Spider-Man 2: Coloring Book (Funtastic)

Background

Funtastic brought out a swag of coloring and activity books back in 2002 for the first movie - the usual mix of jumbo coloring pads, sticker books and such like, but also including a tattoo book and a paint-with-water book. Sadly, the rather disappointing art they decided to use last time really overshadowed any high points that the format may have provided.

For "Spider-Man 2", Funtastic is back with new art and even more nifty formats. As your devoted reviewer, I headed down to my local Warehouse (the NZ equivalent of Wal-Mart) and picked up one of each of the different books I can find. And here they are. Note that Funtastic appears to be an Australian company. I'm not sure if these books will make it to the US If they don't, then please accept my condolences. If you get something else instead, please drop me a line and let me know...

Story Details

Let's start with the basics. Nearly all these books are the same size, 8.25" x 11". This one is 24 pages of cheap newsprint with a soft card fold-over cover. All interior is B & W. The art has been updated from 2002. There has been some attempt to make the logo look like the movie costume logo, but they haven't captured the raised look of the webbing, and otherwise it looks just like any Spidey from 70's onward.

There are 20 pictures of Spider-Man, and a pathetic 3 of Doc Ock. The Doc Ock is the movie Doc Ock indubitably... however, the inker has laid on so heavily with the black that he hasn't left a lot to color! Disappointingly, there's no picture of Spidey vs. Ock, or Spidey vs. anybody else for that matter. What's worse, none of the pictures actually feature backgrounds - everything is just a figure against a black sheet. There's no skylines, no bridges, no buildings, no nothing.

Overall Rating

My local store sold this for NZ$2.99 (US$1.80) which is cheap, but then again, we're talking 24 lousy pages here. Pretty cover, but inside - lightweight and very, very boring. Two webs. Cheap and nasty.