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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.