Writer: Gail Simone
Artist: Gurihiru
Publisher: Marvel
Gus Beezer is absolutely adorable!!! It's amazing how such a spunky, curious, little innocent creature could find his way into the depressing waters of the Marvel Universe. But somehow it happened, and for the better.
This is my first one-shot of this nature, and I'll be sure to pick up the others now that I've read this one. The plot is rather simplistic and straight-forward: Gus is a grade-schooler infatuated my Spider-Man, in fact imagining that he really is the wall-crawler. By doing this, his speed seems to increase, as well as give fuel to his wild imagination. The irony of the situation is that Gus's cousin actually is Peter Parker, Spider-Man himself. What follows is an absolutely hilarious tale, which really brings a smile to your face on many different occasions. Again, this is quite rare in the world of Marvel comics.
Spider-Man's secret identity is used rather cleverly here, as are the characters of J. Jonah Jameson and those around Gus. The backup story (or should I say bottom?) is merely Gail Simone's interpretation of how a grade-schooler would write a super-hero story, and the "public-service announcements" make this one just as fun as the first.
Since this book is comical and light-hearted in the first place, I would the art to be just as Gurihiru draws it. Gurihiru contorts and morphs his characters' forms well to reflect the mood of the panel, and the result is just as good as Simone's writing.
It really is a wonderful book, and unfortunate that Simone will not be doing many of these in the future.
What did you think of this book?
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