MC2 in the TASM-Verse

 

Following on from the recent Spider-Man: No Way Home villain posts, my post about the various Sam Raimi Spider-Man movie trilogy references, easter eggs and connections in the MC2 got some nice responses so I figured I should attempt a modest sequel of sorts. This one detailing the (admittedly far fewer) connections between the MC2 comics and the Marc Webb directed The Amazing Spider-Man duology of films. Since both Amazing films were released after the MC2’s published history ended, the references and connections (intentional or otherwise) will obviously only flow in one direction. Let’s look at the MC2 in the TASM-Verse.

 

 

This first one is probably just an unintentional similarity but one I can’t get away from. Not only does Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parker have amazing hair, when he tries on his father’s old glasses early in the first film, he resembles May ‘Mayday’ Parker in her own debut appearance in What If #105.

 

 

Ever since the first time I watched The Amazing Spider-Man in the cinema I’ve felt the scene where a newly empowered Peter takes a basketball from Flash Thompson and slam dunks it through the hoop and destroys the backboard looked awful familiar. This can only be swiped from the aforementioned debut of Spider-Girl in What If #105 where the emergence of Mayday’s powers is heralded by her leaping high into the air during a basketball game and performing a slam dunk which shatters the backboard. Even if this was not an intended reference, it’s an extremely unusual coincidence as Peter was notoriously unathletic and isn’t associated with basketball whereas Mayday is by contrast an athletic high school basketball star well before her powers developed.

 

Jumping from the films to the games now, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 game features a very small cameo by Spider-Girl in the form of a comic glimpsed on the shelf of a comic shop you can visit in-game. I included this cameo appearance in my updated Evolution of Spider-Girl in Video Games YouTube video. The cover depicted in the game is Spider-Girl #39. Just a nice little easter egg inclusion.

 

 

That might be it, if I’ve missed anything please let me know! Hopefully you’ve seen how much crossover and recycled concepts different adaptions utilize from the MC2 Universe. Not sure if I should try and turn out more of these sorts of posts. Let me know what you think!

 

Until I realize far too late that I’ve missed a super obvious reference or connection, I remain

 

frogoat

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

Review: Amazing Spider-man

This is my late review of the new Spidey flick, The Amazing Spider-man. I'm on the fence on this one. I'm genuinely surprised by all the positive reviews, though, I have to say. I watched the film and I kept waiting for it to snatch me away on a web-line and take me on an adventure. Let's start with the good, then, shall we?

 Andrew Garfield is Peter Parker. With his gangly frame, and his delivery of snappy jokes and jabs, he was Spidey, while also demonstrating the angsty emotions and intelligence of that geek Peter I've know much of my life, Peter Parker. Emma Stone shines as a modern-day Gwen Stacy, with her awkward but somehow confident flirting with Garfield and her natural air of intellect and charm make her a worthy companion. Honestly, I felt the entire cast did an amazing job. Heck, the special effects were dang good too.

 The trouble is, the film never goes anywhere. Yes, Uncle Ben dies and Peter attempts to find the killer. Yes, Curt Conners becomes the Lizard. And yes, Captain Stacy even dies at the climax of the film. But it never felt like the elements of the story fitted together naturally. In fact, watching some of the trailers and thinking over what I saw in theaters, I'm inclined to believe several scenes were shoot and inserted late in production, while others were removed from the final product. For example, there is a subplot involving Peter looking into his parents disappearance that leads him to the Dr Conners lab. Only, he never really asks the good doctor anything about his parents, while a clip from one of the trailers depicts the Lizard taunting Peter with this information. Funny, that wasn't in the film. A lot of scenes end up feeling like this; set up, build up, and then dropped. The shadowing villain behind the Ratha fulfills his role by putting pressure on Conners to deliver a...cure, I guess, for Osborn, who we are told is dying. Ratha shows up throughout the film until the Lizard emerges and appears to be hunting him...but then we never see Ratha again. He just disappears midway through the story. I'm guessing another victim of studio meddling.

But honestly, I could have forgiven so much more because, as I said, the performances were all brilliant. I enjoyed a sort-of-homage to Sam Raimi's films with New York workers pulling strings to get Spidey to the location of his big showdown with the Lizard. I hope this review doesn't come off as overly negative, as I found a lot to enjoy in this film, with it's more serious tone and it's mechanical webshooters. I just wish there was more to like. At the end of the day, I enjoyed it enough to walk away happy that they made another Spidey flick, but also wondering how Marvel would have handled it's top hero, given the chance.