Get To Know The Area With Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #1
by Josh Davison
[*Mild Spoilers Ahead!]
It’s another day in the life of your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man when he spots a moving van about to go over the edge of the highway. Naturally, Spider-Man saves the day, and he goes back home to his apartment building. He helps a woman get her groceries upstairs, and she convinces Peter Parker to check on a woman who has turned shut-in. As it turns out, this young woman believes she is being targeted by a group, but she won’t say who or why. He goes out to get her lunch and comes back to find men in suits threatening her. Peter doesn’t want to give himself away as Spider-Man, but he can’t let his neighbor be taken by these men.
In the backup story, Aunt May is keeping a secret from her nephew.
Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #1 begins Tom Taylor and Juann Cabal’s Peter Parker companion title. As the comic’s title implies, it purports to focus more on the down-to-earth and day-in-the-life aspects of Spider-Man’s life.
This first issue succeeds in that mission with flying colors. We get to see what Peter Parker does for the everyday people in his life, from his neighbors, to his family, to the downtrodden he meets on the street.
There’s still some web-slinging action of course, namely the opening scene with the moving van and the men in his neighbor’s apartment. There’s also plenty of humor and one-liners, as is the Spider-Man way.
The backup story with Aunt May is surprisingly heavy and gives the comic a pretty sad conclusion, but Tom Taylor still carries it with grace and skill.
Juann Cabal’s artwork is as strong as ever. The book is sleek, stylish, and maintains that strong Spider-Man energy. The suit itself looks especially good, in part thanks to the vibrant color work of Nolan Woodard. Marcelo Ferreira, Roberto Poggi, and Jim Campbell do the visual work of the Aunt May story, and they work well within the heavy tone of the comic.
Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #1 is a powerful start for this Peter Parker series. Taylor, Cabal, and Woodard deliver a lively, funny, and decidedly human tale about the Web-Head, and it easily earns a recommendation. Check it out.
Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #1 comes to us from writer Tom Taylor, artists Juann Cabal and Marcelo Ferreira, inkers Juann Cabal and Roberto Poggi, color artists Nolan Woodard and Jim Campbell, letterer VC’s Travis Lanham, cover artist Andrew Robinson, and variant cover artists Cabal with Woodard and Joe Jusko.
