Spider-Woman
The creative team of Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev holds a special place in my heart. Before he went and fucked it all up with the abysmal Secret Invasion storyline, which managed to skew the entire Marvel Universe for a year, Bendis was the man behind the resurgence of one of my all time favorite characters, Daredevil. With the aid of Alex Maleev’s gritty and washed out line work, the world of Hells Kitchen became the playground for one of the most gripping storylines to hit a Marvel character in ages.
When Bendis and Maleev announced they were leaving Daredevil in the hands of a new creative team, I not only mourned their departure but also became really curious as to what they would be doing next. Much to my dismay, it seemed the partnership would be splitting. Bendis, it was announced, was moving to the Avengers to sow the seeds for what would become the Secret Invasion arc. Maleev, it seemed, was simply dropping off the face of the planet, with only a guest shot here and there to satiate my thirst for his fantastic artwork.
Much to my surprise, I got wind a year or so ago that Bendis and Maleev were not split but simply working on a rather ambitious new project to be revealed at a later date. Earlier this year we were finally treated to the fruit of that secret labor in their newest partnership, Spider-Woman. More than just a comic book, this run also attempts to leap into the future of comic books with a motion comic on iTunes. Whether or not it succeeds or not is up to you but I found the results to be well worth the time, if not the cash.
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