World Famous Comics: Spider-Man: Wanted: Dead or Alive: 3 (Spider-Man)
Spider-Man: Wanted: Dead or Alive: 3 (Spider-Man)
By: Craig Shaw Gardner Publisher: Berkley Average Rating: Binding: Mass Market Paperback Label: Berkley Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 320 Publication Date: April 01, 1999 Release Date: April 02, 2002
Book Description: Attempting to stop a bank robbery on a crowded New York street, the amazing Spider-Man finds himself blamed for the accidental shooting of an innocent bystander. The newspapers--especially The Daily Bugle and its publisher, J. Jonah Jameson--have a field day with the incident, which makes the web-slinger the perfect target for mayoral candidate Brian Timilty. However, Timilty is secretly the pawn of Tyler Stewart, a wealthy businessman seeking to take over New York's crime syndicates. With Timilty in office and the mob under his control, Stewart will become the undisputed king of New York. To ensure his success, Stewart executes a plan guaranteed to keep the wall-crawling superhero from interfering with his grand designs: He frames Spider-Man for a grisly murder! Wanted by the police and forced into hiding, Spider-Man must find a way to clear his name. And that's when Electro and the Rhino--two of his deadliest foes--arrive on the scene to complicate matters.
Friendly? Yes. Amazing? Maybe. Spectacular? Not so much. A 2007 Summer reading list mini review.
In Spider-Man: Wanted: Dead or Alive, Craig Shaw Gardner blends a well known character with effective (at times) story telling and a solid concept. Peter Parker AKA Spiderman is entangled in a web (sorry, I could not resist.) of intrigue as a New York mobster tries to fix a mayoral election.
While it is an enjoyable read for any fan of the web slinger, there is also much left to be desired. The pacing and the plotting flounder at critical points. The inclusion of known super villains in sub plots is not a bad idea. The Electro story line works just fine. The inclusion of a world weary Rhino is a little troublesome. Rhino is a great character for a visual medium. He doesn't exactly make the same impression on the printed page.
I would not mind reading more exploits of Gardner's web head; I just hope they're more fluid.
This Book is Definitely Worth Whatever You Put Into Getting It... I love Spider-Man, but I've only read a couple of the comics. When I saw this book a few years ago, I thought it might be kind of stupid, but I'd give it a chance. I started reading it and definitely could not put it down. This book was AMAZING. I lost it somewhere in my house, and even though I already read it, I plan on buying it again so I can read it again. It's really that good. :) I highly recommend buying it if you enjoy books that keep your heart racing and leave you never wanting to put them down.
Peace - Mira
Good Story Good story but one of the worst Spider-Man novels that I have read. I don't know what was going through the authors mind. He had a good story but the book lagged "puzazs!" The book dragged and the story jumped around between charactors every paragraph. I was truly dissapointed with this one.
A good read for hardcore AND beginner Spidey fans. My sister picked this book up for me about a week back, and I was interested to check into it, it being my first Spider-man novel. And boy, I was pleasently surprised. There is only so much one can do, with taking a comic-book character, and bringing it into a 300 page book. But Gardner really did a nice job of taking the usual characteristics of Spider-man, and adding some interesting new ideas.
This book has a solid plot, revolving around a mayoral candidate's tie-ins with a big crime-boss. When the mayoral candidate's infamous campaign manager Michael Luce is violently sleign in a dark alley in the company of Spider-man, Spider-man is quickly thrown into the hat of suspects for his murder. Meanwhile, the man behind it all has also hired Spider-man foes Electro and Rhino to add some extra trouble to the mix.
All-in-all, the book has it's minor flaws. Namely Rhino's entire spot in the book. He is kind of just 'there.' He never really ends up having any relevence, or even a big part, in the book. But the book evolves the plot from cover to cover, and offers a very nice ending.
Any hardcore Spidey fans will enjoy this interesting tale of Spidey on the run from some underground wrong-doings, and any 'beginner' fans are sure to enjoy it as well.
Dont bother I picked up this book with very high hopes. Since almost every other Spider-Man novel i've read were great, my expectations were to high for Wanted Dead or Alive. The plot is pretty lame at times, even darn right confusing. The Rhino shouldnt have even been brought into the story at all, since he served almost no pourpose to keep the action going, well, whatever little action you actually get to read. This is a poor excuse for a Spider-Man novel, it's collecting dust in my closet right now.
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