I've been a fan of the Spider for a long time. The pulps were wll before my time but I've been able to find a number of the paperbacks and also enjoyed the old Eclipse comic series. I was very excited about this all-new graphic novel, especially because it featured the art of one of my 1970's favorite artists Gene Colan. The story was in the seemingly capable hands of Don McGregor, another regular Marvel writer from the 70's and 80's.The story starts out well enough as the Spider is investigating a series of brutal murders which have all been inspired by scenes in popular TV shows of the day. That's right I said TV. Rather than keep the Spider set in the 1930's, mcGregor elects to set his story in modern times and parody the names of popular TV shows such as "The Why Files" and "Tiffany theWerewolf Killer" or some such thing. The fiend behind the murders is called the Slaughterhouse Skeleton (which IS a name right out of the pulps) and he somehow knows the Spider's true identity.Unfortunately the script really bogs down after a strong opening. McGregor seemed to have a good idea but just didn't know how to fill it out and thus we get a couple of good bookends but the middle is slow and tedious and lacks the intesity and terror of the pulp stories. Colan's art is done strictly in pencils and has a gritty, unfinished work that works well with the character, but probably isn't best suited to the more modern setting.