Spider-Man 3: Serious Fanboy Anti-criticism
March 14, 2007 | Leave a Comment
I felt it was finally time to weigh in on a couple ridiculous criticisms I’ve seen circulating on the net related to the upcoming Spider-Man 3 movie:
1) Gwen Stacy and Mary Jane appearing in the movie at the same time
It is absolutely true that Peter fell in love with Gwen before MJ. However, MJ was first referenced in Amazing Spider-Man #15 (1964) and fully appeared for the first time in #42 (1966). At this point they immediately begin dating. This of course annoys Gwen Stacy who first appeared in issue #31 (1965) and has a crush on Pete. Eventually Peter ditches MJ due to her apparent shallow superficiality. He promptly dates Gwen, and as MJ is dating Harry Osborn (Pete’s roommate) all of them hang out together regularly. MJ continues to show interest in Peter to Gwen and Harry’s disliking. Eventually Gwen is killed at the hands of the Green Goblin in issue #121 (1973). The writers do this because the seriousness of their relationship can only lead to marriage logically and they do not want Spider-Man to have aged this much so soon.
After this tragedy, Peter and MJ have a bit of a rekindling, but they never manage to get things together. It is not until issue #258 (1984) that MJ reveals that she knows his secret identity and she has matured to a point where they establish a solid relationship that has mostly remained to this day. The movie has certainly approached this in a slightly different way, but not as far off as some have claimed, nowhere near enough to “ruin the film” or make anyone “hate Raimi”.
Seriously though, can anyone deny Howard’s hotness as Gwen?
Actually, if we want to get all weird about this, Betty Brant showed up in Amazing #4 and was definitely the first significant girl Peter dated!
2) Venom’s teeth and tongue are too small
When Todd McFarlane (visual creator of Venom) first drew the character, it was without the large pointy teeth and tongue. Later, Erik Larsen adds these things plus a ton of green drool when he replaced McFarlane as the lead artist on Amazing. Since then these visual elements have always been repeated, as well as exaggerated, with each new artist that draws Venom. Raimi’s choice to use a fairly stripped down “original” Venom probably made for a much easier character to portray on screen.
On that note, here’s a new picture to enjoy of Spidey actually fighting with Venom:
Tags: amazing spider-man, Betty Brant, erik larsen, gwen stacy, mary jane, mary jane watson, movie, sam raimi, spider-man, spiderman, spiderman 3, todd mcfarlane, venom
Spider-Man Pewter Chess Set
August 14, 2006 | 6 Comments
SOTA Toys is releasing a $499 pewter Spider-Man themed chess set this August. I have to admit, the geek in me was intrigued… at first.
I really like the board itself. It’s themed like a rooftop in fairly ornate detail. This includes a non-flat surface creating a much more three dimensional and real experience. I was surprised to have not seen this idea sooner, it’s just brilliant.
The cast for pieces is good, at least on first glance:
Heroes
King: Spider-man (red & blue)
Queen: Symbiote Spider-man (black)
Knight: Punisher
Knight: Moon Knight
Bishop: Daredevil
Bishop: Black Cat
Rook: Cloak & Dagger
Rook: Blade
Pawn: Spider Tracer
Villains
King: Green Goblin
Queen: Doctor Octopus
Knight: Scorpion
Knight: Sandman
Bishop: Electro
Bishop: Lizard
Rook: Venom
Rook: Rhino
Pawn: Spider Slayer
This list is where I became frustrated. To begin with, why have both red & blue suit and black suit Spider-Man? What a terrible cop out. Let’s instead put Black Cat in that spot. Hell, if Spider-Man wasn’t also Peter Parker Black Cat would still be attached to Spidey. Alright, don’t like Black Cat? How about Spider-Girl? Or one of the three Spider-Woman characters? Surely any of these would be better. I’ve got no love for the clone-saga, but frankly I’d take Scarlet Spider over two Spider-Man’s on the chess board…
Next, what’s with Moon Knight?!? I suppose they fought alongside each other occasionally, but I’d much rather see Human Torch, Silver Sable, or even Firestar in this lineup. Cloak and Dagger seemed strange at first, until I realized they first appeared in a Spider-Man comic, leading me to accept them far more readily. The rest of the heroes are good choices.
On to the villains… this is a tough one. Spider-Man has one of the deepest rogue galleries of any super hero I’ve ever encountered. The ones chosen here are a solid list. At first I really wanted a female in the “Queen” slot, but as I poked around in my head, I couldn’t come up with an A-list (or even B-list) female villain for Spidey. Don’t get me wrong though, I’m not free of complaint when it comes to the villain list…
First off, we have Blade on the good side, but no Morbius on the bad? Who did Blade show up to fight? The dude kills vampires exclusively!
This lack of match-up has me concerned for Daredevil, Punisher, Black Cat, Cloak and Dagger, and Moon Knight. These guys all fight organized crime. That’s their shared niche and where Spidey teams up with this crew. Where are the major crime villains? Where’s Kingpin? Tombstone? Hammerhead? The Enforcers?
As I said before, there are a lot of villains, so I can understand them leaving some out. What I don’t get is why, knowing this, they would decide to make all the pawns the same? One or two unique spider-slayers is tolerable, but why not pull some other thugs up as pawns when you got all these other big names to choose from: Beetle, Chameleon, Carnage, Shocker, Hydro Man, Mysterio, Morbius, Man Wolf, Kraven the Hunter, Vulture, or Hobgoblin?
Back on the hero side, I’d love to see them use regular people, friends, and family as pawns instead of the lame spider tracers. For instance, take your pick from these: Mary Jane, J Jonah Jameson, Aunt May, Gwen Stacy, Betty Brant, Flash Thompson, Robbie Robertson, or Harry Osborn. Wouldn’t that be a lot more fun? Imagine having to sacrifice Gwen Stacy to take down the Green Goblin. It just begs to be setup this way!
In conclusion, with the stiff $499 price tag, they could have, should have, gone the extra mile to make this chess set irresistible to all fans. At this price they need to do something, their target market will all have similar complaints to mine… Save your money or buy more comics.
Tags: "black suit", aunt may, Beetle, Betty Brant, black cat, blade, Carnage, Chameleon, chess, cloak, Cloak and Dagger, dagger, daredevil, doc ock, Doctor Octopus, electro, enforcers, firestar, flash thompson, game, goblin, Green Goblin, gwen stacy, hammerhead, harry osborn, hero, heroes, hobgoblin, human torch, Hydro Man, j jonah jameson, kingpin, Kraven the Hunter, lizard, Man Wolf, mary jane, moon knight, Morbius, Mysterio, organized crime, osborn, pewter, prowler, punisher, rhino, Robbie Robertson, Sandman, scarlet spider, Scorpion, Shocker, silver sable, spider slayer, spider tracer, spider-girl, spider-man, spider-woman, spiderman, spidey, the enforcers, tombstone, vampire, vampires, venom, villain, villains, Vulture
Spider-Man 3 Trailer, A Detailed Look
June 28, 2006 | 22 Comments
Anyone who knows me knows I’m crazy amounts of obsessive about Spider-Man. Anyone who doubts that fact… well… you won’t after you look at the rest of this post. So without further ado, a clip by clip break down of the entire Spider-Man 3 Teaser Trailer!
Opening CGI banner, “How Long…” displayed on a Spider-Man-esque texture.
CGI continues switching quickly to the text: “Can Any Man Fight The Darkness…”. Following the display of the text, in comes an oily black substance. Clearly representing “the darkness” this is also the first clue that the black suit or Venom suit will somehow be involved in this story.
All of the CGI texture is taken over by the black substance, the texture becomes that of a black suit. The text changes to “Before He Finds It In Himself”. The camera begins to pan out.
We now see Spider-Man sitting in the black suit. It is raining. He turns to look straight into the camera. Then jumps from his perch.
From what appears to be Spider-Man’s perspective we look down at his hands. His fingers are clenching and flexing as he stares at them.
As the camera cuts back to third person we see Spidey with his hands on his head. For those familiar with the story of the black suit, notice the bell to the right of the shot. I expect this is significant.
The shot cuts to Harry Osborn in a balcony of some sort. He sneers at the camera.
It cuts back to Spider-Man, he is tearing at his mask. We see the back of his head exposed. The suit does not seem to be flowing as expected… Odd.
The shot cuts to Eddie Brock played by Topher Grace staring upwards intently. He stands on a slate tiled floor. Is this within a church perhaps?
Another cut, Mary Jane Watson is shown for the first time, portrayed by Kirsten Dunst. She is sitting in what would appear to be a formal setting in a black strap dress. The look on her face is not happy.
We switch to Peter lying in bed most likely asleep without his mask, but otherwise in the red and blue costume. As the camera angle changes we can see a black rubbery substance beginning to crawl up his arm.
The scene shifts to a profile shot of Peter Parker. He is not at all happy in this shot. He is wearing a collared shirt with a suit. Did someone die, or is he going to some other formal event? Aunt May does not appear in this trailer, did they kill her off?
The pace changes and we go back to Spider-Man clearly struggling with the suit.
From another angle we see the suit being removed from his back. The setting appears to be the same as all other shots involving the black suit up until this point.
Now we switch back to a shot of Spider-Man with the red and blue suit. From an upside down hanging position we see him spring rapidly towards the ground.
Arguably the sweetest shot from the trailer, we see Sandman in full sand form sweep down and collide with a police officer. If you don’t think this is flippin sweet, there’s no impressing you.
The shot cuts to Peter parker on the street looking shocked at something.
This cuts to the first happy moment with Mary Jane and Peter making out while in a gigantic spider web. Go Pete!
And we’re back to black suit Spidey! He crouches in a window or doorway. We seem to be back in the stone based gothic setting shared by all the black suit scenes to this point.
Our first shot of the new Green Goblin is a quick one. When viewed in slow motion it is clear that something about the glider has changed. Additionally, Goblin is not wearing the same suit as he did in the first Spider-Man movie. Instead there seems to be a loose fitting jacker and either a form fitting mask or just greened skin. I can’t tell you how thrilled I am that Goblin does not in any way look like a Power Ranger!
We see black suit Spidey again, in a subway tunnel. He shoots dual webs at a target.
A-ha! He is shooting towards Flint Marko aka Sandman played by Thomas Hayden Church! He hooks the passing train and propels foot first towards Marko/Sandman.
Here is where we cut to my favorite scene. Peter is dancing with Gwen Stacy! It appears to be some sort of tango or something. As he leads into dipping her, there is the clear appearance of longing in her eyes. I cannot wait to see how this love triangle plays out. The Peter/MJ/Gwen triangle carries years of angst and conflict in the comics, hopefully they do it justice here.
We cut to MJ on the floor? She is in a regular looking whit shirt and looks back over her shoulder. She appears afraid.
It cuts back to some action, Spidey is falling from what appears to be a building, two large chunks of debris travel with him.
A pumpkin bomb hovers over the shoulder of Harry Osborn. As he turns his glance towards it, it suddenly detonates. Is this the causality of him becoming the full fledged Goblin? Is he somehow scarred or damaged by this event?
We then cut to an odd scene. Peter is falling through space, quite high up, obviously in the city. He sees an engagement ring floating in front of him, he is lunging for it. Is this part of some sort of dream sequence? Is it possible he is fighting for MJ with Green Goblin Harry as is implied by the placement of these clips?
We then see un costumed Harry punching aggressively towards the camera. He too is up high with the city scape as a backdrop.
It cuts to an un costumed Peter on the side of a building. The new Goblin is flying towards him on the new glider. The new glider appears to resemble a snow board more closely than any conventional glider from the first Spider-Man or any of the comic gliders. Spidey dodges and the Goblin crashes abruptly into the wall.
Moving back away from the action we see MJ talking with someone. She appears to be making an emotional connection with this male figure. The angle changes and we see it is Harry as MJ reaches out to stroke his hair.
We see Peter briefly looking shocked. In theory this is in reaction to the Harry/MJ interaction we just witnessed. He is dressed in a black suit with a black ties. Ladies in the background are also dressed in black. This clip has me seriously fearing for Aunt May’s life…
We cut back to some action! Black suit Spider-Man is swinging across as a pipe bursts with extreme amounts of water.
The scene changes and we see Peter again. In this shot he looks exceptionally angry. His hair is darker and greasier. My belief is that the black suit is having a negative affect on him. This is also implied by the limited voice over. Shocking here though is that he pulls his coat apart revealing the black suit under his normal clothes. In the conventional Spider-Man continuity, the black suit was able to morph into whatever form or clothing appearance he needed. If the new suit possessed this, he would not be wearing clothes over it… It would appear they have made a significant modification to what the suit is capable of. Let’s hope it’s for the best and not like the stupid organic webbing we’re stuck with…
Finally we cut to black suit Spidey in the most cinematic of all these shots. He is hanging upside down staring into his reflection in a building. Though he is donned in the black suit, his reflection is red and blue! Is this just being done for effect, or is there some significance to this? I can’t wait to know…
There is is, Spider-Man 3. The closing insignia/logo thingy.
We have a release date! You know where I’ll be on May 4th, 2007!
So that’s the rap up of all the visual elements. While all of this is going on, there is an epic sounding Hollywood piece of music playing. This is extremely well edited to match up perfectly with the many cuts. At one point we get some brief voice over.
Eddie Brock: “Parker”
Mary Jane: “What’s happened to you?”
Peter: “I don’t know. I have to stop it”
OK, so doing this rap up made me even more excited about this film… I guess I gotta go read some comics to quench my Spider-Man thirst!
Tags: "black suit", "Spider-Man 3", "Tobey Maguire", Bryce Dallas Howard, comic, comic books, comics, costume, eddie brock, Green Goblin, gwen stacy, James Franco, Kirsten Dunst ,Mary Jane Watson, marvel, movie, movie trailer, movies, peter parker, Sandman, sony, spider-man, spiderman, Thomas Hayden Church, Toby Maguire, Topher Grace, trailer, venom
Spider-Man 3 Teaser Trailer Available!
June 27, 2006 | 14 Comments
The Spider-Man 3 teaser trailer came online today. Spider-Man 3 promises to have as many as three major classic villains including Sandman (Thomas Hayden Church), Green Goblin 2 (James Franco), and Venom/Eddie Brock (Topher Grace). Toby Maguire returns as Peter Parker, Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane Watson, J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson, and Elizabeth Banks as Betty Brant. Other new cast joining this installment include: Bryce Dallas Howard as Gwen Stacy, Bill Nunn as Joe Robertson, and James Cromwell as Captain George Stacy.
I’m extremely interested to see how the love triangle with Gwen Stacy will play out. I’m a bit curious how Peter comes into possession of the Venom black suit. Maybe they’ll follow more of the Ultimate Spider-Man story for that one…
Anyway, by no comparison have I ever anticipated a movie more than this one. This is guaranteed to rock. OK, I gotta go watch the trailer a few more times…
Tags: "Spider-Man 3", Bill Nunn ,Joe Robertson, Bryce Dallas Howard, eddie brock, Elizabeth Banks,Betty Brant, Green Goblin, gwen stacy, J. Jona Jameson, J.K. Simmons, James Cromwell ,Captain George Stacy, James Franco, Kirsten Dunst ,Mary Jane Watson, movie, movie trailer, Sandman, spider-man, spiderman, Thomas Hayden Church, Toby Maguire,Peter Parker, Topher Grace, trailer, venom
Spider-Man: Identity Revealed
June 19, 2006 | 6 Comments
As a side effect of needing to choose a side in Marvel’s Civil War event, Spider-Man has been put in a position where he needs to reveal his identity to side with Iron Man’s pro-registration views, or become a criminal with Captain America and the other super heroes who are anti-registration.
Amazing Spider-Man #532 is the big lead in to his monumental decision. They brilliantly cover the topic from many angles as Peter Parker and family explore the many facets of his character. In the end, Peter has made his decision, he’s going to run. Until Aunt May meets him on the way out the door. To her their is clearly no option about the decision he has made, he will reveal himself, she believes more in his character than he does. This is the last bit of reassurance he needs to make the hard decision. It then cuts to him at the press conference with Tony Stark who has already made clear his identity Iron Man connection. The final frame of this issue was exhilarating. In his classic red and blue costume Spider-Man steps to the podium and says: “Hi, good morning. Thank you for coming. I’m standing here today because… well, because… I have an announcement to make.”
I had to wake my wife up to read that one page panel. This was a crazy conclusion that was clear to be one of the most significant events in the history of Spider-Man. This rivals the death of Gwen Stacy or his marriage to Mary Jane. It obliterates the new costumes and recent power changes. This is an event that cannot be taken back and changes the stories for the entire future of Spider-Man.
As a fan, I feel a little mixed about it. In many ways I hate to see some of the old formula modified. In other ways I’m happy to see them do it in a way that can’t be taken back. I can clearly see how this spins all new fresh stories and excitement for Spider-Man.
Civil War #2 hits shelves this week and is being clearly promoted by Marvel as the issue where Peter reveals himself as Spider-Man. Following issues are being unified under the Spider-Man Unmasked event title. The major media has latched onto this story and its actually gotten coverage on CNN, MTV, NY Times, USA Today and more. It’s fun to see printed comics find their way into main stream media occasionally. Usually that honor is reserved for comic based movies…
Immediate repercussions I expect to see will hopefully answer some age old questions. What will J. Jonah Jameson’s reaction be? How Peter’s school sees him when he returns as their teacher. How will newly hired gym teacher and former bully/biggest Spider-Man fan Flash Thompson react? How will this effect the daily lives of Mary Jane and Aunt May? How does this fit into the larger Civil War story arc? Can Peter finally be less poor? Will Spider-Man be less hated by the public?
It’s an exciting time to be a Marvel fan and definitely great to be a Spider-Man fan.
Tags: aunt may, civil war, comic, comic books, comics, costume, fan, flash thompson, gwen stacy, iron man, j jonah jameson, marvel, mary jane, powers, secret identity, spider-man, spider-man unmasked, spiderman, tony stark, unmasked
Spider-Man Blue
June 26, 2005 | 6 Comments
I mentioned in a previous post that I hoped to get my hands on and read “Spider-Man Blue”. I read the trade paperback which combines the book mini-series.
The basic premise is Peter is talking to the late Gwen Stacy on a tape recorder, retelling the story of him falling in love with her and the love triangle of him, Gwen, and Mary Jane. The artwork and story telling are fantastic. This is a story extracted from the best era in Spider-Man history, retold with updated art and more detail. The character development and emotional insight here is well told and far more insightful than what can normally be included in a standard comic. For Spider-Man fans, this is a must read.
For more detail and reviews, SpiderFan.org.
Tags: comics, gwen stacy, mary jane, peter parker, spider-man, spiderman, spiderman blue, trade, trade paperback