It’s not always easy to keep a tight lid on your initial reaction to a story plot that seems ridiculous, overly familiar, or both at first glance, but after seeing the premise of Amazing Spider-Man and Silk: the Spider (Fly) Effect, I figured I’d resist the urge to roll my eyes and try to read on. We’ve all seen time-travel plots utilized before (even in Spider-Man titles), but that doesn’t mean they can’t still be done well. If Robbie Thompson wanted to take us back to the time right before Spidey and Silk were bitten by the spider that gave them their powers, I was willing to at least give it an issue before completing my eye-rolling.
I’ve never been the biggest fan of Marvel’s digital-only Infinite Comics line, even when they’ve tried to work in stories involving characters and events about which I’ve been really excited. Every time I’ve read them, they’ve felt shoehorned into a larger story, tacked on unnecessarily, or just plain contrived. Unfortunately, this latest spider-centric entry, doesn’t do anything to quell my issues with this imprint, and even reinforces many concerns I’ve had with the writing involving Silk lately.
First off, the execution of this title’s overly familiar premise leaves a lot to be desired. The plot, convolutedly placed between the end of Silk #2 and the beginning of Silk #3, centers on the introduction of a time-traveling dinosaur robot named Chronosaurus Rex, who goes back in time for unknown reasons and unwittingly drags Spider-Man and Silk with him. Because of battle proximity, I think. Anyway, he cites his reasons for going back in time as another familiar trope, the need to fix the past so he can save the future.
There’s so much ridiculousness going on here that no amount of lampshading (“Chronosaurus Rex? What are you? Twelve?”) can save it. The action is formulaic and uninspired, and apparently a trip through a time vortex to the past lasts just as long as the dialog requires it, arguments and all.
Which brings me to my next point. I personally have a lot of issues with the dialog. While the setup for this issue does give a little more depth to the relationship between Peter and Cindy than what we see in Silk #3, it still feels uneven and inorganic. Peter and Cindy both are too quick to antagonize one another out of the blue at various points, and the banter that comes with those interactions doesn’t do much to care for either of them.
I get that these two are not necessarily best friends right now, but the antagonism between them seems to be undercutting the major throughlines for each character. Peter is both a more experienced superhero and a (less experienced) big-shot CEO of a major corporation in addition to sharing an important experience with Cindy. She shouldn’t be dismissing or ridiculing him to the degree that she is, and he shouldn’t be so easily sniping at her when she demonstrates the same level of knowledge he has on a subject. Cindy has come a long way in the short time since she’s emerged, and Peter should be taking his responsibility to help her grow as a hero more seriously.
While they do get it together despite their issues, and manage to fight Chronosaurus Rex to a standstill long enough for the plot to thicken somewhat, I’m left with a sense of obligation to continue reading this story I’ve started rather than a genuine interest to see what happens next. The plot is ho-hum at best, the characterization is off and lacks any real development, and any sense of camaraderie between these two feels unearned because of all the ridiculousness. I read this, and recent issues of Silk, and I can’t help wondering if Thompson is starting to wear out his welcome with this character in the same way Slott has with Spider-Man.
Oh, and what the heck is going on with Cindy’s finger-webbing after they arrive in the past? Does it change into new fabrics? Is it just intended as a screen for them to change clothes? The costume changes happen a little too fluidly and quickly to be certain either way, but this sequence could have been better illustrated and written, as it pulled me out of the narrative in a big way.
Todd Nauck does a decent enough job with the artwork here, with a direct, cartoony style, though I feel like he takes major advantage of the digital format’s structure to initiate some noticeable shortcuts in his drawings, such as Cindy’s face during the time jump staying the same as her hair moves around between “panels,” and the webs disappearing from around them as they change into civvies after the jump. I realize this may be an intended use of the medium, but it still feels like I’m somehow being shortchanged, which no doubt contributes to my lack of enthusiasm for the digital-only format thus far.
Overall, I feel justified in having rolled my eyes at the premise of this title, as it has done very little, if anything at all, to impress me. While this story isn’t yet finished, and at least in theory can still be saved, I’m not optimistic about its chances given how things have started off. While the $1.99 price tag may seem like a bargain compared to print prices these days, based on this story, I’d say you’re getting what you pay for.
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