Friday 26 February 2016

Spider-Man Week - Part 5

Peter Parker and WHO'D YA THINK?
Ending with the man himself.

What can I possibly say about Spider-Man you don't already know? I sure as Hell got nothing I think needs adding to the character. He was my favourite hero when I was a kid and still is now. In the year 2000, Marvel launched 'Ultimate Spider-Man', a series that retold his story in a modern setting. I found it in 2001 and loved it.

I used to buy the original Spider-Man comics but the stories were weird and slow, the continuity clunky, he was married... so to start fresh was really exciting, especially with Brian Michael Bendis' writing. I already related to Peter Parker as a skinny sarcastic nerd (though without the genius part), so that we were now the same age living in the same year was incredibly exciting. The art of Mark Bagley really captured the youthful and adventurous spirit of that age. God... I just got all nostaligic thinking about that time of my life. I was 16, in college, surrounded by friends, all of us thinking about nothing but music and comics. I don't know if I've ever been happier than that time.

A new Spider-Man was cast recently and I remember rolling my eyes at how young he is. "Why do movies cast so young these days? I want a good actor, not some fly-by-night talent catering to shallow audiences." And then I realised. Spider-Man was always young. *I* got old. Now, I'm really excited to see what Marvel studios do with what I consider their main guy. Especially in a cinematic universe that's already established the Avengers.


A hero might be defined by his villains but a villain is defined by his hero. And without Spider-Man, all those other guys are nothing.