Comic Review: Spider-Man: Velocity #1

Spider-Man: Velocity #1

Marvel Comics

Writer: Dennis ‘Hopeless’ Hallum

Artist: Emilio Laiso

I’m a huge fan of the Spider-Man PS4 game. It’s probably up there as one of my favourite games from 2018 (God Of War just pips it, but that game was just perfect in every way). I wasn’t however, a fan of the PS4 version of Spider-Man’s appearances in comics so far. Spider-Geddon was abysmal in basically every way, and the less we talk about it the less I have to remember the pain of reading it. And his own recent solo series was just a retelling of the game’s plot, but with less emotional pathos. As it stands, Spider-Man: Velocity is the characters first foray into a brand new, comic original story. And by god, is it good.

The story this time around is that something is going on around the cities. Something is attacking multiple members of the public, seemingly a ghost, and Mary Jane Watson is on the case! Meanwhile, Spider-Man is fighting the evil Nazi Bee-Man, Swarm. The entire premise of this story is the story of how Spider-Man got his ‘Velocity’ suit, as seen in the PS4 game. We seen the beginnings of it here in this issue, with a prototype displayed. But really, this is more a story about the mystery of whoever, or whatever, is attacking this seemingly random set of people. I’ve never read anything by Dennis ‘Hopeless’ Hallum before, but he seems rather good with his pacing of a story. Not a moment feels unnecessary, and no moment feel awkwardly forced in.

The art is wonderful, evocative of the style of the game to a degree. Emilio Laisa’s reimagining’s of old characters that we didn’t see featured in the video game (such as Ben Urich and the Nazi Bee-Man Swarm) are as good as the designs of the characters featured in the game (which are captured to a tee here). Laisa’s art is similar enough to that of the realistic quality that the game had (to the point extent that something with a man who can spin webs can be realistic), yet still take artistic liberties at times. There are scenes in here reminiscent of the game and the movies in their own way, and it’s wonderful to see the characters from the game realized in Laisa’s wonderful art style.

Spider-Man: Velocity #1 is a great start to the Gamerverse’s first original comic book story. It’s fun, funny, keeps the characters consistent with those from the game, and introduces new characters into the universe with ease. Check it out for sure.