Welcome Back Rosenthal

There one good reason to watch the WB’s new Spectacular Spider-Man show; it’s a good show. I’m not gonna lie to you. Spider-Man hasn’t been done this well, in animation, in quite a long time. Here are some of the high points of the show; the humor that Peter Parker throws out as Spider-Man is spot on. Next, Spider-Man is shown as a total freeloader! He is constantly jumping on buses, helicopters, trucks-ANYTHING. And that is great! Because they do it in the comics, and it’s a reality that he has to come from Queens and get to Manhattan. And there is no other way to do that kind of commute dressed that way. Next; the action is fast and brutal. Here the animators have clearly taken their cue from Spider-Man 3 and maybe a couple of scenes from 2 and 1. But they toss Spider-Man around on this show so much it’s funny. They throw him into walls, and bounce him off the ground. You’re watching and it’s so rugged, your first thought is, “how is the costume staying on?” And in that same vein; they have him doing all kinds of logical stuff with the web. The Spider-Man of the comic books is obviously a web master and in Spectacular, they show what a smart guy and powers would do by pulling junk onto opponents or punching them and yanking them around poles or whatever, it’s just very astute. Next the villain are the classics; The Vulture, The Sandman, The Rhino, Tombstone and Electro.

And all the pals are there like Gwen, Harry, JJJ and Robbie. And there are also indications of who’s coming. Doc Octopus is on the show in some form, the Green Goblin and Venom are foreshadowed too. So the foundation is strong. But I think Marvel Comics has REALLY turned over a new leaf in terms of how they do movies and TV show versions of their characters. The 90’s X-Men and Spider-Man shows seemed just off kilter somehow, like that Hulk movie. It’s like they KNEW what was the right thing but they decided to be different just for the sake of being different . We don’t want that. Just do the Goddamn movie like the comic books ! And that’s why Spider-Man in the new movies has been the first project from the new template. Marvel learned that traditional renditions, while USING THE NEW TECHNOLOGY, was the way to go. Just depict what we’ve always imaged. Hence, the new Iron Man movie looks ridiculously good. They said; “ok let’s take all of the cool poses Iron Man is known for and build scenes around that.” Perfect! That’s all you have to do. And then get a known addict like Robert Downey Jr. to play a role he was BORN for. And it looks Goddamn perfect . Can’t wait until next week.

Well they ended the Cable and Deadpool comic book with issue 50 this week. But a LOT sadder is the last 2 issues of Wolverine Origins where they’ve had Deadpool guest starring but losing his mind. Its kinda funny at first but the true nature of a guy who’s not just “funny” but legitimately had a break with reality is sad. Old rule of comedy; if it bends it’s funny; if it breaks it’s not. And not long ago I went through all the trouble to create this Steve-O as Deadpool campaign!

It’s always been my feeling that Deadpool was a combination of a few characters, but primarily somebody’s warped version of Spider Man. Deadpool is just…more. He’s way more violent, he’s way more resilient, and he’s supposed to be funnier-but that really depends on who’s writing the comic book. The weird thing about this comic book ending is that it’s because the other star is Cable, and now he’s being given his own book. You’ve seen this before with rock bands; there’s a band, everybody gets really into the lead singer and then the singer takes off on his own. So there wouldn’t BE a Cable solo book if it hadn’t been for teaming him up with Deadpool. Cable comes out of the X-men area of the Marvel Universe, so he’ll always have a home in their comic books.

But until being paired up both those characters were struggling and on their way to oblivion and joining forces saved them both. So for now we’ll have to wait and see where he pops up next.

At least they FINALLY brought Spidey and Pool together for a face to face.

Speaking of DEAD things, if you’re into that-check out my piece on all the killers that have come out of Chicago.

So if you look in the lower corner of this EXTREMELY recent issue of Amazing Spider-Man you