Spider-Squirrel #2 is a comic written by Charlie McElvy with pencils & inks by D.C. Stuelpner and colors by John Rauch. The Spider-Squirrel continues his travels through time and universes as he attempts to get back home. This is a superhero tale full of action, exposition, and jokes along with a busload of unique characters. Our main man is Spider-Squirrel, a fella with high agility, strength, and speed. In this issue he’ll run into many different heroes and villains with some of them having more obvious powers than others. The main crux of the story is still about Spider-Squirrel traveling to different worlds but this time around we get some more bite plot-wise. The different universes tend to have unique themes that keep this journey fresh. The action here is full of blasts, hard hits, and crashes, but shockingly no blood or gore. The pace is steady though the fight scenes speed things up a bit. The tone is slightly humorous and upbeat with some intense moments strewn about. The dialogue is full of quips with a lot of back-and-forth conversations. There are more than a few wordy pages but they don’t read slow. This second issue continues the excitement introduced in the first but increases the stakes while building towards the final issue.
The art here is styled like a modern 80’s or 90’s comic with a large amount of colors and pages filled with things to look at. The scenery frequently changes from a wooded area to a crowded downtown with all the smaller panels having something going on in the background. All the locations visited here have a uniqueness to them that’ll make them stand out and they add something extra to the scene. The expression level here is high as the emotions of most characters are worn on their sleeve. The emotional range is slightly above-average as the reactions to some of these situations vary. There are a few blasts of unexplained origin that’ll catch your attention. The action can be a bit light but it can also get very destructive. The scenes tend to flow well and there isn’t any blood or goriness. The outfits cover the whole range of superhero gear so you won’t see anything too far out of the box.
“Is this worth reading?”
Yes.
“Would I like this?”
If you like superhero comics with a bunch of super folk dealing with dimension hopping and a lurking evil then this is for you.
“What would this comic’s film rating be?”
PG-13. Violence, light lewdness.
“Could I get a quote from the comic?”
“Should we throw a rock down there?”
Physical Link: https://xionstudios.square.site/product/spider-squirrel-2-main-cover/52?cp=true&sa=false&sbp=false&q=true
Digital Link: https://www.xionstudios.com/products/spider-squirrel-2-vol-1-digital
Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/watchguard/spider-squirrel-2-the-next-chapter-is-here/description
***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***
Probably Contains Spoilers
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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 23
Violent Pages: 9, for 39% of the comic
Sexy Pages: 1, for 4% of the comic
**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**
Violence Level – 3
“Wasn’t no tussling at all.”
“Sometimes you gotta hit somebody.”
“I’m getting charged with how many counts of assault?”
“This was a tournament arc.”
“All my life I had to fight.”
Gore Level – 1
“The only thing leaking out your face is tears.”
“Looks like somebody spilled some ketchup.”
“Might need to soak that up with a bath towel.”
“That isn’t supposed to be outside the body.”
“This is a slaughterhouse.”
Death Level – 1
“And everybody lived happily ever after.”
“We might have gone to a couple funerals.”
“It just LOOKS like a serial killer was here.”
“Yeah this was a tragedy.”
“Think Gettysburg.”
Porn Level – 1
“Everybody kept their clothes on.”
“I guess it was too hot for a bra.”
“Sometimes you got to let everything air out.”
“This is like late night Cinemax in the early 2000’s.”
“Oh. This is porn.”