Showing posts with label Superior Spider-Man. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Superior Spider-Man. Show all posts

Sunday 31 August 2014

Let's Play Catch Up

This is going to be real quick, real short and real fun for me to do, because I wont be sat here for hours sorting out the finer details. Why? Because I just want to cover some stuff I've mentioned before along with  recent things I've been doing and also stuff you've probably already heard about. Let's jump in head first, shall we?

Television


Spider-Girl will not be appearing in the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon. Wait! Wait! That's not entirely accurate. May 'Mayday' Parker, the Spectacular, Amazing and Stunning Spider-Girl, daughter of the one true Spider-Man will not be appearing in this animated series during the third season, which is being marketed as Web-Warriors. Okay, yes it's called 'Web-Warriors' and not Web of Warriors or whatever the heck it was that I misinterpreted from that tiny pixelated logo from that tiny pixelated image that was slipped onto twitter. I screwed up. Anyway, back on point though, yeah. Mayday is a no-go, folks. Instead, the Spider-Girl appearing in the show will be Petra Parker, a gender-swapped analog of Peter Parker. This is a case of Spider-Man with boobs. Who'd of thought? I'm tempted to reference the Ultimate Universe comics version of the Clone Saga in which one of the teen Peter Parker clones is a female copy of him.

 Yeah. I'm really disappointed in this missed opportunity to represent Spider-Girl in other media. Alas. On the plus side, if things all go horribly wrong, Mayday's good name isn't besmirched for years to come.On a more positive note, I would like to congratulate Donald Glover (from the awesome comedy series Community) for being cast as the voice of the Miles Morales incarnation of Spider-Man. It's wonderful to see a fan ascend to playing their heroes. Next time though, cast him in a live-action film. He'd kick all sorts of butt.




In other, unrelated news I've begun watching Star Trek. Yes, I've finally crossed the threshold  I unconsciously avoided for years. It began sometime last year when a good friend selected what he identified as 'the good movies' to watch with me. It has since escalated. I've reached the forth disc of season one of The Original Series. It's better than I ever thought. It reminds me of classic Doctor Who in some respects, but with more shirt ripping and swagger. I'm gonna enjoy watching the rest of the series and who knows, maybe all the others?

Oh, and hey! Doctor Who is back on television. I'm very happy.

Film

So, Guardians of the Galaxy was a great fun film. My faith in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is completely reaffirmed. Captain America: The Winter Soldier was a really wonderful film, Amazing Spider-Man 2 was...it's hard for me to give it a fair judgement. In some regards it was a great Spider-Man film with great characters and awesome quip-age, something I've really enjoyed about the reboot. On the flip side, it was a terribly paced film with multiple plot lines all slapped together to make a movie without a clear focus and a lot of narrative dead ends. Also, nobody cares about Richard and Mary Parker! I both like and dislike it. Garfield and Stone are brilliant (as is Sally Field) but I want a better plot. I love Spider-Man and I really want a great Spidey film. Better still, one with this cast because Andrew Gafield is a really watchable and entertaining Spider-Man.

Comics

I'm going to be cutting back on some titles in the coming months and years. Not because I'm not enjoying the stuff I'm reading (I've already dropped those titles) but because I'm going to attempt to transition further into trade-waiting and trade paperback purchases rather than picking up individual issues which should save some money. For me, this is going to be difficult change. Wish me luck.




Spider-Verse has begun, and so far, so good. Granted I've only read Superior Spider-Man #32 but I really enjoyed seeing SpOck (Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man's body, dontcha know?) being stranded in 2099 -if only for a short time- and voyaging across worlds. I love time travel and dimension hopping stories, so this opening 'Edge of Spider-Verse' tie-in was right up my alley. The one thing I'm really worried about is the willy-nilly death of so many alternate reality Spidey's. Are we going to see the wonton deaths of...oh, I dunno--fan-favorite characters like Spider-Girl or her family?! I'm hopeful but also very nervous. Dan Slott does enjoy teasing the imminent deaths of characters...he's so gleeful about! I'm concerned here, people.

It was announced that Tom Defalco will be returning to write his co-creation Spider-Girl in a 10-page story for the Spider-Verse Team-Up mini series. While his story hasn't been solicited yet, I do wonder if he's going to be teamed up with Ron Frenz or Pat Olliffe on art duties. I'd be kind of offended if either hadn't been approached, as they contributed so much towards developing Mayday throughout her various series. The mini series is only 3-issues so I expect the Spider-Girl story in either December or January. Which, looking at things from a publishing perspective, inclines me to think Mayday herself will be alive through the Spider-Verse event until at least December. Yes, I'm calculating in my head based on nothing more than solicitations, the survivability of my favorite character in all of comics.


Until  Marvel utterly guts me by killing a character who forever changed and influenced my entire life, I remain

frogoat










Wednesday 31 July 2013

Spider-Girl: 15th Anniversary

Thanks to the Spider-Girl Message Board I recently realized, 'Hey, it's Spider-Girl's fifteenth anniversary! I should probably make a post about it!' So here I am, making a post about it. I'm a little ashamed and shocked that it's nearly escaped my notice, but honestly, I've had a lot going on. It happens.

I thought it would be nice just to mention (read: promote) some of the things fans have been doing to mark this anniversary. Firstly, Read aka boosterread7 aka Huskie Pride aka an honestly swell fellow put up a video to reminisce about his fansite, which I recall visiting numerous times over the years. It's still sorely missed.

Not long after this, haydenclaireheroes of Comic Uno and DarkAvengerINC fame has gone on a quite frankly inspiring quest to review each individual Spider-Girl comic. You can see the tribute video here: 15 Years of Spider-girl and the first review video here: Mayday's Journey: Spider-girl #1 and the second here. Oh, and a Top 10 Topic right here.

Something that's definitely worth a mention was the gosh-awful 'event-series' Age of Ultron. I'll be the first to admit, I didn't read most of it. But tucked away in the 10th and final issue- which involves the time-space continuum breaking/cracking- we get a one panel appearance from our gal pal Mayday in Spider-Girl gear along with Iron Man 2020 and a whole heck of a lot of other alternate-reality and future timeline characters (hey, 2099! Isn't Spider-Man 2099 showing up again soon?! Funny that.)

Yes, I did buy #10 just for a one-panel cameo appearance. Get off my lawn

Until we get a Spider-Girl film trilogy, I remain

frogoat

Tuesday 7 May 2013

Marvel NOW!

Ever since Marvel announced there intention to shake things up across the board, changing creative teams, relaunching major titles and generally giving everything a spit-shine, I've been keenly waiting for things to slip in quality. Not because I wanted the initiative to fail, far from it; it's just that these kind of things never go as well as planned for very long. That said, so far I've been entirely wrong. I couldn't be happier.

Of the titles I'm currently reading, I understand Hawkeye is the critical darling of the comics-press. To be sure, it's an excellent book, with it's continuity-lite, single-issue-for-the-most-part story telling and unique look and tone. Not to mention the dialog is fantastic, to say nothing of the plots themselves. But to be fair, Young Avengers can boast all of the above with aplomb, such a feast for the senses it is. And what is it lately with writers inserting playlists into comics?! It's wicked-cool and I want more of it. Please and thank you.



Avengers Assemble is making it's own way in the world of Avengers titles (and there are quite a lot, aren't there?) with a heapin' helpin' of humor and snark. Writer Kelly Sue DeConnick kills it every month, while still finding the right balance of pathos. Which brings me to Captain Marvel: brilliant art every month, nothing quite like it on the shelves today, and finally (finally!) Carol Danvers is given the respect she deserves. That's not to disregard all that's come before, I very much enjoyed the previous Ms Marvel series, but it was missing something this title isn't.

Speaking of Avengers, Rick Remender and John Cassaday's Uncanny Avengers is hard hitting goodness every month while Captain America by Remender and John Romita Jr (my first comic-artist-crush, people!) is mad, mad, mad excitement and gravitas. I've never seen such bonkers fun on a Cap title, it's a welcome change from all the espionage and spy-fare stuff of the past decade.

Superior Spider-Man is ludicrously well endowed when it comes to the art department, and I love Dan Slott. Not every issue has been a winner, but with the kind of tale being spun, I can forgive it. Plus *SPOILERS* sweeties: Miguel O'Hara, Spider-Man 2099 is making an appearance soon. I'm still holding out for a Spider-Girl appearance, naturally.

Just to touch on a few more titles before I wrap this up; Journey into Mystery has gone from strength to strength,Fantastic Four is...well, fantastic: back to it's roots of adventurers in unexplored places and times, A+X is simple Marvel Two-in-One meets Marvel Team-Up concept title that really works.



And finally, Avengers Arena. What can I even say about this book that hasn't already been said? I thought it was a gimmick title to grab sales, 'Which one of your favorite young characters will bite the dust this issue?!' Only it wasn't. Dennis Hopeless wants to hit you right in the gut with every agonizing decision these poor characters make, he wants you to love these characters, really love these characters before he ends their short, sad lives in the most horrible way possible. And with art by Kev Walker, you can't help but feel every blow, every last breath escaping another lost soul caught up in Arcades twisted Murder World. It's high-stakes drama, not cheap thrills and sales-spikes this team is after, oh no! They want you to wish this wasn't happening, because the characters wish this wasn't happening. That's the sign of a great title with a great hook and a great creative team.

Until Squirrel Girl gets her own feature film, I remain

frogoat