Summary: <br> Can this Peter Parker in High School book recapture Spider-man charm or is it plagued by the old Parker luck?<br> Affiliate link included.<br> Transcript below:<br> Graham: Peter Parker goes back to school. Find out more as we take a look at Spidey, Volume 1: First Day, straight ahead.<br> <br> [Intro Music]<br> Announcer: Welcome to the Classy Comics podcast where we search for the best comics in the universe. From Boise Idaho, here is your host Adam Graham. <br> Graham: Spidey was a series from 2015 that offered some promise for fans weary of One More Day and just the general massive continuity of the Spider-Man series or was just nostalgic for the days with Peter Parker in high school, Spidey would fit the bill. I thought it might be something like Untold Tales of Spider-Man. This was a series from the 1990s that told tales from Spider-Man’s early days back in the 1960s and these were stories that were drawn in that style and intended to be slotted right in to the original continuity but what I found was that Spidey is actually set in the current day. It’s not set in the current timeline of the Marvel Universe as Peter Parker is in high school in current day. So, it’s out of continuity but we’ll go ahead and take a look at the issues.<br> Issue one opens with Spidey battling a young woman in a bunny outfit who’s robbing a bank. Now, I’m not aware of her actually being a marvel supervillain. It just looks like she decided to rob a bank while dressed as a bunny maybe hoping that with so many super villains running around New York City that it would just be assumed by the people the bank well we better do what she says because she probably has powers of some sort but Spiderman’s able to dispatch her even though she does throw a punch at him, a rabbit punch I guess, and Spidey makes some puns such as telling her what’s up doc and says silly rabbit bank robberies are for felons, which I thought was kind of funny if a bit groan inducing. <br> At high school Peter is struggling in history. However, his teacher arranges for him to get tutored by Gwen Stacy, who will be tutored by Peter in science so that she can do better in that subject. It’s a good mutual exchange. However, his efforts to get to Gwen are interrupted by Flash Thompson who does general bullying of him until Gwen punches Flash in the face and knocks him to the ground saying to Peter that I can’t have anyone knock your brains out before I can take advantage of them and I actually have a lot of problems with this scene. Where to start. First of all this isn’t really consistent with Gwen’s character both in punching Flash and in doing so for such mercenary reasons. We don’t really get to know a whole lot about her characterization isn’t all that great in this book or, to be honest, even in Stan Lee’s original writing of Gwen Stacy. In fact, Flash continues to bully Peter and she never does anything about it the rest of the book and it has no impact on Flash or his status in the school or as a bully. So, it’s incredibly pointless, has nothing to do with who the character is. So I think I’ve ranted enough about that scene. <br> Then Doctor Octopus shows up when Peter’s at a lab. They fight in some sort of random quick battle with Doctor Octopus getting away and him warning that he’ll see Peter again and this issue was really not all that focused. <br> Issue two is quite a bit better. The book features Spidey battling Sandman and also the events that lead up to that including Peter being nervous and Aunt May telling him to be himself and he reflects that being himself actually means different things because there are different versions of himself that appear in different situations and it’s an interesting observation and I think they do a good job using it as a narrative device in the story.<br> Issue three focuses on the importance of balance and f...
