The Amazing Spider Man : Election Day

Title - The Amazing Spider Man : Election Day
Author - Marc Guggenheim
ISBN - 9780785141310
Production Date - 2009

Plot - The Amazing Spider Man is being framed for a bunch of murders of people around town by leaving his trademark calling card on the victims. Peter's best friend Harry is distracted because he is going to propose to the woman of his dreams, or is it his worst nightmare?  Harry's father, the Green Goblin is overseeing all of this action between his son and girlfriend, intent on who is taking his secret formula and what they are doing with it.  All of this is set during a Mayoral election for the community.  How will Spiderman's being on the loose effect the election?  Will his being captured throw the election in one way or another?  Are they going to face Spiderman to take off the mask, or will the hero known as Daredevil, in his own mild mannered costume, save Spiderman with some legal maneuvering of his own?  While the mayoral race ends up in somewhat of a stalemate, certainly Spiderman comes through and does not have to reveal his secret identity, and be able to help out his friends in prison, all the while dealing with a level of personal guilt about all of it.

Critical Review - True the comic book universe, and the character of Spiderman, Peter Parker in this set of comics, tied together as one graphic novel, deals with a large load of guilt that he has over how his life has impacted that of his friends.  Like his uncle dying and the fact that maybe he could have done something about it, this guilt impels Spiderman into action.  He feels a sense of responsibility to those around him for becoming what they are.  Although he maintains a wise-cracking persona throughout the piece that is a little more than the Spider-man comics I remember reading as a kid and young adult. The feel of the comic itself is slightly darker than the original, with the possible exception of the Web of Spiderman series in which Spiderman dealt with this new suit, which would be called Venom. The drawings are beautiful and filled with lots of shadows, as Spiderman faces the creatures of the night. Whatever the slight alterations of character to the original, the general story is consistent to the past history of Spiderman, which is what anyone who is designing comic books in the Stan Lee created universe is trying to do.  And for that they should be proud.

Reader's Annotation - Stop the bad guys.  Rescue your friends. Find yourself chased around by those who are jealous or upset by your antics. This is all in a day's work, for you friendly neighborhood Spiderman.

About the Author - Marc Guggenheim's first professional career was with the law, which he practiced in Boston for five years.  Although he always had a passion for writing.  When one of his scripts drew a considerable amount of interest from producers, he decided that he would pursue his true calling, leaving the law for screenwriting. 

After leaving the lawyer profession and coming out for screenwriting he ended up getting a job writing about the one profession with which he had experience, the law.  It was ironic that his first professional job screenwriting was to write for TV/s The Practice.  He also has landed several other similarly based law TV shows with jobs writing for Law and Order, and CSI Miami. 

Eventually he would land a job working for Marvel.  With great success writing in the Marvel Universe they decided to expand his repertoire writing for comics as popular as the Flash.  In 2007, Marvel announced at comic con in San Diego that he would be doing the rotating duties of writing comics in the Spiderman universe, which is held in high esteem among fans of the Marvel Comic brand.  The comics written for the Election Day series were among the first he scribed in the Spiderman universe.


Genre - Comics, Graphic Novels

Curriculum Ties - One could talk about layout and presentation on a page in a journalism class.

Booktalking Ideas - Discuss the costumes that people wear.  Is a teacher, librarian, professional athlete wearing something that changes how we view them?

Reading Level- Grade 9+

Challenge Issues - At a school they might challenge academic appropriateness.

Overcoming challenges - Have a set of articles on hand that reviews graphic novels as literature, including some that discuss how graphic novels can help the reading of people who have a hard time reading.

Why I included - Aside from Superman, Spiderman was one of my favorite comics growing up and I wanted to review one.