Reggie Blogged

Rhino, Shocker, Sandman, Electro, Vulture, and Doc Ock. All of them were defeated by Spider-Man when they fought him solo. So they go with the strategy of strength in numbers. Today's episode of the Spectacular Spider gave us "Group Therapy," the first incarnation of this shows Sinister Six. I don't mean to sound like an overeager fanboy, but it really is hard not to say good things about this cartoon because in each episode, I always get reminded of why this is the best animated version of Spider-Man. Both of Spidey's fights with the Sinister Six were amazing. Even with the black alien costume, he took a nasty beating when he battled the Six for the first time. To Spidey's dismay, all of his previous methods of disposing of his enemies didn't work here, leaving him to find another way to win. Spidey actually retreated to go home and rest after his first fight. Before Peter fell asleep, he wished he could wake up and the Sinister Six would be beaten. Seems...

Many comic writers have had runs on Spider-Man lasting several years. Tom Beland has only done a handful of Spider-Man stories but from what I've read, he's still in the big boy's league. The first story by Beland that I ever read was the 2006 I Heart Marvel Web of Romance. Marvel was selling a ton of Valentine's Day special issues with the company's various characters. Now I despise Valentine's Day as much as the next guy. Greeting card companies and any other stores that profits from this day make a killing and let's admit it; Sweetest Day is the ugly cousin of Valentine's Day that some peon invented to to get some extra bucks. All that side, I felt a need to pick up Web of Romance because it stared my favorite couple, Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson-Parker. In this story Peter is struggling to come up with a gift for MJ on Valentine's Day. MJ has more clothes than most people know what to do with. Anyone that's been reading Spider-Man is als...

The entire Lee/Ditko run? Read the whole thing. The Lee/Romita era? Check. The Death of Gwen Stacy and the first Clone Saga? Every word and the rest of Gerry Conway's run on Amazing Spider-Man. Yes, sir, I've read a lot of Spidey stories throughout the years. So what have I missed out on? Actually a lot. I want to read all the great Spidey stories I can get my hands on. These are chief among the ones I really want to check out. Spider-Man vs. Juggernaut from Amazing Spider-Man #229-230 I have almost every issue from Roger Stern's run on ASM collected. His origin story on the Vulture, the death of the first Tarantula, his original Hobgoblin story, all terrific stuff. It kills me to not have read the two part story where Spidey goes up against Juggy. One of the things I've always liked about the web-head is that he always finds a way to win or stop his opponents no matter how much stronger than him they may be. Spidey's been up against a lot of tough cookies but none ...

There are a lot of talented people out there. Case in point Todd Merrick Novak. Normally I don't make a blog post dedicated to drooling all over artwork (even though art is one of my favorite things), but this stuff was so good I just had to give it a mention. I mean just look at this stuff. Beautiful! Todd does an masterful job of mimicking Steve Ditko's Spider-Man art style. With art like this, I've no doubt that Todd will go places. If you want to see more of his work, you should check out his art blog. Todd also has stuff you can check out on his ComicSpace page.

I'm late to post about this, but that's because I didn't hear about it until today. We will see the releases of two long awaited DVD series. Both Freakazoid! and Tiny Toony Adventures will see season one box set releases on July 29th, 2008. Well that certainly took long enough. I've only seen a handful of episodes from Freakazoid! and though I can vaguely recall what they were about, I do remember that the show was downright hilarious. I'm also aware of the fan following that the show has so I'm sure Freak fans everywhere are pretty stoked for this release. And what child from the '90s doesn't remember Tiny Toon Adventures? Even when I was a kid I knew the little tykes running around in Tiny Toons were just small versions of the Loony Toons characters. Really, was anyone bothered by this? Didn't think so. Well, Ren & Stimpy show creator John Kricfalusi had some nasty things to say about it, but it isn't like people really gave a rat's but...

Sigh. As long as this farce they call "Brand New Day" continues, I guess I can't help but say something about it from time to time. I finally got around to going to my comic shop last week, Friday to be exact. I did my usual rounds of Byrne-stealing for Amazing Spider-Man, reading issues #559-560. #559 actually started off good, but quickly went down the toilet when they had Peter play the part of a papperazo. Now I know Peter is a guy who makes mistakes. He's been making them since 1962. However, this one is just plain stupid as it goes against his character. Peter has always detested papperazos and seeing him as one just to get some money (a lot of money actually) is just bad writing. It was good to see Robbie and Harry pointing out to Peter that what he was doing was bad, but he shouldn't have had to get put in his place by them at all, because he knows better. But hey, Peter hasn't been written in character for a while now so I guess I shouldn't have ...

No new comics of interest were at my shop when I went there on Friday, nor was there anything on hold for me in my file. Perfect opportunity for me to fill in the gaps, and man do I have a lot of gaps to fill. At first I was going to pick up some old Amazing Spider-Man issues from the early '90s. You know, the stuff that came before the Clone Saga. There were a lot of multi-issue story arcs back then so I decided to head on over to the dollar bins and finally pick of those issues from Mark Millar's run on Marvel Knights Spider-Man. I'd picked up the first two issues a good while ago and this is a story arc I'd been wanting to finish for a long time now. I could have bought the hard cover, but when you can get the actual issues for dirt cheap, you may as well go that route. Anyway, I was able to get issues #4-#9 for $1 each. Issue 3 wasn't in the dollar bin so I had to pay the regular price for it but I always get to 10% off my purchases, so its all good. Kraven. Som...

No, I'm not talking about my own family, but the bi-monthly anthology book, Spider-Man Family. For $4.99 you get a Spider-Man story that usually has Spidey teaming with other heroes of the Marvel universe, some reprints (one of the latest is the excellent Death & Destiny), and a story from Spider-Man J. The new stories are usually pretty good and reprints aren't too shabby either, but I've never cared for Spider-Man J and wouldn't lose any sleep if it left the book. After SMF #9, the book will be relaunched and the title changed to Amazing Spider-Man Family. My guess is Marvel hopes to boost sales by adding "Amazing" to the title. As anyone knows, Amazing Spider-Man is the longest running Spidey book and the most successful. I'm all for boosting sales of this book as they are not even close to that of ASM, but I'm not too thrilled with the way Marvel is going about it. Get this, they want to include stories from Brand New Day world in ASMF. Ugh. Ma...

Believe it or not, I do play video games when I'm not reading comic books or posting on message boards. Gaming seems to have taken a back seat to my enjoyment of comics, but it still remains one of my favorite hobbies. Since I haven't been able to upgrade to a Wii or a 360, my stomping grounds are still done on last generation gaming hardware. This doesn't bother me too much. I do have a Nintendo DS and I'm always done for some old-school gaming, but I really would like to play Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Wii Sports. But until I can afford it, I'm content with what I've got. Bleach is one of my favorite anime/manga series so I was thrilled to discover that Bleach: The Blade of Fate does the source material sweet justice. This game plays every bit as good as it looks. The fighting is fast, stylish, and the Bankai techniques are just too cool for words. Even the Flash Step (Shun-Po) for the purists has been implemented greatly in this game. Even though I've g...

Over the last week or so, I've amassed a nice stack of comics that I'm working on reading. I just wanted to pimp my Spidey buys so this isn't everything I've picked up. Peter Parker: Spider-Man #50, vol. 2 has been a pretty elusive comic for me. I've never seen it in the back issue boxes and I was afraid I'd have to buy a trade paper back if I ever wanted to read this one. Fortunately, I found a copy for $1.50 at Half Price Books. Not only is this a double sized issue, but its also written by Paul Jenkins and drawn by Mark Buckingham, two of my favorite guys to ever work on Spidey. I'd been wondering about Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #8. My comic shop had one copy for $2.75 and I'd been a bit intrigued by the story involving the Gwen Stacy Clone. Someone had posted some pages from this story on the net, which was enough to make me finally drop the chump change the book cost. What really did it for me were the bits where Peter deals with Gwen 2's re...

"Persona," the tenth episode of Spectacular Spider-Man aired today. In this episode we get introduced to a number of characters and Spidey gets decked out in a new suit! This isn't my favorite episode but it is a good one and there is a lot to like about it. More of Eddie Brock's anger at Peter is expanded on. Eddie thinks Spider-Man is now a criminal for stealing the alien specimen. In reality the alien had escaped and because Peter had taken pictures of all the commotion, Eddie thinks Peter cared more about getting a scoop than calling the police. Once again, in reality, Peter as Spidey was trying to prevent the theft. When Gwen tries to defend Peter, Eddie says he is "done." Looks like Eddie may have just closed the door on their friendship. That was a nice way of killing two birds with one stone and it will be interesting to see just how Eddie develops from here. The guy giving the web-head the most trouble in this episode was none other than the Chamele...

I'll bet you were expecting some scribbles on the upcoming Dark Knight Movie or some pictures of Heath Ledger as the Joker. I merely wanted to use the Joker's famous tag line to address some new comics that I've gotten into. Mention comic books to someone and more than likely heroes like Spider-Man, Batman, and Superman spring to mind. You know, comics that deal with serious, heavy issue story lines. And really, you can't blame someone for thinking like that because DC and Marvel's heavy hitters are what occupy a lot of space in comic shops. I like the serious stuff as much as the next guy and maybe I'd read more of it if I could afford to. However, I can be guilty of forgetting that comic books can also be the source of the best medicine: laughter. One of the comics available on Free Comic Book Day was Tiny Titans #1. It wasn't one of the freebies I chose to take, but I did read a few of the stories and found them to be pretty amusing. When I went into pick...

Last week I picked up Amazing Spider-Man #42. It isn't in perfect condition but it is all one in piece and still readable. Cost me under $16 and I could care less about near mint condition when it comes to silver age Spidey. In this issue, the main story involves John Jameson getting super powers and taking on Spider-Man. Now as much as I love a good old fashioned slug fest, that isn't really the reason I picked up this issue. In fact, ASM #42 is largely remembered for its very final panel. A certain redhead, who Peter had been dreading a date with finally enters his world. That's right, I'm talking about Mary Jane Watson. The girl that would nickname Peter "Tiger" was first mentioned in ASM #15. Her name was first dropped in ASM# 17 and in ASM #25, Liz Allen and Betty Brant get a look at little miss bombshell while Peter is off fighting the first incarnation of the Spider Slayers. Her face isn't show to the readers but what Liz and Betty see is enough to ...

Last week during Free Comic Book Day, I picked up my very first issues of Spider-Girl. The books I picked up were #7 and #62 and I found them in the 25 cents bin. I haven't read issue #62 yet as it is the middle of a six part story arc, but issue #7 was fantastic and served for a great jump on point. Mayday was rushing to prevent a fight from between two of her classmates when she got delayed by Darkdevil and Nova. Darkdevil was testing Spider-Girl as he doesn't think she has what it takes to give her all to the super hero lifestyle. Unfortunately Mayday arrived too late and one of her classmates was sent to the hospital. Naturally this weighs on May's shoulders because she is the daughter of Peter Parker. My comic shop didn't have any copies of Amazing Spider-Girl #19, so I picked up the last copy that Borders had. In this issue our female wall-crawler meets up with Arana and the two do battle. What do I know about Arana? Nothing, really. I've heard of her but I kn...

So I just finished watching "The Uncertainty Principle," the 9th episode of Spectacular Spider-Man. In the words of Spider-Man from "Catalysts," I have to say "Wow. Just... wow." Ironically this episode takes place on Halloween, the one day out of the year where many people wear masks, which served to strengthen this episode. When everyone runs around in a costume, it can be hard to tell who's who, or who is real and who is facade. When the Green Goblin's mask finally came off, it was revealed to be... Harry Osborn? The boy's addiction to the green goo climaxed in this episode as he is seen really losing it near the end, throwing his father across the room. He took the formula because he was tired of not fitting in at school, getting good grades and he wanted the love and respect that his father never gave him. The scene near the end of the episode where Harry just breaks down is very moving and was the icing on an already delicious cake. I...

I went into my comic shop today expecting to get only one comic, but you know what they say about the best laid plans. Anyway, after I had Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #39 in hand, I saw a single copy of Franklin Richards: Not-So-Secret Invasion. I've never read any of the Franklin stories, but I've heard that they are entertaining light-hearted reads, so I picked up this one-shot. Despite the fact that little green freaks are all over the cover and that I want nothing to do with Marvel's 2008 big event, outside of the first story (of five short stories), Skrulls take up very little space in this comic. In fact, little Franklin manages to put the smack down on the Skrull that impersonated him in just a few short pages. Franklin even insults the Skrull for being stupid enough to only time him up when Franklin has "been tied up by more super villains than you can count." Forget sending the Avengers to deal with this threat. I say we just have Reed & Sue's ki...

The episode "Reaction" aired on Spectacular Spider-Man this past Saturday. Here we see timid Otto Octavius make the transition to Dr. Octopus, or Doc Ock as many people call him. Quick history lesson. Doc Ock first appeared way back in Amazing Spider-Man #3, vol. 1, 1963. The vile doctor has been one of Spidey's most lethal foes for more than 40 years and as I've stated before, could possibly share the number one spot with the Green Goblin as Spidey's greatest adversary. This episode did not disappointed. Seeing Otto transform from a humble, obedient scientist to a raving megalomaniac was superb. Anyone that thought this version of Otto Octavius wouldn't make a great Doc Ock should be pleasantly surprised. Peter MacNicol puts some serious bass into his voice to make Doc Ock the egotistical, mad scientist we all know and love. The way Ock moved and used his metallic arms was very impressive. I really liked how each arm also functioned as a weapon (OK, more so t...

Today was Free Comic Book day, the one day of the year where select comic books do not cost a dime. This was my first time ever taking part in this event, so I was pretty stoked. I even had some trouble going back to sleep at about 7 AM because I was so excited. That isn't a feeling that hits me very often. Anyway, I checked out the website for this year's FCBD and got a look at the comics. From that list, I'd assumed my comic shop would have everything there, but alas, they did not. I wanted to get Love and Capes #7, but they didn't have it. I wanted to get Comic Book Diner, but that wasn't available either. There was a ton of other stuff I wanted, but my shop limited the number of free goodies you could get to three, and this included the figurines. Would you believe I passed on the Iron Man figure so I could get a third free comic? Tis true. The three comics, I did get, are as follows: Marvel Adventures Iron Man & Hulk & Spider-Man, Amelia Rules, and Gyr...

So I found out that some friends of mine got some tickets to see the sneak preview of Iron Man on Wednesday. Naturally, I was pretty stoked for the them and was looking forward to hearing about how awesome the movie was after they'd seen it. Imagine my surprise when one of my friends calls me up and asks if I had any plans for Wednesday evening. I wasn't doing anything, one of their friends had to bail for whatever reason so they had an extra ticket and guess who got it? Despite Iron Man being a major player in the Marvel universe, I knew very little about his origin. Thankfully, I was brought up to speed a few weeks ago by watching a DCompose YouYube video on Iron Man. Thanks to Kevin's video, I knew about Tony Stark's origin and the different Iron Man armors. So how was the actually movie? Well I was kind of afraid it would bomb as I sat in the theater with my friends, waiting for the movie to start. The moment Robert Downey Jr. started talking, I was sucked in. I re...