SPIDER-MAN: MAYHEM in MANHATTAN (audiobook) by Len Wein and Marv Wolfman

 



Originally published as a paperback book by Pocket Books in 1978.
Published by Marvel as an audiobook in 2019.
Read by Tristan Wright.
Duration: 4 hours, 9 minutes.
Unabridged.

Spider-Man is busy being "your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man" when he encounters a dead body thrown out of a New York City luxury high-rise apartment onto the street below. While he is investigating, two beat cops stumble upon them and a rookie cop on his first night shift tour takes a shot at Spider-Man. Worse than that, they make Spider-Man the prime suspect for the murder and Daily Bugle publisher J. Jonah Jameson starts yet another media campaign against Spider-Man. 

Can things get worse? 

Spidey finds out that they certainly can as he begins an investigation to clear his name...

******

This book was kind of a tedious listen. Clearly, this book re-published as an audiobook in response to the Spider-Man craze that has come along since Spider-Man was added to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and not on its own merits as a piece of literature. Note: this book is not a part of the MCU, since it was published 30 years before the release of the first MCU movie. This was the first paperback in a short-lived series of books that Pocket Books published.

I am going to be tough on this audiobook because both Marvel and DC have done some nice work with their novels in the last few years - books that really dive deep into the character, something that Spider-Man actually helped to pioneer in the comics. This audiobook feels like more of a money grab - just publishing something that Marvel already owns rather than creating a new book written to higher standards. 

In this book the fight scenes are quite good, but the dialogue sounds stiff and like my grandparents would have spoken in 1978 rather than a college student (Yes, I was alive in 1978 - I am pretty old).

My biggest pet peeve is that there is a big reveal scene where Spider-Man finally figures out who is behind everything and the reader is supposed to be shocked who the bad guy is. Any casual fan of Spider-Man knows who it was from the little bit we saw of the character from the opening scene where the victim was thrown from the building. It was so anti-climactic when the big reveal officially happens. It would have been better to have just seen everything from Spider-Man's point of view and let it be a mystery to everyone.

The reader, Tristan Wright did a nice job.

I rate this audiobook 2 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: SPIDER-MAN: MAYHEM in MANHATTAN (audiobook) by Len Wein and Marv Wolfman.

Note: This book is also published under these alternate titles: The Amazing Spider-Man: Mayhem in Manhattan and Stan Lee Presents The Amazing Spider-Man: Mayhem in Manhattan.

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