Spider-Man: Peter Parker: Trials & Tribulations

Rating:
Summary: Pretty good.
Review: This book collects a few issues of the Paul Jenkins Peter Parker series (between issues 40 through 50): "Snow Day," "The Big Question," "The Big Answer," "And Here My Troubles Begin," and one other issue whose title escapes me at the moment.

The writing and the artwork is pretty good for the majority of the book, but Paul Jenkins' contribution to the second part of the two-part story in this book ("The Big Question," part one, and "The Big Answer," part two) falls a bit on the convenient and ridiculous side at a few instances in the script. Also, the reprint of double-sized issue 50 (volume two, mind you) has a lot of potential, but the writer's execution doesn't live up to it. That's not to say that it's a terrible outing -- quite the opposite, actually. It's still enjoyable and better than a lot of other Spider-Man stuff out there.

The real gems in this collection, though, are the first two chapters: An excellent story about a neglected black child who escapes into a world of fantasy, which is inspired by the few positive aspects of his life (his Uncle Ray and his school), and one story called "Snow Day," which was just as entertaining (although not as emotionally powerful). These issues alone are worth the price of admission.

Too bad there isn't a collection of Jenkins' entire one-issue stories. Those are the times when the series really shined.

This is the last collection of Peter Parker that was written by Paul Jenkins and drawn by Mark Buckingham. When this series was canceled, Paul Jenkins started to write the second volume of Spectacular Spider-Man, with Humberto Ramos on drawing chores. It's a bit different from the Peter Parker issues, but it's still good. However, it is in my personal opinion that Ramos will not be able to do as good a job as Mark Buckingham, and it seems so far that Jenkins' best writing is the one-issue stories rather than a four-, five-, or six-part story arc.

Overall, this was a really enjoyable book, worthy of having the name "Spider-Man" on the cover. It's high moments are truly some of the greatest contributions to the Spider-Man mythos.