Webslinger: Unauthorized Essays On Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-man

by Leah Wilson

The tangled web of vengeance, love, and loss woven by Spider-Man comics and films is explored in this collection of insightful essays by acclaimed writers of comics and science fiction. A variety of topics--from the superhero's sarcasm to the science behind radioactive spiders--are discussed in essays on "Turning Rage into Responsibility: A Psychology of Loss," "Love Is Selfish: Can a Hero Afford Personal Attachments?," and "Self Identity and Costume...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1933771062
• ISBN13: 9781933771069
• Release Date: February 2007
• Publisher: Benbella Books
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.3" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Interesing book of essays on the wall-crawler

For anyone with even the barest interest of Spider-Man, these essays are definitely thought-provoking. You may not agree with all of them--I certainly didn't--but they all get your brain going, which is the point of philosophy (all right, the one about the "real" Forest Hills doesn't so much, but it's still a fascinating comparison of geography in our universe and the Marvel Universe). Amusingly, one of the highlights is the essay by J.R. Fettinger, perhaps the only "amateur" writer in the book and owner of the website SpideyKicksButt.com; Fettinger really nails some of Peter Parker's parental problems.

Diverse and intriguing

This book operates very well on its premise: A bunch of essays about Spider-Man. It has a myriad of opinions on the Marvel Universe, and, what I liked particularly, it incorporated the events of Marvel's Civil War up to the point where the webhead unmasks himself. It was refreshing to know that these geeks (how else can you describe authors that psychoanalyze Spider-Man?) aren't stuck in their thoughts that they formulated when they were teenagers. That being said, I did disagree with a few of the attacks/observations, and there were some superfluous interjections by the authors (science being the only thing to save mankind, for instance) that lessened the impact. Still, one of the best essays included quotes from the Bible, John Stuart Mills, Kierkegaard, and William Shakespeare, all of which harmonized with the point the author made of the wallcrawler. Not too shabby. I'm going to err on the side of enthusiasm for the subject matter in giving it a five star rating; it probably deserves a four and a half. I enjoyed it, even if it was too short a read (you could easily knock this sucker out on a nice Saturday afternoon) and stuttered through the occasional typo. In sum: great read for the thinking Spidey-phile.