Spidey vs. The Printed Word – The Amazing Spider Man: Adventures in Reading Vol. 2, #1

We’ve seen Spider-Man tackle child abuse, and we’ve seen him promote racially-diverse engineering. Now he comes up against the deadliest foe of all.

Books.

Before we get to that, a little on this comic… This was a giveaway that had some different geographic and sponsorship variations. This particular version is from the D.C./Baltimore region, with the kind backing of Giant (a Mid-Atlantic grocery chain). On the inside front cover two letters are posted, written by the mayors of those two fine cities. See if you can spot what’s wrong with this picture:

Did you see it? It’s the D.C. mayor’s name — the name on the letterhead and the signed name don’t match. Sharon Pratt Dixon/Kelly (best known for two things: briefly replacing a crackhead mayor and letting personal pique chase the Washington Redskins into Maryland) was married during her term, but they couldn’t get around to reprinting the letterhead? Really? You just have to love Washington’s municipal government. You really do.

On to the story (from Louise Simonson, Jon Bogdanove, and Hilary Barta). The action starts right off the bat. An ugly dude called Trog (short for Troglodyte) has stolen a device that allows people to transport into fictional works. I’m not sure how all that fits into the laws of physics, but we’ll go with it. Spidey and some teens get sucked in along with Trog, and go through a series of near-death literary experiences.

First they battle dinos in The Lost World:

Then they come up against the tripods of The War of the Worlds:

The next stop is The Jungle Book, where Spidey shoots his webbing first and asks questions later, and gets answers from the most articulate bear in the history of the world (sorry, Smokey):

Soon they’re warped into a book I had never heard of, That Was Then, This Is Now by S.E. Hinton (of The Outsiders and Rumble Fish fame), which apparently is full of parking lots and teen angst:

The last stop is Ivanhoe:

Spider-Man is finally able to corrall Trog, and he and his useless teen cohorts are transported back to the present. The kids are rewarded with library cards (gee, thanks) and Trog’s lament gives Spidey a chance to deliver the moral of the whole damn thing:

Call me paranoid, but this book might put me off reading. Stay away from books, kids, because THEY MIGHT COME ALIVE AND KILL YOU.

You have been warned.