Osborn 1 Review

What you need to know: Osborn chronicles the prison time of everyone's favorite Spidey villain, Norman Osborn.

What you'll love

The writing: I've never read any of here stuff before, but Kelly Sue Deconnick is a revelation. In Obsborn she gives each character a very distinctive voice. That's in addition to her dialogue which is very strong as well.

Back story: Clearly Marvel slapped Warren Ellis' name on this book in order to sell more books. I've never been big on Elllis, but I like Norman so I gave it a shot. Honestly I thought they co wrote the book. In reality Ellis weaves a sinisterly creepy tale of one of Osborn's fellow prisoners. It's a brillant story that makes use of every single panel. If every back story were like this, I'd never complain about paying 3.99 for a comic.

Norah: My last experience with Norah was in American Son(which is great, you should check it out) She was interesting in that arc but in this book she nearly steals the show, she's funny, neurotic and fearless.(just how I like my women) I kept thinking to myself. Warren Ellis wrote this character?(I know, I know I was confused.) Sometimes it's nice to actually have a woman writing a female character.

Art: I can't tell you how much I hated Rios's depiction of Peter Parker. I've been reading spidey comics since I was 13 and I've never seen that look on Peter, I don't know if it was an attempt to update Petey or what but it didn't work for me. Maybe I'm a Peter snob, I don't know. However every other panel in the book is great. This is not an easy feet, because there are some challenging things to draw in this issue. I think Rios has the potential to be a break out star.

What you won't

Where's Norman: For a book called Osborn there's not a lot of the titular character. The book still works but I would like to see ole Goblin head a little more.


Bottom Line: I had high hopes for this book and it exceeded them.

Grade: A