Spider-Man: The Darkest Hours (Marvel Classics) [Mass Market Paperback]

This book is great for Spider-man fans though it is probably aimed for a higher age group. It is obvious that Peter is older from the beginning. He is grown up, is married to MJ and is a science teacher. His life has finally hit a peaceful stretch but peace doesn't last forever. While Spider-man arrives to stop the rampaging Rhino he is stopped by the Black Cat, an ex-girlfriend and good friend of Peter Parker and when MJ learns that Peter and Felicia are teaming up she becomes jealous. The Black Cat warns Spider-man about the real danger he will be putting himself if he chose to fight the Rhino but Spider-man ignores and fights the Rhino in an awesome two man battle! The real threat comes later on and is much worse that I was expecting. I expected to see another random villain like the Rhino but what I got were gruesome human-looking cretures that fed on life energy to survive and they are after Spider-man for thinking that he killed a member of their tribe. Spider-man and the Black Cat now must fight to survive!

This book was fascinating. If you are expecting it to be like an annual or comic book or even like the films think again! This book stays loyal to Spider-man but is nothing like what you would expect. It has a different style to it, not comic book adventure style but mystery solving, action packed, thriller, romance style which made a very nice to change. The writer had captured the characters personalty and style wonderfully. Each character is slightly different in their own way and provides attention reading and fun! The villains are not at all like the usual villains we see in the films or in the cartoons. Oh no. These are monsters. Gruesome savaging monsters that want revange on Spider-man. You would think that they would be easy to beat but they have powers of their own. Not only are they faster and stronger than Spider-man but one single touch and they can find out everything about him which leads to big problems. There are four villains in this book - Mortia, her two brothers (with powers similar to hers) and the Rhino who surprisingly looks the other way and joins Spider-man and the Black Cat to fight Motia and her brothers! The Rhino may also surprise you in some scenes. That was a surprise and let me tell you. This book contains a lot of surprises that are very unexpected. Especially in the final battle. As I said above this book has a mystery type of feeling to it. Spider-man does not face off with the villains in every single chapter. Instead he and the Black Cat with a bit of MJ's help try to figure out who and what these ancients (at they call themselves) want and how to beat them.

Whist finding out hard information the story contains more than one story (does that make sense?) Peter is married to MJ and they are at first living the dream - despite Peter having his duties as Spider-man. MJ becomes jealous when Peter teams up with Felicia but continues to stick encouragingly beside Peter's side while Felicia and MJ have their own friendship and don't exactly get on with one another. At first anyway. Another small added story in this book is about a typical scruffy teenager who is having problems of his own at home, school etc and Peter tries hard to help him, whist dealing with a troubled wife and ancients that want him dead. The final battle was a real show down and went on and on but it was cool at the same time, though a bit violent but nothing too bad. Spider-man is damaged badly and goes though a lot more pain that he would usually.

This is a great book and I definitely recommend it. I only rate it four stars because there are some things I don't understand (hard words mostly!) and I didn't like a few scenes (only one or two) but apart from that this is a fantastic read. Not for young viewers though. Other characters such as Strange, Wong, Dex and other characters also make small appearances

Spider-Man: Coming Home was simply one of the most enjoyable stories I ever read. J. Michael Straczynski introduced such freshness and a new outlook on the lives of both Peter Parker and his alter-ego, by introducing new concepts regarding Spidey's origin, making Peter a high-school teacher to help kids where his alter-ego can't, an awesome new villain called Morlun, a sense of realism and first-class, new humour to the stories.

In the main continuity of Marvel Comics, follow ups consisted of the Ezekiel saga and The Other: Evolve or Die. But there was a lot of stuff that we still didn't know about Morlun. And that's where this novel comes in.

Spider-Man: The Darkest Hours takes place sometime after the end of the Ezekiel saga but before the events of The Other. And this is the point where Peter Parker's life is going great and trouble is naturally just around the corner. Or rather corners. The Rhino is back in town to cause havoc, the Black Cat is also back (to MJ's dismay) and Morlun's relatives have turned up, coming after Spidey for vengeance and a snack.

Unlike Spider-Man novels of the past, The Darkest Hours doesn't have an `adventure' feel to it. This is more like a detective novel, with Spider-Man and the Black Cat extensively researching the lethal race of the Ancients (to which Morlun and his relatives belong) in order to find out how to stop it before it's too late, but that's very good. It makes a nice change from the usual format of `Wham-bam! Stopping the evil supervillain and his diabolical scheme' and also provides a perfect opportunity to extensively cover some great revelations about Morlun and the Ancients.

Unfortunately, The Darkest Hours does suffer from the lack of a real plot, and also suffers because of some lacklustre villains. The Ancients present here, Mortia, Thanis and Malos, are pretty shallow in comparison to Morlun, lacking the qualities that made him so appealing, which is quite odd given that they're all from the same race as he is. You would've fought Jim Butcher could've made them all just as fascinating as JMS had made Morlun. Because Butcher does an absolutely fantastic job with providing an extensive background and history for the Ancients race, writing about their nature, motives, reasons and abilities.

Jim Butcher has done his homework here, and you can tell. Everything that's written here ties in perfectly with what JMS wrote in his stories, and is both faithful and respectful to what he did for Amazing Spider-Man. A secret look at just how big a monster Morlun was (told by his former, long-suffering slave, Dex) also adds more depth and fascination to the character.

What makes this book worthwhile is the writing. Even though this takes place after the end of the Ezekiel saga (and Spidey says it himself that he's done with the totemic possibilities regarding his origin), Butcher has written this novel in a way that allows Morlun and the Ancients to be used outside the Ezekiel saga and still maintain their greatness.

Another quality that Butcher's writing adds is the fact that it's written in first-person. This is Peter Parker telling the story as it happens, and it's simply great to hear in Peter's own words how he feels about the situation he's in. Whenever he's expressing his fear/haunted memories of Morlun, how he's going to survive this mess he's in, describing the action, what he thinks of this and that, and so on, you really do believe that it's Peter Parker speaking to you. His humour, compassion and desperation come across flawlessly.

Character and interaction are everywhere in this story. For instance, Butcher has got all the other supporting characters down to a tee. The Mary Jane/Black Cat interaction is portrayed as it should be, both friends but still somewhat rivals over their love for Peter. Their relationship is also intensified and somewhat resolved because of the events that happen here, making for great moments that are not in the least bit irritating.

The Spider-Man/Black Cat team-up and friendship has also been perfectly captured, and the guest appearance of Doctor Strange is justified by what goes on here and ergo, most welcome. One of the most pleasantly, surprising things about The Darkest Hours is the Rhino. While one of the elite in the wall-crawler's rogues' gallery, and a favourite of mine, I don't recall the Rhino being written this well before. He plays an important role in the story and you really come to sympathise with him over what happens to him, why he became a criminal and what it cost him. His interactions with Spidey, MJ and the Black Cat are also superbly done.

The fights are well written and full of realism, there are some quite shocking twists, and ala JMS, the author also writes some nice sub-plots for Peter Parker's life, such as helping a student at school, and MJ acting in a new play. It's similar, but different from what we've seen in the comics, therefore adding a great touch that all in all, helps build toward a satisfying conclusion.

While Spider-Man: The Darkest Hours cannot be called a perfect novel, it is nonetheless a novel of exceptionally high quality. It's a real treat to read because it has almost everything a great Spidey story needs. Characterisation, interaction and revelation. Highly recommended.

I have given this book a 5 star rating, however, feel a little bad for doing so. I purchased this book purely because I am Jim Butcher fan. Don't get me wrong, I love the Spiderman films but have never read any of the other novels or the comics. So while I enjoyed this book immensely I have nothing in the Spiderman written world to compare it to.

That being said, I have not read the previous novels yet I know what happened in them, this book while could easily be part of a series can sit alone. The explanation of the previous events leading up to this is seamless in my opinion, often you find yourself reading text explaining previous story elements and it just feels out of place, this did not.

The first person aspect of the books is similar to all the other Butcher books I have read and as always is very well done. A web of elements comes together very nicely to make what I think was an excellent read.

Highly Recommended!