Dark Reign: Sinister Spider-Man #3 – Review

By Brian Reed (Writer), Chris Bachalo (Pencils & Colors), Rob Disalvo (Pencils & Inks), Tim Townsend w/ Mendoza & Sibal (Inks), and Andres Mossa w/ Fabela (Colors)

Some Thoughts Before The Review: Note to Marvel: I demand a Brian Reed/Chris Bachalo Sinister Spider-Man ongoing series. It’d compliment the twisted Daniel Way/Paco Medina Deadpool series quite nicely.

The Story: The Sinister Spider-Man continues to stir sh*t up for J. Jonah Jameson as he prepares for the first annual Big Apple festival. Meanwhile, The Redeemer and his crew call in a nuclear bomb threat in order to get Spidey’s attention…

What’s Good And What’s Not So Good: Simply put, writer Brian Reed gives Sinister Spider-Man just the right tone to make it work incredibly well. It’s mean, violent, silly, and damned funny all at the same time. The one-liners alone are almost worth the price of the book. Reed’s approach to the series goes a long way towards making up for a story that, while a lot of fun, isn’t exactly mind-blowing.

The artwork in Sinister Spider-Man #3 is divided (rather unevenly) between Rob Disalvo and Chris Bachalo. That could easily be a bad thing; but thankfully, it’s not, here.

Bachalo handles the one big action scene and, as expected, it’s stylish and wildly chaotic. And while it definitely has a “wow” factor to it (as Bachalo’s work usually does), it’s hard to ignore how hard the action is to follow at times because Bachalo’s style simply doesn’t work all that well in small panels (and there’s quite a few). It adds to the insanity of the fight, that’s for sure. But that’s not necessarily a good thing in this case.

In Sinister Spider-Man #2, Rob Disalvo’s few pages were a bit jarring. In the third Sinister Spider-Man, Disalvo pretty much takes center stage and, therefore, doesn’t disturb the book in any way (if anyone does, it’s Bachalo). While his work doesn’t pack nearly the punch that Bachalo’s does, it’s clean, expressive, and solid as can be. In addition, most importantly, it tells the story effectively. Also, I’ve got to mention the full credit page shot of Gargan vomiting up a rabid squirrel (yep, it’s that kind of book). It’s easily the highlight of what Disalvo does.

Conclusion: The Sinister Spider-Man mini-series continues to rock pretty hard. It brings the funny and features some slick artwork.

Grade: B

-Kyle Posluszny