Spider-Man And Mary Jane Call It Quits

I've only been on vacation one week, in Hollywood no less, and celebrities have been having babies, a predicted favorite football team of mine lost, and divorces are always in the headlines, but Spider-Man splitting with Mary Jane? I did not see this one coming, and I am not sure how to react to it, but this article from FOXNews helps clarify some details.
Joe Quesada, editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics, believes it is time to shake things up in the life of Peter Parker, the nerdy New Yorker who upon being bitten by a radioactive spider attained the ability to transform himself into a web-spinning world savior. And it was easier to do that, he said, if Parker wasn't married.
Still, as the writer and artist who created the story that transformed Spider-Man into Single-Man earlier this month, Quesada has made himself about as popular with some of his readers as the villainous Green Goblin. "When we first did it, the reaction was, 'How could you do this? This is a terrible thing to do," he recalled. "But with the first issue of 'Brand New Day' [in which Spider-Man returns to single life], our letters very quickly changed to people saying, 'This is fantastic. This is the Spider-Man we remembered. We didn't know what we'd been missing."
To briefly recap Spider-Man's trials and tribulations, his beloved Aunt May was recently wounded by an assassin. To save her life he and Mary Jane struck a deal with the devil-like Mephisto in which she would be restored to good health if they allowed Mephisto to erase every memory of their time as a married couple.
Reaction from the critics was swift.
"Considering I have been reading Spider-Man for exactly 20 years now, and that seems to be the amount of time Joe Q. has decided to rip from Spider-Man continuity, can I simply return all of my Spider-Man comics for a full refund?" asked one of the more polite postings on Marvel's Internet message boards. "It's heresy for some people," laughed Dave Pifer, who runs the Secret Headquarters comic book store in Los Angeles. Others, however, have been more quick to adapt. "The ones who are new to superheroes like Spider-Man, they're excited about it," Pifer said. "They feel like they're starting at the beginning." One message poster even joked that the beautiful Mary Jane, who remains in the Spider-Man cast, is free now to pursue Brad Pitt.
But what of the man who created Spider-Man? What does he think? "I think it's a very creative idea. It should stimulate a lot of interest in the characters and the books, and I'm eager to see what happens next," said Stan Lee, who wasn't involved in the current story.
It was Lee who married Spider-Man and Mary Jane in a mock ceremony at New York's Shea Stadium in 1987.
"Amazing that they're not even middle-aged yet," Lee quipped.
So how do our comics collectors feel? You tell us!

Comic Proportions Quotable Top 9 Comics Of 2007

I found a great blog by Carlton Hargro that appeals to any comics collector listing the "Comic Proportions Quotable Top 9 Comics of 2007." I PG'd the wording up a bit, so if you care for more colorful language, click the link above for the original article.

Action Comics (DC Comics): "Let's face it, Superman is a tough character to write. He's been around since the 1930s and there ain't much new stuff you can do to the guy. Johns' way of turning back the clock, at the very least, freshens up the character. I'm all for freshness."

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 (Dark Horse Comics): "If you're a Buffy fan, you should be reading this. And if you're not, pick it up because it's a compelling read with action, humor and pathos."

Doktor Sleepless (Avatar): "The 'hero' of the book -- Doktor Sleepless -- follows in the footsteps of Ellis protagonists like Spider Jerusalem, Richard Fell, Desolation Jones and more ... meaning he's smart, he's a rebel, he's an outcast and a complete ***. I love the brain-numbing amount of off-the-wall science speak ... Here's an example of some of the crazy lines that Doktor Sleepless spouts off in, like, every panel: 'Electricity can only be replenished by whiskey. This is actual physics. Do not argue with me. I am a doktor.' Crazy, eh?"

Fell (Image Comics): "Honestly, I'm usually not a big fan of mystery comics, but Ellis is a master at making a sometimes-boring genre exciting and bizarre. One of the cooler features of the book is the actual page structure; Ellis and Templesmith have created a panel grid that makes reading the 16-page comic seem like you're reading a 32-page comic."

Green Lantern, "Sinestro Corps War"(DC Comics): "Forget all those other DC crossovers and big-time storylines -- "The Sinestro Corps [War]" is the best epic going on at DC. And what makes it so good? The villains. Writer Geoff Johns has assembled the most hardcore crew of villains I've ever seen in the DCU -- and he's given them a common goal. The Sinestro Corps is the type of evil team that makes you wonder how the heroes will actually win. And, really, it's about time. The Green Lantern's ring is the most powerful weapon in the universe and Johns has finally given it an equally powerful opposite number."

Immortal Iron Fist (Marvel Comics): "Matt Fraction and Ed Brubaker understand the appeal and unique qualities of Iron Fist. They've transformed a poor-man's Bruce Lee into a complex, interesting and multi-layered character. In past Iron Fist series, the writers seemed content to take a pretty undeveloped hero and just throw him in stories where he's drop-kicking a bunch of generic bad guys. Fraction and Brubaker, however, have created a rich mythology surrounding the character and his powers."

Mighty Avengers (Marvel Comics): "[Brain Michael Bendis'] approach to Mighty [Avengers] is almost the total opposite of what he does on New [Avengers]. He's loaded the comic with heavyweights like Wonder Man, Sentry, and Ares (the god of war) instead of scrubs like Echo and Ronin -- and he's downplayed the tongue action to play up the fisticuffs and explosions. If you hate Bendis, you'll love Mighty Avengers. Oh, and the art in the first six issues is by Frank Cho, and it's good."

Thor (Marvel Comics): "Looking back on the history of the character, Thor has always done best when he's done big. Big allies. Big adversaries. Big scenery. (I mean, the dude is a god.) And in this brand new No. 1, writer Straczynski succeeds at capturing Thor's big scale and scope. I love it. Every. Page."

Walking Dead, hardcover No. 1 (Image Comics): "I thoroughly enjoyed reading this comic, about a world overrun by zombies, from the beginning. Truthfully, I now think this series is best enjoyed from the beginning. Read it from issue No. 1 and you get to see how all these relationships started and the underlying emotional conflicts that have come to define the characters -- making this hardcover required reading for anyone interested in jumping on the book."

Graphic Novels Gaining On Traditional Comic Books

Most of the business at comic book stores isn't in comic books anymore. According to pop culture trend tracker ICv2, graphic novels have begun to outsell comic books. Graphic novels are essentially comic books on steroids, with longer, more complex, darker stories. The term can also include putting together a long story arc initially published in half a dozen regular comic book issues, but purists tend to refer to those as trade paperbacks.

Statistics aren't available yet for 2007, but 330 million graphic novels were sold in North America in 2006--a 12 percent increase. That wasn't bad news for comic book publishers like DC and Marvel. There was an even bigger jump in sales of traditional monthly periodical comic books like "Batman" and "Spider-Man." They were up 15 percent to 310 million in 2006. And comic book publishers like DC are doing quite well with graphic novels. Where they once appealed almost exclusively to teenage boys, they now sell to people of all ages, male and female.

In Spotsylvania County, Mike Porter, comics collector and owner of the new Little Fish Comics & Collectibles store at Cosner's Corner, isn't just trying to ring up sales when he insists that graphic novels like "Watchmen," "Kingdom Come" and "V for Vendetta" qualify as legitimate literature.

Porter is a true believer. In 1995, he was a teacher's aide lecturing on Alan Moore's "V for Vendetta" as part of a science-fiction literature course at Guelph University in Ontario, Canada. He says students and their parents would come to him and ask if there was additional literature they could read to help with the course. You know, Mr. Porter, "real" literature. "Real" books. Not comic books. No, Porter would say, the best examples of the graphic novel form are real literature. "It's definitely literature," he says standing in his store surrounded by Batman, Spider-Man and Superman comics and action figures. "It stands up to any distopian literature."

George Orwell's "1984" is an example of distopian literature. Distopian protagonists, such as Winston Smith in "1984" and the character V in "V for Vendetta," challenge negative aspects of their societies, putting themselves at risk in the process.
An argument can be made that anything that gets people--especially young people--to read in today's TV and video game culture is good. For the rest of Michael Zitz' Free-Lance Star article, click here.

UN Joins Forces With Marvel Comics

Any comics collector might find this an interesting idea for modern times. In a move reminiscent of story-lines developed during the second world war, the UN is joining forces with Marvel Comics, creators of Spider-Man and the Incredible Hulk, to create a comic book showing the international body working with superheroes to solve bloody conflicts and rid the world of disease. The comic, initially to be distributed free to US schoolchildren, will be set in a war-torn fictional country and feature superheroes such as Spider-Man working with UN agencies such as Unicef and the “blue hats”, the UN peace-keepers. Camilla Schippa, chief of office at the UN Office for Partnerships, told the Financial Times the script was being written now and the final storyline was due to be approved in February. The cartoonists are working for free. After publication in the US, the UN hopes to translate the comics into French and other languages and distribute them elsewhere, Ms Schippa said. Although the UN did not come up with the initiative, the measure could help revive the body’s troubled image in the US, where relations have been strained.
The latest UN initiative is not the first time US comics have been used for political purposes. During the second world war, superheroes were shown taking on Germany’s Nazi regime. Marvel’s Captain America, together with other characters such as Superman, were shown beating up Adolf Hitler.
The UN’s goals are somewhat different: according to its website, it hopes the comics will teach children the value of international co-operation and sensitize them to the problems faced in other parts of the world. Click here to read the rest of the original article.

The Marvel Comics Summit

Did you know that all of the creative minds behind the Marvel Universe are meeting up this very minute (if you are reading this between 9:00am and 4:00pm EST) to discuss the fate of your favorite comics' characters? Well I didn't until this morning, so I found these updates through out the day very helpful in keeping up. Here's their example of what happens in the Hulk Room:

"What exactly happens at a Creative Summit? Here's the setting: A huge room with tables arranged in a giant square. In the front of the room, a giant chart hangs – broken up by Marvel publishing groups (Marvel Universe Heroes, Ultimate Universe, X-Men and Spider-Man) and then by months (January 2008 – July 2009). Editor-in-Chief, Joe Quesada, and President/Publisher Dan Buckley sit side by side. To their left moving around the circle (ok, square) is Matt Fraction, Ed Brubaker, C.B. Cebulski, Dan Slott, Executive Editor Tom Brevoort, Brian Michael Bendis, a slew of Marvel editors, Greg Pak, more Marvel editorial staff – hello Ralph Macchio – and then Jeph Loeb, Allan Heinberg and more editors and staff than you can shake a Donald Blake walking stick at! So, you can imagine the ideas whirling around the room – and whirl they did…"

Click here for a direct link to the constantly updating page and don't forget to manage your collectibles with iTaggit. Enjoy Marvel fans!

Marvel Releases 2,500 Comics Online Today

Comic book readers and collectors have a new medium to look forward to in the Marvel world. Today, Marvel is releasing over 2,500 issues of various origin back-stories on their website. Subsequently, 20 more issues will be released every week following. Although Marvel has decided to release these issues to the online public, they will only be viewable through the site's web viewer and cannot be downloaded to the reader's machine for storage. Check out the original article by Mark “Rizzn” Hopkins from Mashable.com for the rest of the story.

I Am Iron Man!

the new trailer for the Iron Man movie is up at apple trailers. and it's awesome! I hope the end product lives up to this.