Archive for the 'comics' Category

attack of the clones

submitted by da hulk published on August 11, 2010 in comics Tags: , , , , , .

in the 90s, sales of comics began to fall quite a bit. i even stopped really buying comics around that point as well. for me it was mainly because of the art. it seemed like there was so much going on in every panel, it was almost chaotic. the story arcs began to stray from the characters, giving it a bad taste in my mouth, and the deus ex machina ran rampant among the stories that were coming out.

however, there were 2 storylines that appeared which seemed that it would bring the comic industry back from the dead, and they did it through death. i’ve never really gotten into dc comics, but at the time, i just had to get these 2. the death of superman and knightfall. 2 of dc comics greatest heroes were dead, or at least out of commission, and were replaced. in superman’s case, by 4 new people that claimed to be superman, and for batman, it was just another guy who made a badass suit. it seemed all was lost for marvel, and they struggled to gain a foothold in the falling market, so they ordered their writers to follow superman’s and batman’s lead, and make an epic event for spider-man. and for some reason, clones came out of the think tank.

in the 70s, there ws a small arc where a villain made clones of spider-man to try and kill him, but that was wrapped up nicely. so why not bring that back? in an issue of spider-man, they did, revealing all together there were 3 clones of him, kaine, spidercide, and the scarlet spider. the arc was only supposed to last a few months, and then wrap everything up in a nice little bow and put it on a shelf. it was supposed to have 3 parts to it pretty much, 3 acts that would define the ongoing series. running across all spiderman titles at the time, they wanted the first act to be the introduction, and end with peter parker being a clone and ben riley (the scarlet spider) being the original. act 2, was going to take a cue from the “age of apocalypse” arc and re-name all the titles, like “the amazing scarlet spider” and “web of scarlet spider”. it would feature ben riley as spider-man and follow his adventures. the final act would be the return of peter parker, re-establish him as the original, and bring the saga to a grand finale.

when the clones were introduced, sales began to go up dramatically. marvel kept up with the plan, but with financial issues, and other problems going on, there were quite a few changes of management, and many lay-offs. still, the clone saga was selling like hotcakes, and when it came time to wrap things up, the initial plan got tossed out the wayside and they figured they would ride this cash cow till it finally collapsed… 2 years after it began. the fans finally got sick of it, and sales went down. not to mention they began to add things that would never normally be in a spider-man comic, taking him out of his element instead of keeping him as a street level good guy. they also wrote in so many open ended plot devices, just because at the time, they had no idea where it was going, and wanted to be ready to throw the next plot right in to keep the train moving.

the comic business began to pick up with the different great arcs that came out at that time, and revitalized the industry, and changed the way story arcs were written. the clone saga however, became a running joke, being mentioned humorously in different titles. it was recently however, that marvel used one of their greatest tools at their disposal, the all powerful retcon. for those who don’t know, retcon means retroactive continuity, or as i call it, retracted continuity. they re-told the clone saga, keeping it as a limited series, and wrapped up all loose plot holes. it was the way it was truly meant to be.

the clone saga however, will always remain a dark spot on the soul of spider-man. it proves that just throwing out random crap cannot always fix the problem. i didn’t intend to describe the entire plot of the clone saga, because honestly, it was to ridiculous for me to follow. i was to busy reading about the age of apocalypse at that time, and moving on with other comics. every time i browsed the racks and saw the clones, i groaned and kept moving. i can honestly say that it pretty much ruined spider-man for me, and i completely lost interest in the character. though what they have been doing with him recently has sort of revitalized my interest, it still will never be the same. however, i wouldn’t mind seeing a revival of the scarlet spider.

superhero portrait – mary-jane watson

submitted by da hulk published on August 9, 2010 in comics Tags: , , , , , .

i know what your thinking, spider-man’s girlfriend a superhero? but she’s just a regular person without powers. sure, that’s true, but behind every great man is a great woman. and when it comes to great women, peter hit the jackpot (tiger). green eyes, fiery red hair, and a personality to match. this dame had it all.

truer words have never been spoken in comic book history, yet at first peter and mary struggled to keep a solid relationship. pete wasn’t really interested because he thought mj was just vain and superficial. though they grew to be pretty good friends. it wasn’t until the death of pete’s girlfriend gwen stacy, that their relationship begins to blossom… but is only torn apart because peters always mysteriously disappearing, and a girl like mj cant be tied down. this went on for a while, the back and forth, but eventually, mary breaks down and tells pete she knows his dirty little secret.  shortly after, pete proposed, and yadda yadda yadda, they’re an official married couple (i don’t want to spend the entire post talking about their make-ups and break-ups, that would take forever, hope you enjoyed the abridged version).

throughout the years, mj has been the rock that keeps spider-man from falling off the edge. whether its emotional support, or he just needs a patch job on his new suit, mary-jane has always been there to do what needed to be done so that pete could keep fighting the good fight. unfortunately, with the lack of powers, and with a lack of any arch enemies, its tough to really elaborate on her history. yet don’t think that just because she doesn’t have powers, that shes a helpless little redhead in a sea of villainy. being the wife of the most famous superhero has its definite trials and tribulations. think of how many times shes been kidnapped, held hostage or just plain attacked by any number of spider-mans ten million strong arch enemy list. mary-jane has been trained in self defense by none other than captain america himself, as a special favor to spider-man. plus she’s pretty tactically smart when it comes to fighting too, knowing how to use her terrain to her advantage. she has fended off even supervillains with these things alone… and when her strength and smarts aren’t enough, she packs heat. there were a couple of times she even channelled the spirit of red sonja and fought side by side with spider-man, so i guess she can be considered a super hero.

though recently, as i stated before, she and peter made a deal with mephisto, that in exchange for petes aunts life, he could make it so that they had never gotten together. and all memories of their relationship were forgotten… or so it seemed. while peter had no memories of their relationship together, mary-jane still remembers. throughout the past year, she has been trying to force fate along and try and get back together with peter. which means not only did she beat a few villains, she also beat the lord of the underworld himself.

personally, i wish that they would do a little more with mj myself. it seems as if shes just a side character waiting in the background for something big to happen. kind of like in wrestling with the guy waiting under the ring to pop out once the referee gets knocked out. it’s like she’s been put there for a specific reason, just nobody has any idea what to do with her. like a writers block made flesh almost. i’m not necessarily saying to give her some powers and have her go toe to toe with the sinister six, but give her a little more credit than just being a good wife.

s.h.i.e.l.d. database – venom

submitted by da hulk published on August 6, 2010 in comics Tags: , , , , .

welcome to the first of many “s.h.i.e.l.d. database”. in the same light as the hero portrait, i will now view the other end of the spectrum, the super-villain. i’m not sure about the name for the weekly column though, but if you think of anything better, please let me know.

in the spirit amazing spider-august, lets pull up one of his 9 million arch enemies shall we? ah, here we go… venom. a.k.a the alien symbiote. now when most people think of venom, they think of his most famous depiction as eddie brock, peter parkers’ journalistic rival. however, the truth is, venom isn’t really anyone, venom is that black blob, the parasite that latches on to its host. venom truly is, just a symbiote, a sentient alien life form.

the symbiote came from an entire race of parasitic entities that would latch on to a living host, and grant them enhanced abilities, while draining their life force. except 1 symbiote, who had the idea that it would be better to actually commit to their host, draining only the energy needed to survive, that way they could live a lot longer. the other parasites thought the idea was insane, imprisoned the psycho, and sent him to a distant planet in exile.

that was until a group of heroes and villains was sent to this world by the beyonder to have an epic battle royal. after spider-man’s suit was badly tore up during a fight, he went off in search of something to repair it. he happened upon a building with this strange black ooze in a jar. after opening it, the ooze quickly began to cover his body, thus, the symbiote was free, and bonded to spider-man. it granted spider-man increased strength and an endless supply of his webbing, however, it also made him a tad more violent. the symbiote also could change its appearance, being small and slender, of huge and bulky, not to mention being able to hide itself as clothing so its wearer could show his true identity.

the symbiote was happy though, since it got to do what it always wanted to do, it committed to its host without killing him. though peter finally got tired of living with a parasite, and he tried countless ways to rid himself of it. deducing that sound and fire irritated it, he used these elements to free himself of it. feeling abandoned and betrayed, the symbiote sought out a new host, eddie brock. and garnering abandonment issues, used eddie to try and kill the wall crawler. having committed himself to peter for so long, he retained his memories and powers, and transferred them to his new host. that’s when he gained the name of venom. unlike parker, brock liked the bulky look, and as he got stronger, venom became much more bulkier and muscular

yet eddie wasn’t entirely bad, and used his will to fight against venom’s influence, and even would team up with spider-man to help innocent people, or to take on a mutual foe. venom also sent parts of himself out to find different hosts, creating a multitude of symbiotic rivals and allies.

so where is venom now? having been freed of eddie brock, he sought out a new host yet again, this time striking a deal with mac gargan, otherwise known as the scorpion. with a new host that didn’t have any scruples about harming others, venom became a murderous mass of death, holding an even deeper hatred for the web slinger. he was also inducted into the dark avengers as dark spider-man.


due to the alien nature of this creature, and its tendency for violence, s.h.i.e.l.d. has labeled it a menace to humanity, ranking in the top threats alongside magneto, dr. doom, and red skull.

spider-man: culture shock

submitted by da hulk published on August 4, 2010 in comics Tags: , , , .

since almost the moment we are born, there are 2 superheroes that we all subconsciously know about. the first is superman of course, and the second is none other than the spectacular spider-man. i may be slightly exaggerating, but i think i knew about spider-man at age 3, watching “spider-man and his amazing friends”. a cartoon from the early 80s that featured spider-man, iceman, and firestar.

either way you look at it, its undeniable that spider-man is a huge part of our pop culture. whether your a comic fan or not, you know who he is, and you know his origins. you would actually need to hire a team of investigators just to find someone who hasn’t heard about the wall crawler. it’s as if he were a deity (though to some crazies, he might actually be one).

spider-man has been featured in dozens of different television series, mainly cartoon based. however even though he had title cartoons, don’t think that stopped the web slinger for making cameos in other superhero based shows, and even non hero based shows. spidey even makes a few appearances on family guy saving both peter griffin and cleveland from falling to their deaths. also the many parodies of him, like in old garfield comics, or even in the new simpsons movie with spider-pig (which i believe is an homage to spider-ham myself). he also was in 2 live action tv series, one in the states in the 70s, and one in japan. yes, i know just hearing tv and japan together sends feelings of terror down everyones spines… but… well, theres no but, just watch. i swear, even if you didnt hear the japanese theme song, and see the kanji, you would know it was japanese around the 50 second mark.

Dont think the boob tube is where it ends though, peter parker also stared in 3 box office smashing holywood films. while a 4th one was on its way, its recently been cancelled for a new spider-man reboot. also, we cant forget the famous 3 dev adam (say wha?), a turkish film where spiderman is a villain, and he fights captain america and a wrestler named samson (what the shit?). there was also a softcore porn called spider-babe staring misty mundae which was a parody obviously. oh yea, lets not forget the all famous italian spider-man! warning, what you are about to watch may destroy your very soul…

countless toy lines, trading cards, lunchboxes, accessories, shirts, etc. you name it, i bet you somehow somewhere, someone has created a spiderman version of it. but what really made him so popular? he’s definately not the strongest out of the marvel line-up, and he wasnt the first created. hell, even between lee, kirby, and ditko, nobody knows who actually came up with the whole idea of spider-man. his first appearance wasnt in a feature comic book, it was in amazing fantasy #15. that was the last issue printed for that series too. for some reason though, through artists persistance, or whatever the case, web head fought against the odds to remain on top, and become marvels flagship character.

for me though, what i think drove his sucess was 2 things. one, peter parker was just a teenager. in those days, all the heroes were adults, at least in the mid 20s. but with peter parker, he had troubles like school, girls, being bullyed, and a first job. it was something that the majority of readers could relate to. the second, has to be the costume. with all the other heroes out there, they wear costumes that cover their face a little, and most of their bodies (with the exception of the heroines, who barely wear anything at all). spidey was so paranoid about his identity getting out, that he is covered from head to toe. why would this be important though? simple, anybody could be spiderman. not everyone could be captain america, we all know hes white under the costume. but black, white, asian, hispanic, indian, pacific islander… doesnt matter, put on the costume and nobody would know the difference. i think that is what really made him an icon for everyone. not only could he relate to his readers in his lifestyle, but also in the thought that the reader could actually be spiderman.

now, i dont know if that was a calculated thing on marvels part. if it was, kudos to you, because that is extrodinary. yet, no matter the reason, the fact is simply this, spider-man is deeply rooted in our every-day pop culture, and so long as theres people who feel like they cant fit in, or want to feel like a hero, the spectacular spider-man will always be around for them, and for all of us.