Comic Review – “Marvelous Adventures of Gus Beezer and Spider-Man”

Gail Simone finished this script for Marvel before
her exclusive contract with DC kicked in.

General Information

Title: The Marvelous Adventures of Gus Beezer and
Spider-Man #1

Author: Gail Simone

Illustrator(s): Gurihiru

Original Publication Date: January 2, 2004

Cover Price: $2.99 US, $4.25 Can

Premise

Gus Beezer, obsessed with superheroes, learns a
lesson from his
cousin, Peter Parker. Also, the bottoms of the pages
have a superhero
story written and drawn by Gus himself.

High Point

“Blast your superior canine reflexes!”

Low Point

Peter Parker’s cousin? On which side of the family?
I thought his
aunts and uncles were already accounted for.

The Scores

Gus Beezer was originally described as “Calvin and
Hobbes” in the
Marvel Universe, and that’s accurate to a degree.
That’s definitely
what they were striving for, but this isn’t the same
quality as Bill
Watterson. There wasn’t a lot here that was
unexpected or
unpredictable. I give it 3 out of 6.

The artwork was very well done. It’s goofy
in the ways that
are appropriate to the tone of the story, and the
bottom-of-the-page
strip is very much like what someone Gus’ age would
come up with. I
give it 5 out of 6.

The story is predictable and pretty basic,
at least in the
main story. I found the sidebar (or is it
bottombar?) to be a lot
more entertaining, particularly in the homages to the
classic Stan Lee
style. I give it 4 out of 6.



The characterization is pretty clear; this
is Calvin if he
had a sister instead of a stuffed tiger. I give it 4
out of 6, for
clear characters that are completely lacking in any
depth.

The emotional response to the main story was
weak, but the
sidebar made me laugh out loud a few times. I give
it 4 out of 6.

The flow was disrupted by the extra story.
Why did they have
to share a page? It’s a neat idea, but I don’t think
it works. I
give it 3 out of 6.

Overall, it’s a decent book, but not a
strong
recommendation. I give it 3 out of 6.

In total, The Marvelous Adventures of Gus Beezer
and Spider-Man
#1
receives 26 out of 42.