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.
OK Kids, you might already know by now, but the Official Index to the Marvel Universe that I’ve been contributing to for the past three or four years, has finally been canceled. Volume #1 covered Spider-Man, Iron Man, X-Men) I worked on Spidey entries. Volume #2 covered Avengers, Thor, and Captain America (I worked on Thor & Cap). With Volume #3 covering Wolverine, Punisher, & Ghost Rider (I worked on Punisher and Ghost Rider).
Well, with the collecting of the Punisher entries into this bound volume, that's wrap for that series.
Next up is this History of the Marvel Universe comic where I helped frame some of the history.
Hopefully I'll get to do some more work for Marvel soon.
That’s right, kids, Volume #3 of The Official Index to the Marvel Universe (subtitled Wolverine, The Punisher and Ghost Rider). This time out I’m contributing to both The Punisher & Ghost Rider entries.
Yep it is out, issue #11 and (apparently) I’m a contributor (cool, eh?).
Well, what's even cooler is that the writing staff (of which I am a part) has just been informed that we are beginning on Vol #3 of this series, and, yep, I'll be contributing once again to the series.
This time around we will be covering Wolverine, Ghost Rider, and The Punisher. As it stands now, I'll probably be concentrating on the Punisher entries.
OK, so this is the coolest thing (Hey, I’m a Spider-Geek, so yeah, it is the coolest thing). Last week when I stopped in to Magnum Comics in The Bronx to meet Chris Torres, one of the guys at the shop pointed out to me that The Punisher (released April 16, 2004) showed up In Spider Man 2 (June 30, 2004).
Don’t believe me? Then check out this clip.
Now do you think its cool? I thought so. If you want to patch into some other Spider-Man movie trivia, you can go here. Still, I’m quite entertained by the Punisher showing up in Spidey, especially when you consider that the character was originally introduced in the pages of Spider-Man (ASM #129, to be precise).
Yeah, loads of cool stuff going on in the background, if you just know where to look.
As you all know, I’ve been stalking a whole passel of Marvel-related 7-eleven stuff, well, this Saturday, I acquired the four Iron Man cups and two of the Hulk Straws. I was aided and abetted in this endeavor by a pair of friends and fellow CAGers (Liz and Chris — take a bow). Liz purchased the items for me, brought them into the City on her visit to last week’s Big Apple show (which I was supposed to attend, but missed). She then passed the items over to Chris, and I acquired them from Chris when I went to the CAG-NY meeting yesterday.
Actually, now that I see the cool Hulk figures on these straws, I’m looking to see if I can find the third figure-straw. Whelp, Back to ebay, I guess.
Still out on the Horizon (which I purchased on ebay but haven’t yet arrived) are the missing Iron Man Burger King toys, and a set of Iron Man 7-eleven straws. I purchased both recently online, and am simply awaiting them to arrive into my hot little hands. I’m thinking that at the end of the summer when I have all the Summer Superhero food-related toys (those mentioned, plus (hopefully) Batman: Dark Knight, Hellboy, Punisher, Hancock, what-ever), that I’ll pen an article about them that I’ll post to my regularly-schedule fast food toy column on American Antiquities
Well, that's it for now, Perhaps I’ll be back later with some other cool Bon Motts.
That’s right kids, Captain America is dead. Shot dead earlier today by an assassin’s bullet on the steps of a courthouse as he was being brought to answer for his part in Marvel’s recent Civil War Event:
After close to 60 years in print, Marvel Comics has killed off Steve Rogers, A>K.A. Captain America, one of its most famous and beloved superheroes amid an already controversial story line, "Civil War," which is pitting the heroes of Marvel's universe against one another.
(The rest of the above passage can be found, here on CNN.com.
Which of course brings up, a couple of questions, (some of which I posit and answer here) and others which include if Bucky turns down taking over the role of of his mentor by becoming the new Cap (as the Marvel Previews books would have us believe) then who will become the new Cap (hey, the licensing gods must be served, eh?).
A couple of names that have been put up for consideration are well, Cap’s “other” partner Falcon (is America ready for a(nother) Black Cap?), with The Punisher coming in as a close second. Don’t gasp, if you read the last couple of Punisher War Journals, you would see that this is not that far fetched).
Still, that is all off in the (near or distant) future. Today, we all mourn a fallen hero. Captain America is dead. Long live Captain America!
