Yu tries to recreate The Scream.
Spider-Man: The Manga #22
Marvel Comics (December, 1998)
WRITER/ARTIST: Ryoichi Ikegami
TRANSLATION: Mutsumi Masuda
RETOUCH/PRODUCTION: Dano Ink Studios
EDITOR: Dan Natrosis
A new adventure begins for Yu Komori when his spider-sense goes hyperactive near a woman in a black komono. While nobody else sees the city square freeze around them for a brief moment (they do see the dead flowers), Yu does. With no name he refers to her as “The Winter Woman” (no, this isn’t Japanese gender swap Bucky Barnes) and wonders where she’ll strike next.
What they got right: While we haven’t gotten a re-imagined Spider-Man foe in a while this is a good manga-original threat, or at least a decent mystery. Who is this “Winter Woman” and what’s the deal with her powers? Yu will have to figure that out. We don’t even know if she’s a villain yet though she set off his spider-sense.
What they got wrong: Ikegami really went hard on the artistic. Three panels of Yu’s spider-sense going off (similar to the effect seen on the cover, which I kind of prefer to the traditional lines), numerous panels of either Yu or “the Winter Woman” standing there while the ice that instantly disappears with nobody noticing, and pages of Yu considering “the Winter Woman” and not much else. Your visuals are pretty but they’re hurting the flow of the narrative. There is a time to show off and a time to get on with the story.
What I think overall: This one is relying more on visual than narrative and suffers for it. What makes it worse is that the plot sounds like a good one. Ikegami just needs to focus on the story a bit more.
BW Media Spotlight 