And in this corner...the Iron Spider!

Just to be up front about this, I’m not talking about the Steel Spider (who lives in the MC2 Universe) and looks like this and, well, this, but rather, I’m talking about the Iron Spider, who was first introduced in April, 2006 in Amazing Spider-Man Vol 1 529
and last seen (as worn by Peter Parker) in Choosing Sides Vol 1 1 in December 2006.

I don't know about the rest of you Alices, but I really kind of liked that spider-armor, and was very happy that it was brought back in The Initiative Vol 1 3 (as worn by the MVP clones). Although, I do feel it necessary to point out that I was a tad disapointed that the powers taht be chose to refer to it as “Scarlet Spider” because, as far as I’m concerned, Ben Reilly is Scarlet Spider, and his blue & Red sweat suit number is the proper Scarlet Spider outfit.

Still, I was glad to see the suit (if not the name) returned to active duty. Needless to say, I recently acquired a Superhero Squad version of Scarlet, and added (just yesterday), an Iron Spider Superhero Squader.



Now, let me say right up front that this is a wicked-cool toy, and I’m very pleased to have discovered and won purchase of it on ebay, I’m really miffed that whatever toy designer that designed this thoroughly disappointing bit of plastic, did so in such a way so that it is entirely impossible for it to actually stand up unaided. Which of course, is a damn shame. I remember some 20 years ago talking to Tom Brevoort who was the Toy Editor for Marvel.

Yeah, I know, I reacted pretty much the same way — a toy editor? — Well, as he told me, their needed to be someone at marvel who made sure that toys that were designed by third-party licensees accurately portrayed the character they were licensing, I can’t help but to think that has someone like Tom been in place today to have overseen the creation of this toy, he would have said something to the effect “Hey, you’ve done a nice job, but this toy would work much better if it could actually stand up, go back to the drawing board and fix it for me.”

But then again, what do I know, eh?