Lafuente Spins a Wonderful Spider-Man
Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1 will be out next Wednesday, August 12th and I don’t think I’ve been this excited about a Spider-Man comic book since my childhood! David Lafuente is a comic book illustrator from Spain and I really love what I’m seeing in this book. First we start with the cover which looks good and is pretty strongly designed (the layout has a nice dramatic effect) but usually at this point I groan about the bait-and-switch where the interior art just doesn’t measure up — well in this case it actually looks better! Not only that but each frame of the comic book feels like your looking at a well composed action film. Lafuente really understands how to make the page look dramaic in a way that reminds me of a Japanese manga.
Of course the writing by Brian Michael Bendis helps here too, although it’s harder to judge this by just looking at a few pages of a book: However one thing you can tell is that he understands that like a good silent film the visuals have to carry the story first. The only thing I’m not 100% is the coloring which was done by Justin Ponsor: He did a professional job, but you still get that Photoshop saturated look which overpowers the line art a bit too much. But the coloring isn’t so bad that it detracts from the artwork, and it’s a minor point at best. I also find the lettering to be a bit weak, I think with this an the coloring when you have an A+ artist at work anything else can become a distraction.
Although none of those minor points can take away too much from what David Lafuente is doing so well, which is doing some wonderful story telling. Another thing I like is that the book doesn’t feel trapped by the all to well known legacy of Spider-Man which goes back to the 60s. You get the feeling that Lafuente is approaching the work as an outsider, which really allows him to reinvent the character without any baggage from the past. The result of this makes Spider-Man seem like a character from today instead of something warmed over from the 60s. I can’t wait to see some more…
