Spider Man/Red Sonja

I’m not a big fan of film remakes. I’m even less a fan of comic book remakes. How many times have we seen the Spider-Man or Batman origins retold? This is a remake of a different sort. In issue #79 of Marvel Team-Up (1979), the title that paired Spidey with a different member of the Marvel Universe each month, an amulet on display at the museum releases Kulan Gath, an evil wizard. Spidey shows up to take him down, followed by a pesky Mary Jane Watson. When Spidey is on the ropes, Mary Jane picks up a sword which then transforms her into Red Sonja. They beat Kulan Gath and a victorious Peter Parker throws the amulet into the Atlantic because he can’t fly to the Sun and throw things there the way Superman does.

Years later, writer Chris Claremont brought the amulet and Kulan Gath back in a terrific two-parter in the pages of The Uncanny X-Men. Gath is much more powerful this time around and has woven a spell that is transforming the city and everything in it, including the X-Men and the Avengers, into a medieval world. Spider-Man is tortured, the X-Men and the Avengers fight as they always seem to do, and eventually everything is returned to normal.

2008’s Spider-Man/Red Sonja is nothing more than a reimagining, retelling, or whatever silly term you want to use that basically means the same thing as REMAKE of those two previous Kulan Gath stories. The mysterious amulet, which was surely touched by several hands while in transport and while being set up for display, is touched, thus releasing Kulan Gath. He does his magic thing and New York turns into the set of The Sword and the Sorcerer. Mary Jane turns into Red Sonja. She and Spidey fight…a lot. This one features neither X-Men nor Avengers, but you do get to see Tolkien versions of several Spidey villains. Featured prominently, of course, is Venom. Always on the lookout for a more powerful body, Kulan Gath manages to remove the alien symbiote from Eddie Brock to become…get this…KULAN VENOM.

There’s not much here to recommend…unless you’re a fan of splash pages. There’s a whole lot of splash pages.

Spider-Man/Red Sonja is published by Marvel Entertainment, written by Michael Avon Oeming, with art by Mel Rubi.

Reviewed by T-Shirt Joe

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