Category Archives: Spider-Man
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 11/17/12
AvX: Consequences has been cleaning up as the best comic of the week in all the initial Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews, but DC Comics isn’t about to give up just yet. They launched an onslaught of Batman titles this week (at least 2), playing into their revitalized Joker. Was I impressed? Maybe. Has it changed my opinion at all about the Joker? Well you’ll just have to read on to see. Suffice to say, Batman #14 earns the title of Comic Book of the Week! But don’t count Marvel out completely. They launch new X-Men and Thor comics, possibly for the better. And believe you me, the new Thor may be the best Marvel NOW! has to offer so far!
Yes, yes, we all fondly remember The Dark Knight Returns
Comic Reviews: All-New X-Men #1, Amazing Spider-Man #697, Batman #14, Batman and Robin #14, Thor: God of Thunder #1 and Wolverine and the X-Men #20.
Review: Scarlet Spider #11
Talking about burying the lead. Minimum Carnage was supposed to be a team-up between Scarlet Spider and Venom, as they join forces to take down the super-villain serial killer Carnage. But the two characters haven’t even been in the same room together since the start of the crossover. Instead, this is one big space alien story that just happens to involve Scarlet Spider and Venom on the side. It’s as if writers Christopher Yost and Cullen Bunn were huge fans of the Micronauts back in the day, and Marvel agreed to let them write the ultimate Microverse story, but only if they could slap some existing characters into the tale. Then someone came up with the pun ‘Minimum Carnage’, and they were off!
Scarlet Spider #11
This story is turning out to be a weird, convoluted political tale about characters we’ve either never heard of before or haven’t heard from in decades. No thank you.
Comic rating: 3/5: Alright.
I can’t even be sure if this story has anything to do with the Microverse of the past. I’m only vaguely familiar with the Micronauts, but who is the Redeemer? What is the Enigma Force? Or Marquis Radu? I imagine these are all characters and concepts thought up by Yost and Bunn to tell their story. But none of it has anything to do with Scarlet Spider or Venom, and very little to do with Carnage. They might as well have used any combination of heroes and villains in this story. Nothing that has happened so far, at least as far as I can see, has any direct impact or importance to either hero, especially Scarlet Spider. He is just along for the ride, and doesn’t even particularly want to be there.
The decision to set this tale in the Microverse was the completely wrong decision. Nobody cares about the Microverse anymore. Nobody is interested in that kind of story. A comic where Scarlet Spider and Venom team up to fight Carnage is a good idea for a comic. But Yost and Bunn have instead buried that cool seed of an idea into tainted soil, and as a result, a crummy story has grown. And that’s my metaphor of the month!
Join me after the jump for a full synopsis and more review.
It Will Never Stop Being Funny That the Amazing Spider-Man Uses Bing
Honest Trailers is back, this time parodying The Amazing Spider-Man.
Each and every one of these that they have made has been gold, or at least the ones I’ve seen. And they’re clearly having a lot of fun poking holes in some pretty popular movies. Even though I loved The Amazing Spider-Man, there’s no denying that Screen Junkies are right on the mark about this. No teenage science geek like Peter Parker would stoop to using Bing!
‘Jamie Foxx is Electrifying’ Will Be the New Thing to Say
So it seems that Jamie Foxx has been tapped to play Electro in the Amazing Spider-Man sequel. That’s pretty fascinating, actually. It tells us that Sony doesn’t want to repeat the villains from the first trilogy, and it also tells us that they want to keep things classy. Electro is hardly a marquee villain, but they casting an A-list actor anyway.
For those of you who don’t know, this is Electro:
He’s going to ‘zap’ to it!
Yeah, not exactly…ready for the big screen. That bright gold and yellow leotard might work in comics (or at least comics from the 60s and 70s), but there’s no way it’s going to fly in today’s modern movie market. Maybe in the original Spidey trilogy, but definitely not in the darker, grittier Amazing Spider-Man reboot universe. But hey, don’t worry, there already exists a much better version they can use.
Meet Ultimate Electro:
Much snazzier
He’s the hipper, more modern version of the character introduced in Ultimate Spider-Man. Same powers, same badassery, but much better costume.
As for origin, motivation and character? None of that matters! Electro, or Max Dillon, has never had a solid story based around him like some of the other villains. He’s always been just a workman sort of super-villain, a common criminal who just happened to have electricity powers. So the new movie can do whatever they want with him. Including turning him into a black man.
He will super villain you with his eyes
Though they may have some problems, considering DC already has that covered with Black Lightning…
But anyway, what do I think? I think it’s a fine idea. Jamie Foxx is a great actor, and I’m sure he could do a great job as a menacing super-villain. And Electro is a good choice for villain. His powers are tough, and I bet they’d look great on the big screen. I listed him as one of the 6 villains I’d like to see in this new franchise.
I just wonder what this might mean for the Green Goblin/Norman Osborn appearance…
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews
I’ve been wanting to do this style of comic book review for a long time, but I never end up reading all my new comics before the weekend. However, I’ve got some time on Wednesdays now, so I really want to start. My long reviews take awhile to write, and I can’t do one for every comic I read. So from this week forward (hopefully), I’ll be providing some shorter, quicker reviews on the week’s new comics.
I buy a large smattering of comics across both DC and Marvel, and a few Indy titles. If there is any comic you’d like me to review, let me know via e-mail or in the comments.
Let’s begin!
Amazing Spider-Man #696
Amazing Spider-Man #696
Writer: Dan Slott & Christos Gage
Artist: Giuseppe Camuncoli
Phil Urich is one of my all-time favorite comic book characters. His brief series as the good Green Goblin in the 90s was the first comic book series that I ever bought and read with my own money. So of course his transformation into the villainous, perverted Hobgoblin was sad. I preferred him as a down-on-his-luck hero. But with a character as minor and obscure as Phil, I’ve mostly just been grateful that he’s even appearing anywhere. So I’ve been following his career as the new Hobgoblin, and it comes to a head in this issue, as original Hobgoblin, Roderick Kingsley, returns to New York City to crush Phil for good – and, of course, Spider-Man is caught in the middle.
I’ve mostly been enjoying Slott’s Amazing Spider-Man run. He brings a light-hearted feel to the wall-crawler, with brightly colored adventures and really personal stories. This one is no different. Peter Parker has just been outed as the man who builds all of Spider-Man’s gadgets at Horizon Labs, so the Hobgoblin kidnaps Peter for the Kingpin. They want to hold him hostage so that Spider-Man will turn over a special briefcase he’s holding, little knowing that Peter actually is Spider-Man. So it’s up to Peter’s boss, Max Modell, to bring the briefcase in an attempt to free Peter. But just as the exchange is about to go down, Roderick Kingsley attacks, determined to kill Phil.
In the chaos of the Hobgoblin War, Peter and Max escape with the briefcase – which holds a key to Norman Osborn’s entire Goblin arsenal!
Comic rating: 4/5: Good!
This was a fun adventure, and your typical Peter Parker in trouble story. The Hobgoblin War idea is pretty cool, as the characters look absolutely wicked under Camuncoli’s pencils. Seeing them battle is the highlight of the issue. Orange is always a great color for super-villains. I’m hoping Phil puts up a fight, and the idea that Roderick is threatening Phil’s girlfriend might bring some heroism out of Phil. One can hope. The Peter action was fun as he pulled off some web-slinging skill, while simultaneously trying to keep Max from deducing the truth. So yeah, entertaining story, fun characters and the hope that one of my all-time favorite comic book characters gets to shine.
Join me after the jump for more! Including AvX: Consequences, Batman Incorporated, Invincible Iron Man, Talon and Wolverine MAX!
Henchman-4-Hire 