Tags Matching: spider-man

Wait, Norman Osborn and Gwen Stacy?

By admin | Published October 5, 2010

One of the weakest storylines in the history of Spider-Man. It’s ugly.

Essentially, Norman Osborn aka the Green Goblin had a brief encounter with Gwen Stacy, and she had twin children. The twins had the tainted Osborn blood, sought out Spider-Man for revenge, etc… none of it was all that cool. I remember the outrage when the story was fresh and it was just nothing that got me riled up. But in the wake of it now, what a waste of a story. Do some research for yourself and you’ll quickly find that J. Michael Stracyznski had this to say about the story in it’s whole.

In an e-mail to popular comic book website Newsarama, Straczynski claimed that he regretted the version of Sins Past that went to press, and that he had hoped to “retcon” it out of continuity during the events of the recent One More Day storyline: “I wanted to retcon the Gwen twins out of continuity, which was something I always assumed I could do at the end of my run. I wasn’t allowed to do this, and yes, it pissed me off. I felt I was left holding the bag for something I wanted to get rid of, and taking the rap for a writing lapse that I had never committed.”

Oof. Well here’s a trade, on the cheap, of the second half of the Osborn Twin saga. Why would I even post this? Because it’s such an abomination that it almost needs to be read.

The Ramones do Spider-Man

By admin | Published October 4, 2010

This would be SO much cooler if it was a 7″ vinyl record instead of a cassette tape. But you know, when it comes to The Ramones doing the Spider-Man theme song, take what you can get it and say “thank you very much good sir.”

One thing… $199? Ouch. How rare is this thing???

Bad, Better, Best.

By admin | Published October 3, 2010

Worst to first, an assortment of comic posters.

BAD – Time displaced mutant hero/cop from the ’90s. Next.

BETTER – Jim Lee’s Wolverine in a traditional X-Team Uni. Cool, but not the best Jim Lee / X-Men poster.

BEST -John Romita Sr. puts together a Spider-Man poster on a bright sunny day in New York. Somewhere, the world is alive with happiness.

Kraven’s Last Auction

By pkindlon | Published October 1, 2010

“Kraven’s Last Hunt” is one of my favorite storylines in comic history. It’s also a great argument against all the people crying about the mature content in “today’s” comics. Yo, this thing came out 20 years ago and is so dark and adult in content I don’t think I’ve seen its rival, even in the shock-value stuff Ennis pours out. Don’t fear adulthood, comic creators, it can be pretty cool.

I assume you all have this story, either in single issues or trade (maybe both?) so I didn’t bother posting up those auctions. Instead, I’m putting up the associated stuff. The weird stuff.

Here’s an interesting auction. Uncut dust jackets for the 2nd Edition of the hardcover. Featuring mediocre design, but beautiful Mike Zeck art, this is way cooler than a normal poster and would be a conversation piece on anyone’s wall.

Here’s a sculpture for the superfan. I don’t get into these super-specific dioramas depicting exact scenes from comics. But this is one of the most dramatic resurrections in the history of the superhero genre, so that’s worth something. We all knew Spider-Man would be back, but the magic J. M. DeMatteis managed here was making his return memorable. He did it. I’m not sure this piece achieves the same gravitas, but whatever, it would still look cool on your desk.

Giant Comic Lots.

By morgado | Published September 30, 2010

See these three Hulk comics?

They’re just the tip of the iceberg. What we’ve got here is a lot of comics. A lot of 1,173 comics, to be exact. Plenty of really good stuff in there too, including plenty of first appearances.

The price is already over 3,000, and I’m sure it will go higher. You probably could make a bid just for the hell of it. Not that we encourage that sort of thing in the slightest. Just would be cool to say you took a shot. Of course, with my luck working it’s magic on you by proxy, you’d probably end up winning. Same thing applies to this lot…

Go ahead, make that opening $29,999.99 bid. You know you’re just gonna get outbid anyways. Go on. You won’t.

Halloween’s right around the corner.

By admin | Published September 26, 2010

They’re doing great things with costumes these days, adult and kid alike. There’s little excuse to do a bad job on a costume if you’re going to do it. You can go all out, get creative. You’ve got the lead time. When I have gotten into costume, I usually have done the minimalist thing. I had some success in high school dressing up as a hippie, which was somewhat funny because I went to school with kids who dressed that way everyday.*

But if you’re going for the Superhero vibe this halloween, do it right. There’s some prepackaged stuff that looks good, and if comic book and anime conventions are a sign of anything, it’s that you don’t have to be that intelligent to put together a banger costume. So there’s no excuse, nor will you impress anyone, with this.

If you’re going to buy this shirt, buy it to wear because it features a headless Spider-Man. That’s enough by itself. But don’t pull the “tshirt and cheap mask” look this halloween, because a girl dressed as a sexy kitten, or sexy police officer, or sexy star trek character, is not going to vibe on your lack-of-care cool. Go all in, or don’t. It’s easy.

*Thinking about my past halloween costume also made me question – how inappropriate is it to dress up as a “homeless person” for halloween – very, somewhat, or not at all? I think I fall into the “somewhat very” category, though my very awesome significant other says it’s not all that offensive. I think I’ll stick with handing out candy this year.

Top 100 Summer Comics #1

By admin | Published September 21, 2010

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…

but those were our times.

#1 – Spider-Man 1

I was 9 years old when this came out. Do you know what that means? It’s the perfect age for a child into comic books. Young enough to embrace the suspended disbelief, old enough to hunger for something new, something aggressive and fresh. Between ages 9 and 12 children are trying to establish themselves from their parents and peers alike, but especially from themselves as a “child.” Growing from childhood to adolescence. So the graphic medium of comic books where the audience has always maintained a hum of appeal to children and adults is a gateway and transition through those days. It’s no coincidence so many people my age I know who collected or read comics read them during this time period. It’s the comic book window – they either grab you here or they don’t.

I was already locked in – I fall outside of that norm on the early side. I was eagerly anticipating this book, feigning and reading whatever comics I could find, so when Todd McFarlane’s SPIDER-MAN dropped, I was tuned in. And it was good. All the elements of McFarlane’s run on Amazing were there, just amplified. This felt new – even the paper felt different. There was a legitimate low level news buzz about this, and we had just hit the crest of the “comic books as collectible investments” wave.

Why does this issue come in at numero uno on this list? Because this was the breaking point. There are blurred lines on the golden and silver age of comics, and the period that followed that as well. But for the modern age, there’s no question. It started here. For all that means and represents, an entire generation of comic books, comic companies, comic movies, and most importantly, comic fans began with Todd McFarlane and the gnarly, high detail webs of the wall crawler himself. Whether you flip through this one on the first or last day of summer, know that you’re partaking in one of the key elements of a classic summer activity.

Random Comic Book Friday.

By morgado | Published September 3, 2010

You didn’t think I forgot did you? Perish the thought… and you should probably perish the thought of affording either of these, since I had my search functions set on highest priced this week…

Click the image to see the astronomical price tag on this Todd McFarlane piece … Mind blowing.

Top 100 Summer Comics #18

By admin | Published September 2, 2010

Spider-Man is a great super-hero. I think, that as time goes by, he will age better than other super hero titans Batman and Superman.

Why? He’s dynamic. Very dynamic. Think about this – Batman is a loner, dark, and edgy. When he’s played anything else, it either comes off campy or just straight up stupid. Doesn’t work.

Superman is slightly less pigeon holed in the tone department, and the darker, isolated angle of Superman is rarely played up. What detaches him from the audience is his near omnipotence. At one point (multiple points?) DC has had to reign in the spectrum of his power to give him boundaries.

#18 – Web of Spider-Man 60

This was reflected during the Acts of Vengeance crossover very well. The myriad of villains he was faced with somehow worked really well. While other results varied from mediocre (to be honest, a lot) to zany (Fantastic Four) to surprisingly cool (Captain America v. Magneto), Spider-Man faced a handful of b-rate villains and somehow it didn’t fall to far from his results with his normal stable of villains. Strong era for Web of… and I loved this issue. Always partial to Goliath as a villain. Love to see him revisited with this look and maybe a slight “gigantic-human-with-a-grudge-and-a-rage-on” decimation of some midwestern towns.

Random Comic Book Fridays Are Back.

By morgado | Published August 27, 2010

You miss it?

As always, the deal is that I just enter the words “comic book” in the search field, with whatever settings I currently have going at the time, and post the first 2 things that come up (that aren’t ending in the next 30 seconds at least).

Oddly enough, this week what came up weren’t even actual comic books, nor did they even have the words “comic book” in the description…