Spider-Man Inside the World of Your Friendly Neighbourhood Hero Review
Summary: Spider-Man Inside the World of Your Friendly Neighbourhood Hero is filled with lore from the history of Spider-man with some beautiful images from the comics!
4.5
Spider-treats!
This well presented hardcover book from DK boasts stunning images and text which takes the reader on a true history lesson on everyone’s favourite neighbourhood Spider-man. At 200 pages, Spider-Man Inside the World of Your Friendly Neighbourhood Hero focuses on the characters, key storylines and different incarnations of Spider-man from Marvel Comics which is great for newcomers and veterans alike. It really is jam packed with content!
The book has a foreword by the legendary Stan Lee plus a great introduction on Spider-man and given that the latest movie (Spider-man Homecoming) has just come out, this title makes the perfect compendium to see where it all began and what’s ‘currently’ happening in the comics. You even see how the costume of Spider-man has evolved over the years and how it’s almost come full circle. It even features the different ‘loves’ of Spider-man such as Mary Jane Watson and Betty Brant, not to mention other key supporting characters and of course, his nefarious villains.
Although there are big changes happening to the Marvel Universe this year with Generations, this book does include the repercussions from universal changes such as the Secret Wars storyline which is an interesting read and puts further perspective on this character. Apart from the original Peter Parker, the book features other characters who have worn the costume such as Miles Morales, Spider-Gwen, Silk and the controversial Ben Reilly which of course was the Clone Saga.
Visually, the book has some fantastic double page spreads such as a section on Amazing Friends which collects the diverse range of ‘friends’ of Spider-man to awesome character spreads of characters like Scorpion and Rhino. These pages include the characters first appearance, their real name, affiliations, powers/abilities plus a blurb on their origin, including key moments in their history. Once again, a very interesting ready.
The only slight negative of the book is that the information does feel slightly disjointed on how it is presented but nonetheless, it’s still a fine read and really comes together well. However the highlight are the amazing images from the history of Spider-man and this book also showcases some of the great artists who have lent their skill to this character. It’s definitely a book for all Spider-man fans!
Final Thoughts?
Spider-Man Inside the World of Your Friendly Neighbourhood Hero is a well-written book Matthew K. Manning with additional text by Tom DeFalco who successfully capture the diverse, colourful and at times controversial stories of Spider-man by showcasing the key monumental moments from this characters history.
The images are quite stunning and are directly taken from the comics and once again DK should be commended on making these images come to life thanks to the high quality paper stock. So if you’re looking for a great read about Spider-man’s history, Spider-Man Inside the World of Your Friendly Neighbourhood Hero is definitely that book which would put the Daily Bugle to shame!
Highly Recommended!
Book Details
ISBN: 9780241306345
ISBN-10: 0241306345
Format: Hardcover
Language: English
Number Of Pages: 216
Published: 29th May 2017
Publisher: Dorling Kindersley Ltd
Country of Publication: GB
Dimensions (cm): 27.6 x 23.3 x 2.1
Weight (kg): 1.19
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