By Dan Slott & Ramon Perez
I don’t know what it is about this period in Spider-Man’s career, but it somehow brings out the best in Dan Slott. As someone who has read every Slott Spider-Man issue, Learning to Crawl is definitely the best. The question is whether or not he can keep it up.
The best part of this issue is how Slott brilliantly weaves his tale right into the first two issues of Amazing Spider-Man (volume one). Scenes with the Fantastic Four and Chameleon are sprinkled throughout in order to show respect to the past and as a fun way to bring it all together. Not once does he step on the toes of Lee and Ditko and ruin their legacy. If anything, he enhances it and updates the story for a modern audience. It’s very similar to Snyder and Capullo’s Zero Year, where everything can be placed into the previous origin with minimal continuity errors.
The story is still pretty interesting. Peter is still trying to find a way to go to school, help pay bills, be a superhero, and grieve over his deceased uncle. Needless to say, this causes some chaos, and chaos is where Parker truly shines. There’s also this goofy kid-genius that is trying to copy Spidey. Things can’t end well for this idiot.
Ramon Perez has managed to keep a silver age style going, even if this issue isn’t quite as well done as the first. Those classic scenes that are put into the story generally look very well done. The only real drawback is the lack of detail in certain panels. Perhaps that’s intentional, to keep with the style of an era? Who knows?
It feels good to be this excited for a Parker story. There’s so much to appreciate about Learning to Crawl. Two issues in, we’re already dealing with some serious magic. This story truly needs to be read.
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