Spider-Man: Wanted: Dead or Alive

Marvel Berkley/Byron Preiss Productions Prose Novels

by Craig Shaw Gardner

Tyler Stewart, a wealthy businessman seeking to take over New York City's crime syndicates and put his own man in the mayor's office, frames Spider-Man for a grisly murder

Genres: Fiction, Spider Man, Marvel, Superheroes, Science Fiction, Comics, Audiobook

320 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Craig Shaw Gardner was born in Rochester, New York and lived there until 1967, when he moved to Boston, MA to attend Boston University. He graduated from Boston University with a Bachelor's of Science degree in Broadcasting and Film. He has continued to reside in Boston since that time.

He published his first story in 1977 while he held a number of jobs: shipper/receiver for a men's suit manufacturer, working in hospital public relations, running a stat camera, and also managed of a couple of bookstores: The Million Year Picnic and Science Fantasy Bookstore.

As of 1987 he became a full time writer, and since then he has published more than 30 novels and more than 50 short stories.

He also published under these pseudonyms:

Peter Garrison

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spider-Man is blamed for a murder that he didn't commit, just when he's needed the most... It's not a bad book, the story is fine, but the writing seems a little rushed. The characters are handled well, but it's nothing we haven't already seen. 'Nuff said.

[D.M. Dutcher · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's a Spider-man book. Who reads these and needs a review on them?

Anyways, Spidey gets in trouble when a bystander gets hurt during a fight. Meanwhile there's an anti-super politician on the rise, and Electro and the Rhino are out and about. Is the mob backing the anti-hero candidate? Will Spidey get framed for something he didn't do?

The ending is stupid,and insults your intelligence even for superhero books. The writing is meh-it works, and Gardner gets the characters all right, although he uses normal humans a bit too much in this novel. But it's a licensed book, and there's only so much you can do with them. It's the literary equivalent of instant noodles-break it open, and you know what you are going to get, even if it tasteless.

[Alex Ricard · Rating 3 out of 5]

A super-billionaire real estate mogul with extensive mafia connections is using shadow money to fund a xenophobic, reactionary political candidate who wants to "Take Our City Back" and "Make it Great Again". Sound familiar?

If anything, the connections are alarmingly explicit. The corrupt real estate celebrity mogul is directly compared to Donald Trump within the text of this book - and it's from the 90s!

Novels based on superhero properties, by rule, are generally mediocre. This is an enjoyable, snappy read, but it's no different. Spidey is Spidey, Electro and Rhino take entertaining enough turns, but the real heart of this book is the most realistic element: the heroic efforts of reporters to expose the kind of evil that superhero vigilantes never could. And that's worth something.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's good, it's just after a while I got bored.

[Neil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, this was a fun book to read; I am sure I read it when it first came out but am not certain. It moved at a fast pace; I enjoyed the supporting cast of characters. The character development was decent (in that some of the characters acted in positive ways I had not seen them act before, which surprised me and I took to be a good thing). The "super hero stuff" is so-so, I supposed. It is not the first time that Spider-Man has been declared "Public Enemy #1" and hunted by the police. I am not sure what I expected when I started reading it, other than hoping I would be entertained as some of the Marvel prose novels written during the late 90s were pretty bad. The artwork before each chapter was pretty hit-and-miss for me; some of it was pretty good and other stuff I did not care for (but it is still far better than what I can do, in any case).

The premise is somewhat interesting: during an election year for NYC Mayor, a bystander is wounded because of Spider-Man's "grandstanding" while taking down a group of bank robbers; shortly thereafter, he is framed for the murder of the campaign manager of the leading candidate running for mayor. In an interesting twist, it is not Spider-Man who clears his own name but his wife (at the time), Mary Jane Watson-Parker, and an old girlfriend, Betty Brant.

The dust jacket is a bit amusing and misleading; it implies that Electro and Rhino complicate matters for Spider-Man as he tries to clear his name of being accused of murder, but I felt that was not truly the case. It was more of a "how do I capture Electro but not get arrested while trying to clear my name?" kind of a thing, and Rhino really does not play much of a part in the book. I figured there would be some "huge battle royale" between Electro, Spider-Man, and the Rhino, but that did not turn out to be the case. Electro essentially takes himself out, allowing Spider-Man to web him up and take him to the police's "super hero task force unit," Code-Blue (who was pretty prominent in the comics around that time). Rhino is hired by the new wannabe kingpin but ends up spending most of the book sitting around in a fleabag motel doing nothing.

It was interesting seeing Peter working with Ben Urich and Betty Brant to try and get the information needed to clear his name (like how the murdered man related to both the mayoral candidate, Brian Timilty, and the new kingpin of crime, Tyler Stewart. The book probably focused more on Peter and his friends working the case than it did Spider-Man, which was fine, if not rather different than other Spider-Man books.

The ending felt really rushed to me. I thought Electro had a pretty good plan; he just went a little nuts at the end and was not able to pull it off (i.e. - blackmailing NYC for $1,000,0000,000 so that he would not shut off the city's water supply). Instead of taking matters into his own hands, he sabotaged himself by relying upon help from Tyler Stewart, followed by Spider-Man's intervention causing Electro to effectively defeat himself. (The constant comments about how his body generating electricity had fried his brain were pretty funny, to be honest; they were creative snarky remarks that I felt fit well with the overall tone of the story.) However, after his plan went haywire (after being betrayed by Tyler Stewart), the book rushed to a conclusion. Tyler Stewart has to be confronted then arrested. A key witness comes forward with the necessary proof to clear Spider-Man's name as well as put the perp behind bars. In fact, the last "chapter" of the book felt more like a brief summary of what went down after Tyler Stewart was arrested. Other than a brief blurb on the news, the Rhino barely shows up in the book; the author periodically makes a comment about him to remind the reader that the Rhino is waiting in the shadows, as it were, but that is about it. He even assists Spider-Man at the end of the book, of all things! I did not see that one coming!

While I thought Electro had a good plan, I did not believe it would have gone down the way it did. His threatening the entire city like he did should have grabbed the attention of the Avengers and/or the Fantastic Four. He was threatening the entire city by cutting off their water supply. That is some pretty serious stuff! Unless the two teams (and any other "super hero teams") were "out-of-town" for some reason (which is never said in the book), they should have gotten involved and made short work of this wannabe "criminal mastermind." That part of the book was pretty anticlimactic; in fact, how the whole situation resolves itself is pretty anticlimactic. It was pretty disappointing.

This story takes place about eight years before Marvel Comics did their Civil War storyline, but it was really interesting how similar some elements in this book were to that storyline. In the comics, it is a team of youngish super heroes who are grandstanding while trying to take down some criminals they consider "D-listers" or worse on their reality TV show when it literally blows up in their faces and over six hundred people die from their actions. Peter sets up a camera to take pictures of his taking down four heavily-armed bank robbers amidst a crowd of onlookers. Instead of taking them down quickly, he goofs around and makes a "spectacle" of it, encouraging one of the onlookers to "help" Spider-Man when no help was needed. The man is shot in the head and ends up in a coma for the rest of the story. So it was really interesting to see the similarities of the two stories, how the grandstanding of the New Warriors and Spider-Man both ended with casualties taking place (granted, the consequences were more serious after the New Warriors' "incident"). Both were filming their actions to raise money; both Spider-Man and the New Warriors were goofing off and not taking things seriously enough. In Spider-Man's case, the call is for super heroes to be banned from NYC; in the comics storyline, a new law is passed (the "Superhero Registration Act") requiring all people with special powers and abilities to register with the government or be incarcerated.

It is somewhat funny how the author has Mary Jane and Betty talking about "how charming" "Fast" Anthony Davis (Electro's "assistant"/henchman) sounds, despite their discovering he has had and still has numerous girlfriends and the numerous hurt ex-girlfriends. I laughed at one of them saying, "He certainly sounds charming, and I haven't even met him!" to the other. I was pretty surprised by that, to be honest.

It felt like the author had some good ideas, especially regarding Peter's poor choices in the start of the novel and the subsequent consequences of his actions. I think I would have liked to have seen the author take those things, those ideas, a bit further. On the one hand, it was really "weird" seeing how Peter handled this consequence, this innocent bystander being shot in the head. In other books by other author's, he probably have already castrated himself, then offered himself up to being drawn-and-quartered before being crucified and then burned alive at the stake. This has to be one of the few books I have read where he is not constantly flagellating himself over the course of the entire book. Instead, he sets his mind to correcting the error of his ways and seeks to mend his ways, to be more responsible, which usually does not quite happen in his comics or other books (at least not without an unhealthy does of of self-recrimination and moroseness along the way). It was nice to see Peter behaving this way, of taking an "aggressive, positive" approach as opposed to the depressing, self-defeating, deprecating behavior he usually engages in.

It was an interesting plot device to have a criminal come across Peter's camera twice during a crime taking place. The first time "Fast" Anthony Davis sees a camera hanging outside of a window, he is surprised to see it there and wonders if Spider-Man is trying to make money by taking pictures of himself taking down the villains. The following day, he sees a picture clearly taken from the window but with the byline of Peter Parker being the photographer. The next time he is at a crime scene, he begins to look for the camera and finds it. He takes some pictures with it to make it look like Spider-Man killed Timilty's campaign manager before dropping the camera off at the Daily Bugle. This was a plot thread I felt the author should have developed more, because of the strong relationship it clearly implies between Spider-Man and Peter Parker, that they clearly have some kind of working relationship. Usually Spider-Man webs the camera up in a spot that it cannot be reached even if it is seen, so to have it put in place twice for somebody to "easily find it" did seem a little contrived, but the author really should have taken it further, because it could really have caused some issues for the hero and his alter-ego. As it was, it felt like it was dropped a little too early.

Also, the way Spider-Man's camera usually works, he has it set up to take pictures automatically. I don't know the features of the camera MJ gave him as a gift that he was taking "on patrol" with him, but I would have thought the camera would have taken some other incriminating shots of what was going on in the warehouse before Timilty's manager was murdered. The way the story is written, it implies only the one picture was taken, and that was by "Fast" Anthony in order to frame Spider-Man. What about the other pictures that would have been taken beforehand? Before he is attacked by Stewart's goons, he had set his camera up to take pictures. It should have been taking pictures before the murder took place, so there should also have been evidence that incriminated Timilty and Stewart while exonerating Spider-Man on the roll developed by the Daily Bugle on behalf of Peter Parker. Bit of a mistake, there, that the editor should have caught.

I loved that it was more MJ and Betty Brant working together that cleared Spider-Man's "good name" than it was any actions of Peter Parker. It was a nice touch, and hit helped put both MJ and Betty in a better light in my book.

I also was surprised by the Rhino. I thought the author's take on him was rather interesting. The author describes how the Rhino was actually willing and happy to go to the Vault or whatever other SuperMax prison they were taking him to; he really did not want to be "rescued" by Stewart's henchmen. I was also surprised at his helping Spider-Man in the end as opposed to the two of them fighting a huge battle. It as quite a change of pace! I would say the Rhino probably had the most character development over the course of the novel, and I loved it!

As I said, overall, it was a fast, fun book to read. While it did seem to focus more on Peter Parker and his "supporting cast" than Spider-Man, I found myself enjoying it far more than I thought I would despite some of the errors in logic made in the story, which is always a good thing.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best that can be said about this Spidey-tale is that it wastes no time getting from A to Z, establishing a strong cast of main characters and throwing in some amusing Easter Eggs and nods (Detectives Logan and Briscoe show up yet again in a Marvel novel- Dick Wolf should be getting royalties!) as Peter Parker is grilled for his possible involvement in a coldblooded murder...seemingly committed by none other than Spider-Man!



PS I just wonder who exactly Max "Mr. Money" Stewart could have been based on...?

[Esther · Rating 1 out of 5]

Uninteresting, monotonous, no chemistry and no sparks. I don't mind when plots are predictable, but when they're also not fun to read then it's just tedious, such as this book. Only two redeeming qualities is Bob Hall's artwork (the illustrations are great! His MJ in a leather jacket and holding a trashcan lid ready to smash a guy with it was my favorite.) and the book's attempt at involving the Rhino as not just a villainous dumb brute, but his appearances were very few. Thought when the plot thread was introduced that he would be involved way more, but he then stayed pretty much off-screen until the last chapters. Wouldn't surprise me if he initially was written to be a bigger part of the story, but had to be cut because of page number requirements or because of something else in the editing process, which is a shame.

Also, this line is the worst line I've read in a long, long while: "You didn't need super powers to succeed in New York. You just need a super brain."

Just wow.

[Terry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spider-Man truly shines when he is up against the ropes and this is no exception. Even when hard choices come in he always goes for what is better for everyone and doesn't think of the consequences to himself.

[Eric Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was handy but not the greatest read. The characters were boring. The story jad a plug and play template feeling. The story though had potential just not enough.

[Robert Gotschall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty ok.

[J.B. Mathias · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I've overall been enjoying superhero prose novels lately this one fell flat for me. The writing was very pulpy...not bad but it's just there to tell you the story and nothing else, which is to be expected.

What wasn't expected was that the overwhelming majority of the book was focused on politics...it was written like a thriller but the author spent so much time from the villains perspective there was no mystery...and the villains he focused on were boring and one dimensional...a scumbag politician and the money man behind him. When the plot of the book sounded lackluster I thought the inclusion of Electro and Rhino as characters would add some oomph to the story but they were barely in the story at all. Electro comes in at the end with some half assed plan and Rhino was literally a passenger in the story and didn't do anything.

For most of the story Spiderman isn't doing Spiderman things at all. (spoilers if this story even had enough plot to spoil) He spends most of the story avoiding confrontation because of public opinion being against him... at one point the villain sets up an encounter between Rhino and Spiderman and Peter just decides not to go...and then finally when you think at least at the end we are going to have some big clash after a lackluster encounter with Electro...Rhino is just like nah I'm sad and don't wanna fight...and then the police show up and the story is over thanks mostly to investigative reporting. If you want to focus a story on investigation rather than action fine...but the reader knew everything that was happening right from the beginning so reading about an investigation was painful and tedious. If you want to write a mystery political thriller have some mystery.

It wasn't terrible, I didn't hate reading it there was some stuff in it I liked but it just wasn't a super fun quick read it took me too long to get through because I was bored for too much of it.

[Tyler Vu · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book really just read like a classic Spider-Man cartoon episode. I can imagine this entire plot being in something like the spectacular Spider-Man show. At first I felt like some plot points just kind of never resolved like the civilian in the hospital for example, but to my surprise everything just wrapped up in the end with a resolution which furthers my point in it being a pretty good “Spider-Man episode”. This book took me a long time to read, not because it wasn’t good, but just because I got lazy. I bet if I stuck with reading it consistently and not over the course of many months I would probably have a better time keeping track of characters and what happened previously in the plot. That is completely on me and through no fault of the book. Overall, it was a pretty tame spiderman story and perfectly encapsulates Spider-Man as a character. I even enjoyed some of his quips (towards the end) which is very rare for me in Spider-Man media as writers nowadays don’t try to make him funny anymore and just settle for annoying. There really isn’t much complaint. It was just a pretty standard Spider-Man story. Nothing crazy, but still enjoyable.

[WILLIAM COWHEY · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quick read and I like the premise but the execution was a bit lacking. Most of the dialogue in the book is bad cliches and besides the Rhino I didn’t really like the way the villains were handled. Also felt Spiderman was lacking charm.

[V. Arrow · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was much less quippy than a lot of Spider-Man titles, which I appreciated, and less self-deprecating, too. The plot was a bit convoluted -- Electro and the Rhino both are afterthoughts at best -- but overall this was fun. And I had a good giggle at the detectives being named Briscoe & Logan.

[Steve Howells · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun little read.

[Denise · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun read! Spider-Man doing what he does best!

[Derrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent story, old characters, but new storyline that was different.

[Alexander Keith · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book just left me wanting more. . . but not in a good way. I've thoroughly enjoyed a lot of these marvel novels. But this one felt rushed, and lackluster.

[Jodi Ralston · Rating 2 out of 5]

This Spidey tale started out okay, but it steadily went downhill. The prose wasn't strong--a lot of "Name/he did this" style, which got tedious. The plot dropped into cliche and convenience a lot; at first the fight scenes saved it, but those didn't keep up well throughout. I think the best plot device was Electro and his plan. Rhino didn't have much use in this tale. And the part I was really interested in seeing, the criminal underworld manipulating stuff, was disappointing. The characters were set up to be dangerous and in control, but they kept making mistakes they shouldn't. Though I read this one quickly, it was more because I was getting back into superhero fiction than this work.

Overall, this author's prose was serviceable. And he had ideas, but he didn't really develop them thoroughly or in a convincing way. There was no real depth to characters or plot. I don't think I'd read any other Spidey tale by him unless I was just really hungry for a Spidey tale or I read that his craft improved.

[Ken]

This book is about an incident where spider-man is framed for the death of a person. This story tells his journey of hiding and his quest to find the true killer and redeem his innocence. This book is a great read for those who are interested in marvel comic super heros and exciting edge of your seat action.

[Zachary Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story felt like a Spider-man story - but none of the characters really popped.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

a legitimate novel. A better read than most books

[Steve Hrycak · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a very easy read and told a decent story. That's about all I can ask for in a comic novel.

[Jacob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad, a little lackluster