Spider-Days: Spider-Man & The Movies

Sorry about not putting this one a lot sooner, I’ve been busy with work and I forgot the password to my laptop but that’s all in the past now… but this is being done now. Sam Raimi’s Spidey trilogy is literally the very basics to the Spider-Man mythology and world. Spider-Man 1 introduces you to Peter Parker, Mary Jane Watson and Harry. It’s a great origin story told in film and still is a great film. Spider-Man 2 is the best Spider-Man movie, there is a lot of action, drama, great humour and the special effects are still good. The acting is spectacular and having Alfred Molina as Doctor Octopus was a perfect casting choice. Spider-Man 3 was, wait for it…ok. It was stupid with the dance scene, yes. It was extremely stupid with the “emo” Peter Parker, yes but if you take that aside and leave Venom out of it, then let the Sandman stay in and I really enjoyed the back story they gave him, Thomas Hayden Church was great as Sandman. Having Sandman say he’s sorry about the incident with Uncle Ben to Peter was a great way to end it off AND you can see Spider-Man 1, 2 & 3 as kind of a complete trilogy. From great to meh, this is a good trilogy.

Spoilers-ish alert! Beware!

Now fast forward to 2012 and Amazing Spider-Man is out and Dark Knight Rises is a few days away now, and Amazing Spider-Man is a reboot of the franchise and it takes a look at Peter Parker, who is still in high school and stays that way through out the whole movie and there’s the back story with his parents mysteriously leaving when he was young and I just absoulety LOVED this movie. As a comic book movie, it’s great. As an origin story, I actually prefer this one over Spider-Man 1. Andrew Garfield was spectacular as Spidey. Emma Stone was fantastic as Gwen Stacy and I loved Denis Leary as Captain Stacy. I also liked the Lizard and a lot of people are saying they didn’t like how the lizard and Conners talked to himself, kinda like how William Dafoe did in the first Spidey movie but as a Spidey fan, I kinda thought to myself, Conners uses this “Oz serum” which is in Oscorp. Osborn is dying. This dual-identity thing is more of a Goblin trait BUT because it was used before the Goblin. Could Osborn or someone close to Osborn just make a few changes here and there and give it to Osborn, who is apparently DYING? But oh well, they will probably take the Christopher Nolan / Batman root and have Goblin for the sequel like Chris had the Joker for The Dark Knight.

That being said … go watch The Amazing Spider-Man because it lives up to it’s name and even though we live in a post-Avengers world now, there’s still room for super hero movies with one hero, one girl, one villian and the rest of the characters in the background.

Spider-Days: Spider-Man & Video Games

Spider-Mans been in games since way, way, WAY back in the old Atari days. Each game has it’s ups and a lot of games have had its downs.  Spidey’s been on just about every console and handheld. I’m going to be talking about the games I’ve played starting with…

Spider-Man for the PlayStation 1. 

A lot of people I know have played this game and we all agree, it has to be one of the best Spider-Man games to date. Based on the 90s cartoon, has an original story, a crap load of heroes and villains, oh and it is narrated by Stan Lee! Add in lots of unlockable costumes, fun combat and great graphics and this is a classic spidey game.

Next Spidey game up are the movie games, the game based on the first movie for PlayStation 2, I thought was a really great game because it was a little bit like a next gen (at that time) Spider-Man from the PS1 but without all the heroes and villains. Not open world (yet) but a lot of fun. Also I remember laughing my ass off when I had the Mary Jane costume, skin, whatever you want to call it fighting Goblin and during the final cutscene, seeing Mary Jane kiss Mary Jane, ah it was funny. Spider-Man 2 now has to be another classic Spidey title right up there with the PlayStation 1 game because this was Spidey’s first take at an open world. The story takes a few hours to beat and then there’s the need to upgrade everything for Spidey and then side missions. It was a damn great game. Spider-Man 3 was meh, it was nice to look at (only if you had the Xbox 360 version) but other than that, I couldn’t even beat it. This was a bad day for Spidey. Spider-Man 1 & 2 for the GBA were fun. They gave cartoon-y retro styled graphics and when people spoke, there would be speech bubbles, like in comics. It was fun little time wasters. Spider-Man 2 on the PSP was literally just levels from the first Spider-Man movie game, with Spider-Man 2 themed all around it. I was really pissed at this title but at the same time I did kind of enjoy it.

Next up has to be one of my favourite Spidey games. Ultimate Spider-Man. Based on the comic series before Peter Parker died. This game had a great story, it is true to the comics, a cartoon open world New York. You could play as Spider-Man or Venom AND it had one of the BEST final boss fights in a video game EVER. This is such a great game!

Spider-Man Web of Shadows for the PSP, was an odd title. It was a 2D side scroller with 3D characters and environments. Ok doesn’t sound too bad. You can also have random heroes and villains from the Marvel universe help you out. Ok, sounds pretty bad ass. What I didn’t like about it is that I got lost easily, didn’t know where to go or what to do and also why in God’s good name is a chicken cow thing a … character? I didn’t play much of the console version just so we get that out of the way. Oh and the DS version sucks.

Shattered Dimensions for the 360 is Beenox’s first take at the everyone’s favourite wall crawler and it took the game back to the drawing boards. There was an original story, lots of villains, no open world, lots of unlockables, Neil Patrick Harris  as Spidey, oh and there’s 3 other Spider-Men. It was a good day for Spidey fans. Except for those on the DS, Shattered Dimensions wasn’t great on the DS.

Now for Edge of Time, the story behind it was cool, Spider-Man dies so Spider-Man 2099 goes back and saves him. It’s just most of the game, you’re swinging in small areas and crawling through vents, destroying robots and pushing levers. Also the big venom doc ock creature that comes in near the end of the game…I mean really. Spider-Man 1 had that Ock / Carnage thing which was created just for the game. Talk about copy cats.

Lastly is Spider-Man: Total Mayhem for iOS, I am not sure if it’s on Android. Total Mayhem is set in the Ultimate Spider-Man universe, it has no open world but a great cast of villains and voice actors, which I really liked about the title. It was a lot of fun and I really liked how beautiful the game looked on such a small screen.

Now there’s a new iOS (& Android) Spidey game based on the new movie and it is open world. I will be checking it out as soon as I can. But til then, check out some of the titles I’ve talked about here and go save the day web heads!

Next up: Spider-Man & The Movies

Spider-Days: Spider-Man & The TV

Spidey is no stranger to the good old boob tube. He started on the tv back in the 60s with “Spider-Man” which gave the world this famous song.

I really enjoyed this series because, even though the animation is very old, I loved how entertaining the stories were. Then there was the 90s animated series and to me, this series and the Spectacular Spider-Man series are both the best animated series on the character. If you were to choose only one, go with Spectacular. With Spectacular, the action is good, the love triangle between MJ, Gwen and Peter is great and the villians are awesome. Though there is MUCH MUCH more action in the 90s, it’s just I feel like there’s plotholes galore and the very end of the series raises a few questions rather than ending it out on a clear good note. 

The one series I did not like at all, (next to Ultimate Spider-Man) like this series is pure crap. It came out AFTER the first Spider-Man movie and it was based in the movie universe following Pete, MJ & Harry living their lives after the first movie. I did like Neil Patrick Harris as Spidey, the 3D animation was cool, it’s just I thought if this were to be really based in this universe. It would have had the last episode lead up to Spider-Man 2. INSTEAD, the last episode shows Peter throwing away the spidey costume in a suitcase into the river. I thought the sequel would have been cool to see Peter go back and get it. Instead we got Peter give up being Spider-Man half way through the movie. Hell, the characters don’t even look like their respectable movie actors, Harry doesn’t look like James Franco, MJ doesn’t look like Kirsten Dunst, so on and also the stories were so boring and the villians sucked like they all sucked, even Electro and Kraven sucked, I kinda liked Kingpin only because Michael Clarke Duncan reprised the role from the DareDevil film (which I say is a pretty decent film). So anyway don’t see “The New Animated Spider-Man Series”. It’s crap. 

Even Spider-Man is pissed at how bad his new show is

Now if you’ve been reading the site lately, you already know I’m not a fan of the Ultimate Spider-Man show. Well… I’m still not a fan. I tried to go with some of its changes but I’m sorry, Spider-Man does not do visual jokes. That is Deadpool’s gig. Not Spider-Mans. Ultimate Spider-Man is only good as a comic, video game and everything else that is not a TV show. Don’t watch Ultimate Spider-Man. There’s no theme song for Ultimate Spidey either. What the hell?!?!

There are a lot of other shows like that weird Japanese 70s show, Spider-Man and Friends and a few others, I just wanted to name the ones I watched.

Next up: Spidey & Video Games

Action is Your Reward During Spider-Days

He’s amazing. He’s spectacular. He’s ultimate (only in the comics). He’s the friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man!

Well someone, ANYONE, must have seen this coming. I’ve been a fan of the spider as long as I can remember. I’d always watch the 60s and 90s cartoon shows growing up but I REALLY got into Spidey before the 1st movie came out. I remember seeing Ultimate Spider-Man #1 in a comic shop. I saved up a month and a half for it and after I got the comic is when the movie came out. Spideys always been there for me. The problems Peter goes through, I feel like I’ve also gone through them as well. Not as bad as him though but to celebrate Spidey’s new movie, I’m going to be doing Spider-Days. I will be putting up reviews on my Spidey comics, a second look at Raimi’s films, I’ll be talking about a few Spidey games such as Spider-Man (PS1), Ultimate Spider-Man (PS2), Shattered Dimensions & Edge of Time and more!

I’ll be doing a Spidey’s Best Story Arcs AND as a bonus I’ll be putting up a special post on what I would do differently if I were given the opportunity to write or direct my own Spidey film, cartoon, whatever. It’d be how I vision the character. Believe me true believers, my vision of the web head is a lot better than the Ultimate Spidey tv show which hopefully you don’t watch. Speaking of watch, I’ll be talking about some of Spideys appearances on the TV.

For a while now I’ve been thinking on doing a new site, a fan site just on Spider-Man and a lot of stuff surrounding him but that would be too much work. Also I can’t think of a clever original name, Spider-Fan is already taken so this is the next best thing to that. Hopefully you swing by and stick around for a while.

See what I did there? Alright, sorry for the bad puns. Either way web heads and true believers, tis a good time. Tis a very good time.

#SpiderDays

E3 2012: Nintendo News & End of Day 2

Alright so I missed the most of Nintendo’s press conference but from what I heard (read?), there was a ton of love for Nintendo’s upcoming console, the Wii U, and there was a little bit of love for the 3DS but the Wii U had the center stage this year. Alright so in short, here’s what Nintendo revealed at their press conference:

Batman Arkham City: Armored Edition, Mass Effect 3, and many more titles are coming to Wii U. New Super Mario Bros U will be a launch title, Pikmin 3 was announced as a Wii U title, Paper Mario for the 3DS has a title, it’s being called “Paper Mario: Sticker Star”, Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon is coming this holiday for the 3DS, ZombiU gameplay was revealed and it’s going to be a first person shooter and also it was said “one bite and you are dead!” Also New Super Mario Bros 2, which is coming to the 3DS later this year, well that later this year is August 19, 2012 to be exact and finally one game was revealed during the big N’s conference, LEGO City Undercover, which is if Grand Theft Auto and LEGO had a baby video game this would be it.

Here is the trailer for LEGO City Undercover!

Now this next title, is coming to iOS AND Android and I am VERY excited for this portable title. It is …The Amazing Spider-Man (Based on the movie) Gasps! Why am I excited for a movie tie in iOS title? Well because Gameloft is going far … kinda. Well it’s open world. Yep open world. Well, open New York. Here’s the trailer!

Day 2 was a good day and all the Press Conferences are done. I would do a “Who Had The Best Show” but I missed Microsoft’s and most of Nintendo’s but out of what I saw from EA, Ubisoft, Sony and part of Nintendo…Ubisoft seemed to have the best show out of all the names mentioned and I say Ubisoft also because they stole Sony’s show by showing up and showing off multiplayer in Far Cry 3 and showing off Assassin’s Creed 3 ship battles and an Assassin’s Creed Vita game.

All in all, Day 2 was a good day, some pretty cool reveals, trailers and news. Now the rest of the week is watching gameplay demos, and maybe a new game reveal or two. It’s E3, anything could happen by Friday. coughGTA5cough.

 

Why I’m More Excited For The Amazing Spider-Man Over The Dark Knight Rises

Alright so Chronicle, a super powered movie that came out of the blue, took a chance and blended the super hero and found footage genres and it was surprisingly very well done. There was incredible characters, the acting was just amazing and the special effects were just unbelievable. It was epic and a breath of fresh air. Fast forward a few months and we are now in Avengers time. This movie was thought to be Marvel’s “disaster” movie because the movie was dealing more than one hero but Joss Whedon (the director) knew what he was doing and he perfectly rounded up these heroes in a smart way and made one hell of a super hero spectacle.

Now we’re only two months away from the two big final films of 2012. Scary how fast the time goes eh? Well both movies look like they’re winners but everyone is going to love Dark Knight Rises more because it’s Chris Nolan & company’s final Batman film in the trilogy but the new Spidey movie is just one in however movies Mark Webb makes before Sony fires him and they get a new group of people to do the Spidey films.

I’m excited for the Amazing Spider-Man more than the Dark Knight Rises (I heard that gasp of horror) now I’m going to explain why. If it wasn’t for Spider-Man, I wouldn’t be into comics and super heroes at all. I grew up watching the old 1960s Spider-Man cartoon along with the 1990s series but where it ALL started though, was a trip to a comic book store where I saw Ultimate Spider-Man issue #1. It’s a huge book because it contains issues #1-7 I think, but if you watch the first Spider-Man movie, that’s my comic book in movie form.

Ultimate Spider-Man is Spider-Man but in modern times as a teenager. They sadly killed off what I grew up with and I haven’t read a Ultimate comic since the comic where Spider-Man died but why I’m excited about the Amazing Spider-Man is because it seems they’re basing the basics off of the Ultimate Spidey comics. Teenager, modern times BUT where it really hits home is in the Ultimate Spidey comics, they talk about Peter’s parents, his father being a scientist, he worked on the venom suit as a cure for cancer, so on and so forth.

In the trailers, they say that Pete’s on a journey to learn the truth about his parents. Maybe we’ll see the venom suit in like a background shot or something but just seeing that Mark Webb is retelling the Spider-Man story but basing it off of what got me into comics, super heroes and Spider-Man in general, I’m VERY excited to see how he deals with it. Andrew Garfield actually looks like he can fill in the shoes of Pete and he seems to be very excited to play the ol’ webhead, that’s what I like to see. Actors & actresses happy to play a role, that usually means they’re going to give it their all and more. 

Also because Gwen Stacy is in this new reboot, will she die in the sequel or this one? She dies in the comics and then after she dies, that’s when Mary Jane comes in but that’s not from the Ultimate Spider-Man comics though and finally the Lizard is the villain, I like how it’s the Lizard because the Lizard was one of Spidey’s first foes. Yes first foe, I’m talking about the original Spidey comic books from the early/mid 60s.

The Dark Knight Rises, yes it does look amazing but even though I love Batman, he is awesome and all that. I’m just more excited to see the Amazing Spider-Man. Everything story-wise that’s being put into the Amazing Spider-Man just feels like it’s going to hit home with me and I’m very excited to see it.

Here’s the third trailer for the super hero reboot of 2012 for the Amazing Spider-Man.

I’m such a comic nerd.

The Amazing Spider-Man (in 3D) Trailer

Alright so it’s Tuesday but it feels like Monday so for those who also feel like today is Monday, here is something to get you through the rest of the day. The new trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man. This is gunna be a good year for superhero movies.

Ultimate Spider-Man TV Series Starting In April – TV News –

This is the first Spider-Man series to be fully produced by Marvel. Sadly this show’s existence killed The Spectacular Spider-Man, which I thought was an extremely well done Spidey cartoon.

Ultimate Spider-Man will allow a teenage Parker to team up with many Marvel heroes. The team behind this one includes Brian Michael Bendis, Joe Quesada, Paul Dini (Batman: The Animated Series/Arkham City) and Man of Action Studios: Joe Casey, Joe Kelly, Duncan Rouleau and Steven T. Seagle.

The voice cast includes Drake Bell (Drake & Josh) as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Chi McBride (Human Target, Pushing Daisies) as Nick Fury and Steven Weber (Wings) as Norman Osborn. JK Simmons will reprise his role from the Sam Raimi Spider-Man films as J. Jonah Jameson, while Clark Gregg will play his current role from the live-action Marvel films as SHIELD Agent Coulson. Stan Lee will voice “Stan the Janitor.”

The show starts April 1, 2012 and will air on Disney XD.

What do you think of this new show? Will it be a hit or miss? Tell me about your favourite Spidey cartoon and moments in the comments!