Review -- Webspynn

Webspynn
Art by Heriberto Bezerril (Issue 1)
Toni Masdiono (Issue 2)
Written by A.J. Hill (Issue 1)
Created by Tyran Eades (took over writing Issue 2)
Indie

An unmined motherlode of inspiration for comic books in the rich First Nations culture. Webspynn, which is a superhero story begins to connect with the myth and culture of American Indians, and that element, while only touched on in the first two issues was certainly a crucial one in grabbing my attention.
Now the name and the look will draw comparisons to Marvel’s Spiderman, but A.J. Hill has a more mature take on the storyline than the original Spidey, and in general than most stuff from that character today. Webspynn stands on its own, even if he is influenced by the spider and has web capabilities.
Eades said the Spiderman comparison is expected, and the old Marvel character was an influence.
“I believe me and A. J. wanted to introduce the character without a lot of the usual Spider-man-like tones,” said Eades. “Granted when talking about Webspynn #1, there are a lot of similar tones to Spider-man, such as the hot female supporting character from next door, the villainy of bank robbers, and the hero springing into action at the hint of danger.
“We wanted a few major points to be made with the first issue. Webspynn is not your typical spider-like superhero. The character’s next door neighbor is actually a stripper. Both the hero and his natural identity will always be balance in every issue of the book. These are just some of the ideas that created the tone of the initial story.”
Hill said the concept is to be darker than most mainstream heroes.
“The need to see a spider-themed hero as Predator, Stalker, Hunter, and Fearmonger. There's no shortage of spider-themed characters in comics but I feel that a great many of these characters gloss over the spider for the most part,” he said. “There's a real emphasis on the spider's webbing, strength, wall-crawling, but not a whole lot about just how creepy they are. Some of our comic mainstays started out that way but the focus either shifted, or the characters are established in such a way now that even their enemies don't pay homage to just how unsettling one of nature's more perfect predators, personified -- talk about alliteration -- is supposed to be.
“This is about a scary vigilante SOB who is made all the more scary by his detachment from the human condition as well as his primal connection to all things that go bump in the night and draw even more fear from us.”
Interestingly Webspynn was actually a character that became more than the creator ever expected it would be.
“To tell you the truth, Webspynn was never suppose to be in his own book,” said Eades. “My original purpose for the character was simple, a hero with a cool costume. The character was originally a part of a group of vigilante teens and in this team, Webspynn was more of a secondary character with little history or background information.
“The idea for Webspynn to receive his own book came at the Baltimore Comic Con in 2007. I decided months before the convention to draw Spider-man, one of my favorite Marvel characters, with a spider-like character of my own. Just weeks before the Con, I decided to have one of our colorist to bring the half Spider-man and half Webspynn picture to life. This picture ended up as a banner at the BCC which attracted the attention of A. J., of course the rest is history.”
Hill picked up on the story.
“This iteration of Webspynn starting taking shape right after BCC '07 and hasn't stopped evolving since,” he said. “It was slow going at first since there was so much ground to cover, and we really didn't want to tread a lot of the same ground we'd seen in other comics.”
Hill said Webspynn as a character developed rather naturally once the idea of creating a book around him came into focus.
“Tyran had an amazing character design on display at BCC '07 and I couldn't pass up the chance to give function to the form of Webspynn,” he said. “It was getting a lot of attention and I thought it was overdue for a lot of concrete answers to stand up to the tidal wave of positive inquiry. I guess I said all the right things and Tyran gave me a shot at putting my own spin on the character. There, that was your prerequisite pun.”
Eades said it was a case of putting the right team together to bring Webspynn to life.
“This matching between creator, writer, and character continued to develop over the holiday season of 2007 to the spring of 2008. Just about once every month, Webspynn, A. J., and myself convened at a local mall to talk shop,” he said. “I’m surprise we got the project off the ground with so much off topic stuff from the happenings of Marvel and DC.”
A superhero’s success is often tied to the look. The Hulk with yellow skin? I don’t think so.
Webspynn has a modern, classic look. What does that mean? Well it combines traditional hero in spandex style, but with a more dramatic white and blue suit with a modern flair. It’s a winning look.
Eades said he simply advertised for an artist and that brought options his way.
“I had an idea of how I wanted the book to look so I posted a note on the website, Deviant Art, for a sequential artist,” he said. “I was looking for a dynamic artist who could deliver great action sequences and show true facial expressions and emotions in their line work.
“The first artist for the project, Heriberto, was great but declined on continuing with the project. Luckily, I kept in contact with one of the other artist from the posting, Toni Masdiono, the current Webspynn artist. Toni and my relationship on the book is almost perfect. He is becoming more familiar with the character and supporting cast, while I get the chance to flex my writing skills.”
Artistically, Heriberto Bezerril did a solid job in issue one, but Webspynn took a major step forward in issue two with Toni Masdiono coming on stream as penciler. The book has typical colour work on most pages, but at times intersperses dramatic black and white pages where he uses the blue of Webspynn’s suit as a highlight colour to great effect. I could get into a whole book done in that fashion.
It is difficult to come up with fresh hero concept these days, and while Hill’s Webspynn borrows from Spidey, this is still a pretty solid effort in creating a new take on the genre.
The strength will come from tieing the story to the old myths and stories of the First Nation’s culture, and hopefully Hill uses that connection to full effect in future issues.
Hill and Eades are happy with what is being created with Webspynn.
“I can't speak for the acceptance/audience part of that question but I can definitely say that the final product blew me away,” said Hill. “The art team, the ones doing the real legwork here, turned out panel after panel of professional work. It's the equal or better of anything I've seen on the shelves at my LCS (local comic shop) and I'd honestly pay to see our penciler on one of Marvel or DC's top franchise books.”
Eades added, “the book has come a long way from the initial ideas to its actual printed form. I am pleased with the response from the many individuals that have bought the book.”
There is more to come from Webspynn too.
“The plan, from where I'm sitting, is to explore more of Andrew's roots and Webspynn's psychology,” said Hill. “I'm not going to call Andrew shallow but he definitely wears his heart on his sleeve. He's a simple man with simple motivations and the potential to be incredibly complicated. It'll be a lot of fun to watch as he realizes what his true power and purpose is.
“Webspynn, on the other hand, is a totally different person. More to the point, he's not so much a person as a force of nature. He's been bridled in the form of Andrew and like any wild animal, he wants to break free. He's an eternal creature in an ephemeral world with people a lot less mighty and a lot less mindful than he is.
“I really want to explore how uncomfortable he feels in Andrew's skin while Andrew discovers the thing crawling underneath his skin.”
Eades said the initial story is laying the foundation for the future.
“The current story arc, ‘Gather the Warriors’, will introduce a lot of supporting characters and subplot elements,” he said. “A lot of these supporting characters will be made up of normal folks like Milani while, the others will be ‘supers’ or ‘baddies’. The GTW story arc is set up from issues 2, the prologue, to issue 6 and issue 7, as the epilogue.”
“Beyond the GTW story arc, I can’t say but my intention is to bring back A. J. to do a story arc or two. This will give me the chance to do some minis and one-shots featuring Webspynn and some of my other characters.”
Check Webspynn out at www.heritagecomicshsq.com
-- CALVIN DANIELS
-- Appeared on Yorkton This Week WebXtra