Spider-Woman Motion Comics

The idea of motion comics has been around for quite a while. Spider-Woman definitely isn’t the first to do it. I wouldn’t be able to tell you what the first motion comic was without doing research, but I think I’ve seen an Astonishing X-Men motion comic a few months before and well, there’s that Watchmen motion comic that kinda freaks me out.

I’m going to talk about what I think about the three motion comic episodes and compare EP-01 to Spider-Woman #01.

To give you a better idea of what motion comics are, think of them as a mix between cartoons and still pictures. Kinda like those old 1960’s cartoons of Captain America, Iron Man, Thor and Hulk. You know, “When Captain America throws his mighty shield…” Remember now?

Well, certainly not as awesome as that, but you get the idea.

Michael Brian Bendis and Alex Maleev team up once again for Spider-Woman. You might remember this duo from the critically acclaimed run on Daredevil. That was Bendis at his best and Maleev in his element. Do they attain the same level of quality in Spider-Woman?

Combining it with a lot of touches of noir, Alex Maleev’s art is just amazingly gritty, raw, and beautiful. Maleev will always be one of my favorite artists doing the internals of a comic book. Seeing it come to life is a special treat for me. The way Jessica throws punches is just brutal, especially when combined with those particle and splatter effects.

The voice acting is pretty good. It sounds kinda off at times, and sometimes it gets a bit awkward, but it definitely doesn’t suck. Also, who knew Jessica Drew was supposed to sound English? The dialogue, unfortunately, suffers from Bendispeak. It sort of worked for Daredevil, but it felt a bit off when the VA was reading it out as Spider-Woman. “I came- I want you to listen to me- I came here because…” I don’t hate Bendispeak so much, really, but hearing it, instead of reading it, it came out twice as bad.

The sound effects and the music really added a whole new dimension of emotion that you don’t really get from traditional comics. I think that’s where this motion comic business really stands out. It’s just a whole other level. If you’re thinking this is the next step for the top publishers, that may soon be the case. Sure, it involves more people, and production costs more but there’s less cost in terms of publishing, shipping and logistics. We’ll have to wait and see.

Compared to the comic book, however, I find that I like Spider-Woman #1’s flow better. It just seemed to be paced better. It becomes obvious that the script and the art were designed for a comic book then turned into a web comic, instead of the other way around. The panels just feel more “in place” in Spider-Woman #1 than they did in Episode 1. The comic packs in more art, more dialogue and more story development. I have to say, I prefer the print format, still.

Four out of five Spider-Woman animated comics from the 80’s, just because of Bendispeak and somewhat weird audio at times.