The past few months, I’ve fallen in love with Spider-Man. I just can’t get enough of the wise-cracking webcrawler. What better way to learn more about him than with a book by Spider-Man himself? The World According to Spider-Man by Dan Wallace opens with a letter to the reader from Spider-Man, and it goes uphill from there with Spidey breaking the fourth wall to give you an inside look on how to be a superhero. It’s not all glory though, and Spidey does talk about some of his lower moments as well as his higher ones.
Included in this book are some fun removable items including clippings of the Daily Bugle, pictures from Aunt May, and Peter Parker’s report card. There is also a special “guest” section that was written by Aunt May and Venom. These pages are nice because you get to hear about Spider-Man from another character’s point of view and it breaks up the constant wise-cracking.
Speaking of removable inserts, the science section with Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four has two reference cards from Horizon Labs that made me laugh out loud. “So you’ve become unstuck in time” and “So you’re on an unfamiliar planet” talk about the various things that Spider-Man has learned when dealing with one or the other another. Longtime comic book fans will recognize some of the references, while newbie readers will laugh at the craziness of it all.
Of all the information that Spider-Man provides, including how to build your own rogues gallery of super villains and how to balance a love life, my favorite is The Art of Witty Banter and How to Keep a Secret Identity.
The Art of Witty Banter only goes on for two pages, but they remind me why I love Spider-Man so much. How to Keep a Secret Identity has a nice little jab at Superman that made me chuckle and my husband (a big time Superman fan) roll his eyes.
My favorite joke in the book is when Spider-Man is talking about the Avengers and their battle cry. I don’t think the artist, Mirco Pierfederici, could have drawn this scene any more perfectly. (Hint: It involves Lego bricks.)
Author Dan Wallace did a nice job capturing Spider-Man’s attitude and personality in this title and the inserts he wrote up and designed were an added bonus.
For those of you worried your child will rip the book trying to get at the inserts, have no fear. The inserts are attached with a substance that feels kind of like rubber cement and they are easy to remove and put back.
The World According to Spider-Man comes in at 62 pages, which makes it a nice break time read for adults, or a fun learning experience for kids who need to turn off the video games for a while. I highly recommend this book for any fan of the webcrawler, ages 6 and up.
GeekMom received a promotional copy for review purposes.
