Spider-Man 2: Walmart Promo Mini

Background

This is an tiny little four-page ashcan sized Walmart promo comic. It's a shameless marketing, with no story or art value. Of course, collectors like me really dig this kind of stuff.

Story Details

Here's the low-down. The four pages feature a crappy little Spidey/Doc Ock story that isn't based on the movie, or the comics, or anything. Peter Parker needs to take pictures for Jameson. Spidey web-slings and meets Doc Ock. Ock threatens some innocents, who Spidey rescues. Ock gets away, Peter gets no pictures, but Spidey heads back to find Ock 'cos with great power, etc.

On the back cover there's a really simple maze puzzle, and a really lame join the dots. There's a few advertising spots here and there, but the real advertising comes in with the stickers. There are five stickers, and they're the real catch here.

The first sticker is a Spidey symbol sticker. You're supposed to put that on your shirt, and then read the first page of the comic book. One of the panels on each page is missing, replaced with a product ad, e.g. "Dr. Pepper". To match the four "missing" panels are four stickers of the panels. Clearly, one sticker goes over each add to complete the story.

According to the instructions, after putting the Spidey symbol sticker on your shirt, you need to go and find the indicated product stand in the Wal-Mart store. On the product stand you'll see a picture of which sticker goes over that ad in the indicated panel. Of course, any human being capable of reading the captions could probably figure that out without trapsing round Wal-Mart looking for hints, but I guess that's a separate discussion.

When you're done, you've used all your stickers, and you have a crappy four-page story that doesn't relate to anything. With luck, you've spent half an hour, and your mom has had some piece and quiet to actually find the stuff she needed to buy.

General Comments

The art is rubbish... heck, Jonah Jameson has brown hair, so I'm presuming that the colorist didn't actually even see the movie promo art. The story is very, very lame. The concept is just a big commercial have. On the other hand, collecting logic is more to do with the obscure nature of the format than the intrinsic value or quality of the item. That puts me in an awkward spot.

Overall Rating

Let's call it two webs. 1 web or less for the actually material, but a good bonus web just for being unique, and strangely desirable for Spidey fans.