New Spidey toon debuts this weekend

This weekend, sees not only the the two-part finale of The Batman, but the two-part opener of The Spectactular Spider-Man. See the trailer here.

Spider-Marriage No More

I haven't been reading mainstream Spidey comics for awhile now. In fact, I stopped reading right around the time writer J. Michael Straczynski (JMS) started taking the book too far into the supernatural (Dr. Strange should not be a regular in a Spidey book). After several years of revitializing the title, JMS this week wrapped up his 6+ year run on Amazing Spider-Man with an editorially driven story called "One More Day" that ended with a twist that fans knew was coming, but were outraged nonetheless -- in a deal wth the Marvel version of the devil, Mephisto, Peter and his wife of 20 years (real time -in the 1987 Spidey annual on the left) erased their marriage in order to save the life of old, dying Aunt May. And apparently that's exactly what happened -- some yet-to-be pinpointed moment in the past was changed so that Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson never got married. It apparently has also undone the recent public unmasking of Spider-Man from the recently completed Civil War storyline and took awy the organic web-shooters he had recntly developed to keep him more in line with his movie counterpart. Not to mention probably every other Spidey story JMS wrote. And Civil War, and tons of other stories from the last 20 years, including some non-Spidey title ones.

Why? Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada (who also drew the 4-part storyline) has been complaining for a long time now how bad an idea the marriage was -- that the appeal of Spidey as a character was in his being single and struggling in his personal life, not married to a former super-model/actress. So he got his wish, and while there are many who may agree that the marriage was not a good idea, virtually nobody is happy with the way Marvel chose to end it, including apparently JMS himself, who wanted to have his name removed from the last two parts of the story.

With the conclusion of this story. Marvel will be launching "Brand New Day" in the three-times-a-month Amazing Spider-Man, now the only mainstream Spidey title (as opposed to the Ultimate and Marvel Adventures versions, where it should be noted, he has never been married), which will explore the new status quo with new crators who promise to bring a sense of old school fun back to Spider-Man. How successful this "reboot" turns out to be is still to be determined, but regardless of this new status quo, how they got there is what has fans up in arms -- Spidey made a deal with the devil?! Save his old, decrepit aunt who already said she was ready to die by undoing his marriage?! This is an incredibly stupid idea that puts DC's continuinty-punch (don't ask) storytelling to shame.

Does that mean I'll never buy a Spider-Man or Marvel comic again? Of course not. I'm just joining the throngs of angry readers who recognize that this was a bad story idea that betrays the core concept of the character as a quick easy, deus ex machina fix to restore that core concept of the character.

Lazy storytelling, and another justification for my not buying monthly (or weekly, or thrice-monthly) comics anymore. Boo Marvel! Boo Quesada!

Marvel launches new online comics initiative

Today, Marvel Comics announced an expansive online comics initiative, designed to reach new fans by making an archive of more than 2,500 Marvel Comics available for viewing online for a nominal fee. Available comics range from the first appearances of Spider-Man, Fantastic Four and Iron Man to more recent endeavors, including the Ultimate universe and Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men.

This initiative, called Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited, provides readers access to its growing online archive in a high-resolution format on computer screens for $59.88 a year, or at a monthly rate of $9.99. The comics, which can only be read online, are not downloadable.

From Marvel's press release:

The easy-to-navigate Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited site presents each digital comic in the highest-resolution ever available and offers innovative viewing options, user-friendly search and recommendation features, and personalized reading list tools. Accessible by both PC and MAC users directly through Marvel.com/digitalcomics as well as via the www.marvel.com homepage, Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited will have subscription rates as low as $4.99/month -- making it affordable to new readers and longtime fans.

So they don't cannibalize sales from comic shops, new comics will not be available online until six months after their release dates.

For more information, and for 250 free sampler issues, go to http://marvel.com/digitalcomics/hq/

Toy Fair Fun

SpiDog? Plug your iPod into this speaker system, just in time for Spider-Man 3.

Listen Bud, He's Got Radioactive Blood

Ya gotta love the classics -- a 1967 Spiderman cartoon -- "The Spider and the Fly"

Just like a spider can...

From CNN:

A team at a British aerospace and defense company have created a re-usable adhesive material that can stick to any surface, a small piece of which could easily support the weight of a small family car.