As we move into BIG TIME, and the ongoing new ASM team of Dan Slott and Humberto Ramos/Stefano Casselli, it’s sometimes crazy to try to imagine just how many different creative teams there were in the short amount of time of the Brand New Day-era of Spider-Man. Spidey has had some great creative teams in his many years. Precluding Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, because that’s just damn obvious, who were some of the greats? Check out some of my favorite Spidey creative teams after the jump!
Remember how I said, in my review for New Ways to Die, that Anti-Venom was the first new symbiote to be introduced to the Spidey universe in a while? Yeah, I had forgotten about Toxin, the offspring of Carnage introduced in the Venom vs. Carnage universe. I remember Toxin being a big deal when he came out – my wife even told me about how one of her co-workers was excited about the new character, and went out during lunch to pick up the first issue of the Toxin mini series (the entire mini series and trade seem a little hard to come by nowadays). At the time, I wasn’t really into the Spidey U, so I didn’t care much.
I recently picked up the trade paperback for Venom vs. Carnage at Borders (for a cool $9.99), and forgot that this is where Toxin was first introduced. Read the rest of this entry »
Note: portions of this review originally appeared in March, 2009.
It’s an absolute travesty that The Spectacular Spider-Man animated series has been canceled in favor of an Ultimate spider-Man reboot.
Remember when we, as fans, compared the live action 90’s Batman movies to the Batman animated series, and the movie, Mask of the Phantasm, and found out they were far inferior? How the movies seemed to scrap the essence of the character, but the animation perfectly captured everything we love about the character and still bring us something we’d never seen before? It’s hard to do that with a character as old as Batman, and just as hard with a character a little younger, like Spider-Man. I loved Marvel’s reboot of Spidey in the Ultimate Spider-Man comic when it first started, but I lost interest real quick. I don’t know what it was missing…but it was just missing something. To this day, I still haven’t been able to get back into it, even with it’s manga-styled relaunch.
The Spider-Man movies, and I know many will disagree with me, are sorely lacking. Even though I loved Spider-Man 2, I can’t go on record saying that it’s the perfect Spider-Man movie (mostly due to the casting). However, what I will say is that, even though Spider-Man has been blessed with some pretty decent animated interpretations over the years, the absolute best is Spectacular Spider-Man. Read the rest of this entry »
New Ways to Die was the first huge event of the Brand New Day saga, back in 2008. The six-issue Spider-Man story arc written by Dan Slott with art by John Romita, Jr. first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #568-#573. Not only did it feature the first big altercation between then-head of HAMMER Norman Osborn, but it also featured Spider-Man facing off with the Mac Gurgan Venom, the Thunderbolts, and the origin of a new villain, Anti-Venom.
I recently decided to pick up New Ways to Die in trade paperback format and give it a go to see what I thought of it. Read the rest of this entry »
As Brand New Day reaches its end, it’s hard to imagine that it’s been over 100 issues since the storyline began (due to the thrice-monthly schedule). There have been so many storylines in those 100 issues that it would be no small feat to find a way to catch up on them all.
Still, one of the most recent storylines, Grim Hunt, featured the return of a long dead villain and had Spider-Man fighting through one of the darkest storylines he’s EVER been involved in, while the rest of the Marvel U was entering their Heroic Age.
Grim Hunt rant through Amazing Spider-Man #634-637, which are probably still able to be purchased from your comic shelves…but are they worth your time? Read after the jump to find out (note: beware of spoilers)! Read the rest of this entry »
Note: This article was originally released on Dec 1, 2009.
Much has been said about J. Michael Straczynski’s run on The Amazing Spider-Man, and almost all of it is negative. And for good reason – in the last half of his run…
- It was revealed that Gwen Stacy had twins with Norman Osborn
- Spider-Man took on a new, Iron Man-inspired costume, and revealed his identity to the world
- Aunt May got shot, causing Spider-Man to wear the black costume AGAIN
- Spidey’s web shooters went organic
- Spider-Man made a deal with Mephisto to save Aunt May’s life that ended up with the current, unmarried Spider-Man
Typing up that list, though I haven’t read all of those storylines, I’m reminded of the great, seething HATE I had for a good number of them. Still, I remember the hope I had when JMS started his run on ASM, and decided to go ahead and give his run a try again, from the beginning.
Check out my review of the first storyline, Coming Home, after the jump!
Hey, guess what?
Spider-Man’s Brand New Day is almost over.
Yeah…I’m going to let that sink in a little bit. The reason so many fans dropped the adventures of their favorite wall crawler which, admittedly, has had some good tales (like the recent Grim Hunt) but more often than not left us wanting…is about to end to make room for BIG TIME, the new era in Spider-Man’s life. Will Mary Jane come back into his life, and, if so, in what capacity?
What about Spider-Man’s identity? He’s revealed it to a couple of folks since the start of Brand New Day…who will know it now?
As we get geared up for the next big thing for ol’ webhead, it’s probably time to look back on why we love the character in the first place. Leading up the the start of the bi-weekly BIG TIME, we’re going to look back at Spider-Man’s history and even talk with some of his best creative teams!
This week, we’re going to take a look at some of the best costumes Peter Parker has worn in his many years as the Amazing Spider-Man! Read the rest of this entry »