Amazing Spider-Man: Web of Secrets (Parragon)

Background

This book from Parragon is sister to the Marvel Super Heroes: Super Hero Secrets (Parragon). They share a similar format , 6.5" x 7.8" with richly coloured glossy pages, although the Spider-Man is much more generous with 92 pages, making the Marvel Super Heroes version seem miserly with only 42 pages.

The cover is padded, which gives an up-market feel to the book. The product carried a £5.99 price tag in the UK.

Story Details

Inside is a well-constructed and rich set of content. The first few pages introduce Peter/Spider-Man, and intermingle his personal details with spaces for your own super-stats, instantly putting you on the road towards feeling like a hero yourself. Carrying on in the same vein, the book talks about Spidey's super-powers, then asks you to write down the things that you're good at.

Spider-Man facts gradually give way to puzzles, games, quizzes and jokes. Then we get an abridged (24 page) version of the illustrated story from The Amazing Spider-Man: An Origin Story, which launched the series of books Marvel: Origin Story Books which also lend artwork to the rest of the book too.

Then it's back into more puzzles, quizzes, and lots of spaces for you to contribute... draw your secret lair, write down your favorite hiding spots, describe your ambitions, your friends, your embarrassments and much more. As before, this is all intermingled with great pictures on top-quality paper stock.

General Comments

This book does a fantastic job of providing original and interesting content, while also staying very much on theme with the "Secrets" concept. An elasticated strap is built into the book allowing you to ensure that the book doesn't "accidentally" fall open in the hands of your friends... or your foes!

It ain't easy being a kid. The story of Peter Parker is a perfect tale for any insecure (aren't they all) teenager wanting to feel that there's a young super-hero out there who shares their difficulties, and their challenges. In the process, this book also encourages young kids to write about themselves and their thoughts. That's got to be a good thing.

Overall Rating

This is an awesome book. It's a shame it's UK-only, it deserves a wider audience.

With its varied and original content, high production quality, and generous page count for a reasonable price, I really have no choice but to give out the full five webs.