Countdown To Party Time

Brand New Day.
(Originally written 1/28/2008)

For those unfamiliar with the subject at hand, the title of this post refers to the new direction the Spider-Man comics have taken. Bear in mind that this may contain spoilers for those interested.
I'm not sure I like the whole "Brand New Day" thing. To me, it seems like a cop out. This is the kind of shit that DC would do to fix their continuity. Oh, wait. This is the kind of shit that DC would do to fix their continuity.

I think that erasing the last decade of Spider-Man history is just dumb. They have had so many good, strong character driven stories. Just to do away with that...? Come on. Spider-Man revealing his identity to the world during Civil War was one of the ballsiest things Marvel could have done. Now, that has all been erased. I am certain that there were so many awesome directions they could have taken this. Sadly, Marvel wanted to take the cheap way out and fix their "mistakes."

What bothers me the most about this is that it all stems from Joe Quesada's dislike of the Peter Parker/Mary Jane marriage. The entire delivery just seemed forced to me. Not to mention the fact that by Peter Parker giving up his marriage and future with his hot, supermodel wife in order to save the life of his old, elderly aunt who has lived a full, happy life just seems really... creepy to me. Just how much does Peter care for his aunt? And now Mary Jane is a super hero? What the fuck?

I'm still going to read Amazing Spider-Man, if not just to see in which direction they take this concept. Seeing as how Spider-Man is my favorite super hero, I really hope this thing gets better. But if it doesn't, I'm gonna have a huge vendetta against Marvel.

A Love Blossoms

My observations of Spider-Man 3...
(Originally written 12/2/2007)

I was watching it yesterday for the seventh time (that's right; twice in the theaters and 5 times on DVD) and I picked up on something that I hadn't realized before. Let me start from the beginning.

The first time I watched Spider-Man 3, I got so angry that they rewrote the death of Uncle Ben, what with Sandman having been involved. It angered me because Uncle Ben's death is the driving force behind Peter Parker being Spider-Man. See, Peter blames himself for his uncle's death because, as it turns out, the robber that he failed to stop earlier in the night is the same one who shot Uncle Ben. Anyone who reads comics knows and understands this.

However, in the movie, (I guess this is a good time for a Spoiler Alert) it turns out that the bullet that killed Uncle Ben came from Flint Marko's gun, not the robber that Peter failed to stop. This bothered me when I first saw the movie. Why? I'll tell you. It means, even if Peter Parker stopped the robber, his uncle would be dead, at least in the situation that Peter imagined in the movie. Were this to be true, nothing Peter did that night would have saved his uncle, thus, his uncle's death could not be his fault. A equals B, Peter Parker has no motivation for being Spider-Man.

But, at the end of the movie, when the Sandman explains to Peter what happened, I realized that the two events were connected. Sandman tells Peter that when he, Flint Marko, approached Uncle Ben to take the car he, Uncle Ben, tried to reason with Marko. The flashback shows that Marko was receptive to what Ben had to say, until his partner came running out with the cash. At that point, the gun accidentally goes off, killing Ben.

See, Peter's motivation is not shattered. Had Peter stopped the robber earlier, he would not have surprised Flint Marko while he was holding the gun on Uncle Ben and the gun would have, most likely, not gone off.

It could also mean that Peter Parker could have stopped the evolution of the Sandman. Look at it this way. Peter stops the crook, which means that Ben and Marko's conversation would not have been interrupted. Ben convinces Marko to turn his life around. Marko does not get pinched for whatever crime he commits that throws him in jail. This means he does not escape from jail, go on the lam from the cops and never winds up in the experimental sand pit. If anything, the events in Spider-Man 3 would solidify Peter Parker's resolve to be Spider-Man.

Realizing this makes me like this movie even more.