After the disaster that was Spider-Man 3 and the entertaining yet short beat-em-up Friend Or Foe, the web slinger returns to form in Web of Shadows. It’s far from the ultimate Spider-Man experience, but it manages to offer several hours of web-slinging fun.

Spidey’s not having the best of days. His girlfriend, Mary Jane, is angry with him because he’s using a symbiote suit that affects his personality. Black Cat, a long-time partner of his, is back, yearning for his attention. On top of all this, Venom, a twisted symbiote being, has returned, bringing an enormous alien invasion with him that forces Manhattan to evacuate. Blobs of black goo stick to buildings, citizens become creepy crawlers and heavily armed S.H.I.E.L.D. agents can’t maintain control.

You start out a few days beforehand, with the invulnerable Luke Cage teaching you the basics of combat. Like previous games, web swinging plays a huge role in this wide-open 3-D world. A few other techniques make Web of Shadows stand out over previous games, however. For instance, you can switch between regular and symbiote suits on the fly and each one has certain advantages. Stick to the traditional red and you’re speedy and agile. Don the black suit and you can hurl cars around like Frisbees and tear through enemies.

After completing a stage, you can use points earned to upgrade the suits, thus expanding your combos and moves. In addition, your “good” and “bad” choices affect those around you. They’ll either applaud your good sense or scream every time you pass by, and your decisions ultimately affect which ending you’ll see.

You can also fight enemies on the sides of buildings, made especially cool by the web-line. This enables you to grab a baddie in mid-air, zoom in and strike them quickly. Stringing these attacks together to take out a group of gang members or symbiotes is more fun than expected. “Spidey sense” is also available, in case you have trouble seeking out individuals in need of help or punishment.

Web of Shadows lets you roam through a wide-open Manhattan, completing main and side missions as you swing around. While this is nothing new to Spider-Man adventures, you have the option of completing side missions for experience points or skipping them entirely to get to the game’s conclusion. They aren’t necessary, but if too many civilians die, you could be seen as evil. Choose carefully.

Although you can jump around Manhattan with little to no loading time, many of the in-game textures are blurry. There are also camera issues, especially when scaling a building that stands right next to another one. The characters look OK, as do the pedestrians and constant traffic running throughout the city. Still, it’s obvious that the game needed more work.

Complimenting the decent graphics is a cool soundtrack, with orchestral music that mirrors the stuff in the Spider-Man films. Sound effects are also good, from honking horns to screaming pedestrians. The only real flaw is the voice acting. We’ve got nothing against Tricia Heifer as Black Cat, but Peter Parker is another story. Half the time, he sounds like his cocky usual self, but the other half, he comes across like a whiny school kid.

Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, despite its flaws, is a major step up from Spider-Man 3. Our Spider sense tells us that choosing between good and evil, pounding enemies on buildings and upgrading Spider-Man’s abilities makes this a cool adventure worth your time.

Popularity: 98% [?]

Ultimate Spider-Man is usually a pretty difficult title to discuss in terms of a single issue.  It’s one of the best “wait for the trade” books out there.  Way back when the series first began, I wasn’t familiar with Brian Michael Bendis’ decompressed style.  Although it might be preferrable collected, I simply never wanted to wait for the best Spider-book on the stands once it got rolling.  Even if those hardcovers are mighty nice looking (gotta believe there’s an omnibus in the works too), I have to grab the newest monthly installment.

With #127, Bendis continues the symbiote arc that returns to a long standing loose thread, Eddie Brock/Venom.  USM’s original introduction of Venom provided a much improved origin doing away with the convoluted regular Marvel universe take.  It ended with Brock in the wind, which is what happened again at the conclusion of the USM video game worked on by Bendis with a promised tie-in to the comic.  Eddie continued the fugitive act one more time in #126, but he’s right back in Peter Parker’s life this month without the long wondering.  This is all in time for the reappearance of Carnage who still appears in the form of Gwen Stacy.  It’s two symbiotes vying to replace the two goblins Bendis just cleared away previously as the worst headache in Peter’s life.

Stuart Immonen impresses with widescreen shots such as Spider-Man’s swing around the Baxter Building and improves his characters’ facial expressions with every issue.  His work is something to look forward to every time.

This particular issue has quite a lot of playing around with panel layouts from page to page that I enjoyed.  Some epic-length inner monologuing by Peter in costume and out conveys the kid still struggling with the crazies that’ve come calling.  Plus, we’re reminded that while it’s been 127 issues for readers, this superhero life is simply flying at Peter faster than he can react.

Don’t take Ultimate Spider-Man for granted as it quietly retools the mythos of an icon.  A long, quality run by one writer and two top artists that only requires reading one book a month to follow is a pleasure to read.  Amazing Spider-Man seems forever struggling to find its footing as USM has become the definitive title for the character.

Popularity: 50% [?]