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Time’s Up: One More Look at Spider-Man’s One More Day

With Dan Slott’s monumental 10-year run on Amazing Spider-Man finally coming to an end this month, it’s a good time to look back at the event that kicked off this strange new era for Spider-Man, the immensely controversial and divisive “One More Day” anti-saga. In the Fall of 2007, Marvel serialized the storyline in Amazing Spider-Man #544-545, Friendly Neighborhood #24, and Sensational #41. Hyped for nearly a year, the exact details of the story were not made specific, but fans were aware it was going to accomplish three things: end J. Michael Straczynski’s tenure as writer of the flagship title, set up the new “thrice-monthly” shipping Brand New Day status quo, and somehow change Spider-Man’s world dramatically. Rumors were flying left and right, to the point where even the most naive fan went into the story arc aware that it was likely going to somehow result in the ending of the marriage between Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson. And end, it indeed did. Continue reading “Time’s Up: One More Look at Spider-Man’s One More Day”

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Why the World Doesn’t Need Superman Returns

Before Man of Steel was a gleam in Zack Snyder’s eye and we had any idea how the DCEU would look, and certainly before we had any idea of who Kevin Spacey and Bryan Singer really were offscreen, Superman Returns was at best a divisive movie. To some it was a charming throwback to the Donner era; to others, a gluttonous mess of a vanity project for Singer with no respect for the comics. There are not too many genuinely divisive comic book films; by that I mean, when you think about it, how many movies in the genre have an opinion right down the middle? Certainly not something like Batman v Superman, where although it has many fans, the divide is something like 80/20 against. The closest one can recall might be the Ang Lee Hulk movie, where even though I can admire it for personal reasons, admit it was a noble failure. But that’s the key difference between something like that and Superman Returns, released in the summer of 2006 to much fanfare by critics but met with bewilderment from a nonplussed public. Continue reading “Why the World Doesn’t Need Superman Returns”

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Why Collecting Comics Matters To Us

To me, the reading of comics is inextricably linked to the collecting of them. There’s no separating the two. Now, I understand some might find that notion ridiculous; after all, going to the movies is not linked to saving movie tickets. It is, however, linked to buying Blu-rays or DVDs or digital copies of a film you like, and I think that comes from the sense of when you like something, you want to own a part of it, to stake your claim. I would describe it as leaving your mark, in some small way, to put out your opinion and hope it mattered in the grand scheme of things. To bring some kind of internal validation to yourself and calm the worry that you spent so much time with, essentially, all these piles of paper that ain’t gonna mean anything in the grand scheme of things. As Alan Moore says in Watchmen, “No meaning other than what we attach to it,” leaving us to create our own meaning and give items totemic symbolism, more or less. So I guess with comic collecting, it becomes about: why bother? How can it possibly be worth the effort, and matter at all? Continue reading “Why Collecting Comics Matters To Us”

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Let the Crime Fit The Punisher: Analyzing the 2004 Film

Released in Spring 2004 to middling reviews, little fanfare and a lousy box office take, The Punisher is often seen as the red-headed stepchild of the Marvel films, not a good film by any measure but a distinctly vexing one, let down by a weak budget and an inexperienced director more so than being a complete fiasco. The tone, borrowed heavily from Garth Ennis’ seminal Marvel Knights run of stories, is wildly inconsistent, alternating between mean-spirited sadism and downright wacky slapstick comedy. Eventually, over-the-top ultraviolence and silliness overtake the sorry spectacle, and it’s remembered not as a high watermark in comic book film but a hiccup before Marvel Studios got their hand on the characters, and they started to actually get away from Avi Arad’s death grip. Still, there are many many things to analyze, most of which relate to the story and the choices made- some of them not good. Strap yourselves in folks, as we take a look at the very first (second I guess, if you count the Dolph Lundgren version) big screen adaptation of our favorite judge, jury and executioner rolled into one skull-faced package. Continue reading “Let the Crime Fit The Punisher: Analyzing the 2004 Film”

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Carousel: The Circular Nature of Comic Books

In the first season finale episode of Mad Men, Jon Hamm’s dapper Don Draper is trying to sell a version of Kodak’s Carousel home slide projector, which was ostensibly a product in 1960. Making a pitch while he rifles through pictures of his family and himself in better times, Don delivers a monologue so moving that even hapless Harry Crane wheezes tearfully from the room. He narrates, “In Greek, nostalgia literally means pain; the pain from an old wound. It’s a twinge, in your heart. Far more powerful than memory alone. This device isn’t a spaceship, it’s a time machine. It goes backwards, forwards. It takes us to a place, where we ache to go again. It’s not called ‘The Wheel,’ it’s called ‘The Carousel.’ It lets us travel in the way a child travels. Round and round, and then back home again. To a place where we know- we are loved.” Continue reading “Carousel: The Circular Nature of Comic Books”

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Teenage Wasteland: The Ultimate Legacy of Ultimate Spider-Man

Ultimate Spider-Man, by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley, ran for 160 issues from September 2000 to June 2011, of which Bagley illustrated 116 (plus change) of those issues, with a few interim artists and relaunches lumped in-between. It was a fascinating, widely beloved comic of its time that was practically the face of “Nu Marvel” and Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada under his regime, remaining well-regarded even today. Both one of the first “reboots” of a character attempted in the modern era, and not at all as much of a controversial gamble as revisionists would lead you to think, USM (as it has become known) explored Peter Parker in his formative high school years, along with his cast of friends and villains updated and refurbished for the new millennium. Extremely decompressed, the greater story spanned about two years’ comic book time over eleven real years and launched the eponymous Ultimate Universe, to become one of Marvel Comics’ preeminent series. It was a fan favorite, a top seller, and won numerous awards. And it had almost nothing in common with the youth of the day it was supposedly created to appeal to, nor has it had any real permanent legacy beyond being fondly remembered and kind of/sort of leading to Bendis’ creation of Peter’s successor, Miles Morales. That is all, of course, besides one important lasting influence that the series left on Spider-Man, one which may not have changed him for the better at all. Continue reading “Teenage Wasteland: The Ultimate Legacy of Ultimate Spider-Man”