Robert Greenberger

by Robert Greenberger

When I arrived at Marvel in January 2001, President Bill Jemas and Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada had just completed overseeing a successful re-energizing of the Spider-Man franchise. First, they installed Axel Alonso, fresh from his work at Vertigo Comics, to edit the line. Then they brought on writer J. Michael Straczynski, pairing him with penciller John Romita Jr. This got people positively talking about Spidey for the first time in years, just as the first Tobey Maguire/Sam Raimi film was shooting.

As a result, there was tremendous interest in parlaying that into other titles and Alonso suggested an anthology, not dissimilar to DC’s Legends of the Dark Knight, where different creative teams can take a crack at the character without being beholden to the continuity. Each creative team would bring a fresh take on the webslinger with a wide variety of tones brought to the series.

Spider-Man’s Tangled Web Omnibus Glenn Fabry cover

Little remembered today, Spider-Man’s Tangled Web, lasted just 22 issues, but contains some terrific tales by familiar and surprising names. The various collections have been out of print for a while now so it’s welcome to see Spider-Man’s Tangled Web Omnibus coming this winter. The writer’ lineup is stellar with Garth Ennis, Greg Rucka, Peter Milligan, Bruce Jones, Kaare Andrews, Darwyn Cooke, Zeb Wells, Ron Zimmerman, Brian Azzarello, Scott Levy, Paul Pope, Daniel Way, Ted McKeever, and Robert Morrison & Brian Walsh. Matching them, under covers by Glenn Fabry and Lee Weeks, is a murderers’ row of artists including John McCrea, Eduardo Risso, Duncan Fregredo, Sean Phillips, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Leandro Fernandez, Jim Mahfood, Dean Haspiel, Jay Bone, Alberto Dose, Weeks, Andrews, Cooke, Pope, and McKeever.

Much as The Spirit stories shoved the title character off to the side, this series focused as much or more on the villains, supporting cast, and New York City residents than it did the friendly neighborhood wall-crawler. This provided some colorful tales including #4’s Kingpin spotlight tale “Severance Package” by Rucka and Risso which was nominated for an Eisner Award for “Best Single Issue of a Comic Book”. Spider-Man appears in a single panel as the story focuses on Tom Chochrane, a man who has failed the Kingpin, and is collected to pay the price. He’s a family man and begs the criminal mastermind to spare his family and it becomes so much more than a crime story with the sense of responsibility hanging heavy over the players.

Similarly, the three-part “Gentlemen’s Agreement” by Jones and Weeks is a superb character study and mystery. Charlie Clemmens needs money and offers three criminal acquaintances the opportunity to learn Spider-Man’s secret identity. Once he proves he can deliver, things heat up while Charlie’s desperation rises and the stakes remain high. The third chapter is a satisfying explanation of how it all came to be.

A personal favorite is “Flowers for Rhino” by Milligan and Fregredo, taking a look at the man trapped in the bullet-proof hide.

Not every story features the obvious rogues or supporting players. Crusher Hogan, the first man Peter Parker faced in the wrestling ring, gets some love in “The Last Shoot” by Azzarello, Levy, and Camuncoli.

Comedians turned comic scribes Ron Zimmerman and Zeb Wells made some of their earliest impressions here. Wells was aided by Dean Haspiel in the amusing J. Jonah Jameson story, “Behind the Mustache”. The late, great Darwyn Cooke made a rare Marvel appearance, looking in on the Vulture in “Open All Night”, produced with Jay Bone, another rare Marvel appearance. The pair returned for “‘Twas the Fight Before Christmas” featuring Fantastic Four and Medusa – the only time guest heroes appeared.

Spider-Man’s Tangled Web Omnibus Lee Weeks cover

Are they all great? The law of averages will tell you no, and a lot comes down to personal taste. For example, the Pope story isn’t to my liking. But, taken together, Alonso brought in some new voices and they all had something to say about the world of Spider-Man. This was a noble experiment and I’m delighted to see it back in print.

Purchase

Spider-Man’s Tangled Web Omnibus