Reggie Blogged

I know I seem to keep hitting sour notes when I talk about Spider-Man in this blog. But hey, Marvel's given me a lot to talk negative about. That being said, I made this blog entry just so I can talk about some of my favorite things involving Spidey. The Spectacular Spider-Man This has become one of my favorite cartoons to watch since the series premiered on March 8th. The creators of the show really seem to get what Spider-Man is all about without making things seem forced (like Brand New Day). There is a lot to like about this series. You know those instances in the comics where there's a half mask on Peter's face? That's been shown twice within the series thus far. Simplistic character designs allow for smooth animation. When Spidey is web-slinging through the city it looks fantastic. Sandman's transformation sequence in this past Saturday's episode was jaw dropping stuff, the kind you wouldn't expect from a Saturday morning cartoon. The plot and the paci...

The specter of One More Day seems unavoidable. I can't go to a Spider-Man message board without being reminded of it, as some forums have become a somewhat nasty place to discuss Spidey related things depending on which side of the camp you're on. In January I'd written a lengthy rant expressing everything I had to say about the what I felt was one of the worst Spider-Man stories of all-time. There was also some stuff in there about Brand New Day and while I originally wasn't going to post it anywhere, I decided to throw it up here in my blog since the horrors of both stories seem inescapable. As the saying goes, "Its my party and I'll cry if I want to." If you're pro-OMD/BND, you probably won't like what I've got to do. If you're anti-OMD/BND or you don't care either way, make yourself comfortable and enjoy my rant. Stories with a Married Spider-Man Suck! Well, this is what Joe Quesada thinks, anyway. Its no secret that the man has bee...

It seems that whenever I got to my comic shop, I always walk it with more than I originally planed to get. Last week was no exception. I had my comic shop hold a copy of the John Romita Jr. 30th Anniversary Special because there weren't many left. JR JR is one of my favorite comic artists. Would you believe I didn't like his art style when I saw it in the Spider-Man books in the '90s? Its true, I just didn't dig the man's pencils at all and thought Mark Bagley and other artists that did Spider-Man were worlds better. My opinion of JR JR changed when I started reading Amazing Spider-Man again in 2002. His art really grew on me and I now hold the opinion that he draws a fantastic Spider-Man. His work from the '70s-'80s looks a lot like his dad's. Of all the men that have emulated John Romita Sr.'s Spidey, I think JR JR is one of the few to really nail it, the other man being John Buscema. As much as I love his older work, I think its great that he'...

What's this? Some positive related Spider-Man talk in this blog? Hey, even I need to change my tune every now and then and the latest happening in my life is just too good to keep quiet about. I've been a reader of SpiderFan.org for about three years now. In my opinion this is the go to site for Spider-Man reviews, news, raves and editorials. What could be better than reading the site's content? Helping make the site's content! There are a tons upon tons of reviews at SpiderFan, but when I looked through the comic database, I didn't see one for Spider-Man Mythos, a one-shot story which is a retelling of Amazing Fantasy #15. I e-mailed the site editor, and after a few back and forth messages, I submitted my own review for Spider-Man Mythos. Not only did he like my review, he gave me the mini series With Great Power to review right away. I wish I could have seen my face when I read his e-mail reply of him giving me the great news. How does it feel to be a contributor...

Sometimes it sucks to feel really passionate about something. Spider-Man is a character I feel very passionate about. Sure, I may not have read every comic he's stared in, but I've considered myself a fan of the web-head since the mid-late 1980s since Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends . So it really is only natural that I'd get all bent out of shape when Amazing Spider-Man, the character's flagship title goes down hill. Notice the cover for ASM #50 to the left, there? Pretty cool cover, huh? It's actually one of my all-time favorites and I think it is rather appropriate for what I've got to say. Do you know what the worst thing you can do to a comic character is? You could kill of his best friend, wife or all of his loved ones and while that would be a pretty unspeakably horrible thing to do, it wouldn't be the worst thing. No, the worst thing you can do is make a reader stop caring about him. That's how I feel about the Peter Parker/Spidey in the pag...

Every year DC and Marvel come out with some colossal, world-shattering event to shake things up in each company's fictional universe. I haven't really been into DC's events but I did follow Marvel's over the last few years. I was there for House of M, Civil War, and World War Hulk. This year Marvel's big event is Secret Invasion. DC's is Final Crisis. Brian Bendis is handling Secret Invasion while Grant Morrison is doing Final Crisis. Despite the fact that both men are award winning writers, I just don't care. I've had it with big events in comics. My lack of interest in huge events probably stems from the having following three years of Marvel events. I admit that I did enjoy House of M, though I think I can see why the words "No more mutants" would peeve quiet a bit of fans of the X-books. Civil War as another one I got a kick out of. In all honesty, I do believe that if we had super heroes in our own world, they probably wouldn't be allo...

Disgusted with the events of One More Day and not feeling "the new status quo" of Brand New Day? Join the club! That guy who struck a deal with the devil in Amazing Spider-Man #545 must have been a Skrull because there's no way the Peter I know would do something like that. Despite ASM being turned into a sub-par book, Spidey is still my favorite super hero and I'm not going to drop the wall-crawler completely. If you want a Spider-Man fix, there are plenty of other options outside of ASM. Ultimate Spider-Man Reading about the adventures of an adult Spidey is (well, it was at one point) great and all but there's a lot to like about the Ultimate version of the web-head. Peter isn't as squeeky clean as his 616 counterpart but he's still a likable guy who always tries to do the right thing. I really enjoyed the Ultimate versions of the Green Goblin and the Hobgoblin and while I'm sad to see them go, I'm looking forward to the other foes Spidey will fa...

There a many people in this world that know the ins and outs of World of Warcraft , Star Trek, Star Wars and Magic the Gathering . These people are often labeled as "nerds" for knowing what many would consider far too much information about said forms of entertainment. I'm gonna let everyone in on a little secret: we're all nerds. Everyone on the face of this planet is a living, breathing nerd. Don't believe me? You don't think that you too can be a nerd? You're in denial. Being a nerd extends far beyond the reaches of possessing vast knowledge about Frodo and his pals from the Lord of the Rings trilogy. There are all types of nerds. A person that knows everything there is to know about Friends . I'm positive that there are more than a handful of people that can quote some of Joey's funniest lines and remember the exact episode those lines came from. These people are Friends nerds. Then you've got comic book nerds that know every inch of Spid...

The Spectacular Spider-Man premiered on Kids WB today at 10 AM. I caught about 6 minutes of the first episode where Spidey tangled with the Vulture and the Enforcers. I watched all of the second episode where the web-head had his first encounter with Electro. What do I think of this new Spidey cartoon? I love it! But you probably already knew that by the title of this blog entry. The animation is nice and fluid, light years ahead of the '90s Fox Spider-Man cartoon series. Among some of my favorite scenes were when Spidey was battling villains (Vulture, Electro, Enforcers, take your pick) and web-slinging around New York. These scenes were quiet spectacular and yes that pun was intended. Peter's interactions with his class mates were also well-done. I particularly like him walking out on Liz to fight Electro because she was ignoring his attempts to tutor her. Get this, I actually like the Gwen in this series. She isn't like the Gwen from the '60s-'70s era comics, whi...

My father told me almost ten years ago that I was really good at writing. At the time, it was something I'd never thought about making a living out of. Like most teenagers, I probably wasn't sure what I wanted to do with my life at that point. What my father had said really stuck with me so I continued to write, but from that day on, I'd always have the thought in mind of writing for a living. So here I am, going on 27 years old and what do I have to show for my dreams of writing? Sadly, not too much. Of course I acknowledge that it's also my own fault for slacking off (hey, I'm a human being, I get lazy. It's part of what we do.) But it hasn't been a total waste. I did write for a few fan sites over the years and I've improved my writing a lot. When I look at the stuff I write now compared to what I wrote years ago, I can't help but smile like a big flippin' idiot. What I want to write about has also changed. Originally, I just wanted to write a...