You Don't Get to 500 Million Friends Without ReBooting a Few Franchises

Ok, this will be a relatively important Superhero movie not called 'Dark Knight' in 2012 as well... Am I concerned? Of course. Am I excited? More so than originally. Director Marc Webb (500 Days of Summer and a bunch of music videos) does NOT inspire...anything really. Its easy to get angry about the demise of Sam Raimi's well-envisioned Spider-Man. Before Bale lowered his voice a couple octaves while trying to catch the doomed Ledger Raimi's portrait of a kid struggling with his own identity - secret or otherwise - was the modern blueprint. And while Andrew Garfield's sympathetic turn in The Social Network may have earned him a good chunk of studio credibility the fanboys are not gonna be quick to anoint the second coming of Peter Parker...especially if the whole venture still wreaks of sparkly vampires and shirtless werewolves (which, lets be honest, is exactly the demographic Sony is looking to snare with this backpedal into 'Spider-Man Goes to High School with obligatory love triangle' territory) when it lands in July....sometime after the Dark Knight Rises and before the Avengers Assemble next year.

So this doesn't show us much. But I'm more intrigued than I was before I saw it. For the record I am sincerely rooting for Andrew Garfield. I just think he is getting thrown into a Fanboy meat-grinder and he may not be ready for the backlash. Not that I sympathize... Herrrre 'goez

ENOUGH with the Snarking

A weird combination of ideas and events transpired to get me to a realization. No need for the over-snark or just downright condescending overtone. I'm gonna do my best to accomplish a few things:
1. Showcase music - that was my original intention with this page, to bring some spotlight to Wo-Mass and beyond so  I'm gonna try to get back to my original MO
2. Re-structure the tonality. I'm not interested in offending people with my posts. I certainly have opinions and I dang-well will be voicing them. But I thank I can do it in  a less flam-y
more audience-embracing type of writing. Heck knows there are plenty of blogs full o' swears, tears, spears and jeers. So while it goes against every fiber I'm gonna attempt to take me low-rear quarters out of the speech.
So try to enjoy...
Also, Today's tidbit: Andrew Garfield in his new Spider-Man digs. This is the kid that wowed me pretty good in the Social Network and I think had a pretty nice dramatic turn in his mostly rhetorical dialogue with Robert Redford in Lions for Lambs...
He's got three claw-marks across his chest suggesting to me what most people already took for granted, The Lizard will probably be his first villain nemesis...

Oh, and Emma Stone is playing Gwen Stacey. Remember, this is Spider-Boy, high school version of Parker. Mary Jane is just a glimmer in his eye in this part of the continuity. I'll take Stone. She's been good in everything so far. As disappointed as I am with Sony's decision to reboot, it's shaping up to be a strong one..

Spider-Man is Dying...

Well this is the first I've heard of this and I don't have a penchant for following "Death Of.." storylines because the tendency is to use this gimmick to sell various chromium covers of the same issue and other such nonsense. I stopped being a comic book "Collector" a long time ago. Now I just wanna know the stories.

The Shot that will Change a Universe..cover by Leinil Yu

 

 

Anyways, this is hot off the press. Spider-Man to be shot and killed by..I don't even know who this guy is. With the Captain America Star and the Punisher Skull and the Whatnot... In any event, this takes place within the Marvel "Ultimates" universe. Another clever trick they used to re-tell the origin tales of several of Marvel's key (read movie-ready) characters, some of which were reborn with major character differences such as ethnicity (Sgt. Fury, now portrayed by Samuel L. Jackson in the Avengers continuity).

So fear not, for your friendly neighborhood webslinger is sure to reappear sooner rather than later.. Probably with more than enough time to get ready for his ill-advised movie franchise re-boot...

I do like the nod to the first appearance of The Punisher in Amazing Spider-Man #129. Yu's "crosshair" illustration is more than a slight homage to the introduction of Marvel's most popular and controversial figures.

The story arc takes place during the April run of Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #157 and Ultimate Comics Avengers VS. New Ultimates. The above illustration is listed as the cover to the Avengers but somehow I think they may have misspoke.

I just introduced a lot of stuff here. Lemme know if you have questions about the Marvel continuity as a whole, how the movies (Iron Man, Hulk, Spider-Man, Thor etc.) fit in and what the heck the Ultimate Universe is all about... I'm here for the people.