Category Archives: Spider-Man
Review: Scarlet Spider #4
What could have been a mediocre fight issue gets knocked up a notch in the climax, reminding the readers why the Scarlet Spider is not just a copy of Spider-Man. He’s tougher, he’s more badass and he can be excitingly brutal. Writer Christopher Yost uses that to great effect to elevate an already OK story into something more by the end.We’re also, possibly, seeing an expansion of Scarlet Spider’s rogues gallery, which is only going to help. And his supporting cast continues to develop.
Scarlet Spider #4
The only problem is that Scarlet Spider has yet to do anything that really wows me. But the series is still young.
Comic rating: 4/5: Good.
Let me first say that the Assassin’s Guild is an odd choice of antagonist for Kaine, especially in only his fourth issue. They are primarily a Gambit-related group, so I have no clue why someone thought they’d be a good fit for Scarlet Spider. Unless someone at Marvel tried to think of what existing villains could have a reason for being in Houston, Texas. They wanted someone familiar for Kaine to fight. The problem is, I have no clue if any of the Guild members in this issue have ever appeared before, other than their leader, Belladonna. They may all be brand new characters created for just this issue, in which case they are just nameless, pointless opponents for Kaine to fight.
And that doesn’t make for a good rogue’s gallery. Unless they stick around as villains Still, the art is fantastic and the big fight is a lot of fun. And like I said, Yost uses Kaine’s darker nature to add some fun twists to the story.
‘Spider-Men’ is as Obvious as Everyone Thought
Breaking news this morning is that the regular Marvel Universe and the Ultimate Marvel Universe are finally going to have a crossover called Spider-Men, in which Peter Parker is going to meet and trounce evil alongside Miles Morales. It’ll be a 5-issue mini-series starting in June. This story has been teased for a few months now, but it wasn’t until today that Marvel revealed that the ‘Spider-Men’ in the title were Peter and Miles.
But I, and I’m pretty sure everybody else, already guessed this months ago.
I didn’t report on it then because it was just a tease, and frankly I just didn’t feel like it because I’m not very interested in this idea.
I guess it falls to young Miles to tell Peter Parker about the brutal murder of Ultimate Peter Parker
Maybe I could have been interested a few years ago, when the Ultimate Universe meant something. But after Ultimatum and the rest of the crap that the Ultimate Universe has been through the past years, it doesn’t matter anymore. It’s worthless, dried up and far more bound and complicated by its own continuity than the normal Marvel Universe.
The Ultimate Universe is no longer special. So who cares if normal Peter Parker happens to meet the Spider-Man of the Ultimate Universe? Peter Parker has probably met a bunch of alternate versions of himself, or been exposed to concepts like the Multiverse. It’s just not going to be all that important to him.
Whereas it could absolutely ruin the young Miles Morales.
So basically the story is going to revolve around an 11-year-old kid hanging out with a 30+-year-old man
Regular readers of my blog will know that I’m currently reviewing Miles’ series, the Ultimate Comics: All-New Spider-Man. And I’m really enjoying it. Writer Brian Michael Bendis and regular artist Sara Pichelli are telling one fantastic story about a young boy who gets spider-powers and decides to do the right thing and pick up where Peter Parker (now dead) left off. It’s a very grounded tale, with Miles juggling his family, his school work and the fact that he doesn’t know the first thing about being a superhero or how to fight people. It’s a good book.
But at only 9 issues so far, the last thing it needs is to be thrown into some insane cross-dimensional story that has him meeting an adult version of the kid he’s replaced.
I’ve said this in my reviews: it will only hurt the grounded, realistic tone of Miles Morales’ comic if you start including references to the more insane parts of superheroics. He’s still taking baby steps into the world of being a hero. Don’t spoil it for something like this.
But no doubt it will sell and make money, so most likely an editor wanted it to happen.
Here’s a quote from Spider-Men writer Bendis about the mini-series:
“For the 50th anniversary of Spider-Man, what everyone was looking for was a Spider-Man story that mattered,” says series writer Brian Michael Bendis. “Well, here you go.”
Then if we read the Bleeding Cool version of this story, the writers from that site remember that Bendis has always said that he doesn’t even consider the Ultimate Universe to be an alternate universe to the normal Marvel. He’s always been opposed to some kind of crossover. So read his comment again with that in mind.
I just hope it doesn’t matter too much.
You can read more about this here.
6 Spider-Man ‘Brand New Day’ Villains Who Crashed and Burned
There are few comic book stories more likely to send fans into a screaming rage than ‘Spider-Man: One More Day’. The basic idea was that Marvel Comics wanted Spider-Man to appeal to a younger audience, and they didn’t think little kids wanted to read about Peter Parker’s long-standing marriage to Mary Jane Watson. Even though that relationship was the backbone of the movie trilogy. But they couldn’t make Spider-Man a divorcee or a widower, because that would also age him in the eyes of young readers.
So Marvel’s answer was for Spider-Man to make a deal with the Devil to magically change history so that Peter and Mary Jane were never actually married, and that they were just boyfriend and girlfriend for a very long time. A deal with the Devil!
Marvel: Because who needs the sanctity of marriage, right?
Needless to say, the fans were outraged! I was one of those fans.
But one of the simple truths about loving comic books is that, in the end, all of us fans are just clinging to the stories and creative ideas of a handful of writers and editors, who are just real people like us. And they have a business to run. They wanted Peter Parker to be a swinging single, so they just went ahead and wrote it into the comics.
The ‘deal with the devil’ storyline was called ‘One More Day’, and it led directly to a new storyline called ‘Brand New Day’. The idea here was to give Spider-Man a fresh start. He wasn’t being rebooted, per se. Everything that had happened to him had still happened, it’s just that Peter and Mary Jane were only ever boyfriend and girlfriend, and now they were broken up so that Peter could be single again. The writers also decided to freshen up the Spider-Man comics by giving him some new friends, new supporting characters and new super-villains. They wanted to make Spider-Man feel fresh and new, while still maintaining him as the same Spider-Man as always.
Well I’m here to tell you that pretty much every new super-villain and status quo change created for Brand New Day crashed and burned. It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that the current big summer Spider-Man story “Ends of the Earth” is all about classic villains Doctor Octopus and the Sinister Six. Or last summer, the big ‘Spider Island’ storyline had the Jackal and Kaine as lead villains.
May this list be righteous justification to all the fans who hated ‘One More Day/Brand New Day’.
Review: Ultimate Comics: All-New Spider-Man #9
A switch in focus from Spider-Man to Prowler brings with it a dip in quality in the latest issue of Ultimate Spider-Man, but only because Miles Morales has become so entertaining. We don’t know much about Uncle Aaron quite yet, so he just didn’t make as compelling a protagonist this issue. Still, it’s a good idea to flesh out the supporting cast and play up the danger of new villain, the Scorpion. So this was an important tale, just not as entertaining.
Ultimate Spider-Man #9
And sadly, what little we did get of our young hero, wasn’t very interesting.
Comic rating: 4/5: Good.
We get another new fill-in artist this issue, David Marquez, but his style is very similar to regular artist Sara Pichelli, so I didn’t even know there was a change until I was more than halfway through the issue. So the art is quite good. But as I said, the bulk of this issue is a fight between Prowler and Scorpion. It’s a pretty standard fight, and moderately entertaining. It serves to flesh out both characters a little bit more, while setting up the eventual cliffhanger and conflict for this story: Uncle Aaron is going to try and get his nephew Spider-Man to help him fight Scorpion.
At least that sounds like it’s going to be very exciting! Join me after the jump for a synopsis and more.
6 Silly Armored Superhero Costumes
The one constant in the world of superheroes is the colorful costume. Tights, spandex, latex, long johns, leather, pajamas; all superheroes play dress up when it comes to fighting crime. It’s just more fun that way. But in the real world, everybody knows that a big, muscular guy in spandex just looks silly. If a real world Batman was just wearing a pair of gray tights, he’d be no more threatening than a ballerina. Why do you think the movies put Batman in a specialized suit of black armor, or the X-Men wear black leather?
Tights and spandex costumes just aren’t cool, no matter how good they might look when drawn.
Paper, though, always looks good
Which is why, throughout the history of comics, creators have often tried to upgrade a superhero’s costume to make it look more badass. For some reason, this meant changing from spandex to armor, with heavy layers of complicated plating and protection. Yet no matter how good the creators’ intentions, somehow these upgrades looked even worse! These armor costumes were running rampant in the 90s, and in hindsight, everybody agrees that they looked ridiculous. Superheroes have gone back to tight spandex ever since.
I thought I’d share with everybody some of the more ridiculous armored costume changes in comic book history.
Henchman-4-Hire 