C.B. Cebulski

Sider-Man retells fairy tales
6:24 pm 19 October 2015
Spider-Man: Fairy Tales - Ricardo Tercio Vinagre Guimaraes, Kei Kobayashi, Nick Dragotta, Niko Henrichon, C.B. Cebulski, Mike Allred
And while the ones I was more familiar with - Cinderella, and Little Red Riding Hood - had twists, there was a tale about Anansi and a Japanese horror story that I wasn't familiar with at all. I do assume that they were twisted to the purposes of a Spider-Man retelling, though, given the other two stories.
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They were cute new takes that melded a fairy tale or horror story along with the Spider-Man mythos. Each one was a separate story, and although they tended to have elements in common, the story of Anansi didn't have an Aunt May character. Actually, neither did Cinderella. Red Riding Hood didn't have Uncle Ben.

But they were all connected in a way: they all used Peter Parker's life as a basis for these retellings. It kinda seemed like fan service, but well done - well written and well illustrated - fan service. And I read it that way: light, fluffy things that weren't really meant to be taken seriously. It was fun enough if you took things that way.

If not, I suppose it could get irritating, or seem pointless. Maybe it was a little pointless. But I liked it for all that. Not my absolute favorite thing ever, but a really fun time to spend an hour or two.

One tended to only need to know the basics of Parker's life, too. I suppose the Cinderella story would hold a little less meaning if you didn't know the specifics of Gwen Stacy's death, but other than that? You really just needed to know that he was orphaned at a young age, was raised by his Aunt May and Uncle Ben, and swings around town in a spider costume in a superhero.

And even if you don't know about Stacy, the Cinderealla story works on its own as a self-contained fairy tale. I just suspect it wouldn't mean as much to me if I didn't know the backstory; there are little details that add up after a while. I suppose the more you know about Spider-Man, the more you catch them. show less

In this story we follow Conan leading the embassy from Aquilonia to the mysterious land on the East - Khitai. Here Khitai is a country that is basically blend of Chinese and Japanese in our "universe". We can see some elements of wuxia kung-fu but also samurai warriors and ninja's. In any case blending was done in excellent and seamless way.

Art is very good and scenes of battle are very well done. There is no confusion for the reader and it is very clear what goes on.

Only thing that is show more missing here is a more thought-out story. Story is ... how to say it, underwhelming. We have our deal of monsters and wizards so that the story resonates with readers of Conan's adventures but they remain nothing else than a prop - even the story climax seems like an afterthought. Also mysterious tribe that helps Conan's escort seems like something that was planned to be used in a more constructive way but was left out for whatever reason. If only the story was presented in a better way.

In general very interesting story recommended to all fans of Conan's universe. Alas due to the rather underwhelming story this adventure seems to be on the list of marginalized less-known ones. Which is a shame because main characters are very interesting. show less

I picked this up because it seemed like a premise in which I could get interested. The idea of a Superheroes Anonymous organization made up of former heroes trying to escape their abilities seemed rife with possibility.

The first couple pages were a clever beginning as a woman's sponsor tries to talk her out of jumping off a building. However, instead of this being about suicide, he's trying to talk her out of flying. Okay, so if you already know the premise of the book, it's not a huge shock show more that the scene is not about her killing herself, but it's what I was looking forward to; heroes fighting their inner demons rather than superheroes.

Can you guess where this is going? Of course you can. Within ten pages or so, the heroes are paying little more than lip service to their inner demons, while running off to fight some mysterious and clandestine organization. I like superhero comics, but I guess I'm a little tired of the constant need for some big bad to pop its head up every other page or so. show less

This was pretty much an ok collection of fairy tales with X-Men characters recast in the role of fairy tale characters. I particularly liked "The Peach Boy," and I thought "To Die in Dreams" had a nice poignant touch to it. The tale featuring Rogue seemed to have a nice build up, then seemed rushed to the end. Overall, a nice, quick, entertaining read, but this is a volume to borrow if you can. Nice, but not great. There is a series of Marvel Fairy Tales, and I may try to find others, but I show more am keeping the expectations light. show less