Spider-Man #4 Review

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis / Artist: Sara Pichelli / Marvel Comics *Sees writer Will Evans having fun reviewing issue #3 of Spider-Man featuring Kamala frakin’ Khan. Looks at Spider-Man issue #4. Shakes head. Sees Will Evans tossing Spider-Man #3 up in the air and catching it as if it were a child.* Me: I don’t like that shit… *sucks teeth* I don’t like that shit at all. *Sigh* I was complaining to Will earlier today about how come whenever it’s my turn to review Spider-Man is when we’re talking about race… and falling short. The first time was in Spider-Man #2 with the whole Black Spider-Man stigmata that Miles wanted to avoid. Fellow contributor Thuli Zuma and I touched on that in an editorial with mixed reviews mostly ranging from agreement to “wait to see where it’s going first (which we acknowledged) before jumping to conclusions.” We’re now in the fourth issue where the topic of race comes back up and it’s groan worthy. This issue revolves around the dialogue between Ganke and Miles entirely. Ganke wants to meet their new classmate who is a former X-Man and wants Miles to accompany him. Miles doesn’t get the appeal. Ganke explains that this former X-Man is a husky guy himself, which is a huge display of body image representation for Ganke, something he doesn’t think Miles would understand being skinny. Miles then brings up the issue of being Black and those experiences that Ganke wouldn’t get. Had the conversation just ended there, it would have been all good. Tw…