Writer: Jeff Parker Artists: Patrick Scherberger(p), Norman Lee(i), Guru eFX's Hartman and Bevard(c) Publisher: Marvel
When Spider-Man and the Human Torch get together, you can always expect a fun time, but Jeff Parker makes this current ride outrageously laugh out loud funny. The whole book is one joke falling into another while Spidey and the Torch keep in character.
Parker opens the book with a lame villainous creation for Spidey but a serious threat for the innocent. This gives the web-spinner the chance to display some dynamic heroics courtesy of Patrick Scherberger, Noman Lee and Hartman and Bevard.
The setup is really very typical. The lame villain known as Street has an origin that echoes to the traditional Kirby/Lee origins of monsters and transformed madmen. He also like most Kirby/Lee villains loves the sound of his own voice. Spidey saving the lives of innocent tourists is no big deal. He does that all the time, but when you read the dialogue, Parker reveals his rather sly sense of humor for Peter Parker's alter-ego. Spidey generally makes with the snappy patter as he's dropping down on hapless thieves, but this patter here is particularly rich, intelligent and original as well as metatextual without being pedantic.
When the Torch arrives, the party really begins. Parker quickly establishes the relationship between the two heroes, and flares the Torch off to his own blind crisis. No, that is not a cutesy pun regarding Infinite Crisis. Johnny ignores the wonderfully low-tech Post-It notes that Reed left specifically for him to read, and the hilarity ensues.
The Torch way over his head scientifically returns to help Spidey in a blatantly transparent you-scratch-my-back type of scheme, and the timing of this joke just happens to be perfect. Seriously this is the bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha moment.
The unceremonious comeuppance of the lame villain heralds the arrival of a beautifully Kirby-imagined creature Goom--even the name rings of Kirby/Lee, and this is where things get surreal. Just like comic books occasionally used to get. Best of all Parker adds just one more joke to make the Torch feel really miserable and throw the reader off her seat. Want to suffer from a laughing fit? Pick up this book.
