Superior Spider-man #2

Otto Octavius/Spider-man continues to prove that he can be a better Spider-man than Peter Parker ever was. In the last issue, he did so by craftily dealing with the newly formed Sinister Six. In this issue, his focus turns to Peter Parker's love life and the inevitable Otto Octavius and Mary Jane Watson coupling.

The issue of Otto romancing Mary Jane while in Pete's body is touchy. If he succeeds in "wooing her" and "sealing the deal," that would be tantamount to rape. After all, it is not Otto Octavius but Peter Parker who she wants and who she believes she is dating. No deception on Otto's part can get around that fact. Slott deals with the issue carefully. With the help of ghost-Peter-Parker, the reader is alerted to the disturbing moral situations of Otto touching Mary Jane, flirting with Sajani, and even of Otto washing his current body in the shower. The moral ground is laid out so well that the reader is disturbed when Otto makes use of Peter's memories to "experience" Mary Jane fully.

Despite failing completely at every attempt to get invited up to Mary Jane's apartment, Octavius is able to gather some important data from his scientific trials concerning his sex life, namely that there is a logical conundrum with dating Mary Jane. Peter Parker cares about Mary Jane and wants to date her, but his presence in her life puts a target on her head, so Octavius concludes that he cannot pursue Mary Jane. At least on the surface, this appears to be yet another way in which Octavius is superior to Peter Parker.

Here's where a little reading between the lines might be able to reveal a prevailing theme in Superior Spider-man. I think that in every individual way, Otto Octavius is going to be able to prove that he is better than Peter Parker at being Spider-man, and yet overall he is going to fail at being Spider-man. What we're going to see is that being better has far less to do with the content and arrangement of ones actions as it does with the motivation behind the actions one commits. Octavius defeated the Sinister Six with ease, but he should have stormed their headquarters and prevented any possible harm that they might have done before they got to his trap. He decided to push away Mary Jane, but a super hero who has no connection to the people of the world will fail at seeing them as anything other than collateral damage in an all-out brawl.

Otto Octavius will fail because being Spider-man is less about intellect than it is about compassion. While Peter Parker has a great head on his shoulders, you put down Spider-man and pick up an issue of Fantastic Four if you want to read about what the smartest people in the world are doing. You pick up a Spider-man book because Peter Parker is all heart, something that Octavius will always fail at.

The future of Superior Spider-man looks bright. We can look forward to more quirks, like Peter Parker with a robot lab assistant that whirs when it speaks and spider-surveillance drones. Despite the surprising lack of witty dialogue from the vulturettes, Otto's run-in with the Vulture should be pleasing. And who can forget the fact that Carlie Cooper may have figured out that Otto Octavius has inhabited Pete's body. Like I said, future, bright!

I've syndicated this review at Examiner. You can read it here. If you click on it a few times, spend some time there, or navigate to a new page, I might get some money. But I'm only asking that of you if you liked reading the article here and want to show your appreciation.

Superior Spider-man #1

Following the events of Amazing Spider-man #700, Superior Spider-man tells the story of Otto Octavius in the body of Peter Parker/Spider-man, a villain whose evil tendencies are curbed by the presence of Peter Parker's memories. Because Octavius is an egotist second only to Doctor Doom, he believes that he is better both at being Peter Parker and Spider-man than his predecessor, hence the title Superior Spider-man. This first issue shows Otto's disgust at the formation of a new Sinister Six, a bush league hodgepodge of b-villains who have the nerve of disgracing a team that Doctor Octopus was once a part of.

If you have read the events leading up to this event, you know that Dan Slott has been planning this transformation for quite some time. As a matter of fact, Peter Parker's switch from photographer to scientist was the perfect predecessor for Otto Octavius's switch from Doctor Octopus to Spider-man. If you've read Amazing Spider-man then you will not be surprised at how great the writing is in this issue. The Sinister Six story-line creates a perfect frame to show how Otto operates as Spider-man, as Peter Parker the scientist, and as Peter Parker the current boyfriend of Mary Jane Watson.

But the best part about having Dan Slott at the writing helm is the dialogue. When Otto attacks the "archaic" Living Brain, the robot mixes emotion with logic by screaming, "Query: Why was unit programmed with pain receptors? Whyyyy?" Subsequently, Grady Scraps refers to the Living Brain as, "the Super Nintendo of robots." And finally, how can you beat the fact that Octavius's laundry list of the pros of being Peter Parker ends with a drawing of Mary Jane in a sexy dress from the neck down and the line, "Yes. Peter Parker's life will suit me just fine. And the best part about it? The view."

I actually met the artist Ryan Stegman at the Cherry Capital Con in Traverse City, Michigan in May of 2012. At the time he had just announced that he would be drawing for Fantastic Four soon, a project that we all soon realized would be short-lived because Hickman was giving Fantastic Four and FF over to a new creative team shortly after Avengers vs. X-Men concluded. I got Stegman to autograph a comic for me and we got into a conversation about comic book art. I told him that if I were an artist I'd be one of those big muscle, big boobs kind of artists. His response: "I guess you could say that's my style." In a panel, he said that he has always loved drawing Spider-man, so I wasn't surprised to see him on this book. His art is fantastic, and I hope they keep him on for a while.

There was a certain Jedi ghost appearance at the end of this issue that has people very unhappy. I am riding the fence on this issue. Without spoiling too much, I will say that I knew something like this was going to happen, especially because a certain octobot wasn't destroyed. But the way it has come about seems a little weird, and I'm not sure I like the depiction of the aforementioned Jedi ghost.

Superior Spider-man is well on its way to being the best new comic of 2013, and the best comic book of 2013. When you start adding adjectives to the titles of your super hero, you write a check that will some day need to be cashed. This comic is already living up to the name Superior. May it continue to do so.

I've syndicated this review at Examiner. You can read it here. If you click on it a few times, spend some time there, or navigate to a new page, I might get some money. But I'm only asking that of you if you liked reading the article here and want to show your appreciation.

Reboot City: Spider-man

When Marvel launched the Ultimate Marvel line, they announced that there are four properties that form the center of the Marvel Universe: the Avengers, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four and Spider-man. Well, Marvel is currently nailing The Avengers, what with the fantastic films leading up to it (Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, and Captain America: The First Avenger), and I've already told you how the X-Men and Fantastic Four franchises should be rebooted, so I guess it's time for Spider-man, right?

The first two Sam Raimi Spider-man films were fantastic, and I have a lot of hope for 2012's The Amazing Spider-man. Of course, like all of the Marvel films, I wish that the rights to Spider-man could be signed over to Marvel Studios, but that doesn't mean that other people can't do great Spider-man films.

The reason that I already think that Spider-man needs to be rebooted once again has something to do with a little internet phenomenon that took place during the casting of The Amazing Spider-man. While the filmmakers were choosing between potential Peter Parkers who were all cute, young, and incredibly pale, actor Donald Glover of NBC's Community began a viral campaign on Facebook and Twitter petitioning for a chance to try out for the role of Peter Parker / Spider-man. I want you to note that he was not trying to get the internet to elect him to the role as opposed to the will of the filmmakers. He was merely trying to get an audition. But he was denied. Despite all of our efforts, the internet proved that we can get an old woman who is no longer funny on Saturday Night Live, but we can't even get a black man in the casting room of The Amazing Spider-man.

I blame Donald Glover for the next big news item surrounding Spider-man. Glenn Beck blames Michelle Obama, but I blame Donald Glover. Within about a year of Glover's campaign to become Spider-man, Brian Michael Bendis, the writer of Ultimate Spider-man and Ultimate Comics Spider-man made the decision to kill off Peter Parker and develop a new Spider-man. That Spider-man has been revealed as Miles Morales, a bi-racial boy who was bitten by a radioactive spider. Whereas Peter Parker was intended to be a kind of every-man (every-boy?), there were those who felt that having white people as all of the Earth's most important heroes with a few token exceptions was embarrassing. Now, we have a Spider-man who represents three interestingly under-represented groups of Americans, the black population, the Latino/Latina population, and the most under-represented of all, the bi-racial population.

What do I want for the reboot of Spider-man? Donald Glover would have been nice a year ago. As of right now, the reboot should tell the story of Miles Morales. He should be played by a young and unknown bi-racial actor with a great deal of potential. My favorite actors of the last three years have been Joel Courtney (Super 8), Hailee Stanfeld (True Grit), and Max Records (Where the Wild Things Are), and if I'm honest I have room for another one. For now I'm going to call him the kid who played Miles Morales / Spider-man.

I wish The Amazing Spider-man all the luck in the world. I hope it is the greatest superhero movie of all time and that it is one of the strongest films of the decade. But if I'm being honest I just want it to get out of the way and make room for the advent of Miles Morales. It may not make the most money at the box offices because people prefer their sedentary sameness in all things (Pirates of the Caribbean...), but it's just the right thing to do, both for the franchise and for the people of America.

And Glen Beck can blame anyone he wants for a more socially conscious America, for all I care. As long as there's a more socially conscious America, I'll even take the blame for it.

Role Models, Part Three

Role Models, Part One can be viewed here.
Role Models, Part Two can be viewed here.

One of the best days I've ever spent in Fort Worth, Texas was when good friend Chad invited me and mutual friend Rodney Thomas to his house for dinner. Aside from having a fantastic meal and discussion with Chad, his wife Christina and children Autumn and Mark, I saw an example of a fantastic, loving family in which the father, Chad, is able to be his own person, weird as he wants to be, and it all just works. Previously, I had feared that I would have to sacrifice a whole lot of my personal identity in order to be happily married with children. But Chad is a role model to me, a wonderful alien in this world who has courageously asserted himself as himself, making no such sacrifices as I'd imagined I'd have to make, and the result is not only a functional family, but a flourishing family. His children are so bright and passionate that I suddenly want to have children just so my progeny can inhabit the world Chad's children create. If you can't already tell, this evening left quite an impression on me.

Christina confessed that she and Chad have little in common outside of their children and their religious faith, but they could have fooled me. Chad is passionate about comic books, specifically Green Lantern, and it was clear just sitting at that dinner table that everyone present shared some degree of that passion. Christina kept up like a champ when the discussion digressed to DC comics. The kids were well-versed in Bible stories, but also in superhero stories. Autumn recited to us the Hebrew alphabet, and I have little doubt that she could say, with the same confidence, the noble oath of the Green Lantern Corps. Mark has recently become obsessed with the Batman villain Mr. Freeze after hearing the tragic story of his origin in the midst of trying to save his beloved wife Nora.

After dinner, we retired to the living room. As we watched two episodes of Batman: the Brave and the Bold, Chad and Autumn discussed how disrespectful it is when men whistle at women and when women wear unnecessarily revealing outfits (or rather, when people, most often men, draw women wearing unnecessarily revealing outfits). During commercials, Christina commented on a Wonder Woman article she was reading in Entertainment Weekly. After the kids went to bed, Rodney and I joined in on Chad and Christina's weekly Smallville viewing. Chad would later tell me that one of the keys to maintaining a lasting relationship with the one you love is doing things together beyond simply occupying the same space. Smallville appeared to be one of these activities for Chad and Christina.

At the end of the evening, I expressed to Chad my elation at meeting his family. I think I went so far as to say that Chad's family was the perfect family.

"It was a good night for us," Chad said, keeping everything in context. "They're not all like that. But yeah, I have a pretty great family."

I think Chad was being modest. The way that Chad's family looks at one another hides no disdain - they truly love one another and are interested in one another. With Chad and his fantastic family I find that I have both proven and disproven my previous point regarding the importance of stories over role models. On the one hand, the folk stories of the Bible mingle with comic book stories - perhaps the most pervasive modern/postmodern American folk stories that we have - as Chad and Christina breed in their children a culture of ethical consciousness. On the other hand, I see Chad as my role model, someone who lives a life similar to the life I'd like to live some day, whose example I feel inclined to imitate and whose advice I feel inclined to follow.

This seeming contradiction points to a point that has just now arisen in my consciousness, that having role models in and of itself is not the problem. The problem lies in removing the role model from the context in which the role model enacts its story and asserting some sort of moral infallibility, suggesting that the individual is incapable of doing wrong. Comic book character Hal Jordan / Green Lantern is just as responsible for the development of moral reasoning in those who read his narratives as are the narratives themselves, but if we believe he is always good, then we excuse all the terrible acts of murder and betrayal, many of which have since been undone in the comics, that he commits as Parallax the living embodiment of fear. Consider also Peter Parker / Spider-man facing his dark side in the guise of the alien symbiote known as Venom. I bring up Spider-man because more of us can relate to him. (Hal Jordan is a fearless monument of a man who would have been a hero regardless of whether or not he was given a ring of power from the Guardians, but Peter Parker was a normal kid when he was bitten by that radioactive spider. Whereas few among us are courageous, bold and creative enough to represent an entire sector of the universe as a Green Lantern, any passerby can fall victim to a radioactive spider and become Spider-man.) Peter Parker / Spider-man is bound by the responsibility his Uncle Ben taught him to do the right thing, but Venom tempts him to cut corners, to use his strength for social benefit, to betray the very responsibility that is such an integral part of Spider-man's origin story.

Rather than follow Green Lantern and Spider-man into their darkness, we as readers are expected to criticize their actions and the evil that results. Hal Jordan's greatest loss and Peter Parker's alien chemical dependency pose traps that any of us could fall into. But in these dark times, the reader actually becomes the Green Lantern to the fallen Green Lantern and the Spider-man to the fallen Spider-man. We know what is good about these heroes, and we use that good to become the heroes ourselves in their absence. (Let's hope that we're better heroes than Azrael in Batman's absence. Am I right?) We tell Hal Jordan that he's not being himself and we pray Peter Parker overcomes his temptation. When the hero is away we successfully fill the void by knowing how the fallen would act were the fallen not so fallen, how the fallen ought to if this darkness is to be overcome.

When I was young, my father would tell me Bible stories, but he also preached of the youthful and rebellious spirit of Peter Pan. My mother would speak of the great things my grandfather Paul Slater had done both for our community and for our family. Two years ago I was asked at a conference on world aid work what my goal in life was. I answered that my desire is to save the world. Was I informed by Jesus or Moses or grandpa or Peter Pan in aiming for this haughty goal? To some degree, yes, I was, but to a greater degree I was driven by Spider-man, the X-Men, Batman and Superman, by the stories I've heard that change the way I think and the person I have become. My brother David was told by the family members who revoked my parents' guardianship that comic books are evil. If good and evil are defined by the positive and negative impacts that our stories have brought about, I think Bibles might be considered much more evil than any comic book ever has been. I'm no history scholar (I dabble...), but I've never heard of a crusade devoted to wiping out all humans who support the Sinestro Corps or a war against the nation harboring the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.

I've spent some time talking about my childhood, but in truth this whole discussion on role models stems from my own desire to have children. I often wonder if I'll be too controlling, seeing danger in all the choices of my future hypothetical offspring. Or perhaps I'll be too laid back, perceiving freedom where there is only lack of guidance. In the end I think I'll follow Chad's lead. I'll love my family with all my heart and provide them with only the best stories I've ever come across, regardless of their holy or profane source. When they get into something I'm not familiar with, probably some Disney channel fad or something, I'll try to keep up with it too. most of all, I will talk with my children. It seems to work well for Chad, and in retrospect it worked really well in my upbringing as well. (I still have fond memories of watching X-Files with my mother every Friday / Sunday night.) Maybe in the process I'll become a role model for my kids. I suppose nothing is impossible when you live a life worthy of telling in story form.

Emma Stone

Actress Emma Stone. You may remember her from such memorable roles as Jules in Superbad, Wichita in Zombieland and Olive in Easy A. Stone is a young actress who has been gaining a lot of attention in the last few years for her outstanding performances in popular movies. Her clever joking in Easy A is reminiscent of the early works of Kristen Bell, specifically Veronica Mars's witty interplay with father Keith (Enrico Colantoni) on UPN's Veronica Mars. Stone shows a great deal of promise, and though I'm not incredibly excited for the Spider-Man reboot, the pictures that have been popping up of Stone as Gwen Stacy give me a great deal of hope.

Neil Patrick Harris

Actor Neil Patrick Harris. Everybody's been raving about this dude for years, so I'll bet you have an expectation of what I'm going to tell you. You think I'm going to tell you that he was hilarious as himself in the Harold and Kumar movies, or as Barney Stinson on How I Met Your Mother. Both are fairly true, but that's not what I want to tell you. You immediately begin to think that I'm referring to the fact that he can sing and dance as witnessed by his roles in Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog and Glee. These are interesting facts, but not my concern today. I want to raise up Harris's true talent: voice acting. He was amazing as the voices of Nightwing in Batman: Under the Red Hood, Flash in Justice League: The New Frontier, and Spider-Man in the 2003 animated series. NPH, you've found your true calling!

Requiem: Spectacular Spider-Man and Wolverine and the X-Men

Spectacular Spider-Man premiered on The CW on March 8, 2008. Two full seasons have aired since then. Every episode was entertaining and smart, capturing the classic and iconic struggle of Peter Parker in a much more modern fashion. (For example, Peter, like many modern New Yorkers, sports a messenger bag wherever he goes.) There has been talk for some time about a third season, and it has been hard waiting for it to air.

Wolverine and the X-Men is a bold cartoon undertaking. After an event that kills or scatters the X-Men, Wolverine is called by a vision of the future to regather the team in order to prevent a terrifying future where the Sentinels have gotten out of control and all mankind suffers. The first season delivered great story and character development, ending in a new vision of the future reminiscent of the Age of Apocalypse story-line from X-Men comics in the '90s. The last episode sets the viewer up perfectly for the promised second season.

Neither Spectacular Spider-Man nor Wolverine and the X-Men were renewed.

Let us have a moment of silence for these two brilliant, prematurely canceled television programs. If you haven't ever seen an episode I strongly recommend you do so, child and adult alike. You'll be happy you did.

Donald Glover for Spider-man!

Spider-Man 3 had barely been in theaters for a week when I started hearing rumors about a fourth Spider-man movie. Personally, I enjoyed the third film and thought it was magnificent how many things they were able to artfully balance, but in light of the critical and popular response to Spider-Man 3 being largely negative it seemed like a Spider-Man 4 was jumping the gun a little bit. (Oh, and FYI, if they wanted to feature Lizard as a villain they should have done it at a much earlier, organic moment. It's just too late.)

Recently, the Spider-Man 4 project was scrapped in order that Marvel could reboot the Spider-Man story (possibly within the same continuity as the Avengers storyline?). The Hollywood Reporter released a list of boring white people lined up to play Peter Parker in the reboot: Jamie Bell, Andrew Garfield, Josh Hutcherson and Alden Ehrenreich. Honestly, if you're going to list a bunch of scrawny little white boys and you don't include the magnificent Jesse Eisenberg then what's the point (of course, they might have to rename it Spider-Man-Land)? Wouldn't it make more sense to get people excited about a Spider-Man reboot?

Marc Bernardin, writing for io9, responded with an article that I don't think he imagined would become so influential in the Spider-Man proceedings. The article was titled "The Last Thing Spider-Man Should Be Is Another White Guy," and it argues brilliantly for the fact that there's no good reason out there to explain why Spider-Man can't be played by a minority:

Lee and Ditko created a wonderfully strong character, one full of complexity and depth, who happens to be white. In no way is Peter Parker defined by his whiteness in the same way that too many black characters are defined by their blackness. He's defined by the people he cares for, by his career, by his identity as a New Yorker (incidentally, one of the most diverse cities in the world) — as too many good people died to prove, a man is defined by his choices, not by the color of his skin.

In response to this article a great deal of individuals began to proclaim that Spider-Man should be played by Donald Glover, who stars on NBC's Community and has written for NBC's 30 Rock. Almost immediately, Glover began campaigning on Twitter and Facebook for the role of Spider-Man and gaining masses of people to support him. Humble Glover recently tweeted, "Some people are mistaken. I don’t want to just be given the role. I want to be able to audition. I truly love Spider-Man."

I believe that, when used right, the internet allows for the possibility of a greater democracy. I can't say that I've experienced this politically, but I know for a fact that it's happening in mass media. What have we accomplished? We elected McLovin. We got Juggernaut to sport a witty line from a popular series of YouTube videos in X2. We convinced Hollywood to add some entertaining Samuel L. Jackson scenes to Snakes on a Plane. We got Betty White to host SNL. As much as New York hipsters want to talk about the Betty White thing on a daily basis and without end, it pales (literally) in comparison to Donald Glover as Spider-Man.

Do you remember how the Iron Man movie turned out much better than the other Marvel movies that came before and after it? A lot of that had to do with the fact that Robert Downey, Jr. worked on dialogue, allowing John Favreau and the writers to focus on story. How much better would a Spider-Man film be with a writer for 30 Rock as the main character? Donald Glover is Spider-Man. He may not get the role. He may not even get a chance to audition. But when it comes to Spider-Man, make mine Donald Glover.

Superheros on Facebook

From the blog In Social I trust comes a brilliant take on what it would be like if Superheroes were just like us and had Facebook accounts.
 
Here are just a couple of exerpts from Superheros on Facebook.

Tim Gunn on Comic Book Costumes

I'm in love with this!