Spider-Man: Flying High (Bendon)

Background

This book is one of a set of four "wavy-cut" book by Bendon produced late 2006/early 2007. The other three in the set are Spider-Man: Amazing Powers (Bendon), Spider-Man: Web-Slinging Super Hero (Bendon) and Spider-Man: Hanging Around (Bendon). They are all branded "Spider Sense Spider-Man", a logo which Bendon has used on a few other coloring/activity books.

All four books in the set feature six leaves of heavy card (outer front cover, outer back cover, plus ten inner pages). Strangely, "Flying High" is slightly larger than the others. It is 9.5" x 6" while all the other three are 8.5" x 5". Other than that, they're all very similar in style.

Note that all four books in the series have the same ISBN.

Story Details

"One late afternoon, while leaving the Daily Bugle, Peter Parker learned of trouble in the skies over New York City."

"Hiding from sight, he quickly becomes the Amazing Spider-Man."

As you can see, there's no introduction here. No description is given of how he "becomes" Spider-Man, or even what the Daily Bugle might be or what Peter Parker (a man, a boy?) was doing there. No, the key elements are "late afternoon" and "Spider-Man". Turn the page.

"Swinging through crowded streets, (photo of cars) Spider-Man quickly finds the cause of the problem."

Vulture. Bank Robbery. Chase. Capture. Police and prison. Hero keeps watch over the city.

General Comments

Wham, bam, thank you m'am!

No kissing here. No foreplay. Just straight into the "thrust" of the story. Spidey. Vulture. Defeated!

Overall Rating

Trivial, shallow, superficial, yet somehow I think this book achieves everything it set out to achieve. For the preschooler who has seen Spidey in cartoons, I reckon this is going to hit the spot just fine. I'm going to give it a slightly-better-than expected three and a half webs.