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STUDIO: Shout! Factory
MSRP: $11.99
RATED: Not rated
RUNNING TIME: 70 minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES:
– Behind the scenes of Marvel Knights animation
– Visual history of Spider-Woman
– Exclusive music video
– Trailers
The Pitch
It’s a Spider-Woman pop up book for the new millennium.
The Humans
Nicolette Reed.
The Nutshell
Spider-Woman, aka Jessica Drew, was abducted and replaced on Earth during a global Skrull infiltration. Now she’s been returned, is having trouble dealing, and is looking for some payback when a government agency, S.W.O.R.D., comes calling for her help to track down some of the shapeshifting stragglers in Asia.
The Lowdown
I used to like pop up books as a kid. I also used to collect comics. I bought exactly one Spider-Woman comic during my collecting days (it was the Daddy Long Legs origin issue). The thing is though, I eventually outgrew pop up books and lost my taste for comics. These Marvel Knights motion comics, which also include a Black Panther production among others, are really, at their core, high end pop up comic books with voice acting. They’re done by comics guys – in this case Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev – and are probably the choicest hybrids between cartoons and comic books. If you like Bendis’ and Maleev’s work in comics, you’ll probably like this.
Thing is, though, I’d rather see this story in an animated movie, or I’d rather read the graphic novel. Motion comics, to me personally, just don’t resonate. To me, this would have been nice as an Anime representation. It’s a very dark and moody side tale of a superheroine who’s out of her element after a traumatic experience. Jessica Drew is existing in the fringes, not only of the world, but of her sanity. Wrapping this tale in something that looks like The Animatrix or Batman: Gotham Knights would have been very cool. There’s nothing wrong with the execution of this motion comic. It’s very crisp, voice acting is also fine. It all really just comes down to preference. And mine would have been for animation.
The Package
Transfer of the art and sound are both good. There are a couple of special features, there’s a music video that recycles footage from the episodes, a stills gallery of the evolution of the look of Spider-Woman, and a quickie behind-the-scenes of the production of Marvel Knights motion comics and some trailers of other Marvel properties.
Rating: Out of a Possible 5 Stars
