With news of the Godzilla show being filmed in Harrison, and movie monsters running around in the district I have to wonder; does anyone remember when Spider-Man came to Hope?
You know, Hope continues to surprise me. When I was first informed that Spider-Man — web slinging, boy from Queens, Peter Parker — had visited Hope in 1991, I was…well, frankly, baffled.
Don’t get me wrong, Hope is a good setting for a superhero comic — for any comic, really. But Spider-Man? Wolverine I can understand — he’s basically a broody Canadian lumberjack with knives for hands. But Parker? He’s a superhero whose jurisdiction involves bright yellow cabs and towers too high for comfort.
Spoilers ahead but the plot of this Spider-Man arc called Perceptions (which is in Spider-man Vol 1, issues 8-12) goes like this: Anna Brooks, a Vancouver Sun reporter (Yeah, I was surprised by that name drop too), hits a huge creature with her car while driving through the Coquihalla Highway. The creature — which she believes to be Bigfoot but is actually a wendigo — places the body of a dead boy by her car and disappears into the forest.
Brooks breaks the story which leads to mass hysteria when more bodies — all young boys who lived in Hope — are found. Soon, hunters are killing animals indiscriminately, environmentalists and reporters are storming Hope, and fear is gripping the entirety of B.C. Parker is sent to Hope to cover the event and ends up meeting the wendigo and Wolverine. Wolverine, through his own investigation, informs Parker that the wendigo is innocent.
Eventually, after run-ins with hunters and trackers, they discover that the real murderer is Hope’s police chief.
Now, I’ve read the comic. I mean, after hearing about Parker’s trip here and his team up with Wolverine, I knew I had to read it. And, naturally, I do have some thoughts on the story.
First, let me start off with the positives.
The art, which is done by Todd McFarlane, was definitely my favourite part about this story. There’s this cool grainy quality to it, one that’s very specific to the era when the issues were first published. Its something that you don’t really see artists, especially comic book artists, doing anymore. It’s not a bad thing of course — the joy of being in the age of digital art is that artists can explore different mediums, textures, and styles with much more ease. But there is something really nice seeing the shading and colours from that time.
Other things I liked; I thought having three different view points worked surprisingly well in the story. I appreciated that the story focused on the problems with sensationalism and how it affects people.
Oh and Wolverine. I like Wolverine so that was definitely a positive for me.
But the story…alright it was a hit and a miss for me. I know, from reading the reviews when it first came out, that people had a problem with the story being so dark. Honestly? I didn’t have a problem with that. The investigative nature of the story, along with the supernatural elements, reminded me of Mike Mignola’s Hellboy. And I liked the story’s narrative style.
That being said…this doesn’t feel like a Hope story. It’s set in Hope, its true. But Hope has a very distinct presence and…this story was just lacking it. It didn’t feel like Hope. Sure, they mentioned Rambo but, ultimately? This was a very American centred story.
And on that note, while I liked that he wasn’t portrayed as evil, the wendigo plot line felt… well, the story didn’t need to have a wendigo. I get it, this story is a product of its time and Marvel creators didn’t really care about cultural appropriation back then. That being said… it was a miss.
And the portrayal of the reporter in the story… she was just a bad reporter. I know, the story was focusing on the power of journalism and how sensationalism and bad journalism can cause so many problems. But, no good reporter would be allowed to write a column the way that Brooks did. To cause such mass hysteria without any facts or sources to back up her claims of seeing Sasquatch? That’s the first thing they teach you not to do in journalism school.
Anyways.
Overall, I would probably give this story… a 7/10 for me (was that the point of this column? I lost track after my rant about bad journalism). Not bad but could definitely be improved.
Would I recommend it? If you’re a fan of Todd McFarlane or Spider-Man, sure. The story isn’t bad, and the art is gorgeous. And it has Wolverine and Spider-Man teaming up. That’s definitely worth a read in my books.
READ MORE: Column: Hope reporter watches Rambo:First Blood and Khaidi (1983) for the first time
@KemoneMoodley
kemone.moodley@hopestandard.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.