ATG Comic Review: Spider-Man Velocity

Welcome back everyone, and boy do we have a treat for you. In this comic review, we actually get a media crossover comic and in some ways, it’s a title that fits in very closely with a lot of the news that is going on with the MCU recently. Just so everyone knows, this review just like most of our others when it comes to comics, is brought to you by the awesome people at Vibranium Comics and Games in Ocala Florida. They are already planning up their stuff for a cool Halloween party next month so be sure to click the banner below to be taken to their facebook page where you can stay up to date on all of their awesome events!

So just a quick note before we jump right into things here. The day after I’m writing this is new comic book day. Dorian the hurricane is missing us and I’ll be hitting the comic shops and stocking up on some titles to do some blogs this weekend and maybe even into next week. However, if you don’t see me posting next week don’t be too surprised as I will be busy with some new doctor appointments for my cancer treatments. After seeing a new oncologist, I was told I could be a good candidate for Radiation Therapy and that they think there is an 80-90% chance of this knocking out what’s currently in me. That’s a chance I’m willing to pursue so I can keep bringing you fun reviews for many years to come hopefully. What this means is I am going to be spending five days in the hospital getting radiation treatments every day! I hope to be doing some blogging when I’m resting between treatments but thats all going to depend on if the treatments smack me with major side effects or not. They are saying it probably won’t but with my body being so run down in many ways from the chemo I’m on…well who really knows right? Anyway, that’s my newest health news update, so now it is on to the review!

So, I hope you’ve all checked out our Kittens little rant about the MCU losing Spiderman because of disagreements between Disney and Sony. Now what does this have to do with a comic review you may be asking. Well, it’s a little convoluted but here we go. Sony has the rights to Spiderman in the movies, Disney has the rights to Spiderman toys and TV shows and TV animated shows and video games from what I have heard. Now here’s where things start getting a little trickier. A while back, Sony put out a PlayStation exclusive video game of Spiderman that has nothing to do with the MCU. As far as I know, if what I have heard is right, Disney/Marvel have the rights to that Spiderman and that Spiderman has even shown up in the Spidergeddon series of comics that was a sequel to Spiderverse, which as you may all know Sony recently released a very highly acclaimed animated movie about because they have the movie rights for Spidey and everything that originates with Spidey (Just like Fox had X-Men and Fantastic Four).

So to sum up so far. Disney and Sony split. MCU Spidey leaves MCU. Sony does Spiderverse movie based on Marvel comic which is owned by Disney. Following so far? Now Disney makes an amazing Spidey video game and since they were being friendly with Sony at the time (I’m sure that had something to do with this) this new alt Spidey game is a PlayStation exclusive making money for Sony. Following this now? OK so here we go diving into it a bit more. I’m sure with how well received it was Disney would love to make a sequel to that game and considering they are now releasing a comic of which #1 I am about to review just came out I would think this is a foregone conclusion. The question becomes with the Sony/Disney split would the new game become a PlayStation exclusive or will Disney say “F-You Sony we want more money by releasing it on everything!”. Now the fun part…if they say they want the same studio (Insomniac Games) to make the sequel they can contract them out to do it. However, if they do this that now puts money into Sony’s pocket as Sony has just recently bought Insomniac games. So, does Disney make a sequel with the company that made the first and give sony money? Do they go to another company that may not make as good of a game? Do they scrap future games with that Spidey and do something else with someone else so they can stick it to Sony? The other problem is they put this Spider-Man into Spidergeddon, which officially puts him in the Spiderman Multiverse and gives Sony the ability to make an alt-universe Spiderman movie with him or add him into the Spiderverse sequel that they would be stupid not to make. So, as you can see, there is a huge tangled web so to speak binding Spider-Man to both Sony and Disney even though they have broken off their movie deals (for now).

Welp now that we got that out of the way. The comic we have is Spider-Man Velocity #1. This comic is based on the mentioned video game and takes place after it. You see Peter and MJ hooked up, MJ working for the newspaper and also knowing who Peter secretly is. Now since I have yet to finish this game (I got sidetracked with health and other things life decided to throw at me) I’m not sure how much of this is introduced in the game during it or how much is just already set up as already having happened. In this comic, we start with Spider-Man battling Swarm who just totally creeps me out due to my allergies to bees. Anyway, after a big fight Spidey starts plans for a new suit that he wants to call Arachknight. MJ meanwhile is working with Ben Ulrich on a story where a comic was killed by some invisible killer. So Peter works on his armor and MJ works on the story when suddenly things start to come together as Ben and MJ get attacked by some invisible thing telling them to drop the story. MJ and Peter discuss this over dinner at a restaurant when suddenly the ghost thing strikes again going after MJ when suddenly…..the comic ends.

I enjoyed this comic alright. I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I had finished the video game so I could be fully caught up on that character’s story arc. At least I had some idea of this character from playing through the first little bit of the game to just past the first fight with Kingpin. It makes me feel sorry for those who go into this comic without having played the game at all because they might just be lost as to why certain things are the way they are. For a first issue, it lacked a lead in to the character which I assume you get from the video game. I think they should have summed up the video game in a few comics first so everyone could be on the same jumping in point for this comic. Also, while this comic had some jokes and such for Spidey, he just wasn’t as fun to read as mainstream Spidey. He didn’t really have good zingers or good prattle like we’re used to for a Peter Parker character. You can easily explain this away because he is an alt Spider-Man but to me, it just kinda diluted the feel of a Peter Parker led comic. If I had to give it a star rating I’d probably go 2 out of 5 for this one as to me, for the most part, it fell flat. I did love the art for the most part and it did have some good story things in it but it just didn’t get me invested enough into this new Spidey to want to follow his adventures.

Have you guys played the PlayStation game this is based off of if so what did you think? Would that make you want to buy this comic? Would the lack of playing the game make you less apt to buy the comic if you haven’t played it yet? Sound off below to let us know what you think about this comic! Also if you like what we’re doing here and want to help support us then you can go to ko-fi.com/thalra and leave us a tip! Anything we make through Ko-fi will go right back into the site to make it better or to purchase new cool toys and such for us to review for you!