Alex Saviuk

The Amazing Spider-Man: Parallel Lives, part of the Marvel Graphic Novel series, follows the lives of Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Mary Jane Watson-Parker, and Dr. Otto Octavius/Doc Ock. The title recalls Plutarch's parallel lives of famous Romans and Greeks, though, unlike that classic text, the characters' actions converge at several points in the story prior to its climax. Writer Gerry Conway retells Spider-Man's origin while exploring Mary Jane's background and the family history that led her to adopt her own "mask" in the persona of a party girl. My biggest complaint in Mary Jane's story is the continued return to an old-fashioned idea that a woman can only find happiness through marriage. Though Conway wrote after Peter and MJ's wedding in the comics, he doesn't approach a sense of partnership until the end of his narrative. Doctor Octopus also appears in flashback to set up his hatred for Peter/Spider-Man, but this feels somewhat rushed as Conway condenses decades' worth of stories into a single 64-page volume. Penciller Alex Saviuk and inker Andy Mushynsky work well together to reproduce the look of Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby's art for the flashbacks while retaining a certain timeless style for the "modern" parts of the story. In all, this volume does not add much to the Spider-Man canon, but it works well as a catch-up for new readers or those looking to refresh their memories about certain basic plot details. Best of all, it serves as a lead-in to J. Michael Straczynski's run on Amazing Spider-Man prior to Joe Quesada's awful One More Day story.… (more)

A graphic novel spin-off from the hit television series. Made up of four different stories and cases for Agents Mulder and Scully to investigate.

Surrounded - The Agents are called in to investigate a suspicious death at a compound of anti government militists. The body has been skinned and it turns out to have been mutant dust mites from a failed scientific experiement by one of the house mates. He makes it away safely at the end carrying a sample of the mites with him.
Crop Duster - A strange tale about little green frog men that only one person seems to be able to see. He was part of a secret project called Crop Duster making chemicals to spray on people modulating their behaviour. There is a twist at the end involving his abused wife and the chief of police.
Soma - The best tale in the set by far about a series of Indian women found to have died by spontaneous human combustion with traces of the mushroom Amanita Muscaria (the red one with spots on that Alice sat on with the caterpiller which is poinsonous and causes hallucinations). It turns out to be a cremated husband looking for his wife who feld to America after not having enough faith to join her husbands funeral pyre.
Skybuster - Massive flocks of ravens are killing the employees of HAARP which is an organisation destroying the environment producing mutant animals and trying to control peoples minds. The ravens are linked by a Native American tale where they created the world and humans, gaining revenge for them now destroying what they created.

Not a very good read, more for die hard fans of the series only. I felt the stories were too short and under developed although Soma had some good ideas and artwork.… (more)