Arachna: The Adventure Begins is a comic written by Martti Kauppinen with art by Carlos Granda. A woman with spider powers(she shoots web out of her fingers) is just trying to exist while dealing with different threats. The star of this tale is woman named Jennie who has a split personality; one is her regular self going to college and the other one named Arachna is her crimefighting persona. These two versions of herself regularly have conversations with each other and it’s mostly arguments. Kinda like Venom and Eddie Brock. The plot involves scientific experiments, bondage, injections of untested products and sexual tension. There is a lot of hard-hitting action here complete with great physical harm and blood. There is a lot of bondage and passing out. Like I think this is a thinly veiled BDSM comic. Very thinly veiled. These characters like to talk a lot. This dialogue is alright at its best, but on average you’ll see a bunch of snarky talk, out of place exposition, and hit-or-miss jokes. It isn’t technically wordy but it reads like a science textbook sometimes. This is a tale about a spider powered woman trying to balance college life and crimefighting.

           This is a comic drawn in the more modern style and it is well colored. Locations are featured prominently and are high in variety. No matter the place we get a new perspective nearly every panel. This is an extremely expressive comic. There are no hidden emotions here, everything is written on their faces. Arachna’s outfit reminds me of the Black Cat, just less frilly. She has no equipment to speak of, but the web coming out of her fingers does look cool. The action scenes are full of blood, visible post-fight damage, and look really painful. And the fight scene flow is good. Are these characters sexualized? Yes. I said the word bondage twice up there so you know something had to be going on. But though they might look sexy their appearance isn’t highlighted that much.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes.

“Would I like this?”

If you like lady-led superhero stories and don’t mind a little bit of cliché and BONDAGE(?) this is for you. Also for you if you like characters dealing with inner turmoil.

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

R. Bloody and brutal.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“Yes unmask her. Unmask Arachna for me. I want to see what my new pet looks like underneath.”

 

Physical Link: https://arachnacomic.com/product/arachna-graphic-novel-carlos-dattoli-variant/

Digital Link: https://x53studios.com/products/arachna-volume-1-the-adventure-begins-digital-copy

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/arachnacomic/arachna/description

Indiegogo Link: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/arachna-the-adventure-begins/x/26236710#/

Unboxing Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhGL7dtM2hg

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

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 48

Violent Pages: 22, for 46% of the comic

Sexy Pages: 5, for 10% of the comic

 

**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**

 

Violence Level – 4

“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 – 3

“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 – 2

“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 – 3

“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.”