Free Comic Book Day 2011: Spider-Man

I dropped all the Spider-Man books from my pull list following the "One More Day" storyline. That's a long, and completely separate story.

This year was the first year I have ever been able to participate in Free Comic Book Day. I always managed to be busy or out of town prior, so I was pretty excited. It was fun, and the atmosphere in the shops was really good. I see why it warrants all the hoopla.

I picked up a couple of free comics, and the first that I read was "Amazing Spider-Man" by Dan Slott and Humberto Ramos. I figured that it would be a good test to see if Spider-Man was going to be a book I could look into picking up again or not.

Other reviewers seemed to like this book well enough, and I've never had any major issues with either Dan Slott (who I liked from his "Avengers: Initiative" work) and Humberto Ramos (who's "Crimson" is still something I like to re-read from time to time) both usually do good work, so I had a sense of enthusiasm getting into this issue. Maybe even hoping that things had turned around for the Spider-Man book, and I could hop back into it. I have just finished reading an Essential Spider-Man book, and it served to whet my appetite for more web-slinging action.

But this book? Meh.

Okay, I'll say, it's not terrible. It looks okay, and it's paced okay.

However, that's it. It's full of just being "okay", and it should have been, in my opinion, great enough to serve as a flagship for the entire Marvel line of comics.

Spoilers follow, be warned. Not in any great detail, but you know, this is the internet. I'm just doing my part.

• Spider-Man fights the Mandrill, and he fights Spider-Woman because the Mandrill has possessed her.

The Mandrill fought them both not too long ago in "New Avengers". This seems like a cheap rehash of another book I already own. Also, "The Mandrill"? Really, Marvel? Not Doc Ock, or a Goblin, or any other of the web-spinner's iconic foes for this book, the one you're giving away to try and win new readers, but instead, the terminally silly Mandrill? For shame.

• Spider-Man has lost his spider-sense.

Not really sure why. It's never really explained, at least not to my satisfaction. Spider-Man's powers going on the fritz is sort of a standard Spidey plot. I think that it's a bit lazy on the part of Dan Slott to trot out this old, "tried and true" trope for Spider-Man. It doesn't feel fresh, it doesn't feel innovative. I'm just going to assume he got hit by a pumpkin bomb full of strange gas, and that's what caused it. Sounds about right.

• The Master of Kung-Fu, Shang Chi, teaches Spider-Man kung fu in order to help him compensate for the loss of his spider sense.

This little plot point, I like. It was sort of jammed into the story, but really, you'd think a guy like Peter Parker who is constantly getting his butt whupped would take a class at the Y or something. I mean, he pals around with Captain America and with Iron Fist all the time. This was a cool little idea that I liked a lot.

• They call his new style "spider fu".

Yeah. They call it that.

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Was this book arduous to read? No, in general it was okay, but I think that as a Free Comic Book Day offering, it was a failure, as this book did nothing to make me want to shell out four bucks a pop for more.

Essential Spider-Man, volume 4

I picked this up last year at the Montreal Comicon on the cheap, and it sat on my bookcase for a few months. I finished reading it a few weeks ago, and wanted to do a quick write-up, but haven't managed to until now.

Essential Spider-Man, volume 4 contains issues of Amazing Spider-Man 69-89, and the 4th and 5th annuals, which were published from 1969 to 1971. Stan Lee is the writer for these books, and the art is by some of the great Marvel crew of that era; John Romita Sr., Sal Buscema, and Gil Kane.

When reading these issues, I felt that this was the "Classic" Spider-Man. By that I mean that there was such an iconic presentation of the character in these 22 issues that the character would forever be measured up against these books. Peter Parker goes through all the stereotypical Peter Parker problems and somehow manages to persevere. It's almost funny how these issues laid out Pete's life so that if ever he tried to break from this routine, his fans would never hear of it. The archtype for his "Parker luck" is just hammered home by Lee in nearly every issue, and becomes as important to the character as his web-spinning or his spider sense.

Some of the trials and tribulations that Peter goes through include:

• Aunt May gets sick. Peter has to fight a bad guy, and can't be there to look after her. Anna Watson disapproves.

• Aunt May Gets sick. Peter worries about money to help support her.
• Peter gets fired by J. Jonah Jameson.
• Peter gets rehired when Jonah wants some great photos Peter took.
• Peter forgets to photograph a fight he has as Spider-Man, even though he needs money.
• Peter misses a date with his girlfriend because of his hero duties.
• His girlfriend is mad at him, but forgives him.
• Flash Thompson hits on Peter's girlfriend.
• Harry Osborn is disappointed that his roommate Peter is never around.
• Peter thinks he should quit being Spidey because of the affect it has on the rest of his life.
  

It seems almost silly, until you think that it is these books that helped make this the stereotype for Spider-Man. I guess that makes it okay, but I'm hard pressed to understand why so many fans want this Spidey back. It's fun to read for a bit, but after a few issues, the melodrama gets tough to slog through.

Volume four has some good fights, too, so it's not all drama all the time. Mysterio, Kingpin, The Lizard, Electro, The Shocker and Doctor Octopus all show up to get their licks in, and Spidey also tangles with heroes in The Human Torch, Black Widow and Quicksilver. Some lesser known baddies also show up, like The Chameleon, the Prowler, the Kangaroo, Silvermane and Man Mountain Marko, so there's a good tilt almost every issue, and that helps to keep things moving.

My favorite part of this book is how serial the storytelling is. Everything keeps flowing forwards, and it is pretty easy to feel out the whole of Spider-Man's world, more so than in any modern incarnation of the character. The writing follows a pretty simple formula, and the sub-plots that are introduced play themselves out nicely and are tied off once they have run their course. Stan Lee keeps throwing stuff at the read, and keeps pushing the story forward, it doesn't really matter that very little of actual consequence happens (the Spider-Man in issue #69 is not very different than the Spider-Man of issue #89).

All in all, I enjoyed these books. I liked Gwen Stacy, and I liked the non-stop parade of rogues that menaced New York. I don't need this era to be recreated though, as it's already been done, but hey, at least Spidey doesn't do much singing.

Quick Links - March 9th (Spidey Edition)

• A copy of "Amazing Fantasy" #15, the first appearance of Spider-Man, sold for 1.1 Million dollars. The book was printed in 1962, fairly recent for an issue that is now valued in seven figures.
• Comics Alliance is reporting that Julie Taymor is leaving "Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark". It is also getting it's music and story re-written. I expect at the end of it all, The play will just be "Cats". I wonder what Greg Horn will paint?
• Slashfilm has a few set shots from the next Spider-Man movie.
• SuperHeroHype has the first shot of the full costume:

Turn Off The Dark

The first reviews are in for Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.

They are just brutal.

Some choice cuts from the BBC News Article:

• In the New York Times, Brantley admitted he was breaking a traditional embargo but said he had decided to see the show around the time it was supposed to have opened prior to the most recent postponement. "From what I saw on Saturday night, Spider-Man is so grievously broken in every respect that it is beyond repair," he wrote.
• The Washington Post's Peter Marks, who called it "a shrill, insipid mess" with a "convoluted" story. The score, he continued, was "devoid of personality" in a show whose "optimal audience might be non-English-speaking".
• The Hollywood Reporter's David Rooney called it "an ungainly mess of a show that smacks of out-of-control auteurial arrogance".

Ouch. The only way these critics could feel worse about the show is if they had to play Spidey himself, leaving the theater with broken wrists, backs, ribs and skulls.

No mention of how much they liked "Swiss Miss". None. Can you imagine how bad a show has to be to see that character on stage, dolled up like a Japanese horror film mixed with every villain the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers ever fought, and still have bigger fish to fry in your critique? Wow.

They've already pre-sold out a large number of shows, but I have to assume that this is only because everyone likes to think they like a train-wreck. I can't imagine anyone who's heard any news about the show getting a ticket expecting to be awed by how amazingly fun, inspired and entertaining it will be. I really think that most people want to go because they want to be there when something horrible happens. They want to have their own little outrage that they paid money for something truly awful. The fact that the production hasn't started to market directly to this audiance is sad, but I suppose it's too much to expect an ad reading "Come See Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark! You'll hate the show, but love telling your friends how bad it was!"

Tickets range from 275$ in the orchestra to 95$ on the balcony. That is a lot of money for the privilege to complain.

Of course, the producers of the show have a different take. From Movieline, here are their comments:

• Following on the heels of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark spokesman Rick Miramontez saying the onslaught of negative reviews was "Uncool," producer Michael Cohl has taken things one step further. “Any of the people who review the show and say it has no redeeming value are just not legitimate reviewers, period.”

Don't like the show, Mr. Critic? Then you are not only uncool, but we no longer consider you a critic. So there!

The show is slated to open in March.

Costumes: Cap and Spidey

Entertainment Weekly delivers today.

Wanna see what Chris Evans looks like in the Captain America costume?

Here ya go:

That helmet is pretty rough looking. I'm so-so on it. I do like the red straps as stripes along the midsection though, that's inspired.

Andrew Garfield in his Spider-Man togs? Gotcha:


Some small changes to Spidey. It looks like he's lost the belt of red around his waist, and the gloves come to a point on the forearms.

One Reason of Many

One of the many reason's I love my gal.

She's been under the weather this week. This is a photo of her nightstand:


Stuff to make her feel better.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Marvel: Fear

Marvel has been releasing teasers about their next event. A couple of images, and a short video clip. Other than that, no other details are out yet.

Cyclops in Magneto's uniform is pretty awesome, though.



I guess event comics have been paying off for Marvel. I think it makes them a little harder to follow, because every story is so massive, it can be a little daunting to dive into.

Casting: Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy

When they cast Emma Stone (from Superbad and Easy A) in the new Spider-Man movie, I thought, like the rest of the internauts, "Ah, she'll be a fun Mary-Jane."

Then it was announced that she will play Gwen Stacy, Peter Parker's first serious girlfriend.

Whaaa?!?

Emma Stone stated she is a natural blonde, and now, after some work from her stylist, I think she at least looks the part.

Sins Past

Okay, so Amazing Spider-Man issues 509-514 came out a while ago (*ahem* six years), but I just picked it up in trade format on sale last week, and finished it last night.

There is a very good review of the story here, and I agree with most of what the author says, except for the need to have this properly retconned out of the plot.

I think that it was a poor follow-up to the more interesting run dealing with Spider-Man's link to the spiritual world and while Mike Deodato's art was pretty to look at, that no fan really wanted him to draw a panel of Gwen Stacy in the throes of passion with Norman Osborn. Seriously, it was kind of gross.

I don't really get what the goal of this story was, from J. Michael Straczynski's point of view. I thought that it killed a lot of momentum that his book had going following the conclusion of the Ezekiel story. And killed it in such a weird way, by making Gwen the girl in high school who gave it up to one of her closest friends' father.

If they never have another plot line centered around Gwen Stacy again, I'd be happy.

Why I stopped reading Spider-Man

Without getting into "One More Day", which is a fun debate, but one I can have elsewhere, I know very clearly why I dropped Amazing Spider-Man.

The promise of impact.

I feel like Amazing Spider-Man has removed the promise to me, the reader, that the events that happen in the book will be important to the character, and through him, important to me.

This isn't the first time this has happened to me in reading comic books either. The death and rebirth of Jean Grey is probably the best example, though there are others. When the reality of "drama" is removed from a comic book, often shown through the death of a character, but not always, then I am no longer as invested in the story telling.

I understand that some people will say that they are able to just digest the new material for what it is, as fun entertainment, and that's great for them, but I don't feel the same way.

Take for example, a television series. Let's use "ER" for this example, as I think it's got a pretty good track record for maintaining it's continuity. If, this season, they had said "Doctor Greene didn't die of cancer, that was his twin brother!" then the reality of the "drama" would be challenged, and it would feel to me that the emotional investment I had made in the events surrounding the death of the character were cheated out of me, and I would feel bad about being a consumer of the television show.

So, as a reader of Spider-Man, or any comic book, for that matter, I feel that there is an unspoken deal between myself and the publisher that I will give them not only my dollars, but an emotional investment in their characters, and in return, I expect fine art and writing, and some care not to disregard the feelings that they've evoked from me previously.

That's not always the case, but I'd like to think it is.

And that is why I stopped buying Amazing Spider-Man.

Spider-Man, in challenging the reality and promised impact of the events that occur within it's pages, broke that unwritten contract with me. It suddenly said "Hey Scott, I know we told you earlier that this was important, but *sike!* it wasn't! We don't think that story we told you before was good enough, so it doesn't matter how much emotion you put into it, we're undoing it all. Hope you give us your money next month." I won't. I dropped the book, and I don't feel bad about it at all.

Spider-Man: One More Day

Well, I've just read the first issue of the "One More Day" arc in Spider-Man comics, and 22 pages in, I'm quite enamored of it.

This book has been promoted for a few months now, and with my recent return to Spidey comics, I've been looking forward to it, if albeit a hint of wariness. After having read the first issue though, I am now more optimistic for the story. JMS on writing has been with Peter Parker for a long time now, and he has rolled with all the punches, and Marvel's editor in chief Joe Quesada picks up the pencils again for this book, and delivers with some very dynamic work.

I don't want to get into too many spoilers, but it's nice to see Spider-Man show that he's a top-tier hero, and doesn't get pushed around easily, even by Iron Man.

Good stuff thus far, hope it continues being so.

Buffy Season 8, Usagi Yojimbo and Spider-Man

I just finished reading the first arc of Buffy season 8 from Dark Horse, and I liked it well enough. I feel that the writing was quite good, and again than Joss Whedon has continued to develop as a comic book writer. I also like that the book is firmly rooted in continuity, and has continued with a quick-witted dialogue and fun. The art is passable, whith good renditions of characters, though at times, I found there to be a lack of dynamic action on the page. All in all, however, the book is a must read for Buffy fans.

Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo continues to be one of my favorite books every month. Every book is a little gift, in my opinion, and the characterization is always sharp and fresh. It is one of the great mysteries to me why this title continues to only appeal to a niche, when it is consistently excellent and has great re-readability. The recent arc has him poisoned and fighting through fever dreams, and maintains the high drama and grit and quality story telling I expect from Mr. Sakai every month.

I've also just recently started picking up Spider-Man again, catching the tail end of the "Back in Black" and leading into the "One More Day" arc. Following Civil War, I felt that I needed to mix up the Marvel books I was reading, dropping "Mighty Avengers" and with "Nextwave" getting canceled, I had some space to play with my pull list. Spidey seemed to be the character that had benefitted the most from the shakedown of Civil War, in term of storytelling" so I figured I'd give it a run. Amazing Spider-Man #542 has a black-costumed Spider-man hunting down the Kingpin in prison, only to unmask and give ol purple pants a humiliating beat-down in front of the crown of inmates. Peter's again in a situation where he's been pushed to his limits, and it's taken a turn for the darker. Especially nice work by penciller Ron Garney, who draws a very good fight scene.

That's all I got for now, but I expect to be making more regular postings again around here now that I've gotten a few technical issues sorted out.

Movies: Spider-Man 3.

I went out to see Spider-Man 3 last night, and even now I'm having trouble putting together my thoughts about how I felt about it.

So I'm going to break it down here. If you haven't seen it, and are adverse to spoilers, you probably don't want to read any further. Consider that your *Spoiler Alert*.

I think my main issue with the movie is the same issue I had with both parts 1 and 2; I don't buy into Tobey Maguire or Kirsten Dunst as the leads. Peter Parker is played very dry, and often looking very sad sack about everything, and Mary-Jane is supposed to be a firebrand, and even if you wanted to argue that they are allowed to recreate characters for film, I believe that the guilty look on Dunst's face makes you simply resent her for even being there at all.

Maguire (or director Sam Raimi) is missing something about Peter Parker. Pete is supposed to be the "cool loser", with his issues and fear more kept to an internal conflict rather than a glassy-eyed hard luck joe. I had always cast Nicholas Brendon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) in my head because he was able to be a dork, look cool, and banter all the while giving a sense that he's covering up some pain inside. Tobey doesn't even try that, and it takes away from Spidey.

The rest of the cast is pretty well done. I like James Franco as Harry Osborne, and as the new Goblin, his fight scenes in the 3rd installment carried the most dramatic weight. It did of course have the benefit of a two movie buildup, but I thought it well executed and managed to both convey emotion and look cool at the same time.

The Sandman was an example of great economy, with motivations and origins wrapped up quickly so he could dive right into the action. I bought Thomas Hayden Church's acting, and most of his displays of power were classic and visually cool looking. Not so hot, for me, was the "sandstorm" flying power, and the giant sand creature-thing at the end. Too much CG, not enough reality there.

Venom was quite possibly the one that had me the most worried, in terms of how they were going to make him look. I personally would have gone for a more "liquid" look, but that's nitpick-y, and all in all, he looked good. Topher Grace as Eddie Brock was good too. He was a dick, plain and simple, and they didn't try and over do it with him. Venom was alright, and since I never really got excited about him in the comics, that's about as good as it gets.

The character of Ursula breaks my heart. I <3 her.

The CG was better this time around, and Spidey's web-swinging looked more interesting than in past films. The fights were still a little too chaotic, and they used the "shakey-cam" technique a little too often towards the end.

I'm still chewing on the plot, so maybe I'll get to that a little later on, but right now, I can say I liked it well enough, and it was pretty to look at, but it wasn't close to awesome, and it failed getting a real, sustained emotional response from me.