Dark Spider #1 is a comic written by Ra’Chaun Rogers with art by Martin Patron. A night of crimefighting turns deadly when the Dark Spider comes across a strange foe. This is a superhero comic with a bit of drama and a heavy dose of action. The main man for this story is Jamal Jones, he is an English teacher who moonlights as the superhero Dark Spider. He appears to have the basic super-strength and agility and he wields two Kusarigamas as weapons but they also help him move around. The story begins with Jamal having a nightmare about his past and after waking up from that he gets ready for work. Upon arriving at the school he greets his boss and meets her daughter Keisha for the first time. The violence in this story is bloody and very gory with some gruesome attacks. The pacing is overall steady with a number of faster sections. The tone is like your average superhero movie with many intense and dark moments throughout. The dialogue is mainly conversational with some slang and classic references as well as some narration from Jamal. There are no word-heavy pages here. This is an exciting comic that gives us a good look at both the regular and super sides of Jamal’s life in a story that will have you looking forward to what comes next.

            The art here is drawn in a detailed, smoother, modern style with a strong focus on lighting and shading. The color range here is pretty wide with an overall slightly lower tone. Besides a few bushes early on there isn’t really any natural scenery as the majority of this takes place in or around buildings. The primary location for this story is the city streets where Dark Spider’s heroic actions take place though some scenes are at his home and at a school. The backgrounds here usually show the surroundings like buildings and the sky but when they don’t it tends to be gradient colors with optional action lines. The expression level here is around average as most these characters give us different looks. The range here consists of mainly fear and terror with some anger, annoyance, and a rare smile. The faces here are very detailed with wrinkles and creases that help every expression come across clearly. The violence here involves bladed weapons and gets bloody with some gruesome attacks leading to gory results. The action scenes have a good amount of panels and tend to flow well with the rare hiccup.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes.

“Would I like this?”

If you like superhero stories that star a black man with a cast full of women in a story featuring drama and violence then this is for you.

“What would this comic’s film rating be?”

NC-17. Violence, gore, sexual situations.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“The monster is just the monster.”

 

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lawfulevil/dark-spider-1-with-a-vengeance/description

 

***** I received this review copy for free. *****

***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 25

Violent Pages: 11, for 44% of the comic

Sexy Pages: 3, for 12% 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 – 4

“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 – 3

“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 – 5

“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.”