Spider-Man's Tangled Web Volume 3

Title: Spider-Man's Tangled Web Volume 3

ISBN: 078510951X

Price: $15.99

Publisher/Year: Marvel, 2002

Artist: Duncan Fegredo, Sean Phillips, Guiseppe Camuncoli, Paul Pope, Leandro Fernandez

Writer: Zeb Wells, Ron Zimmerman, Brian Azzarello, Scott Levy, Paul Pope, Daniel Way

Collects: Spider-Man's Tangled Web #12-17

Rating: 3.5/5

Synopsis: Five different stories featuring five different creative teams:

    I was a Teenage Frog-Man - Leap Frog is out of prison and turning over a new leaf, but his son can't take the embarrassment of having a loser former super-villain for a father.  The kids at high school are constantly making fun of him until he takes matters into his own hands - and becomes the new Frog-Man!

    Double Shots - A group villains get together at a super-villain bar and tell stories of their battles with Spidey.  Kraven (the son) and the Vulture tell their stories until Norman Osborn (the Green Goblin) trumps then all with his story.

    The Last Shoot - We get the story of Crusher Hogan before the fateful night he challenged all comers and wound up against a masked teenager who would become Spider-Man.

    The Collaborator - A teenage girl idolizes Spider-Man and gets yelled at by her dad.  She sneaks out and witnesses a new super-villain battle the cops until Spider-Man shows up.  Then she realizes who the new super-villain is - her dad!

    Heartbreaker - Tombstone has a bum ticker and gets sent to prison where he's in danger of having a heart attack at any moment.  The Kangaroo takes a special dislike to him and he may never make it out of prison alive.

The art can be a bit rough, but works with the gritty crime angle to the stories

This third volume of Tangled Web explores the darker side of the street by focusing on Spidey's villains.  It's a refreshing set of gritty stories with surprising appeal and much better than the second (even the first) volume.