The Marvel Knights was an imprint that Marvel Comics used in order to showcase top talent, but think outside the box and challenge readers to re-think their favourite Marvel characters. While the imprint finished up in 2006, the name has been brought back for a batch of mini-series using creators more know for their indie work while still capturing the spirit of Marvel Knights. The first of these comes out this week with Marvel Knights: Spider-Man #1 – a five issue limited series by Matt Kindt (Mind MGMT) and Marco Rudy (Swamp Thing).
Marvel Knights: Spider-Man sees Spidey take on 99 villains in order to save countless of innocent lives. As to which villains will feature in the series, writer, Matt Kindt is keeping quiet. Although, he has stated that Marvel villain Arcade is the mastermind in this entire trap. Hints to other villains featuring in the limited series can be seen on the cover below.
For those wondering which version of everyone’s favourite wall-crawler is featured in Marvel Knights: Spider-Man, Marvel have chosen the classic Peter Parker over the current status quo. This allows for a story that is not hindered by continuity, but instead aims to be a timeless story that stays true to the core of the character. In an interview with Newsarama Matt Kindt stated that this was his intention, “Everything is really tied together into continuity and it feels like we’re not getting as many great blips on the radar — that are just great superhero stories using the core character that’s been around forever. So it’s nice to get a chance to do that and not have to worry if it fits into 50 years of continuity.”
From the 3 preview pages below the art looks rather interesting and employs some non-conventional storytelling methods. The use of inset boxes not only guide the readers eye but feel almost like pages flying through the wind. Also, in a way that looks to be inspired partially by J.H Williams III, there are pages that split into panels that look like parts of a web. It will be interesting to see where the limited-series goes visually as it tells a narrative through a less conventional manner, all of which very much is part of the Marvel Knights goal.
Marvel Knights: Spider-Man #1 is out through Marvel Comics on the 2nd of October in all good comics book stores and digitally.
Take a look at the very interesting 3 page preview as well as the regular cover by Marco Rudy and Val Staples and the variant cover by Carlo Barberi.
Have Your Say About Marvel Knights: Spider-Man #1
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