Comics Cornerstone Throwback Edition: This is Your Life, Spider-Man
Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics
Hey there, readers! Well, this pandemic just won’t let up, will it? I hope everybody is doing their due diligence and adhering to the social distancing recommendations. I know it isn’t easy or fun, but that’s where I come in. I figure I can at least do my part by giving you a consistent flow of content to keep you busy. If I can improve somebody’s day, even in the smallest way, then it will be worth it for me. And I think that should be true for everybody. We can all do our part to help each other get through this. If that happens, this outbreak will be over in no time. Just so long as we help each other from six feet away, of course. As for today’s review, I’ll be highlighting Marvel’s 2019 miniseries “Spider-Man: Life Story” written by Chip Zdarsky. Before we even get into it, I’m just going to throw out my recommendation right now because this book is fantastic! There’s no reason for me to wait until the end to give it a thumbs up because it deserves to be said right out of the gate. With that said, let’s get to it!
“Spider-Man: Life Story” is essentially a “What if?” take on Spidey’s entire life from the time he’s 19 until the day he dies. It’s not part of Marvel’s main continuity, so we don’t have to worry about this affecting the universe because it doesn’t. Zdarsky had this great idea for an alternate take on Spidey and I’m so glad that Marvel just let him do whatever he wanted because the story is all the better for it. Now, the story takes place over a period of nearly 60 years with one chapter devoted to each decade starting in 1966, four years after Peter is bitten by the spider, and ends in 2019.
What makes this so good is that we get remixes of nearly every major Spider-Man story without any fluff to fill out the pages. It’s just simple and straight forward with no confusing garbage in the middle. Getting into the story itself, we first catch up with Peter at 19 years old and just one year away from graduating from college. At this time, Peter is attending Empire State University with Harry Osborn and Gwen Stacy, who also happens to be his lab partner. It’s a typical Spidey story because Gwen and Peter have feelings for each other that they’re not sharing, except she’s always mad at him because he’s always running late for class because of Spider-man stuff. Also going on at this time is the war in Vietnam. Just like actual history, all the able-bodied young men are being drafted or enlisting. Even Ironman is there helping the US troops. There are also rumors going around that Captain America will go to Vietnam as well. This presents a moral conundrum for Peter because, if Captain America is going over, then isn’t it Peter’s responsibility to enlist too? I don’t want to go into every last detail of each issue because that would take all day. Spidey and Cap have a nice conversation at the end where Cap basically tells him that being responsible doesn’t necessarily mean you have the same responsibility as somebody else. He just needs to follow his heart. Cap’s duty may be to go fight in the war, but Spidey’s responsibility is to the people at home.
I’m only going to give light details on the rest of the series because otherwise, this would be the world’s longest post and because the first issue only required that much summarization due to the fact that it establishes the rest of the book. Does that make sense? Anyway, the rest of the series basically advances ten years with each chapter. Peter marries Gwen Stacy—which is new. Something that isn’t new is that she still dies. That shouldn’t be surprising for any Spidey fan. In this continuity, Mary Jane is actually Peter’s second wife. MJ was actually engaged to Harry Osborn before this universe’s version of “The Clone Saga” happened. After that Harry just up and left without saying anything to anybody. However, he did leave MJ with millions of dollars. Peter angrily points this out when he says that everybody else gets a new life and he’s left with nothing. MJ then embraces Peter and says, “that’s not true.”
In the intervening years between issues, Peter and MJ get married and we pick up with a 35-year old MJ who’s nine months pregnant with twins and Peter’s nowhere to be found. We find out that he’s off-world fighting with the Avengers and this is where the black costume comes in. Peter comes home to his wife and newborn children, Claire and Benjamin. We don’t find out in this issue, but the twins also have spider-powers. As usual, the black suit is really an alien symbiote that wants to permanently bond with Peter. Peter doesn’t mind using it occasionally though because he’s not as young and fast as he used to be. Though he removes it on a regular basis to keep it from permanently bonding to him. In the end, we get an interesting twist on “Kraven’s Last Hunt” where the symbiote bonds to Kraven instead and MJ ends up taking the kids and leaving. This leaves Peter alone and taking care of Aunt May who is suffering from dementia.
I’m basically going to jump to the end now because that’s the next truly landmark chapter. But, to be brief, chapters 4 and 5 are basically an extension of this version of “The Clone Saga”, Peter starts Parker Industries and then loses it to Tony Stark, and then he takes his family to go and live out in a cabin in the woods while leaving the superhero stuff to his clone, the clone dies, and Peter comes back to reclaim Parker Industries and beat up Iron Man. Does everything make sense? Ok, good.
Moving on to the final chapter, Peter is now 72 years old. He has everything he ever wanted and can now live a somewhat normal life. Except he has one more mission to complete. He and his protege, Miles Morales, must go into space and initiate the self-destruct on Dr. Doom’s satellite. Thankfully, Tony Start left very specific instructions on how to do this before he disappeared. So, they go up to the satellite and are almost immediately attacked by Venom. After a brief altercation, the heroes manage to destroy the symbiote and when they do, they see nothing but a skeleton underneath. This is because Venom was possessing Kraven and Kraven was dying of cancer. And that was over 30 years ago.
Unfortunately for the heroes, the battle left the station extremely damaged. You’d think this was a good thing, except that now one of them has to stay behind to ensure the self-destruct actually works. Not surprisingly, Peter sends Miles back to Earth and opts to stay behind. This leads to possibly the most beautiful ending I could have imagined. Peter is holding the ship together with his webs knowing that this will kill him. As this is happening, we flashback to right before he leaves for the mission when he’s telling Mary Jane about a dream he’s been having. Just for context, the dream is the day that Peter let his Uncle’s killer escape after robbing the wrestling manager. Only in the dream, Peter makes the right call and catches the thief. Peter says, and I quote: “…But I keep having this one. It’s the day Uncle Ben died. The day I let his killer get away. It’s…SO REAL, MJ. It’s like I’m there again and yes, I KNOW what you’re going to say…but this isn’t me beating myself up again like always. It’s different this time. It’s a GOOD DREAM.” I love this quote so much! It’s so indicative of how far Peter’s come. He finally has everything he ever wanted and, after nearly 60 years of endless fighting, he’s able to die in peace. And he does. Granted, it’s in the void of space. But he’s at peace in the end.
I really loved this book. It’s a more realistic take on Spidey that I can actually see happening. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t trade “Amazing Spider-Man” for anything. But Peter’s been 25 since like 1990 in that book. Technology advances, but he doesn’t age. None of the characters do. So, I’m glad they were able to give us this alternate version of my favorite character in a story that’s ultimately about life and death and everything in between. Sure, there are fantastical elements, but that’s what it comes down to. And I’d be remiss if I failed to mention the art. Mark Bagley does a wonderful job depicting the characters at their various ages. And the suit designs he conjures up are amazing. Each decade, the suit gets a bit bulkier and heavier to compensate for Peter’s age—as it realistically should. Peter’s a genius, so building suits that accommodate him should be no problem. All in all, I couldn’t be happier!
There you have it! What did you think? As I said before, this book is definitely worth your time and money. There’s no doubt in my mind. As for what’s next, I’ve said it before, but I’m in a holding pattern for now. Nothing is certain because of the virus, so we’ll just wait and see what happens. What is certain is lots more content. It may not be new stuff, but there’ll be plenty for you to read in the coming weeks. That’s my guarantee! Until then, stay healthy, stay safe, and stay comical!
