150th blog special! Spider-Man: The Death of Gwen Stacy

Hard to believe it, but this blog is hitting its 150th installment just a couple of weeks after the much older MMA blog.

As a celebration of this occasion, I want to talk about the comic I consider to be the most influential story in comic history: Spider-Man, The Death of Gwen Stacy.

The two issues that make up this arc are Amazing Spider-Man #121 ("The Night Gwen Stacy Died") and #122 ("The Goblin's Last Stand"). The trade paperback Marvel has most recently issued also showcases ASM #96-98 and "The Kiss" from 1999's Webspinners: Tales of Spider-Man #1.

I actually like that they added the previous arc, as it allows for full backstory on the situation. "The Kiss" isn't necessary, and it's the only part not written by Stan Lee, but it adds depth and is pretty good, I suppose.

But as for my qualitative discussion, that will be available in the audio blog above. I'm mostly talking about Gwen Stacy and what this arc ultimately meant for Spider-Man and comics in general.

A lot of people nowadays only remember Mary Jane Watson and think of Gwen Stacy, if they know her at all, as the one girl who died. Maybe that's the reason I liked Amazing Spider-Man the movie so much: It's the first time her importance is really shown.

Gwen was, by all measures at the time of her writing, Peter's soulmate. Her death was the original "Deal with Mephisto" for a lot of fans who were reading at the time. Subscriptions were canceled and anger was abundant.

The main reason this story is still given weight, however, is that it was lasting. Gwen never came back. She's been cloned, seen in dream sequences, portrayed in alternate universes and even zombified, but she's never returned to the Earth-616 canon since this arc finished being produced. (At least in no stories I've seen.)

Gwen Stacy is one of those few deaths that serves as a crux for so much of a character's psychology. Peter Parker had never been in a position to save somebody, attempted it and failed to save the person. The fact that it was the woman he planned to marry only hits him harder.

It changed why he protects his identity. Originally, he hid it so that his aunt wouldn't constantly worry, but now he saw his identity as a possible death sentence for those around him. That all happened in this arc.

The same can be said for Mary Jane Watson. One of the reasons I argue Gwen was Peter's true soulmate at the time of publication is because MJ, for all her underlying sadness, was ultimately a home-wrecker. She went on a date with Peter, latched onto his best friend, and constantly flirted with him even when she had Harry Osborn right in front of her.

Peter treated her as a friend, but they were not a good match. Two things changed MJ, though. One was Harry becoming a drug addicted schizophrenic (which she did not help with the constant flirting with Peter), and the other was her best friend's death.

Mary Jane was a more understanding person from here. I love the Peter-MJ romance as much as any Spidey fan, but I also recognize that it's only possible directly because of Gwen's death.

As for the comics world as a whole, this was a game-changer. Most will say this story ended the Silver Age of Comics, but that is far too simple of an explanation.

This was the story that really showed that these characters had an emotional connection with fans. It showed that the stories could be taken seriously and that a high-level narrative could be told solely through sequential art.

Many people point to Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns as the books that showed what comics were capable of, but I don't think any of them would have been in a place to get published had this moment not taken place.

It's ironic that this story is such a moment in comics history considering its whole existence came about because the Marvel editors didn't want Peter Parker to get married (A problem that has clearly plagued the character since his inception up through today).

They had more single Peter stories to tell, and had no idea what to do. Common sense would dictate the two go on a break for a few years, but I guess they didn't want a character just floating around that they weren't using.

But as much as I enjoyed Gwen Stacy stories, and as much as I'd like to see an alternate Marvel book where the two are married, even I must admit that this decision has done unbelievable amounts of good for the comic book industry.

Gwen's death scene has been parodied and re-enacted in copious comics, both Spidey and non-Spidey; the first Spider-Man movie re-enacted it with MJ (as well as Goblin's death from #122); and it's almost a given for one of the new Spider-Man movies.

The influence of this arc is undeniable, and I thought I'd share my interpretation of it today. As we move closer to the ASM 2 movie, let's not forget why the director insisted on having Gwen Stacy in the story.

RIP Gwen.

ASM #31 (Dec. 1965)-ASM #121 (June 1973)

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Legend of Korra Book 2, Chapter 4 review

Today in my review I bid adieu to the contrived plot points we ALL saw coming, look with optimism toward the episodes that will follow (because most of the predictable crap is done), and I issue a serious complaint about the humorous tone given in TV programming toward female-against-male abusive relationships.

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Comic Book Reviews: Man-Bat #1 and Captain Marvel trades (Issues 1-12)

First off, yes I did change from the Sinestro Corps War that I was going to do on my audio blog, but I do think I have a pretty good review for you that should take precedence.



It's rare that I go into a Marvel Comics title, but after A LOT of praise, I'm giving Captain Marvel a shot. My thoughts are in the audio, but needless to say, since I'm bringing it up, there is definitely something there.

Kelly Sue DeConnick is an awesome writer and I wanted to give her due credit for what she's doing with Captain Marvel.

And for the record, even though I do say I'm not a fan of the art in the book, I'm just making it clear that it's NOT bad artwork. It's just a style that I don't feel matches the tone of the book.

Dexter Soy was a little gritty for the tone of the book, and Felipe Andrade's design's, while good for emotion, are an artistic style that I gravitate to in museums, not in sequential books, so it distracts from the narrative. Overall, though, none of them killed the quality of what was an incredible 12-issue journey.

Anyway, on to Detective Comics 23.4: Man-Bat #1!

I initially was going to skip this one. I had my fill of Villains Month and was content to move on to actual books again. However, after seeing the preview and checking out a review at Batman-News.com, it was blatantly obvious that this was a necessary read if you've been following the back-ups in John Layman's Detective Comics title.

First off, kudos to Detective for actually writing a book that's about something useful! This actually turned out to be a nice surprise.

The artwork here is great and it felt like the back-up stories even though Layman wasn't writing it.

Granted, I'm not sure how much of a difference it would have made if Layman had written it because, as the review I linked said, this is a fast read. But it's by design, so I'm fine with it.

Kirk Langstrom has escalated the Man-Bat serum even further in order to take down his wife's rampage. And once he's done that, he decides to be a crime-fighter in Batman's absence.

Unfortunately, the addictive nature of the serum is still present, and it leads to his articulate thoughts at the start of the book to be shorter, more primal sentences by the end. That's actually a pretty freaking good idea in order to justify less writing.

And yes, by the end, you'll know why this book means so much to the back-up. If you're reading Detective - more specifically, the Man-Bat stories - you'll need this title.

Once again, easily the best Man-Bat I've seen hits hard and well in a solo adventure, and I'm looking forward to whenever this character meets with Batman again.

If you haven't been following it, I'd get started now. This book is fairly new-reader friendly thanks to the exposition and you'll want to see how this story advances.

Overall, I'd say it's one of the most important Villains titles to pick up.

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Legend of Korra Book 2, Chapter 3 review

I give to you my thoughts on Korra for this week! Quite honestly, it's a better episode than the previous ones, and I'm interested about the political situation in the Water Tribe. That said, the story seems to assume the viewer knows things they have no way of knowing unless interviews with the creators are part of the canon, and it doesn't help that they are following in the comic's footsteps of introducing potentially offensive situations for characters and then hoping they can payoff the gargantuan check they write with it.

For more spoiler-filled details, check it out below.

This is just funny. Enjoy!

Comic Reviews: Batman '66 #3 and JLA: A League of One

I have a lot of blogs to do this week, so they're all in audio form. This week's comic is Batman '66 #3.



I'll have more in-depth thoughts, plus my promised review of JLA: A League of One in the audio, but very briefly, I will say that Batman '66 continues to prove to be the best comic out today this week.

There's legitimate fun to be had in every issue and the Cesar Romero Joker in this one is just amazing, and there are some nice Easter eggs from the main DCU in this one.

Plus there's an Egghead story. A Vincent Price Egghead story! And it's the exact amount of awesome you'd want from a story like that. Seriously, if any book is worth the money, it's this one. Get the weekly web comic if you can, but if not, this print version is just fine.

Anyway, review is above. Enjoy!

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Legend of Korra reviews: Book 2, Chap. 1-2

It's the return of the most socially awkward character on television, Korra!

This season, I want to give my thoughts on the episodes as they come out, much like I have been with the Ultimate Fighter on the MMA blog.

I'll say right now, this is the longest audio blog I'm going to do all season because I spend the first seven minutes catching up my opinions of the previous season. Additionally, it's two episodes that are reviewed, so this one clocks in as a fairly long blog.

That said, I think it'll be nice to talk about some Avatar stuff that isn't the comic series. From here on in, I also will be giving my opinions before I watch the Legend of Korra vlogs on Channel Awesome or the Dongbu Feng podcast. I do bring each up in this blog because they already have given better lines about some of the plot points than I could muster.

So yeah, if you want a massive amount of Korra thoughts, that vlog, that podcast, IGN's text reviews, and of course this audio blog will give you a nice, diverse set of thoughts.

Anyway, blog is below. Enjoy!

Comic Book Reviews: Riddler #1 and Superman: Birthright

Just a heads-up: The Birthright review is in the audio, so if you came looking for my thoughts on why this is the greatest Superman origin story of all time, click the play button and have a listen.



Now, as to the Riddler review, I may as well just say right now that NO one-shot is beating this for me. This is exactly the kind of story I'd want from my favorite villain in the DCU.

Scott Snyder and Ray Fawkes put together an excellent, excellent story that shows what you can do when you take the Riddler seriously.

The story is that Gotham is still in riot mode after the events of Forever Evil #1 and Riddler has fooled a bunch of people to get upset at Wayne Enterprises for an SEC filing against them. I'm not sure how he did that given that this town is going nuts, but it must have been in the early stages.

Riddler has done this because he wanted to insert a distraction while he infiltrates the building, which is the most secure in the entire city. (It's made clear from Riddler's tone that he KNOWS why, but really doesn't care that much.)

The best part of this entire story is the first page, which is a flashback to four years before, when an Arkham guard took his contraband deck of cards. In these four panels, Riddler's narration boxes give five riddles, and you could figure all five out by really looking at the four panels of this page.

If you don't want to spend time thinking about it, though, all five riddles play out during his plan and lead to his ultimate goal in all of this, which is the goal that really defines the character that is Edward Nygma.

Zero Year is addressed only once, and there are no flashbacks to this, but I wouldn't be shocked if Nygma's time in that arc connects back to this story somehow. Can I just say for a moment how badly I want the Riddler to be Ben Affleck's first opponent in his eventual Batman solo movie? Could we get Snyder, Fawkes and Geoff Johns to supervise the writing?

Try to answer these riddles.

Anyway, Jeremy Haun is the artist and he does a great job in his DC artist debut. He's done the penciling and inking for a few books before, but this is his first chance to do lead art and his only chance before he takes over as Batwoman's artist and he does it right.

For the record, I think DC's mandate against character marriage, which caused J.H. Williams and his team to leave Batwoman, is unrealistically stupid, but if the book's new crew fails, it won't be on Haun if this is any indicator. His attention to detail is spot-on and he doesn't draw women characters like hyper-inflated blow-ups with hips that would make the person incapable of putting their legs together, so I'm good.

Oh, and the cover is by Guillem March, who is a mixed bag kind of artist, but he has easily the nicest cover of the Villains books. Between this and his lead artist duties on the Two-Face book, it almost makes me forget the unnatural amount of cheesecake he thrust upon Catwoman's readers in the first couple of issues.

This book got a pretty in-depth review because I really do have a passion for this villain and I love when he's written... and written properly. Strangely, whenever I read him, I always hear Jim Carrey's voice if he had Sean Connery's charisma. Not sure what to do with that.

Anyway, yeah, buy this book if you can find it. (If I hadn't had this book on my pull list, I'd have missed out because it sold out.) Except for maybe Lex Luthor's story, which could actually have a direct impact on Forever Evil, I don't see a book out there more worth your money.

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