I just finished reading Spider Man: Blue, by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale, and I’ve got to say that it’s been a long time since a comic has moved me this much.

The cover was what sold me at first. The friendly neighborhood webslinger, cut over solid pastel blue sporting Gwen Stacy’s eyes sketched on it, topped off by impeccably set Clarendon in duotone… It was all I could do not to lick it then and there, I tell you.

The first time I saw Tim Sale’s art it was in disappointment. I had just bought Deathblow No. 6 from one of those places where comics are kept inside tidy little plastic bags and the preckle-faced store attendant growls scornfully if you so much as look at them sideways, let alone think of exposing one to the air before buying it. This particular number had one of the greatest Jim Lee covers I can remember seeing, ever.

I bought it without giving it a second thought, and all but tore off the plastic bag to find the sweet Jim Lee-ness inside it. Instead, I found work that looked like big splotches of ink had been handed to a weirdo hung up on Humphrey Bogart movies, who had then proceeded to smear them all over the page. I was really disappointed and kind of hated this guy. Then I saw the second, third and fourth pages, and that was it for Jim Lee in my mind.

Sale has gone on to sell out to Marvel, win the fuck out of the Eisners and become one of the most influential artists in comic books, and he deserves every bit of that, as far as I’m concerned.

As for Loeb… well, read this:

It’s about remembering someone who was so important to me I was going to spend the rest of my life with her.

I didn’t know that meant she would only get to spend the rest of her life with me.”

If that’s not solid, concise and inspired writing, I don’t know what is.

Spider Man: Blue tells the story of Spidey’s first love: Gwen Stacy. Webheads all over the world may remember Gwen’s death as one of the strongest Spiderman moments ever. Peter arrives too late to save her —the woman he would spend the rest of his life with— from a fall off the Brooklyn bridge (Green Goblin’s handiwork). He catches her and thinks everything will be ok, but it’s not. She’s dead (“from the fall” is all the explanation we get). He then goes off after the Green Goblin.

To kill him.

Spiderman: Blue does not contain the death scene. It doesn’t even feature much of the Green Goblin as such. Instead, we get a retelling of the Petey/Gwen/MJ story as told by Peter to a tape recorder on Valentine’s Day. Because he needs to tell it. It’s classic Spiderman, with remarkable insights on what makes Spidey tick. There’s nothing new here, but the treatment is, by far, one of the best I’ve seen lately. As he battles his way through the Rhino, two Vultures, the Croc and a host of other enemies, all the way trying to seal the deal with Gwen, you feel for Parker. You just want him to get a break. And we all know how that one ends.

Ultimately, this is a love story. It’s sad and poignant and downbeat. There is some fun, but there’s mostly loss and regret and learning and not much moving on. Just like life.

— sergio on April 25, 2004