The existence of this miniseries alone seems remarkable since it is such
a bizarre story with such psychedelic art.  But, I think that it’s
great that, for whatever reason, Marvel published Brendan McCarthy’s
trippy Spider-Man/Dr. Strange story.  This second issue had some amazing
full-page spreads of Dr. Strange in a weird rubber-ducky boat, and the
hallucinatory narrative of Spider-Man discovering his own spider-essence
is refreshingly weird.  The story is pretty loose.  I’m not at all sure
why Spider-Man needs to do battle with a fly.  But, I don’t think that
this comic is about logical narrative structure; instead, it is a highly
visual fever dream.

I have really enjoyed the recent issues of Amazing Spider-Man, but
Spider-Man Fever offers an alternative to the slick, tech-savvy style
that seems to permeate not just Amazing Spider-Man but other Marvel
titles such as the Fantastic Four.  This issue feels like a throwback to
the pleasingly disjointed and downright bizarre narratives in Jack
Kirby’s Fourth World books or Gary Panter’s Jimbo in Purgatory.  I love
it.  The only thing that I didn’t like about this issue is that it will
be followed by the third and final installment in the miniseries.