Jeph Loeb’s Spider-Man: Blue

Spider-Man: Blue is a sort of flashback/retelling of how Peter Parker and Gwen Stacey originally met and fell in love. With MJ thrown into the mix and Peter moving into the city with Harry Osbourne, the plot mirrors parts of Sam Raimi’s 2002 Spider-Man film.

The story is narrated by Peter as he records the story into an old tape recorder that was previously owned by his Uncle Ben. He remembers these early years when he took to the streets of New York, stopping some of the strongest and devious super-villains around.

I was a huge fan of what Sale and Loeb did with what is probably my favorite graphic novel, Batman: The Long Halloween. I really liked the two follow ups (Batman: Dark Victory and Batman: Haunted Knight) and more or less appreciated their run with Hush. I’ve only read a few Spidey graphic novels and was looking forward to exploring what they did with another superhero, especially one so different from Batman.

The problem I had was not with Sale’s exceptional art – which he delivered on yet again – but with the overall story. While it was cool seeing a few of the villains that Loeb used here, the backdrop of Peter pining over Gwen really did nothing for me. Especially since Loeb didn’t really give Gwen any real reason for Peter to fall in love with her other than being gorgeous. I suppose I was just bored and found my focus constantly drifting away.

Also, I found the ending kind of creepy. In fact, the whole idea seemed sort of strange, really. I will say that I certainly enjoyed that they didn’t explain her death from her fall from the Brooklyn Bridge after a battle with The Goblin. That seemed a little refreshing and gave the book a different feel that I didn’t quite expect.

I guess after reading such great work from their run on Batman, I expected a lot. I’m still going to seek out their take on Daredevil Legends, Vol. 1: Yellow and Wolverine, hopefully there a lot more satisfying.