Spider-Man: Swing Shift (Director's Cut) (Story 2)

Background

This is a five-page Spider-Man Manifesto from Tom Bervoort, that outlines a post One More Day Spidey landscape.

Story 'Spider-Man Manifesto'

In this well-though-out essay, Tom sets forth some of his own thoughts on the Spider-Man that appears in the comics as well as the one that appears in the first two Spidey movies, he goes on to talk about what he feels makes the character work, how he has gone astray over the years, and what Tom and the Spidey editorial team should do to fix all of the issues that are (in his mind) wrong.

In the pages that follow, he talks about the new direction, new villains, new characters, and some of the things that he feels should (and probably will) occur during the Brand New Day opus-storyline. He then offers up some observations and suggestions as to how to handle the thrice-monthly Amazing during the run of BND. Here he goes into some specifics as to the styling of the writers themselves, as well as what to do if a fill-in episode is needed.

General Comments

Ignoring for a moment that the entire One More Day/Brand New Day is a Cluster F#%& of monumental proportions, you really can't fault Tom for any of the things that he says in this article, because (mostly) he's right (even if I personally hate the way editorial has chose to go about "fixing" things. All-in-all, this essay is worth the cover price of the comic, especially if you already received a free version of it on Free Comic Book Day.

Overall Rating

No matter what you think of the Mephisto Incident, this is a very well-written and well-thought essay. I especially liked how Tom discusses the possibility of Peter moving forward into the new Millennium with the way he covers Spidey. (with video and picture capability in everyone's cell phone, it would only make sense for Pete to be shooting some of his own video and uploading it to a version of YouTube or wherever that would pay him for the exclusive.)

Footnote

As far as this reviewer is concerned, most "Director's Cuts" comics are just one more way for the company to chisel more money out of a shrinking marketplace, as the "extras" are hardly worth the price of admission. That is so not the case with this comic.