Welcome to Comic Rack! My pick of the top five comic news stories in no particular order.
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Tag Archives: Spider-Man
Comic Rack – Who Are the Spider-Men,The New 52’s Second Wave, & Space Punisher!!!
Welcome to Comic Rack! My pick of the top five comic news stories in no particular order.
Continue reading Comic Rack – Who Are the Spider-Men,The New 52’s Second Wave, & Space Punisher!!!
‘Chronicle’ Director in Talks for ‘Venom’ Movie
Amongst the greatest movie atrocities ever committed, aside from Jar Jar Binks and all of George Lucas’ terrible Star Wars alterations, Spiderman 3 stands alone from many others. I don’t remember being quite so disappointed by a movie in my life as Peter Parker went Emo, Sandman was just a “guy trying to get his kid back” and Venom? Venom was saved as the closing act jobber played by That 70’s Show’s ‘Eric Foreman’ – Topher Grace.
What happened? Where was the Venom from the comics who was cold, calculating and basically a mountain of muscle? Instead, we get possibly the most whiny Eddie Brock imaginable, and a Venom who sounds like a velociraptor and has to peel back his face to show us Topher Grace with sharp teeth every time he wants to talk. It was a complete and utter betrayal, and nauseating display of a studio grabbing for the almighty buck right out of our pockets. Sam Raimi himself even let everyone in on the secret that this wasn’t even his vision of Venom at all, but the studio wanted him in there because he was sooooooo cool to the fans. Nevermind story or any of that kind of shit Sony, just fit him into your already horrible movie during the last fifteen minutes because, ya know… it’d be cool. UNCOOL!
But anyways, onward to the subject at hand.
Even after the debacle that was Venom in Spiderman 3, the powers that be have decided to give our favorite symbiote a second chance and are even attempting to place it in very capable hands. Josh Trank, the director of the newly successful movie Chronicle, has reportedly been tapped to take on directing duties for the newest Venom movie. Chronicle was a found footage approach movie that let us have a look at three young fellas who stumble upon telekinetic powers and then proceed to use them to dick around. There’s a tad bit more to it, but in the long run the movie cost 12 million to make and ended up grossing over 100 million. So, there’s definitely no reason a Venom movie should be terribly hard to make on a modest budget and still be profitable because let’s face it; the days of big budget films that don’t already have a huge fan base may be pretty much over. John Carter and Green Lantern are prime examples of that. Why not start off small and see where the box office revenue takes you before you determine whether or not there will be a sequel.
Next is the question of whether or not the Venom movie will tie into the forthcoming The Amazing Spider-Man movie and what Venom’s origin will be. In the other Spidey movies, they didn’t even bother utilizing the space shuttle angle, even though they had already used John Jameson in Spiderman 2. Instead, filmmakers decided that it would be a good idea to just have it fall from the sky like a meteor in the general vicinity of Peter Parker. In the new Venom, I’d think it would be a better idea to follow the Ultimate Spiderman comic book link of Peter and Eddie Brock being old childhood friends and Venom being a creation of both their parents. Of course they can change it up a little more but that seems like a simple, yet better way than a blob of black good falling from the sky. Only time will tell what direction the Venom movie will take, or if Josh Trank will indeed helm the movie. Rest assured, we will bring you news as soon as it hits!
The Sinister Six Returns in ‘Spider-Man: Ends of the Earth!’
Happy 50th Birthday Spidey! Just in case everyone missed the memo, it’s our resident wall-crawler’s 50th anniversary this year! And what better way to celebrate than getting his ass kicked back and forth between a newly formed Sinister Six? That’s exactly what ole’ webhead has to look forward to in the upcoming ‘Ends of the Earth’ story arc hitting shelves this month in March and carrying over into the summer.
And who is the main villain spearheading this new assault not only on Spiderman, but the world itself? Well who else but Doc Ock himself, who hasn’t been too credible of a threat in the years past to his arch nemesis but has been making power plays throughout the Marvel U, as writer Dan Slott points out in an interview with Comic Book Resources:
As for Dr. Octopus himself, the villain has shown up in a number of other titles, which Slott said has been building to the story he has planned. “We’ve seen Doc Ock and the Sinister Six slowly building and percolating this master plan,” he said. “On the way it’s stretched out into the Marvel Universe proper. We’ve seen Doc Ock totally smack down Iron Man. He totally wiped the floor with Hank Pym’s team in ‘Avengers Academy.’ Over in ‘Spider-Man’ during an FF team up, Doc Ock pwned Reed Richards! He took over the Baxter Building and stole all kinds of stuff. Doc Ock’s been taking out the biggest brains on his stomp to global domination.”
The Iron Man issues featuring Doctor Octopus were excellent, and not to mention beautifully drawn by Salvador Larocca. It showed us a glimpse of Otto in the past and his dealings with Stark’s family business and not to mention he pretty much beat Iron Man in his own way. To me, this arc is huge in terms of the Sinister Six. The Sinister Six, although cool in theory was only a big thing because it was a villain team up and their main goal was to destroy Spidey. This time though they are going to be helping Doctor Octopus in his bid for world domination and from the looks of some of the teasers it appears that they will be going to some extremely grim measures.
Slott also mentioned that even though the Sinister Six would be starting off with certain members that they would be different by the end of the arc. Does that mean deaths or good old fashioned ass whoopings from Spiderman? We’ll have to wait and find out. Check out the starting lineup and awesome cover art for the Sinister Six in Ends of the Earth:
Continue reading The Sinister Six Returns in ‘Spider-Man: Ends of the Earth!’
Grizzly Graphic Novel Review: Marvel Knights Spiderman – The Mark Millar Collection
Spiderman is sometimes a hit and miss read for me. I love the character, but you go from the great early 90’s dumb action of a story like Maximum Carnage to a debacle like the Clone Saga. Then you have a bunch of filler before Joseph Michael Straczynski makes his mark going into the 2000’s by basically redefining the character and a bit of his back story involving his spider powers. After that you have crap like a Brand New Day that completely craps on continuity, but in recent years it has recovered a bit with Dan Slott taking over writing duties on the sole Amazing Spiderman title.
In the mix between some of that stuff in 2004, Mark Millar started writing duties on Marvel Knights: Spiderman, culminating in 3 story arcs that spanned 12 issues. Now, for those of you who aren’t familiar with the Scotsman responsible for writing in such comics as Kick Ass, The Ultimates, Ultimate X-men, Wolverine, Old Man Logan and Marvel: Civil War, now you are familiar with him. And that’s just some of the titles just from Marvel. It seems to me like his run on Marvel Knights Spiderman is seriously overlooked because to my mind it’s almost right on the same level as the work Straczynski did with the character. The Marvel Knights brand itself was supposed to be a little more dark and edgy, dare I say a little more grown up and violent. Marvel Knights Spiderman was definitely a mixture of all of those but never failed to capture the true essence of the character. Sure Spiderman has moments of rage in the series when his Aunt’s life is threatened and takes some savage beatings along the way, but he never loses his wisecracking cheerfulness that makes him stand out from other heroes without being too cheesy.
The story itself reminds me a lot of Batman’s Hush storyline that DC brought us 2 years previously. Someone has kidnapped Aunt May, and that kidnapper knows Spiderman’s true identity and sends him on a search that will test his limits both physically and morally. Pretty much every Spiderman villain in existence at the time shows up in this story arc, from the Green Goblin to Venom and Doc Ock to Electro. Hell, even Hydro Man shows up for a few minutes to give ole’ Spidey some grief. Aside from truly capturing the spirit of Spiderman’s character even in such dire circumstances, Millar succeeded in making a couple of the villains a little more respectable. One in particular by far.
*SPOILERS AHEAD*
Throughout the Millar run, Venom and Eddie Brock factor into things heavily as a supervillain auction is called so that everyone can bid on the Venom symbiote that Eddie Brock is willingly giving up due to him having cancer and wanting to contemplate the remainder of his life in peace. The suit doesn’t initially go to the villain I mentioned above, but when it does, it reinvents him and the Venom symbiote as well. Mac Gargan, the Scorpion is the villain who was calling Peter at the beginning of the storyline and he is working for none other than Norman Osborn who Spidey initially discounted from the suspect list. Gargan explains to Spiderman that Osborn has dirt on plenty of politicians out there and goes into a long conspiracy theory about how the government has created certain supervillains to sort of keep the superheroes in check, Osborn being an upgrader of sorts to a lot of supervillains out there. I’d hate this whole idea, but Gargan clears it up and explains that most villains are natural, there’s just those random jobbers out there that were created for the sole purpose to keep the superheroes busy. Gargan went from being a B lister to a guy who knew Spiderman’s secret identity. Then to further raise his status the Venom symbiote seeks him out and offers a partnership which Gargan takes, creating a whole new Venom. This version of Venom would stick around even past the Dark Reign storyline as he masqueraded as Spiderman on the Dark Avengers. Even though there is a whole new take on Venom with Flash Thompson now owning the symbiote, Millar’s run on Marvel Knights Spiderman made Venom a little more relevant for little over half a decade.
Even casual fans of Spidey should check this one out. There’s a great story and mystery throughout (if you didn’t read the spoiler) and some stellar artwork by heavyweights Frank Cho and Terry Dodson. There are a few unnecessary cameos by the Avengers and some X-men but other than that, this is one fine read. Don’t pass it up! 4 out of 5 grizzlies!
‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ Trailer Is Here!
Now it wasn’t that long ago that we got our first look at Marc Webb‘s upcoming reboot The Amazing Spider-Man starring Andrew Garfield as Spidey. The first footage was interesting to say the least, and it offered a pretty great look at Peter Parker and some of the cast of the film. There was a little Spider-Man here and there, but it loved up to its name. It was a teaser.
This is the trailer, folks. This trailer is chock full of new and great footage, including our first looks at the Lizard, some really great Spidey action scenes, and tons more. We’ll talk after. Enjoy.
Grizzly Bomb 