Spider-Man vs. Electro: Colouring & Activity Book (Scholastic Australia)

Background

The guys at Scholastic Australia have been churning out Spidey colouring books for the NZ/Australia market like mad. While they are attractive, well-priced books, the main problem is that they all draw from the same limited pool of source material.

Story Details

This is another classic example. Actually, they've been a bit clever here. The art pool that Scholastic have been using since 2011 or so actually features Electro as the number one guest star.

That's great news, since with the upcoming Spidey movie having Electro as the lead villain, Scholastic now have a perfect excuse to get "Electro" colouring books on the market (a) in advance of the official release embargo, and (b) presumably without paying the hefty film tie-in licencing costs! Double win!

General Comments

This book is a shameless recycle of all the existing material which has appeared in twenty other colouring books in the last two or three years. Actually, it's not a 100% rip-off. In at least three cases I did spot minor tweaks to the text and/or graphics of a puzzle to turn them from a "Find the Lizard" or "Help Spidey Spot Hydroman" into "Find Electro".

But those are minor cosmetic changes, basically, it's the same old artwork with a shiny new cover. Same old format too, 8.3" x 10.8", 24pp black and white content with a staple-bound glossy cover.

Actually, there is one other notable difference. While most of the other books based on this material have tended to print puzzles and artwork with little respect for creating a single-threaded story, in this case the art sequence and captions have been selected and ordered with the definite goal of making a plot (of sorts).

Overall Rating

On quality and visual appeal, this book is above average. But with the same old artwork recycled yet again, I can't give it more than a "Yawn, Three Webs" rating.