This is a site where I post about comic books I read -mostly the ones I enjoy- and comic related animated & live action features.
For playable comic related materials I suggest you see my gaming blog
Most people I know of would do their MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) marathon to ensure they are up to date before watching the next installment, mostly when the next installment is the new Avengers movie of that year, like they prepare themselves for the strongly esoteric Infinity War, one which requires being prepared to by watching more than half of the MCU installments beforehand.
Anyway, I like to marathon something when celebrating a significant date, like today's anniversary of the first Iron Man movie. I watched different movies to come in with possibly updated perception of each movie.
The first Iron Man stands to date as an excellent movie, and one of the highlights of the world they started with, there is not much to be said about it that hasn't been said multiple times through the years. All I will say is that it is an essential movie for any fan of superhero films to watch, even if they are reached their limit watching movies in this series.
The direct sequel; Iron Man 2, is an enjoyable movie that is mostly easy to skip, you will not feel like you need it for something important for future movies reference. The introduction of Black Widow feels superfluous in this one, seeing her in 2012's the Avengers gives you enough of an introduction for the character within this world. One thing to have use in watching it is that the Netflix show; Luke Cage reminds us that Hammer Industries exists in this world.
Thor is the next movie I watched, it is a valued entry in understanding Thor and his relationship to Earth, and an introduction to Loki and why he is a threat the Avengers need to face. It's a good movie with some really beautiful shots and great soundtrack work.
How would I rank the MCU movies so far after this view?
Iron Man 2: Admittedly, enjoyed it more than the first movie this go around. Characters feel better than I remember.
Iron Man.
Thor.
I will try to come tomorrow after sitting through other movies, with some short talks about them
The title is meant to address the character, but people tend to associate the title adjective to the quality of the story, and in the case of this show who ever does it is not wrong.
I'm Actually seven days late in celebrating this special anniversary, I had to watch this show one arc per day to better absorb and embrace the quality entertainment provided to us. This is how I break it down:
Day 1: Episodes 1-3 (collected as a Direct to Video in Attack of the Lizard):
Survival of the Fittest, Interactions, and Natural Selection.
I guess you can call it one arc for the style they built up Curt Connors transformation to the Lizard. Beside that, it feels like three separate episodes standing on their own.
Last minute of episode 3 is one of the most defining character moments to be shown on screen, stands out very well in showing why we care for the character. We see him in a moment of vulnerability and spiritual defeat, but he sees why he should continue, what he is capable of doing, what he successfully achieved as a man who owes it to be the way he is.
A glorious and triumphant minute.
Day 2: Episodes 4-6:
Market Forces, Competition, and The Invisible Hand
This collection also feels like three separate episodes standing on their own, but there is a bigger touch of an arching story-line going on with the mystery of the Big Man.
Day 3: Episodes 7-9 (Now this is the first true arc):
Catalysts, Reaction, and The Uncertainty Principle
The Green Goblin wreaks havoc and does his work to take over the Big Man's place. Proven to be intimidating, funny, and more than competent to take over even with Spider-Man standing in his way.
Day 4: Episodes 10-13:
Persona, Group Therapy, Intervention, and Nature vs Nurture
The Venom arc. I'm not one of those who think highly of Venom as a character in general, this show successfully made sure to keep a good mark with Venom.
There are some silly moments, but I'm glad they feel tasteful and fitting for the show, at least that is the way I feel about it personally.
Day 5: Episodes 14-17:
Blueprints, Destructive Testing, Reinforcements, and Shear Strength
The Master planner arc, a significantly strong start for the season. One of the webheads most fatal nemeses cuts loose on what he wants to do, and almost succeeds have it not been for a great deal of help from the Spectacular Spider-Man, and the firm resilience of Captain George Stacy who managed to walk tall after a time of vulnerability.
Day 6: Episodes 18-20:
First Steps, Growing Pains, and Identity Crisis
Venom returns, and beautiful chaos ensues.
Day 7: Episodes 21-23:
Accomplices, Probable Cause, and Gangland
Two episodes in a row where Spider-Man is more of an easy target than a spectacular acrobatic brawler, it feels low to see him that after being more powerful against a foe much stronger than he is in Venom. Good thing is that Gangland sees him return to form and defeats three foes in one battle.
Day 8: Episodes 24-26:
Subtext, Opening Night, and Final Curtain
The Green Goblin returns with vengeance, and he's as great as he's been in the first season. It's lovely to see him as a valid threat while Spider-Man is not toned down as a capable fighter.
It's a show that mostly sustained a high quality production even at its low points, the animation is consistently fluid, character volumes are consistent, nothing hectic or ugly looking, a good eye relaxing color palette, consistent continuity, good care for characterization and voice acting.
The show that unfortunately ended too soon, deserves the love it got.
What do you see when you look at the title logo? I see a fifth cartoon titled simply as Spider-Man, but it has the Marvel logo above the character's name. Here is a list of Spider-Man animated series so far (the year of debut is obviously not part of the title):
Spider-Man (1967)
Spider-Man (1981)
Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends (1981)
Spider-Man (1994)
Spider-Man Unlimited (1999)
Spider-Man (2003)
The Spectacular Spider-Man (2008)
Ultimate Spider-Man (2012)
Marvel's Spider-Man (2017)
Number 4 is famously known as the Animated Series, some people dub it the Amazing Spider-Man, but the official title is simply Spider-Man.
Number 6 is known as the MTV Spider-Man, or known as Spider-Man: The New Animated Series, but like the 90s cartoon, it's official name is simply Spider-Man, no extra word added.
Adding the logo does not look like part of the title for me. Sure it's known as such, but do we really need this as part of the title? We all know who Spider-Man is, we all see the Marvel logo attached to this character wherever we go on all merchandise. If their goal was to tell us that they made the show, that it is an in house production, it's not like we expected anything different considering how Marvel's animation has been basically in house production since 2012, they even had their hands on the second half of season 2 of Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes.
Getting over that, news of this surprised me considering the info that this was meant to be released this year (2017, if you don't read the date of this blog entry, or forget the year of this show's debut), they chose to release it the same year their previous show; Ultimate Spider-Man, ended. I did not love Ultimate Spider-Man, but I did not hate it either. Despite it having some bad episodes in the first and second seasons (Awesome and Hawkeye are episodes that jump to mind as highlights of terrible), annoying 4th wall breaking constant jokes, annoying 4th wall breaking timing that breaks momentum of action and drama, Spider-Man is often dependent on team-mates, J. Jonah Jameson being reduced to a large screen basically yelling "SPIDER-MAN SUCKS" most of the time, Drake Bell's delivery of jokes, 4th wall breaking recap of stuff in the past... what I liked about it kept me interested enough to look forward to seeing more episodes week in week out, and I thought it improved notably with the 3rd season.
Then we got news of this show, and some bits like this promotional picture below
Warned us against expecting another solo series, they wanted us to know ahead that it will be another team-up series, with more focus on spider characters. Personally speaking; a multitude of characters with the same ability is not that interesting.
I have to admit though, news that Dan Slott was hired as creative consultant intrigued me, as I personally enjoy the stuff he wrote for the character prior to his run on Superior Spider-Man, and I do include Spider-Man/Human Torch: I'm With Stupid 5 issues mini series in what I read of his work and enjoyed. Amazing Spider-Man 700 is where I stopped following Spider-Man comics, not because I was bored, I looked at it as the death of Peter Parker, and thought it was an appropriate time to drop the title. I heard favorable things about his run on Superior, but a far less favorable reputation of his stuff once the Superior title ended, with a lot of focus on how he treated Spider-Man as an immature man child viewed as an idiot by his fellow Avengers, and by Mary Jane Watson. There is also the matter of his newly created spider character that is somehow more developed as a Spider-Person who can easily kick Spider-Man on his gluteus maximus, despite being trapped most of the time, and then there is the sudden attraction between her and Peter just cause they were bitten by the same spider, the one that originally died immediately after biting Peter, and no one else before him.
I filtered the bad junk out of my mind, and still thought this show could deliver some goodness the previous show failed to deliver... it was a disappointment I did not prepare myself to accept.
NAH, he was pretty much on point when the character was adapted to the movies he played.
Jock? Check.
Jerk in his own world? Check (in a measure that happens to anyone)
Big mouth talker? Umm, yes?
Lies? You think?
Breaks a promise he made to a dead man? He promised to keep Gwen out of his adventures, not to stay away from her. The remark Andrew made before the final swing in the first movie does imply that he broke the promise he made, but he didn't, he confused "Keep Gwen out of this" with "Stay away from Gwen", a number of the audience seem to have made Peter's mistake overlooking that George kept Gwen out of this to go to the top of the Oscorp building himself to help his daughter's boyfriend.
What does the fake images have to do with it? He did something wrong, and felt miserable about it later. In Amazing Spider-Man movie he didn't make the mistake many thought he did, but he felt miserable about it, and he felt really bad about it when Gwen went to the grid to help him fight Electro, so those two movies are pretty much a faithful adaption of Peter Parker's character, and to some degree it is a faithful mix of 616 Gwen with touches of her Ultimate counterpart, her father was faithful to his Ultimate comics self, with touches of his 616 (main Marvel universe for those who don't talk comics geek) counterpart.
Everyone else can be give or take, the Goblins are not faithfully adapted, and Rhino is far from being an adaption.
I think I'm going off the mark when it comes to the point I'm trying to make here.
Oh look, he never wanted to go there to England and be with Gwen like the second movie suggested.
Do you remember the times you sat through an old Stan Lee written comic and read in the words of Spider-Man "Us Spider-Men"? If you read Spider-Man, and/or watched the 80s cartoon (not the one with friends, voiced by Dan Gilvezan, the solo show, voiced by Ted Schwartz) the words "us Spider-Men" definitely stuck in your memory.
The Amazing Spider-Man 27
Page 08
Little did Spidey guess back then how these words would be true after the year 2000, for both us -the audience- and him, and I do not speak of the 90s cartoon when his counterpart for that show met other counterparts of his, I exclusively mean when this version of Peter Parker met others Spider-Men, and before that a number of Spider-Women appear.
From Amazing Spider-Man v1 #063, this moment has Peter and Harry talking about a letter from Flash Thompson.
Guess Stan knew what would happen to some of the characters in the series after he stopped writing.
Or, maybe he left those plot threads dangling, for other writers to grab on them and handle them.
I'll have to make one thing clear: I wanted to make this a review of the season, but I am unable to do that with this post, cause it will be riddled with spoilers, and people don't like to be spoiled before watching a series or a movie or anything.
What I knew about the character before watching the season is as follows:
Under the MAX imprint of Marvel Comics, Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos launched their series ALIAS, about Jessica as the P.I, using that title as her office name.
Jessica slept with Luke Cage, then they moved her to 616 Marvel and she got married to him, and had a daughter.
She was one of Peter Parker's classmates in high school, and she had a crush on him even before he got bit by the spider (lucky for us, she didn't approach him, I prefer Mary Jane Watson as his wife, and Gwen Stacy as his first true love).
Their baby daughter apparently has no super powers, cause going by the logic explained in Spider-Island comic event, people who get Spidey like powers before mutating to giant spiders (I wish I made that up) from the virus designed by the Jackal are ones who have no powers, and the bed bug carrying the virus bit her.
Getting on with the show (I'll try to make it spoiler free):
Good story structure and storytelling, nothing as disappointing as what we see often on the new Flash TV series.
It has enough funny moments to not keep it fully gloomy.
And yeesh, when terrifying moments come by, they are terrifying.
It's a nice character arc, a journey, exploring characters beyond the limits of a film series.
If anyone has a character study in this, it's probably the villain; Kilgrave.
Did you know that he originally debuted in Daredevil comics?
Daredevil v1 #004
That's him, the guy with purple skin.
Both Daredevil and Jessica Jones fought villains to originally debut in a title not their own, but that villain in the comics left a bigger mark on the hero star of the Netflix series than the one he debuted in his title.
Kilgrave had a bigger impact on the story of Jessica Jones (related to neither Angelica Jones nor Rick Jones, and those two are not related either) than he ever did on Daredevil.
Kingpin left a bigger impact on Daredevil than he did on Spider-Man.
Biggest difference between the two villains is that Kingpin has a big significant role in Spider-Man's history.
In the end of the second or third issue of New Avengers, Kilgrave orders Luke Cage to kill all his friends. I don't remember what happened in the following issue, that series was also written by Brian Michael Bendis, who saw plenty of potential in the villain used for this season.
Time to dig in, and review this little gem, but before I do, here is the link to the source of this gem for a gif. Animus Vox.
I will not compare it to the movie, and I will try not to reference the comics reviewing this, as long as I can avoid it, because it will be a distraction. BUT.. I will reference the rest of the Marvel Cinematic line, because this canonically belongs there, and there is a number of nods to the movies, or things that might remind some of certain movies.
In the world of superheroes, in New York, with their eccentric talents and abilities, a group of gang leaders somehow manage to find an opportunity for control and profit in this, a chance they wouldn't find otherwise (I'm not kidding, that is how it is mentioned), and in their way stands a lone man in a mask, without super powers, or super gadgets, or super anything, except his sharpened senses, and his decade of thorough training, no extra strength.
Concept does sound silly, thinking about it this way, especially for where it belongs, but the execution is quite stellar (maybe that's too generous a word, think very good), and downgrading the levels of super for it work for the drama and the sake of story they want to tell. (I intentionally used present tense here in want, cause there are more seasons to go)
Matt Murdock was blinded as a 9 years old, he saved an old man from getting hit by a truck, the truck was carrying radioactive waste, and some of it spilled on Matt's eyes, blinding him, as his father tried to comfort him. Matt's dad wasn't the best role model, but he did what he needed to do, be a great father, able to help ease the pain and sorrow Matt felt from being blinded, up until the time he -Jack- was shot. During the life of his father,
Matt was able to manage his gifts, able to sort them out, things got out of hand after the death of Jack Murdock, and the nun in the orphanage called for Stick, the blind guy who could teach Matt how to handle his abilities, he also taught Matt how to be a fighter.
In episode 7, you see hints of mysticism in the series, these hints betray the ground of the show, the grit, grounding the abilities of Matt, first there is the Black Sky, the bearer of doom that comes to the city, then near the end of the episode, Stick sits with another, hinting about a war coming, Being familiar with the comic story of Stick helps with detecting what I speak of.
We do not see the recognizable costume of Daredevil before the last 20 minutes of the last episode, the majority of the season has the masked vigilante in a black outfit he bought on the internet, and I wonder if a blind person can recognize colors from radiation emitted from the monitor, or maybe if his radioactive blindness helps him do that.
The long review will take too long to write, and it will make this piece a long chore to sit through, so all I will say before moving on to the things I find are flaws of this 13 episodes season is that if you did not check the series, it is worth the time.
Things I do not like about the season are as follow:
The suit designer (Kingpin's tailor) mentions someone kidnapped by the Kingpin, they do not show that person, or a rescue attempt.
Ben Urich, one of the most important supporting characters in the history of the character, is killed in this season, in his house.
They spend too much time speaking in low pitched voice, every character, and too often, it's almost like they whisper every word. Speak up, seriously, speak normally.
Mirage comics Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman was full of parodies and nods to comics franchises, movies, and other entertainment. Don't know how they are in the IDW comics, but check these from issue 08 of volume 1
Batman?
Romero, and raising an army of dead. Get the nod to Caesar Romero's zombie flicks?
Is Batman a realistic character? I keep seeing online by so many people how realistic Batman is, look at the most repeated line people say:
"Batman is so real, he has no powers, that's why he's my favorite superhero"
Having no super powers makes him real in the eyes of some, the bigger problem is when it's followed by this line: "Batman is so smart and so rich and so powerful, he can take anyone with enough prep-time and good items"
Ok, rule 1 about realism is; "People have limits", one of the things Batman seem to lack is a limit
Guy barely sleeps
Trained on so many fighting techniques, way too many
Knows too much
Skilled athlete in so many sports; archery, sprinting, swimming, diving for long and not drowning, etc
And when he uses his grappling hook, he can use it to climb 15 stories up pretty fast, probably much faster than elevators, holding his rope with one hand and setting stuff with another. Any stress to his arm? Barely, if any
If you know Batman well enough, you can see several out there similarities between him and Jigsaw (the first villain in SAW film franchise)
And here's another thing; if he's so realistic, he can't take down anyone with enough prep time, not someone like Superman or the Flash, it's stupid to think he can take someone with such high speed. Maybe he can take the Flash down, but not Superman, a guy so super he's faster than a speeding bullet, and so strong he can stop a speeding train
If you watched Justice League: Doom (animated DC feature film), Bruce Wayne escapes from his grave using a key and his bleeding fist, no one can do that, and it will be pretty rare to see someone accomplishing such an amazing feat
Here, check this image, it explains how real this superhero is, with all clarity, using less words than I used
Noodle head called Betty Ross, Ms. Brant. I love Glen Talbot in the 80s Hulk cartoon where he is a goofy major name Ned, "Noodle head Ned" will always come to mind when I see this guy
In Batman Begins we have this guy, calling himself Henri Ducard, and calls Bruce Wayne to join their cause of justice, and later is found out to be Ra's Al-Ghul, Batman leaves him to die after Ducard tried to kill every person in Gotham city cause it's soiled with crime.
Question is there a comic origin of Henri Ducard?
Detective Comics 600, first significance of Henri Ducard
Back in 1988 Bruce Wayne had to face consequences of aiding out of country people who oppose America, that was caused by a cartel that inserted itself in Wayne Enterprises and took liberty of forgery of Bruce's signature and taking charges, making a project transferring minds to other people who have biochips planted in their brains, that was revealed back in Detective Comics 598The Cartel almost found the truth about Bruce Wayne? Maybe so, they checked into his background and found his past bad for his reputation, they used that against him, and forged a charge on Bruce after he almost shut down their project, the Cartel hired Ducard to be a witness against their employer
The first actual appearance of Henri was in Detective Comics 599 in a flashback, in Batman's quest for training he hounded Ducard -a former member of the Interpol- to train him how to detect Unlucky for Bruce, the former Interpol member who was wanted by 4 countries sought after Batman to fill his empty time Studying Batman's prowess as a detective he discovered how some criminals are so attached to Batman they were putting things in his way to make him find them, and thought Batman is quite an overrated Detective
Putting 2+2 together he figured who Batman truly is, and found out some more secrets of Bruce Wayne, his former pupil
Seeing that Bruce did something ruthless (not knowing Bruce wouldn't have gone through it if not for some heavy persuasion) Henri didn't do what the cartel brought him to do, instead he saved Bruce and was proud of him, leaving America cause he is not welcomed there
A former member of the Interpol, a french, a great detective, a bit ruthless, that was Henri Ducard from the comics, that was the name used for Ra's disguising himself
So what if it's old? I like putting it there now, I just read it, like some stuff, others I find so-so or characters I care nothing about or know nothing about, it's a list, no hate
I loved seeing Raphael from TMNT in it, was hoping Michaelangelo wouldn't be far away from being viewed, and DAMMIT, Raph is the only turtle there, where's the love for the Turtle Titan?
It was also kind of surprising having Hal Jordan & Hal Stewart there without Kyle being on the list, I enjoy Hal the most, but why no Kyle? Kind of sad
Seeing Superman as No.1 & Batman followed as No.2 is great, I prefer Spidey to both, and I love Iron Man -because he is in many ways like Spidey- more than Batman, but I don't mind the two most important BFF there, why? They are the greatest 2 comic book icons, and I love seeing Spider-Man not far behind them
What's amusing is people's complaints on Superman being No.1, it's entertaining
Welcome to My comics blogspot site, here you'll read all about the comics I enjoy reading, mainly Marvels since they're are by far the easiest for me to access.
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