Spider-Man 2 (The Movie) Official Annual

Background

There's little to say here that I didn't already say in the review of Spider-Man (The Movie) 2003 Official Annual. But I'll cut-and-paste it to save you linking. Firstly, you should know that Hardback Annuals are a UK phenomenon. Check out or page of Spider-Man Annual (UK) to see what I'm talking about.

This particular book was produced in 2004 as a movie tie-in for the second film. Sized at 8.5" x 12", this is half an inch taller than the 2003 "Movie Annual" for the first film. It's 64 pages (instead of 68), and features a glossy hardback cover, but not the lovely padded cover of the 2003 version.

Story Details

Same as the UK annual for the first movie. The bulk of the book features an illustrated text retelling of the movie. After every few pages of story, there's a few pages of puzzles, or a character profile, or some interesting factoids on the subject of spiders. Then it's back to the story. The story retelling is relatively thorough, though interspersed with lots of bold type and exclamation MARKS!!! THWACK! BANG! KERPLUNK!

Kerplunk?

The design on this book is rather garish. The text is white on a blue/black textured background, making for a rather unsettling reading experience. The colors totally fail to evoke the coloring of the movie. The text itself is decidedly B-grade. "AAARGH Screaming in agony and despair, the man with maniacal arms fused to his poor mangled body managed to pull himself out of the bed. With the tentacles stuck to his body like blood-sucking barnacles, the scientist fled from the hospital."

Hemmingway, it ain't.

General Comments

This is the usual free-loading tie-in stuff. The only difference here being the over-the-top, in-yer-face nature of the colors and the typesetting making for a book which is rather unattractive to my senses.

Overall Rating

Normally, top-notch design makes up for the paucity of content in this genre of book. However, with both being so poor in this case, I can't offer more than a web-and-a-half.