This is the place where I discuss all things Sacred and Profane. Stop by and check me out. Leave a comment (or not), as this is done for my own amusement. If you too are entertained, all the better, but that is not the motivation here. For I, am a...Writer with attitude! Comics, Sci Fi, movies, TV, Books, the Internet, Pop Culture, you name it. I talk about all of these things and more. These are the things that entertain me. I can only hope that some of them will entertain you as well.
Stars:Tom
Holland, Zendaya, Mark Ruffalo, Jon Bernthal, Sadie Sink
As we rejoin our intrepid hero, Spider-Man, it has been some
four years that have passed since the events of No Way Home, and
Peter is now an adult living entirely alone in Queens, NY, having voluntarily
erased himself from the lives and memories of those he loves. Given his chosen solitary
life, fighting crime in a New York that no longer knows his name, he's devoted
himself entirely to protecting his city as a full-time Spider-Man. This is
where Peter proves how resourceful he is, Given that no one remembers who he
is, and he is now totally and completely on his own, with no back-up or support
from Stark Industries, he has had to create all of his own tech. Peter has
created his own artificial intelligence assistant E.V. (often referred
phonetically as E.V.I.E. and voiced by actress Naomi Watts).
In his fight against crime in NYC, Spidey has formed an
alliance with NYC Detective Jean DeWolff (Liza Colón-Zayas) with whom he is
connected with not only by phone but an app that alerts each of them to crimes
being committed throughout the city. However,
as the demands on him intensify, and his increased isolation weighs on him, the
pressure sparks a surprising physical evolution that threatens his existence,
even as a strange new pattern of crime gives rise to one of the most powerful
threats he has ever faced.
As the film opens Peter is shown setting up his apartment in
what was essentially a storage unit filled with boxes and junk. He also
monitors the video TikTok postings of his friend Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon) who
has been hanging out and traveling with MJ (Zendaya)—which naturally adds to Peter’s
depression and anxiety). This is followed by what this long-time Spidey fan can
describe as the most amazingly spectacular footage of Spidey swinging through
the steel and glass canyons of midtown Manhattan. All of which is interspersed
with Spidey taking down an impressive array of his rogues’ gallery, including
(but not limited to) Scorpion, Tarantula, Tombstone, Boomerang, and Ramrod. He
also goes up against several ninjas from The Hand, a traditional Daredevil set
of villains.
Also appearing (and having a major presence in this film) is
the organization Damage Control. In the comics, Damage Control is a private business
that is tasked with repairing damage created during battles between Marvel
heroes and villains. Here in the MCU the group has been transformed into a paramilitary/quasi-governmental
establishment tasked with capturing and housing super-criminals. As the film
kicks into high gear, there is a massive tank blowing through the streets of
the city heading towards the Damage Control building.
As Spidey is swinging down the streets avoiding machinegun
and rock fire, he runs afoul (and over) by The Punisher’s (Jon Bernthal) van.
This results in an exchange between the pair (who obviously know each other as
revealed by Spidey about an interaction they had on Staten Island, where Spidey
saved Frank Castle’s life). Spider-Man manages to stall Punisher, and follows
the tank to the Damage Control building where it crashed through the side of
the building.
Once inside this sets off an amazingly cool chase sequence
where the driver of the tank is revealed as an elderly woman, only we
immediately see that she isn’t so much the driver of the tank, as simply as
someone who is being possessed by somebody else. As soon as she is discovered, the
entity begins jumping from person to person as they race through the building
to get to the rooftop were Damage Control cops are loading Scorpion into a helicopter,
escaping the chasing Spider-Man.
From here we follow Peter through the film as he works his
way through the mystery of who the entity is (you may already know, but I’m not
going to reveal that here), tries to protect MJ from the entity, deals with
Frank (and his murderous tendencies), recapture Scorpion, reconnect with MJ &
Ned, and deal with his own evolving physiology. To do this last part he reaches
out to Dr. Banner, who is now a teaching professor at Empire State University.
To deal with the entity and scorpion, he connects with Yelena Belova (Florence
Pugh) who is now going by Black Widow.
Throughout all of this we gain a real connection with Peter
and his struggles to live in a world that no longer knows who he is, including his
best friend and (more tragically) the love of his life, who knows she is
missing something, but is wholly unable to understand quite what that thing is.
All of which gives us, the viewing audience, something that is more than just “another
superhero punch-em’-up), but a fully functioning, completely fleshed out story beautifully
panted across a two-and-a-half-hour film that is full of equal parts
sentimental emotional highs and lows, and several high-octane fight sequences each
designed to bring thrills, chills, heartfelt emotions, as well as an thoroughly
enjoyable experience.
So, yeah, not only is this a most amazing cinematic
experience, it is the best Spider-Man film created to date (yes, even better
than the first Spider-Man film with Tobey Maguire (which I waited
some 10 years from it’s announcement to debut) and yes even better than Spider-Man:
No Way Home which was stunningly brilliant. This film is the whole
package, and it is really that good. I remember when the first Spider-Man film
came out and it help kick off a golden era of superhero films. Hopefully, this
film will re-kickstart a new golden era, of superhero films as we head over the
next three years including Clayface (October 23, 2026), Avengers:
Doomsday (December 18, 2026), Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse
(June 18,) 2027), Man of Tomorrow
(July 9, 2027), Avengers: Secret Wars (December 17, 2027), The
Batman 2 (February 18, 2028), and Dynamic Duo (June 30,
2028), Black Panther 3 - December 15, 2028.
Oh before I go, I do want to reveal two non-spoiler, very
cool Easter eggs I saw in the film (I’m sure there are more). One is There is a
scene where The Hulk is chasing Spidey down a hallway that is reminiscent of
Him chasing Black Widow through the Helicarrier in the first Avengers film. The
second isn’t so much an MCU reference as it is a film reference. There is a
shot of Spidey and MJ on the roof of a building with the lit-up Silvercup sign,
that seems to be a call-back to the first Highlander film. Both very cool.
With the release of Captain America: New World Order, We —
as a comicbook aficionado, historian, journalist, and creator for over 60 years
— have been repeatedly asked by several of our non-comics friends and family this
very same question, “Wait, why is the Hulk red? (and when did he become red?)” Well
funny story about all that, this didn’t just happen with this film, but the seeds
of which were planted way back before the creation of the Marvel Universe. Back
then, Marvel was still mostly Westerns and Monster comics. Before the
introduction of the character we now know as the Hulk, there was another “Hulk”,
In Journey Into Mystery #62 (1960) the psychic predator,
Xemnu, created by Stan Lee and Larry Lieber, and was referred to as "the
Hulk" before Bruce Banner's version even existed. Then, later in ’62
When Banner came on the scene, he transformed into a gray Hulk, but we’ll get
to that in a minute, first, we want to talk about Chris Giarrusso and a strip
he created called Bullpen Bits (which later evolved into Mini Marvels) that ran on the Bullpen Bulletin Pages in Marvel
comics beginning in 1999. (Oh, if you want to know what I think of the actual Captain America film check out my review, over here).
We
mention Chris because it was in his strip with little cartoon characters of the
various Marvel characters (Giarrusso described it as Marvel done “Peanuts
style” doing silly things. According to Chris it was in 2008 that Jeph
Loeb and Ed McGuinness created the Red Hulk in the regular Marvel Universe. later Paul Tobin, Sean McKeever, and Marc
Sumerak, each contributed to the Mini Marvels run of stories. Later on, Jeph’s
daughter, Audrey, while in high school, got the gig writing the Mini Hulks
strip soon after with art by me. It was a Mini Marvel adaptation of an already
existing character. Neither Chris or Audrey had any hand in the creation of Red
Hulk. but it was Audrey's idea to include a Blue Hulk, which was unique
to the strip. The Mini Marvels
strip eventually graduating into a series of full-sized one-shot comics and trade
paperbacks.
In
addition to the regular Marvel characters that were being spoofed in that strip,
Audrey, Chris Giarrusso and later Paul Tobin, Sean McKeever, and Marc Sumerak, all
contributed to the Mini Marvels run of stories. Needless to say, the very
concept of different colored Hulks apparently garnered enough traction amongst the
Marvel staff that they made their way into the mainstream Marvel books. Still, it
is important to understand that when Hulk first appeared in Incredible Hulk
#1 (1962) co-created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby he was in fact gray. According to
Marvel Lore, when that book appeared in print the actual coloring process of comics
wasn’t sophisticated enough to maintain the same gray hue throughout (causing the
Hulk to range in color from light to dark gray, to purple to blue to green, so the
decision was made to color him green going forward).
Thus,
it wasn’t until the second issue that the Hulk appeared as “normal” green self (Incredible
Hulk #2, May 1962). Therefore, it was a green Hulk that existed in comics
(with him later appearing from 1977–1982 on our TV screens in the form of Lou Ferrigno
(with Bill Bixby portraying his alter ego of David Bruce Banner. Then, back in the
comicbooks, in February of 1980, Bruce Banner’s Cousin, Jennifer Walters, was involved
in a near fatal accident and received a transfusion of Bruce’s irradiated blood
which transformed her into the Savage She-Hulk. (In 2022 She Hulk also got her own
TV series on Disney+ with
Tatiana Maslany as Jennifer and Malia Arrayah She-Hulk.
Interestingly
enough, when the series was announced there were some conservative newsreaders who
bemoaned the “Woke agenda” of a female hulk, without realizing that the character
had been created some 40 years earlier, and not so much as an attempt to create
a progressive character, but as a way for Marvel to protect their copyright on the
name “Hulk” as a superhero.) In fact, during the run of The Incredible Hulk TV series,
in a recorded interview, a journalist even asked Bill Bixby if there had been any
talk of a female Hulk showing up, which Bixby thought was a good idea, but never
actually occurred in the show.
Back
in the Marvel comics, in 2015 the character, Amadeus Cho, also became a green Hulk,
(The Totally Awesome Hulk #1), after being exposed to a concentrated
dose of gamma radiation while attempting to save his friends from a villainous attack,
essentially mirroring the origin story of Bruce Banner, this radiation triggered
a similar transformation within Cho’s body, allowing him to turn into a powerful,
green Hulk-like form. Two other gamma-irradiated characters (villains, actually)
in the Hulk mythos are the Abomination (Emil Blonsky (1967), played by Tim Roth
in The Incredible Hulk, 2008 and She-Hulk ‘22) and The
Leader (Samuel Sterns, 1967) played by Tim Blake Nelson in both The Incredible
Hulk (2008), and Captain America Brave New World (2025)
The
Gray Hulk eventually reappeared in Incredible Hulk #324 (July 1986)
while Peter David was writing the series. In this incarnation, Gray Hulk wasn’t
so much of raging monster, as he was a Vegas crime boss named “Mr. Joe Fixit”. It
wasn’t until the mid-to-late 2000s that Hulks began to take on more of a variety
of rainbow hues. As noted, before, this began in a humorous strip entitled Bullpen
Bits that appeared in various Marvel comics on the Bullpen Bulletins Page, written
by Audrey Loeb, Chris Giarrusso, Marc Sumerak, Sean McKeever, and Paul Tobin (and
which Giarrusso drew) it was in that strip that tiny red and blue Hulks were introduced.
In
January of 2008 Jeph Loeb (Audrey’s father) and Ed McGuinness introduced Red Hulk
in a new volume of Hulk comic. At first the actual identity of Red
Hulk was unknown, but two years after his introduction, he was revealed to be General
Thaddeus E. “Thunderbolt” Ross. (This came as something of a surprise to everyone, as the character of Thunderbolt Ross had been killed some 20 years earlier. No explanation was given for this resurrection. This was, of course, followed in 2009 by the appearance
of Red She-Hulk in Hulk (Vol. 2 #15) who turned out to be General Ross’ daughter,
Betty, who ultimately morphed into Red Harpy (2019 in Immortal Hulk
#16). Betty had been previously transformed into a Green Harpy way back in Incredible
Hulk #168 (July 1973).
Other
Hulks have included a Purple Hulk who first appeared in Avengers #24
(March 2012) created by Brian Michael Bendis and Daniel Acuna, who turned out to
be Norman Osborn (formerly The Green Goblin, one of Spider-Man’s most notorious
foes). Norman was given Super Adaptoid technology which he used to absorb all the powers of the Avengers at once, Hulk included… and nearly killing himself in the process. Outside of the comics, Happy Hogan became a purple Hulk during the events of the What If…? animated series.
While
an Orange Hulk originally appeared as a playable character in the videogame Marvel
vs. Capcom, this Hulk was not given any significance storyline but played
slightly different from the standard Hulk later an Orange Hulk was introduced
to the comics by Rick Remender and Mark Brooks Uncanny X-Force #12
(July 2011). This “Solar Hulk” was from Earth-295 (the Main Marvel Earth is 616).
Orange Hulk seems to have gained his powers from solar radiation in the same
way that Bruce Banner traditionally gained his through gamma radiation. It is
also implied that he is stronger during daylight hours.
Blue
Hulk who became Captain Universe in Incredible Hulk #1 (November 2005)
was created by Jay Faerber and Carlos Magno. However, someone else who could
well deserve the title of the Blue Hulk is Rick Jones. When Rick was
exposed to gamma radiation by the Intelligencia in Hulk (Vol. 2) #2, he became a new
type of Abomination, christening himself the ‘A-Bomb’ Hulk. As to why he became blue instead of green, it was assumed that since the Gamma radiation had been combined with other forms of radiation, it altered his skin tone to blue rather than green. He was later cured of the radiation and returned to his human form.
There
was also a Brown Hulk who first appeared in The Incredible Hulk (Vol.
2 #13, February 2000). This “Devil Hulk” (which was created by Paul Jenkins and
Ron Garney was actually less of a physical monster and more of an inner demon for
Bruce Banner to wrestle with intellectually rather than physically.
Then
there was a Black Hulk from Avengers & X-Men: AXIS #4 (November
2014) by Rick Remender and Leinil Francis Yu who was the character Kluh (this Hulk
was linked to yet another incarnation of a greenish, deformed Hulk, referred to
as “Guilt Hulk” who was just one of several split personalities of Banner formed
by his abuse by his father Brian Banner.
Next
is Yellow Hulk (this one enhanced by the villainous scientific group A.I.M.) who was introduced in Matthew K. Manning and Marcio Fiorito’s
Marvel Action:
Avengers #9 in 2018. The Yellow Hulk is a result of the godlike Nightmare
messing with Captain America’s mind. Nightmare brought Steve Rogers’ nightmares
to life, creating a pocket reality where his Avengers allies had been corrupted
by the terrorist group Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M.) The Yellow Hulk is
seemingly identical to the Savage Hulk in power and personality, but now A.I.M.’s
signature shade of yellow.
Apparently, there is also another individual who is a yellow
Hulk, and that is Jackson Lenard who is a character created by the gaming
company Legend but eventually used in the Marvel Universe. He is a friend of
Dr. Banners who was trying to find a cure for the Hulk but was turned into one himself!
Silver Hulk (otherwise known
as Galactus’ Herald was designed by Ron Lim, and appeared in the one-shot comic
What If...?
Galactus Transformed Hulk? #1 (2025). The story sees Galactus choosing Bruce Banner
as his new herald, imbuing him with the Power Cosmic.
Finally, there is actually
a White Hulk (a Hulk clone) which appeared in James Kochalka’s story Hulk Squad,
Smash! from Strange Tales Volume 5 #1, (September 2, 2009). The White Hulk was essentially
written as a joke character in the anthology of weird and wild stories. Needless
to say, given the nature of Marvel’s multiverse it means this character does officially exist in Marvel
canon, and he’s described as part ofa team of
experimental Hulk clones created by the government.
Actually,
there is “technically” one more Hulk-like character, and that is a “Skin-Tone Hulk”
(Doc Samson), a psychiatrist who attempted to steal Hulk’s powers. While Samson
became incredibly muscular, only his hair turned green. In the past, Bruce Banner
has shown the rare ability to use his Hulk strength when still in human form(see Bruce Jones and Mike
Deodato’s Jr.’s Incredible Hulk Volume 2 #50, 2003), suggesting he too qualifies
for the ‘skin-tone Hulk’ title.
As a postscript to all
of this, our friend, Ray Felix has independently developed a Red Hulk-type
character that he wound up using in his own Bronx Heroes comic series A
World Without Superheroes. That character eventually came to be known
as Rampage. and went on to appear in Bronx Villains #1 from Ray’s production company Bronx Heroes.
I've long had a love of and desire to collect specialty comics. That is to say comics that either contain corporate characters selling or appearing in comics that are sponsored by other companies (not their respective publishers) or comics where the characters are pushing some sort of pro-social cause. Quite a few of these comics have been from Marvel, DC, and Archie, and I have amassed quite a few of them.
Recently I acquired one that came out way back in 2001 for which I had long been searching. Well it arrived the other day and I've just finished reading it, and while I enjoyed it, I do have just one minor beef with it, which I plan on sharing with all'y'all now.
As you can plainly see, the comic in question is Marvel's Wolverine Son of Canada, which was subsidized by Doritos/Lays, and was issued only in Canada. In this comic, native son Wolverine, along with Spider-Man and The Hulk get sucked through a vortex and wind up in The Great White North (where they eventually meet up with Storm, Captain America, Silver Surfer, Thing, and Thor all of whom have been captured by minions of Blastaar).
To cut to the chase, the heroes manage to free their friends, and defeat Blastaar and his minions with relative ease (hey, it's only a 16-page comic with 2 pages of ads). My issue is this. I found a typo (printo, really as it was probably hand lettered). The error came on page two where Wolverine says "This is Vancouver, British Columbia." and Spider-Man responds, "Canada? Where in Canada? which makes no sense as Wolverine just said that they were in Vancouver, British Columbia. Causing me to think that Spidey was supposed to have said "We're in Canada? which would have made much more sense.
(I placed arrows on the art so you could better see what I was talking about above.
Not a big deal, but, honestly, my editor-sense was buzzing.
Having gone through that, I just wanted to add one more image from the comic, which is a shot of Cabot Tower on Signal Hill in Newfoundland, but only because my good buddy Roger Keel lives in Newfoundland, and I thought he might be entertained by its inclusion in the comic.
Well, that's all I have for today, now I have to get back to my real work so I can go catch the last matinee of Captain America New World Order later today.
We all know that Stan Lee is Marvel’s ultimate showman, and that he has appeared in a number of Marvel's recent films. Here is a compilation of nearly all of his cameos...
Here is Stan’s “Appearance” in the cartoon Big Hero 6.
Well, for a while now we’ve been complaining about the fact that since Disney bought Marvel Comics there seems to have been no Marvel movie toy tie-ins with any fast food restaurant. It has long been our opinion that Disney is leery of they “Your food made my kid fat” mantra of some folk, and have thus cut back on this form of marketing. Another theory is that as the Avenger films are not necessarily deemed as "kid fare" Disney has simply opted not to pitch to fast food chains (mot very likely due to all of the other kid-friendly items out there in the marketplace).
Well, while we are still looking for Marvel Movie/fast food figures and toys, we did recently see that Subway is issuing a bunch of Avenger tie-ins to go with the new Ultron film. The “toys” are actually a group of six cardboard fold-out figures that require assembling, and look rather cool.
There is also a drink cup with a code on it that is redeemable for prizes on the Subway website.
Oh, and here is the Poster for the promotion.
Sunday, April 12, 2015
OK Kids, here it is, the final trailer for the upcoming (May 1 — Free Comic Book Day) Avengers film
Apparently these items were sent to Kevin Smith who spends part of his time on his AMC TV program, Comicbook Men. They are presented here without comment.
