Spider-Man & Friends (UK Magazine) #33

Background

This UK kids magazine is one of three regular Spidey magazine offerings from Panini. Spider-Man & Friends targets the 4-10 year old market, while sister publication Spectacular Spider-Man (UK Magazine) aims at the pre-teen and teen crowd. Finally, their Marvel Heroes (UK Magazine) hits the same mid-teen crowd but with a video game/movie angle.

But let's get back to Spider-Man & Friends. It features a distinctively drawn semi-Manga style kiddie Spider-Man, his cousin Spider-Girl, plus early school versions of Hulk, Wolverine, Beast, Storm and Captain America along with guest appearances from many other big name Marvel heroes and villains. Toy tie-ins are also available, plus in 2009 they produced a hardback annual.

Published every four or five weeks, this UK magazine features a toy taped to the front of each issue. Inside you'll find a four page Spidey & Friends story with three panels per page, captions of 8-20 words per panel. Then there's some nice simple kids puzzles, some coloring, a couple of competitions, and a page or two of Spidey merchandise. It's similar to the formats used for the older kids' magazines, just pitched for a much younger target audience.

Story 'How Much Wind?'

Today... "How Much Wind?" Indeed, that's a fine question. How much... umm... wind?

It's a nice warm day, and Spider-Man and Spider-Girl have come to the park to fly their kites. But the kites just drag along the ground. Yeah, he's a real Einstein that Spider-Man. It never occurred to him that perhaps a "windy" day would be best for kite-flying

So, not one but TWO super-friends help out. Thor uses his magic hammer (which controls the elements) to make wind for Spider-Man, while Storm does the same (without a hammer) for Spider-Girl.

Oh no! Now it's too windy! The kits get stuck in a tree, so the Spider-folk go to fetch them. Then they decide climbing is even more fun, so they give their kites to Thor and Storm.

General Comments

Nice one Spider-Man. What's a little climate change here and their just for your own convenience? Want to got boating? Why not get Storm to rain down and make you a lake? You lazy doofus.

Overall Rating

There's nothing here to make a plot out of. Nothing at all. Kites with no wind. Kits with too much wind. Meh, it's just too hard to review this stuff. I'm gonna slap it with a crappy old one-web rating and go climb a tree instead.

Footnote

Standard filler. One page maze, one page reading comprehension based on the story, a "find the next picture in the sequence", a basic adding page, a double-spread coloring picture, a "find the characters in the picture", a "Draw Doc Ock", a "find the odd one out", two pages "learn about the weather", two pages tracing letters (L and K), two pages fan letters and art.