"A Kick In The Face! But In A Good Way."
Title: Spider-Punk – Battle of The Banned
Author/Artist: Cody Ziglar & Justin Mason
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Category: Heroes
Review by Brayden (they/them)
Other Favourite Titles Include:
As Hobie Brown makes his big screen debut in ‘Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse‘, grab your biggest amp and crank it up to 11 as you dive into Earth-138 for a road trip in the Spider-Van! From the cool as #$%! front cover art by Olivier Coipel to the punk poster-esque interiors by Justin Mason, this book oozes style and visual flair in a way that completely supports and collaborates with its inspirations. We join Hobie (Spider-Man), Karl (Captain Anarchy), Riri (RiotHeart) and Kamala Khan as they try to discover just what is going on with the sudden rise in fascist a$$holes they have to take down.
The art may be the highlight of this book, but Cody Ziglar does a really good job of letting us enjoy hanging out with the crew as they laugh and swear in the faces of Kraven (who is a straight up Nazi in this universe), Taskmaster, Kingpin & finally facing off in a battle of the bands against *SPOILERS*. Along the way we get a great little section where we get to meet Mattea Murdock, the “Daredevil Drummer of Philly”, who is seriously cool as hell! See the below preview image for a taste. Oh, and Hulk shows up at the end to help in the final fight because of course he does. He does however have his little earphones in at all times which I think makes him look like he is in an iPod commercial from 2003.
I think the only thing missing from this that would make it a perfect Spider-Punk book for new and returning readers would be the inclusion of a brief one-page intro to his past adventures across the Spider-Verse as it occasionally references past adventures that people may not yet be familiar with.
Overall this is a fun time and a great adventure of fighting against a fascist group taking control over the government! Throw in a heap of swearing (*censored* mind you, which I think is a little $#!% but oh well) and cool variants of characters I love and this is a definite pick up for those itching for more Hobie Brown, The Anarchic Spider-Man!