pointless, inane and irrelevent all at the same time, while offering no redeeming feature.

But this one succeeds. It's not Spidey, it's not really Manga, it sure as heck isn't Marvel. In fact, it's barely recognisable as a comic.

Overall Rating

For the love of all that is holy - I urge you to shun this comic. Half a web.