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.

and another for good measure. hope you enjoyed them.

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.

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.

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.

everyone knows the origins, shy reclusinve nerd peter parker gets bitten by a radioactive spider, and their dna fuses to give peter the power of a spider. walking on walls, a sensation that alerts him to danger, superhuman agility, and the strength to life 8 times his own body weight. pete tried to use this to his advantage by joining a wrestling tournament and did quite well, though he got shafted in pay by the manager, and when the manager got mugged, he stood aside and did nothing, figuring it was his karma. the mugger however carjacks his uncle and shoots him dead. thinking that it was his fault his uncle died, pete takes his kindly words to heart, “with great power comes great responsibility”, and he swears to keep the streets safe from villainy. being the veritable boy genious, pete created a set of devices that would shoot out a solution that would mimic spider webs… in proportion, and he creates a suit that will stike fear into the hearts of men, a red and blue spandex suit with spider webs and a spider logo. he also got a job at the daily bugle, the local paper, as a photographer who took candid shots of spidey in action.

the crime fighting career wasn’t so easy though, being pretty much a kid and having to balance your superhero life, and your secret identities life. he used sarcasm, humor, and a quick wit to help calm his nerves when fighting crime, but still couldn’t muster up the courage to talk to girls. although throughout the years, this slowly began to fade, having relationships with gwen stacy, mary jane watson, and felecia hardy just to name a few. eventually, he gave in to mary jane’s fiery red hair and sultry demeanor and ended up marrying her.

spider-man was never in short supply of villains, and that list grows larger almost every day. sandman, green goblin, rhino, mysterio, electro, shocker, doc oc, hobgoblin, carnage… its almost as if he could fight a different villain every day of the week for half a year. yet although the web slinger is friends with almost every hero known to man, he has very few allies in his little pocket universe, at least very few with powers, leaving spidey to fend for his lonesome. but peters biggest thing, was to keep his secret identity, a secret. while others may be willing to show who they are behind the mask, webs knew that if his identity were to be revealed, his enemies would come after those closest to him.

spidey has also had his fair share of costumes and upgrades (not to mention a few dozen clones, but i’ll tell you all about that later), most notably his symbiote costume. an alien parasite he found in space during an epic battle, that conformed to his body and made him stronger, faster, and able to use webs without his web shooters, with the downside of not having his “spidey sense”. the symbiote though had a mind of his own, and tried to corrupt peter into being a little bit evil. though it was unsuccessful, the symbiote merged with another person to create venom, one of petes most dangerous villains. parker also had the iron spider suit, which was more recent during the civil was arc. a suit built by tony stark himself.

in more recent times though, spider-man has had 2 major things happen to him that changed him forever. the first of which was the one more day story arc, where after his identity was revealed, an assassin tried to kill his aunt may. as her life hung by a mere thread, peter begged his friends to help, even some of his enemies like doctor octopus, but the only one who could was lord of the underworld himself, who offered him a deal. he would spare her life, but in exchange, peter and mary jane would have never gotten together. in their subconscious, they would know that they had a life together, but consciously they wouldn’t. that subconscious pain was what mephisto truly wanted. so to save the life of his aunt, he agreed, and the couple of peter parker and mary jane parker was no more.

the other event was a story arc called the other, where petes powers start to go haywire. in looking for an answer, he found out that thing that gave him his powers, was killing him, and he had a week to live, and a super powered imortal named morlun was on his way to kill the wall crawler for good. after his death though, when the heroes went to see his corpse, they found nothing but an open shell. spider-man was reborn, and a spiritual voice of a spider was guiding him. pretty much, his dna and the spiders were one, he tried so hard to keep his humanity, that he blocked out the spider side of him. once he embraced it, spider-man got a whole lot more powers, such as the ability to see in the dark, cling to objects using the skin on his back, able to feel vibrations in his webbing, and a pair of stingers in his palm… plus he no longer needed his web shooters.

well, that’s just a quick rundown. to actually give the biography of this superhero would take pages and pages of text. and throughout the month, many other things will be explained about spider-man. all in all, he is marvels flagship character, and one of the most popular figures in the marvel universe. as for whats going on now with spidey? it seems that some of his old villains are coming back, and a very old villain might finally get his long awaited revenge through his offspring. anyways, hope you liked the spidey spotlight. as always, if you have any questions or comments, post away. till next time.

during my downtime from the bloggage, i have worked out a whole new format of my future blogging. the way i have been doing it, was that i would randomly pick a hero, based on absolutely no criteria. the problem with that was that it was exceptionally difficult to actually settle on who exactly i was going to blog about. do you realize how tough it was to pick ant-man out of 5000 other possible heroes? it wasn’t really that easy. so i thought about an easier way of doing this project of mine, and i had an epiphany of sorts.

you see, the marvel universe is enormous, with thousands of heroes and villains, not to mention allies, plot lines, places, etc. However, within this universe, there are dozens upon dozens of “pocket universes”. even though spider-man may team up with the fantastic four, fight alongside wolverine and daredevil, he has a universe all to himself. specific villains and allies that pertain only to him, at least mostly. same goes with daredevil, or the fantastic four. universes for the marvel knights, supernatural, even the cosmic. though there are those that act outside a particular universe, but then, that kind of puts them into a universe of their own.

going with that thought, i thought it would be easier for me to just narrow down the expanding universe. make it a month long thing. then the blogs that will be posted during that month, will pertain to that monthly “universe” of choice.

so here’s the new format of my comic book bloggage. every month i will select a different universe as a theme for all blog posts for that month. then, every monday will be “superhero portrait” where i will give the history of a particular hero in that “universe”. wednesday will be comic spotlight, kind of a free for all, where i will post any random thing pertaining to that “universe”, such as storyline, overall history, areas, epic battles, etc. finally, friday will be criminal dossier, where i post about a villain in that universe.

now that my plan has finally been unfolded and my itinerary jotted down, i’m ready for a dedicated schedule. till then, enjoy the next few posts reviewing the games i just bought, and stay tuned because august will be the beginning of spectacular, amazing spider-month.

felicia grew up in queens, and was the daughter of a world renowned cat burglar. throughout her life, she trained in acrobatics and varying fighting styles, and was raised to never settle for second best. she could have been a normal sweet athletic girl, but after getting raped in college, she turned towards revenge and down the dark path (whats with women in comics getting raped in college?). when her vengeance was stolen from her by a drunk driver, he killed her raper (not rapper…), she had to focus her rage elsewhere, so she took on the family trade.

felicia first started wearing her costume when she had to help break her dad out of prison. with the success of that, she began stealing from very prominent figures, such as the maggia crime family. during one heist, she met up with everyone’s favorite wall crawler, spider-man. she felt an almost instant kinship with him, as if she knew she could trust him, even so far as to fall in love with him on the spot.

me-wow!

unfortunately for this little kitten, she wasn’t very good at getting guys, and would do stupid things to try to win his affection… such as steal something valuable, and other criminal activities. but he knew she was good at heart, so he tried his hardest to have her criminal record expunged.

that’s when she found it, the perfect thing to gain spider-mans affection, stealing a high powered detonator from the kingpin. however, it was being bid on by 2 other villains who desperately wanted it as well, one of which was spider-mans long time nemesis doctor octopus. Felicia successfully stole the detonator, and gave it to spider-man as a gift, at the expense of her being hunted by doc oc. he eventually caught up with her, which didn’t end to well, and she was luckily saved by spider-man. as he was rushing her to the hospital, he realized how much he actually cared for her. her plan… although not really well thought out, worked out in the end.

how she had trouble with men is beyond me

when she got better, good ol spidey was there waiting for her. they soon began dating and spidey actually revealed his identity to her. felicia just couldn’t grasp why you would want to keep a civilian identity, and while peter was somewhat insulted and hurt by this, he let it slide since for once, he was with someone whom he didn’t have to hide his alter ego from. they teamed up as well, fighting crime as a couple and doing a damn great job of it. well, with the exception of her almost always getting hurt and spider-man having to protect her, you know, the perils of being normal.

well felicia had enough with the normal no powers superhero game and went on a quest to get some cool ass powers. unfortunately all the heroes she tried to contact were too busy that day, or just flat out refused to help. running out of options, she decided to go with the same person who helped give powers to other villains, the kingpin. she was given the ability to affect probability, or in layman terms, give herself good luck. there was a hidden downside though, in that whomever she was around, would be affected with bad luck. since her and spidey were an item, he got the brunt of it, which fell into kingpins plans in the first place. all of this bad luck though, pushed spidey to want to break up with felicia, and they went their separate ways, him doing his solo web slinging act, and her turning into a modern day robin hood.

spider-man was fed up with this little curse he mysteriously received, and went to dr. strange to get it taken care of. doing this also removed black cats powers from her, but in the process gave her new powers, heightened strength, increased agility, better balance, night vision, and retractable claws. it was almost like she was bitten by a radioactive cat (in comparison to spider-mans powers, ya know). although this also gave her a much stronger temper and ferocity, making her even strong enough to fight, and beat, sabertooth. but all good things must come to an end, and she was eventually stripped of her powers by another one of spideys villains.

so what is she up to now? she couldn’t stand being so weak again, and went to the tinkerer to have him help her gain some cool tech that would mimic her super powers (which are to complicated to explain). she has even regained her luck powers, and an enhanced sense of smell. though her and spideys on again off again relationship is over, she still helps out when she can,  as the mysterious stranger that shows up to help spidey when hes in a bind.

she can help me out with my bind *wink wink*

personally, i absolutely love black cat. love love love love love her. shes strong, athletic, sexy, fierce, and just plain awesome. her character is pretty well written, although i could do without the constant jealousy over mary jane. but then again, it adds a bit more personality to her. i really wish they would have given felicia her own series, and i’m getting sick of seeing her play second fiddle to a grouping or pairing of heroes. I never really saw the need to strip away her powers only to give them back shortly afterwords.  hope you enjoyed it, if you have a specific hero in mind you heard about and want to be featured, drop me a comment. stay tuned for tomorrows “fridays crime journal”