Will the real Spidey please do what a Spider can! (pretty please)

I just finished reading Ultimate Spider-Man 121. Prior to that, I read Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #38, and in both books the 15-year-old Spider-Man, acted responsibly, intellectually, and heroically, three things that are inexplicably lacking in the post BND-Amazing Spider-Man.

In Marvel Adventures #38, the young Peter used his scientific knowledge to defeat Swarm, and in Ultimate Spider-Man he (in seven short pages) beat the stuffings out of Omega Red (who, I believe, in the Main Marvel Universe has given the X-Men a serious run for their collective monies). Meanwhile, in Amazing, Spidey has let a pair of non-powered street muggers escape, hasn’t had a solid win over a single bad guy, torn his uniform, lost his web shooter, and, well, you get the point.

It isn’t that either of these books are being written brilliantly (which is not to say that they are not being well-written, they are), it is to say that there is way too much editorial interference being exerted on Amazing. What we are seeing in Amazing is a perfect example of the old adage that too many cooks spoil the broth. Management should see this, step back from the mix, and trust the very talented creators that they’ve hired to work their magic.

I realize that this current approach — at its core — is supposed to be a “Back to Basics” approach, but it simply isn’t. It is the worst sort of fixing what ‘ain’t broke. I still say that I would have loved to have experienced a Post-Civil War Marvel Universe where Spidey was on the run. I still feel that we were cheated out of a slam-bang punch-out between Iron Spidey and Iron Man (Stark wouldn’t have had a chance). I still think that Dan Slott’s most amazing “fix” to the Spidey’s identity woes (as depicted in the brilliantly-written Avengers Initiative #7) was inappropriately and cavalierly tossed aside too quickly (although I spoke briefly with Dan at the recent NY Comic Con and he told me that that will still figure largely into what is to come, I can hardly wait).

Finally, lest someone read the above and think that I’m mean-spirited or simply a nay-sayer, that is so not the case. I love this character. I have always had (and still do) a huge fondness for Spider-Man, and I really don’t need him to be written “my” way. I would love for him to grow and evolve as a character. What I object to is that the current editorial team simply won’t allow that to occur. It is as if they that want to see him stuck in some weird 1960 time loop that will simply not allow the character to evolve and achieve his true potential.

I can only hope that editorial and/or management will ultimately see that allowing this travesty of a storyline to end, and let Peter Parker come back from whatever pocket-universe Limbo/Hell in which he is currently trapped. For I know the truth. The Peter Parker I know would NEVER had made a deal with the devil, not to save Aunt May, not to save MJ, not to bring back Gwen from the dead. He is one of the most morally straight characters ever conceived; and the deal with the Mephisto so completely goes against the fundamental core of what drives this character — “With Great Power, comes Great Responsibility” — there is nothing responsible about dealing with the Prince of Lies, for any reason. Ever.

Think I’m wrong? then pick up a copy of Avengers Classic #11, read the back-up story (an encounter between a young Spidey and a newly-revived Captain America) and then tell me I’m wrong. You won’t be able to do so. This short piece is as wonderful a story about Spidey as I’ve ever read, and supports my own personal theory that Spidey is my generation’s Captain America.

The Spider-Fan of the year award goes to...

Hey, I thought I was a serious Spider-Man fan, but even I’m willing to admit that I’m a piker as compared to this guy.





This seems to be real to me, and not a Photoshopped piece. but, who knows?

Bad Funnybook Films

Yeah, yeah, I know it is almost redundant to say “Bad funnybook film,” but Entertainment Weekly has gathered together a list that is undeniable the worst of the worst:



You can check out the list here. If you can come up with others, feel free to ad them.

Love and Capes

A couple of years ago, I discovered a way cool Indie comic entitled Love and Capes. over the past couple of years I’ve managed to snag a couple of issues of the comic due to Free Comic Book Day and have always throughly enjoyed the book.

Well, this past weekend, I managed to run into Tom Zahler the creator/writer/artist of the series at the NY Comic Con. As I was able to tell by the type of book he creates he was a very nice guy, and we got to chat for a couple of minutes. While I was there I acquired a copy of his lovely book and yep, I enjoyed that one as well.

Tom is writing what is ostensibly a cross between a superhero book and a romance book, cast as if it were a TV SitCom. The series is a really wonderful slant on superhero life all done up in a unique perspective. The series centers around The Crusader (Mark Spencer), a Superman-like character (hiding out as an accountant in the “real” world, and his interactions with his girlfriend Abby Tennyson. All of the other superheroes and supervillains in his world are all essentially modeled after mainstream characters from the DC and Marvel universes. However, we don’t so much get to see the superheroics of that world as much as we get to read about the lives that they all lead.

Back in the ‘80s I had a conversation with Keith Giffin who expounded on how The Justice League could be made for TV. His concept was to treat it as if it were the TV show, Barney Miller. That is to say, the JLA would simply never leave their HQ. Whenever it came time for them to catch the bad guys they would exit the stage, have their superheroic fight off-camera, and then return with the bad guys in cuffs. (he then hilariously detailed how Flash and Hawkman would go to capture Mr. Freeze, only to return with Flash frozen in a block of Ice and being wheeled in with a hand truck “Put him over in the corner by the heater until he melts”).

Zahler writes Love and Capes just like that. Sure we get to see some superheroic stuff, but this is mostly like reading Terry Moore’s Strangers In Paradise. it is all “relationshipy” (not that there is anything wrong with that).

The series is light-hearted, delightful, and way more fun than I’ve had in comics since the start of Back In Black. So, as you can tell, I’m really enjoying this series, and I wanted to tell everyone that they should deluge Tom’s site to purchase back issues. I love all of his delightful “insider” references (like the Ditko hands bit in the right).

The thing that made me pick up the comic initially (besides the whole “Free Comic Book Day” thing, was that the issue that I recall picking up first had “The Arachnerd” in it. Obviously the character is Tom’s take on Spidey, so you had me right there. Needless to say, I came for the Spidey spoof, and stayed for the wonderful story,and I’m not at all sorry that I did. Now I just need to acquire more copies of it for myself.

Who watches the Watchmen?

Now I’m as big a fan of Alan Moore’s Watchmen as is anyone, and I’ve been looking forward to the prospect of a Watchman-themed movie for like a decade or two, so when I saw this way-cool link, I thought it was fun, and interesting, and wanted to pass it along to all of you folks.

It seems that Zack Snyder, director of the upcoming movie adaptation of the wildly popular comic, is inviting you to create a advertisement for a fake product — if it’s good enough, it could make its way into the movie.



So, as video is a bit out of my league, I figure I’d turn this over to all of you.

Knock ‘em out!

Quit Monkying around with my heroes

First they were heroes, then we wondered “What I..” Next up we saw them as zombies, now apes? that’s right, Apes. No, this is not DC from the wild wacky ‘60s where they loved apes to death (ours, not theirs). Sure, sure Gorilla Grodd was fun and all, but I can’t help but to think that what set Marvel apart from DC is that while DC was filling their pages with silly “comicbookie” kinds of things, Marvel was setting their heroes in the real world and giving them real problems.

Now the reverse seems true. While I’m not entirely sure what is going on over at DC, we are getting stuff like this...

Simian Superheroes Coming to Comics With Marvel Apes

Marvel Comics will soon publish Marvel Apes, a mini-series set in a universe where heroes like Iron Man and Wolverine are hairier, toothier and infinitely more likely to check each other for body lice.

(via Underwire)

All of which brings me back to my original question. With all of the alternate Earths floating around the Marvel Universe these days, why did they have to go and screw around with the Mainstream Spidey? Wouldn’t have been simpler to have just spun a new Spidey off (resurrect Scarlet Spider, perhaps? Stan Knows that he still has plenty of fans and supporters!)

Ah well what do I know?

I just flew in from Chicago...

...and boy are my arms tired!

Yeah, yeah. I know that it is a hackneyed old line, but I’m a hackneyed old man it actually does apply. You see, I was not here all last week as a new client of mine spirited me off to Dallas, TX for the week to work on-site for a leadership meeting for their client (long hours, crazy-busy, lotsa werk). To backtrack for a moment, The week prior to last week I worked local for that same client, then on Sat I got picked up and flown out to Dallas. The meeting was Monday through Thursday, with me arriving back home Thurs Night around 10:00 p.m.

The following morning I got up and caught an 8:00 a.m. train into NYC for the NY Comic Con where I remained for the entire weekend. I got home Sunday night for a house full of relatives and a Seder meal. Monday and Tuesday brought a frantic attempt to meet a deadline in producing a newsletter for a long-standing client and getting acclimated back into my (so-called) “real” life. That newsletter off, I can now begin to post again.

Yeah!

For my first post I wanted to talk about what a crazy-good time I had at the NY Comic Con. The people who put this on are getting better and better at it every year, and this one tops last year as to what was available, and how it was staged. I came away with a metric tonne of giveaways as well as very way-cool contacts. I'll be talking about this stuff soon enough, but I just wanted to check in with all of you good readers to let you know that I haven’t forgotten you all, and I’ll be posting comic-related stuff very soon.

Oh yes, as you can see from the image at the top of this post. I too am a Skrull.