Cap's Comics - W.E.B. of Spider-Man

 

 

Here I sit, stuck between two Disney parks, and it has been years since I have been able to visit Orlando or Anaheim. And one of the dreams that has become a reality since my last visit to the Disneyland Resort is Avengers Campus. Yes, I want to go there! Marvel and Disney with W.E.B. of Spider-Man, which collects the five single issues of this comic title, are trying to get myself and my younger self motivated to visit the new land and WEB SLINGERS: A Spider-Man Adventure.

In W.E.B. of Spider-Man, writer Kevin Shinick and artist Alberto Alburquerque introduce Peter Parker to the Worldwide Engineering Brigade (W.E.B.) established by Tony Start to gather great young thinkers together to solve the world’s emerging problems. W.E.B. members include Harley Kenner from Iron Man 3, Lunella Lafayette the Moon Girl, Onome, a genius girl from Wakanda, Doreen Green the Unstoppable Squirrel Girl, and Amadeus Cho also known as Brawn. The youngsters are joined by the Spider-Bots found in the ride. The team is drawn into a battle with some familiar-faced villains attempting to steal key data from W.E.B. Peter struggles in this adventure to determine whether he or his alter ego, Spider-Man, best fits within the W.E.B. team dynamic.  

This title is for 10+. And honestly, it is for that age, and a little bit older, this best would work. As an adult, I found the lack of foreshadowing for the big bad to be a major miss. And I think for young readers, the lack of foreshadowing and general low visibility of this villain is problematic. I do not believe the ten-year-old crowd knows who the villain is and may not care about them. I think all readers needed to Scooby-Doo this where we take off the mask and yell it was you! But that is lacking. The story is what you need and expect from a comic from this age, with Alburquerque providing very professional and well-done art. I can see an 11-year-old reading this a few times before hitting the park, but it will likely never be any adult readers entry comic to the ride, where the movies should be taking that role for most of the audience.  

W.E.B. of Spider-Man is a story with a hiccup or two. But it performs as needed by creating a comic story accessible to young readers. And best of all, from a Disney synergy window, it likely will make some young people feel closer to the Spider-Man ride and the backstory and lead to pleas to get into line! 

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Between Books - Mondo Marvel Volume One November 1961-December 1962

Mondo Marvel Volume One November 1961-December 1962 by Paul Brian McCoy collects the author's thoughts on his experiment of reading all of Marvel's superhero titles in chronological order.  This volume takes readers from November 1961 and Fantastic Four #1 to Journey into Mystery #87 with McCoy providing very brief summaries and commentary on the early Marvel stories primarily written by Stan Lee with art by Jack Kirby.  Among the stories discussed are the early adventures of the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Thor, Hulk and Ant-Man.

The bulk of the book is McCoy's observations about the issues.  They are blunt and realistic.  There are some light profanities in his commentary.  The commentaries remind me of the type of discussions often heard on podcasts and on blogs (which is where this project started).  The summaries of each story are very light with me at times questioning what the plot of the discussed issue was about, and that is with me having read some of these tales.  I will say that having sat down and read this that McCoy has helped uncover the trend Lee's writing relying on aliens and Communists.  And that in the first year of Marvel superheroes that the Marvel universe was very underdeveloped.

The book itself is a breezy easy read which a reader can jump in and out of.  I read it on several different devices during down times in my day.  If I had sat down to read it at once it would have likely taken me an hour to read.  This Kindle book sells for 99 cents.  And that is fairly priced for what it is, a light commentary on the first year of Marvel superheroes.  I myself read it for free in the Kindle Unlimited program, which is my preferred price point.

Mondo Marvel Volume One November 1961-December 1962 provides a window to one comic fan's thoughts on Marvel's earliest heroes.  The text is fun as McCoy gives his unfiltered opinions of some of the craziness in Lee and Kirby's early stories and all the aliens and Communists, and sometimes alien Communists, that the legends could dream of.

Between Books - Marvel Comics: The Untold Story

One of my best days as a Disney fan was the company's purchase of Marvel Comics.  I have often joked that all Marvel has to do after the LucasFilm addition is buy the Chicago Cubs and they have all of me.  To be fair, I would need them to buy a lacrosse team too!  The Marvel purchase has re-energized me in my love of comics, and loving history I have been seeking more and more about Marvel's past.  Needless to say, the over 450 pages in Marvel Comics: The Untold Story gave me plenty to think about.

Marvel Comics: The Untold Story by Sean Howe is a history of Marvel Comics from it's creation amongst a world of magazines to the Disney purchase.  The story begins with Martin Goodman and his Timely Comics founded in 1939.  Goodman liked to change the names of his magazines, comics and companies often, which lead in 1961 to Goodman's comic arm becoming Marvel Comics.  It is also in 1961, when Marvel's fortunes were on the rocks that editor-in-chief Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby introduced The Fantastic Four to the public as Marvel's first real superhero comic.  With the success of this super team other new creations followed including Iron Man, Thor, Spider-Man, the Hulk and the super team Avengers.  But despite all of the success that this Marvel Age brought the company there were still squabbles over royalties, credit and artistic freedom in the halls of Marvel, which was far from Stan Lee's happy picture of the Marvel Bullpen.  With the fortunes of publishing often waning, Lee attempted to lead Marvel into Hollywood attempting to get Marvel characters on television and movies.  Due to poor creative and business choices, Marvel would become a target of other companies for purchase, eventually with Disney buying Marvel's impressive character catalog.

Marvel Comics: The Untold Story is massive.  And I have noticed amongst my friends who have read it, no one read it fast.  It is dense and full of information, so do not expect to sprint through this very detailed and clear book.  This one will take some time, in fact I have been reading it slowly over a few months.

I have never seen Mad Men, but this is how I picture it would be.  As the company becomes a critical success in the 1960's men in ties work at drafting tables making heroes come alive.  However, there is a seedier darker side where creators vie for attention and struggle to get paid.  Some of the saddest portions of this text is reading of the relational damage these men did to each other as they fought to make a dollar as contractors and Marvel sought to stay profitable often by shorting the men who brought them stories.  This Mad Men was followed by the drug induced images of the 1970's as Marvel's office included many creators enjoying youth and available drugs to explore. 

Of course, one of the key players in all of this is Stan Lee.  Lee wrote the stories, mostly or kinda. He created the Marvel method where he provided artists with outlines, allowed them to draw and then added text afterwards.  And he hired and fired the staff.  I know that there is much debate about how creative Lee actually was during the Marvel Age and if he rode on the coattails of others like Kirby.  And it saddens me to read in these pages of the arguments between the two over creative credit.  So as one reads of Lee's move from New York to California to seek Marvel's Hollywood fortune, it comes as no surprise that he abandoned the world of monthly creators to go somewhere that isolated him from the office politics of the New York office.  I do feel that Howe portrays Lee correctly, as someone who is not a devil and may have mixed his facts sometimes.  But it also appears that he often attempted to give credit to his creative partners and was as upset as them if stories were too Lee-centric.  Another aspect I had not considered about Lee was the impact that the work for hire rules had on him.  While Marvel paid him well as the face of the company, he also had surrendered royalties to his greatest creations to the company while producing them for Marvel's titles. 

One aspect that I found intriguing was the long progression to get Marvel comics into film.  Lee efforted for years as Marvel stories were in development hell.  And he had become familiar with Marvel movies dying before they could enter production.  I think today we have become some used to the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, that we would not even think to consider that it did almost never happen.  

I did find myself laughing as one sales director is quoted as saying, "Marvel is not Disney (Howe, 385)."  They most definitely are now!  Over a decade later they would be.  Marvel in that late 90s began to experiment with harder edgier titles like Alias about Jessica Jones.  Creators amped up the violence and adult situations attempting to bring in adult paying audiences.  I have found it interesting in my own looks at Disney to consider that it is a family entertainment company where Marvel is based on the popularity of action violence.  And in many ways while Disney today attempts to use Marvel to bring in young boy audiences, it is the one arm of the company that appears to be able to provide the most edge.  

Marvel Comics: The Untold Story is a must have for Disney fans who want to know more about all arms of the company and Marvel fans.  The tales found within its pages are not as black and white as the color comics that Marvel produces.  But it is a story of intrigue and men under pressure that many will be able to enjoy. 

Mousey Movie (TV) Preview - Phineas and Ferb Mission Marvel

Okay, you've probably noticed I'm pretty into Marvel.  Seriously its not like I have started an entire podcast about my love of the Agent Coulson!  Okay I Did!

So the first major Disney/Marvel crossover happens this summer with Phineas and Ferb: Mission Marvel.   Enjoy the recently released trailer with me.

What did you think?

Personally I am a little nervous.  But I think I would be more nervous if Mickey Mouse was meeting Wolverine.  Let us be honest, pretty much anything is game in Phineas and Ferb's world!  And I noticed the Beak on a second viewing, how great would a Beak comic be! 

So I am hopeful that with most this Agent P, this is really good and could lead to other fun crossovers.

Hey...did I see S.H.I.E.L.D.  Yes, yes I did!

What do you think?

Mousey Movies - Spider-Man



Were Betweenlanders ready for Mickey Mouse’s cousin Spider-Man in this summer’s The Amazing Spider-Man released on July 3^rd?  Wait a Spider-Man movie?  There does not seem to be any tweets, blog posts, Facebook status updates or covers of D23 magazine to support this effort from Disney.  Why wasn’t Marvel’s most prominent hero not in The Avengers?  Clearly that had to be a mistake on Disney and Marvel’s part.  Well, I bet Disney would love to be promoting a Spider-Man movie, maybe even including him amongst the Avengers.  But they can’t do it.  Sure they can put Ultimate Spider-Man on the small screen to promote The Avengers but Disney does not have the rights to produce big screen Spider-Man projects.  Those rights are currently owned by Sony and The Amazing Spider-Man is distributed by Columbia Pictures and not Disney.  But I bet that Disney would love to get those rights, along with the rights for Spider-Man to appear in an Orlando area theme park, rights currently in the hands of Universal Orlando.  Despite the lack of press from Disney on this film, despite a Disney Store email I received letting me know they had Spider-Man gear, the new film seems to be doing okay.  And when I say okay, I mean the highest premiering film on a Tuesday in movie history.  Yes, the all important Tuesday!    



This isn't the Magic Kingdom!



In 2002 it felt like there had not been a superhero movie for decades.  Okay, there had been but sometimes perception is reality.  So that summer’s release of Spider-Man staring Toby Maguire as Peter Parker/Spider-Man telling the origins of the webbed one on the big screen was an event.  Overall I enjoyed the movie back in 2002 and thought it well done.  Now with The Avengers in the rear view mirror it seems less exciting and less like the event it was ten years ago.  Yes, it lead to a Spider-Man trilogy but when originally viewing it I just did not get the sense that was going to lead to something bigger like I did with Iron Man.

With Spider-Man being popular in the Between House right now, our pretend play trunk has recently seen a full costume added to it, it was time to dust off the DVD (yeah DVD) and watch this surprisingly Mousey Movie together. 

·     Dead Man’s Party:  All you have to see is music by Danny Elfman to setup a Mousey experience.  I was introduced to the front man of Oingo Boingo in 1989 with his brilliant collaboration with former Disney animator Tim Burton in Batman.  As I think about it maybe I should include this non-Disney hero’s tent pole film as a Mousey movie because it is loaded with Disney connections too.  But to come back to the point.  Burton and Elfman have worked together numerous times since including Disney’s 2010 Alice in Wonderland which earned a box office of over 1 Billion dollars, yeah capital B.  But his work has not been limited to Burton films and other Disney collaborations include Flubber, personal favorite Meet the Robinsons, Burton’s Frankenweenie to be released this year and next year’s Oz, The Great and Powerful.    

·     Warrior King:  Willem Dafoe plays villain Norman Osborn or the Green Goblin.  Dafoe brings a good amount of crazy to the role.  His eyes yell, “Hello, I am psychotic!”  For Disney Dafoe would play green again.  In 2012’s underrated John Carter he nailed the role of Thark, green Martian, Jeddak Tars Tarkas.  Yes I know his costume is CGI, but in the same way his eyes communicate crazy in Spider-Man his voice and captured motions scream nobility in John Carter.      

·     The 13^th Floor:  A few years ago I made a mistake.  Hoping to encourage one of my kids to ride The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror I rented 1997’s Tower of Terror starring Police Academy’s Steve Guttenberg.  I remembered the film as harmless and helping to provide a back story for a ride that I had only ridden only to a child scared off by the word terror.  Well, for a kid Tower of Terror can be well, TERRIFYING.  So note Betweenlanders Tower of Terror is not going to get a skittish kiddo to ride the elevator to the 13^th floor.  Now for us a five dollar bribe from a friend eventually did the trick and now I can’t get this same kid to quit ridding The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.  Kirsten Dunst who plays Parker’s love interest Mary Jane Watson also plays Guttenberg’s young nice Anna in this made for TV movie and serves as the character in Tower of Terror that kids can most indentify with.  

·     Hero Maker:  I love it when the Between Kids find Stan Lee in a movie.  Yes true believers, Stan Lee has a cameo in this movie profiling his most prominent creation.  And I look forward to playing Where’s Waldo with Lee this summer in The Amazing Spider-Man.  I have heard the cameo is fantastic.   

·     Coming Attractions: Sam Raimi directs this 2002 Spider-Man flick.  Now he has stepped away from the Spider-Man franchise for other things.  These include 2013’s Disney feature Oz: The Great and Powerful, which tells the origin of the Wizard of Oz starring James Franco who plays Harry Osborn in Spider-Man. 

I enjoyed my afternoon reliving Spider-Man with first time viewers, especially ones so into Spider-Man at the moment.  The movie may not be on the scale of The Avengers but they do share the background of New York and you definitely feel as if you are in the same universe though Nick Fury won’t be stepping into any scenes.  If you don’t feel like you can take the entire family to this summer’s The Amazing Spider-Man while it’s in theaters Spider-Man is a good candidate for a family movie night.   
  

Dreaming Disney - Ultimate Spider-Man

To say that Disney is being aggressive in marketing May’s The Avengers would be understatement.  Yes, Disney fan, you must go see The Avengers and unlike John Carter the House of Mouse may have already convinced you.

The Disney synergy has begun for The Avengers, making it impossible for Disney fans to ignore the mousey heroes.  Soon we will see the Avenger crew plastered on three collectible covers for D23 Magazine (where was the John Carter cover, or even story) and turning over to Disney XD fans will find Disney preparing our kids for The Avengers with over an hour of Marvel cartoons.  One of them, The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes transparently links to the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s loftiest project.  But the other Ultimate Spider-Man is sneaking The Avengers into your living room. 

Teenager Peter Parker is the Spectacular Spider-Man.  Peter balances friends, high school, his super cool Aunt May (no crone here) and being a superhero.  Peter is a young superhero and youth means mistakes, as the Amazing Spider-Man lacks experience and mentoring.  So, Nick Fury the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. steps in to offer the mentoring the youngster many need to eventually reach Avenger status and fight alongside of Captain America, Iron Man and others.  Fury promises Parker that he can transform him into Ultimate Spider-Man.  Peter is not the only young hero that S.H.I.E.L.D. is training and they team up Spider-Man with their young stable including Nova, Iron Fist, Luke Cage or Power Man, and White Tiger.  And just for extra fun, Fury decides to send the entire team to attend high school with Pete!

This show is silly, witty, and quirky enough that both kids and adults will enjoy it.  Peter often breaks the fourth wall and shares his thoughts with the audience, thoughts that are not always heroic.  But they usually are funny.  It has a voice cast that delivers and the stories are well written.  In fact the stories are ones that use elements from the Spider-Man mythology that the hard core fan will enjoy while introducing the rookie to these characters and Spider-Man’s rogues gallery for the first time.

 So how does Ultimate Spider-Man tie into The Avengers?  First, the show makes heavy use of Nick Fury, the hero mentor and S.H.I.E.L.D.  And this Nick Fury is stylized after actor Samuel L. Jackson allowing everyone to know the tie-in between the cartoon and the movie.  The tie-in through S.H.I.E.L.D. is so deep that Clark Gregg voices Agent Coulson, who has been assigned as the principal of Peter’s high school so S.H.I.E.L.D. can keep an eye on the young team.  Second, Avengers have guest starred on the show.  The most obvious to date is Iron Man, and a version of Iron Man that is self-destructive and not a great mentor for young heroes.  It’s a version that will make most fans think of Robert Downey Jr.  Finally, Stan Lee is in the house!  Lee voices Stan the janitor, sharing his unsolicited wisdom to the youngsters of Midtown High.  

Ultimate Spider-Man will help you get ready for May 4^th when the Avengers Assemble.  But it will also entertain and help your young Disney fan become immersed in Disney’s Marvel properties.  Michael Eisner would be proud of all this synergy!   Well played Disney!