The Superior Spider-Man Changes the Game

I write mainly about movies, television, and then of course I throw in some stuff about theatre and music.  One of my other hobbies is collecting comic books.  Comic books, and graphic novels are becoming more popular now than they were years ago.  People are using graphic novels as  way to convey some of the most brilliant tales in unique fashion like "Fables", "The Walking Dead" "Fun Home" "Y the Last Man" and many more.  Graphic novels have changed the face of comic books.  Publishers are still printing the monthly titles, but people are buying them in long form story arc more and more.

Enough about the changing face of comics/graphic novels that could be a whole article or book on its own.  At the moment Marvel has done something unique with one of its signature titles, "The Amazing Spider-Man."  There is a villain behind the mask of the super hero. Confused?  Well if you are a comic book fan you probably know the story, or you have heard rumblings about what has happened, but here is the basic lowdown.

"After the apparent death of Peter Parker at the climax of the "Dying Wish" storyline in Amazing Spider-Man #700, Otto Octavius has implanted his mind into Peter Parker's body and taken over his life, determined to prove himself the "Superior" Spider-Man by being both a better superhero and better at everyday life than Parker ever was. He strives to woo Parker's old flame Mary Jane Watson, while simultaneously developing new technologies in his job at Horizon Labs that will both earn the company millions, and serve to enhance his crime-fighting as Spider-Man, though he struggles to reconcile his accomplishments with the fact that they will forever be credited to Parker, not Otto Octavius."

In the past numerous main characters have been "killed" DC put together R.I.P. storyline for Batman recently.  At the end of this storyline along with the overarching DC story Batman is eventually killed by Darkseid.  After this story DC did the "Battle for the Cowl" storyline and Dick Grayson also known as Nightwing , and the original Robin took on the cowl.  Obviously one of the key differences between this death, and the many other traditional superhero deaths like Superman, Green Lantern, or any of the other characters is that villains rarely assume the role of their nemesis, and take on their own title.

Amazing Spider-Man was a flag ship for Marvel, and creating a reboot is a risk for the series.  When I read about the death/change I thought it was preposterous.  After reading issue 700, and getting into Superior Spider-Man, my faith was not restored, but I am intrigued to see where writer Dan Slott takes this story.  

Like with all of these stories of hero is far from dead.  Well maybe not far from dead, but does not exist the same way.  Peter Parker's essence swings along with Doc Oc or well Spider-Man as he attempts to become the superior Spider-Man, and the superior Peter Park.  The story is a game changer, and has solid qualities, but I am curious to see how long Marvel will be willing to challenge readers to see a different person in the Spidey suit, and to see if they can keep up with creative ways to write this story. Remember Spidey fans with great power comes great responsibility, and with new plot lines comes great patience.

The Avengers Assemble to Create One of the Most Entertaining Comic Book Films

The Avengers (4 out of 5 Stars)

Directed and Written by Joss Whedon (Serenity, Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

Starring: Robert Downey Jr.,  Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johannson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Clark Gregg, Colbie Smulders and Samuel L. Jackson

At the end of every Marvel film seeing Samuel L. Jackson show up as Nick Fury to recruit for "Avengers Initiative" made me an incredibly giddy fanboy.  I have read comic  books since as long I can remember.  I primarily used to read the X-Men titles, but ever since Avengers Disassembled  (2004), I have been hooked on this super team.   As a little kid I used to play with the action figures, and played the video games, so for me there was a lot of pressure for this film to live up to my childhood hopes.  It did.

Without giving too much of the film away, the film starts with the evacuation of a SHIELD base.  Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) is racing to the base with his second in command Agent Maria Hill (Colbie Smulders) tells him the Tesseract, an energy source of unknown potential, has activated and opened a portal through space.  Loki steps out of the portal takes the Tesseract and escapes.  Fury has a bunch of hologram screens with government officials telling him he should not go forward with the Avengers Initiative it was disbanded, but of course they need "Earth's Mightiest Heroes" to save the planet, and the story takes off.

Director/Writer Joss Whedon who is best known for his TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel was the perfect choice to direct this film.  Whedon is the eternal fanboy in the director's chair, and perfect person to pen this screenplay.  Whedon knows the comic book world well; he has continued to write the Buff, and Angel comics, he has also created a series entitled "Fray"which takes place in the future of the Buffy world.  Whedon has done writing for Marvel comics as well.  In 2006 Whedon helped relaunch the title series "The Astonishing X-Men" and under his writing it received numerous honors and was one of the best written 24 issue arc of the decade.  I had walked away from comics for a few years, but I credit Whedon's writing on this X-Men series to be the reason I returned to comic books.

Fans have been clamoring for Whedon to step behind the camera for years, with a variety of different comic book films, but he waited for the perfect moment.  Whedon's only other film credit is Serenity, but boy does he know what he is doing.  Whedon makes you feel as though he is one of the fans; he knows the comic book crowd and how to make them happy with both his direction and writing.  As a comic book fan he made the film speak to me, and put into full realization everything I had always imagined this experience to be, and he is especially good at bringing the different cast members together.

From Tony Stark's (Robert Downey Jr's) one-liners, to the Hulk smash the cast meshed well together.  The core four Avengers (Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, and Hulk) were the best part.  I read Whedon wants to shrink his cast down in the next film and I have a feeling it will involve these four and maybe one more new cast member.  I enjoyed Hawkeye; he was cool, but without his own film you lose the characterization.  The Black Widow kicks ass and Johansson was better in this than in Iron Man 2, but I still  did not care about her character's development because of the lack of depth behind her.  Other than that I may have given a few fan boy shrieks, but this movie was just great.

Avengers Assemble: Hulk aka Dr. Bruce Banner

The Hulk or Dr. Bruce Banner is another creation from the brilliant minds of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.  Dr. Bruce Banner was a mild mannered, emotionally stunted genius who created a gamma bomb.  The gamma bomb exploded causing Bruce Banner's emotional distress to shape his transformation to the Hulk.  While the Hulk;s color, origin, and characterizations have changed throughout the years, these are the basic principles that remain the same.  The Hulk's first appearance was in The Incredible Hulk #1.  The original series only lasted 6 issues, but the Hulk made a quick appearance in The Fantastic Four #12 and soon became a founding member of The Avengers in their first issue.

While the Hulk story has been retold many times the basic premise still is there.  Stan Lee is cited as saying that Hulk origin came from combining a lot of different stories.  Lee stated ""I combined Jekyll and Hyde with Frankenstein," he explains, "and I got myself the monster I wanted, who was really good, but nobody knew it. He was also somebody who could change from a normal man into a monster, and lo, a legend was born." Lee remembers, "I had always loved the old movie Frankenstein. And it seemed to me that the monster, played by Boris Karloff, wasn't really a bad guy. He was the good guy. He didn't want to hurt anybody. It's just those idiots with torches kept running up and down the mountains, chasing him and getting him angry. And I thought, 'Wouldn't it be fun to create a monster and make him the good guy?"


While I have never been a fan of the character listening to Lee's explanation of the character's origins is fascinating. The problem with the Hulk is that beyond this logic he has two problems.  The first major problem I see is the reason many people find Superman boring, the Hulk has this eternal invincibility that is almost unstoppable.  While the character appears to have emotional vulnerabilities the Hulk was never a character I gravitated towards.  I think the second problem is that that every good hero deserves a great foe, and I never remember him having one, that made his struggle worth the journey.  


I have never seen either of the Hulk films.  The first film entitled Hulk (2003) was directed by the genius director Ang Lee and starred Eric Bana as Dr. Bruce Banner.  From what I heard Lee's artistic style was lost within this genre.  The film series was re-launched five years later in 2008.  The Incredible Hulk was directed by Louis Leterrier, and starred Edward Norton in the role of Dr. Bruce Banner.  Norton is a brilliant actor who was cited as being a major improvement on Bana, and the film received slightly better feedback than the first screen version.  In The Avengers Dr. Bruce Banner has another new actor, Mark Ruffalo.  While Marvel stated that Norton was not joining because Norton did not embody the spirit of the role, Norton's agent sided money as the factor.  The key to this role is Bruce Banner, but I am looking forward to watching the big green guy smash stuff with the other super heroes on the big screen at midnight tonight.

Avengers Assemble: Thor aka Donald Blake

Thor is exactly who you him to be, God of Thunder from from Norse mythology.  Thor first made his appearance in 1962.   The world of Marvel comics used their anthology based on science fiction/fantasy entitled Journey into the Mystery  to launch Thor; he first debuted in issue # 83.  Two of the four men created Iron Man came together to create Thor for Marvel, and they were the brilliant Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

In the book Excelsior! The Amazing Life of Stan Lee he talked about the birth of Thor in congruence with the creation of Thor.  Lee wanted to combat the fact the fact that he had created Hulk who had this eternal strength.  Stan Lee stated this:

"[H]ow do you make someone stronger than the strongest person? It finally came to me: Don't make him human — make him a god. I decided readers were already pretty familiar with the Greek and Roman gods. It might be fun to delve into the old Norse legends... Besides, I pictured Norse gods looking like Vikings of old, with the flowing beards, horned helmets, and battle clubs.  ...Journey into Mystery needed a shot in the arm, so I picked Thor ... to headline the book. After writing an outline depicting the story and the characters I had in mind, I asked my brother, Larry, to write the script because I didn't have time. ...and it was only natural for me to assign the penciling to Jack Kirby.."


This is a fascinating look into the creation of Earth's most powerful heroes and his origin.  Journey into the Mystery was later re-titled Thor.  Marvel knows how the capture lightening in a bottle, and has told some great stories over the years, and while I have never been an avid Thor reader, the film got me more interested in his character.


Like within the the film Thor was sent down to Earth in the body of a human who had lost his memory.  The human name he took was Donald Blake.  Blake became a doctor and fell in love with a nurse name Jane Foster.  The basics are there in the film.  Good job Marvel!  Soon Blake used his Hammer to combat aliens and his arch nemesis and half brother Loki found him on on Earth, and the battle raged on.  Loki became the first villain the Avengers faced in the comic book, and he will be the first villain the team faces in the film.


It seems as though the film did a job with the lore and story from the comic book with Thor.  I would have like them to focus more on the world Thor comes from, Asgard, but Kenneth Branagh did a great job with this film.  Chris Hemsworth played Thor like no one else could, and he was beautifully brilliant (key word beautiful).  The real scene-stealer in the film was Tom Hiddleston who played Loki; he played Thor's jealous half brother with humor and venomous rage well.  I am excited to see Loki back on the screen in a few more days!