On February 25, 2011, Marvel Comics released Spider-Man: A Meal to Die For as a free digital comic. The one-shot issue features an unlikely team-up between Spider-Man and Eli Kirshtein, from the Bravo cooking show Top Chef.
Peter Parker Meets Eli Kirshtein
Spider-Man: A Meal to Die For begins with Peter Parker taking his date Carlie to the taping of a cooking show attended by the cream of New York society. Eli Kirshtein is one of the competing chefs, and Peter and Carlie are about to sample his cooking when Mysterio shows up with a plan to paralyze and rob the audience.
Of course, Peter manages to sneak out, return as Spider-Man, and save the day with Kirshtein's help – the Top Chef uses a range hood fan to vent Mysterio's knockout gas.
Spider-Man: A Meal to Die For is written by Marc Bernadin and illustrated by Mike Henderson, with cover art by Ale Garza and Chris Sotomayor.
Bernardin's script has a few clever jokes, from Spider-Man's trademark battle banter to an obvious Doctor Octopus reference. Henderson's art is a bit rough and expressionistic – for instance, when Kirshtein first introduces himself to Peter and his date, the Chef is so out of scale that his fists could grab the couple's heads like a pair of grapefruits.
How a Top Chef Got Into Comics
Even casual Spider-Fans might scratch their heads at how a celebrity chef ended up in one of their favorite wall-crawler's adventures.
According to Eli Kirshtein, he met Marvel's Senior Vice-President of Creator and Content Developemnt, C.B. Cebulski, on Twitter. “I, on a whim, almost jokingly asked if he could get me into Spider-Man," Kirshtein explained. "With no hesitation he said sure! It’s an amazing honor to be part of the legend that is Spider-Man. It's every kid’s dream!”
So every kid's dream can come true if he becomes a celebrity chef and befriends a senior executive at America's biggest comic-book publisher.
Cebulski stated in a Marvel press release that “The more we explore the similarities between art and food worlds, the more we’ve discovered certain connections between chefs and comics, especially on a creative level." What are these connections? Cebulski never makes clear, though apparently Kirshtein had some input into the story.
Another Unlikely Spider-Man Team-Up
A Meal to Die For is, unfortunately, another in a long line of unlikely team-ups. Spider-Man's meeting with President Obama, for instance, cashed in on Obama's popularity during his 2009 inauguration. The silly kidnapping scheme by the Chameleon, like Mysterio's appearance in A Meal to Die For, was just a way to pad out pages.
Spider-Man: A Meal to Die For is hardly filling fare for serious fans of Marvel's famous web-slinger. Since it's been released for free, though, at least it's not a rip-off. A Meal to Die For is available for download on the Marvel Comics App and on Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited.
Luke Arnott - Luke Arnott has a Master's Degree in Comparative Literature from the University of Western Ontario, where he is currently enrolled in the ...
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