In The Mind of Spider-Plush

Back on Tuesday, September 11th, 2001, a tragedy occurred. Two planes were hijacked by terrorists, who then crashed them into the World Trade Center in New York City. This event changed the world forever, and society swore to never forget. It was unexpected for the US; it was unexpected for everyone. I wasn't born yet, but I've heard stories from a lot of people who were there when it happened. It seems like everyone remembers where they were on 9/11. This real-world event interrupted a lot of things, and one of them was the Amazing Spider-Man comic series. Now, the Marvel Universe is always described as "The world outside your window", what happens in the real world also happens in the Marvel U, and you get to see how the various characters react to what happens in the real world. Marvel HQ is in New York, and a lot of their characters live in NYC. Spider-Man is a New York icon and pretty much a worldwide icon, so J. Michael Straczynski and John Romita Jr. made a com...

This is part 3 of Gwenpool. By Cavan Scott and Stefano Nesi. This is the cover by Karen S. Darboe. Look at Gwen Stacy, she looks absolutely majestic, wow, makes me wish women were real. Oh, and there's Gwen (Poole) acting like she got lost or something. I really want this cover as a poster and I would love to have it framed so I can put it up on the wall and falsely claim I painted it, visitors will be so shocked! Last time, A bunch of shit happened, but Gwen killed Gwen, and this is the aftermath. The comic begins with Gwenpool's funeral, but I am noticing a lack of loved ones or even characters that were her FRIENDS? You know, the ones from the other series that were cool and good? Where's Batroc, Mega Tony and the others? Where's Julie Power? WHERE. THE. FUCK. IS. TEDDY? Did none of them get the memo? Why have the funeral happen RIGHT AFTER SHE DIED? Most funerals wait until every friend and relative knows and then they happen 2 days later or something. Peter is mopi...

It's 2010. You stand before a building that seems to tower over you, with a bright banner sprawling across the front, blue bubbly letters on an orange and sunny background. "Summer of Reading!" You aren't the biggest fan of reading, but luckily over the seven years of your life, your dad has been filling your head with tales, collectibles and (although I couldn't touch them yet with my unpredictable and oily wild child hands), comics of flashy superheroes doing their best to be good people, and inspire others to find the strength to keep on. You wonder if the library has any comic books. Luckily, Marvel did this thing around 2006 where several smaller story arcs got hardcover reprints for library circulation. I'll never forget the taste of those hardcover corners... What? Sorry, got distracted... Where was I? Ah, right, "Marvel Age". These were usually modern retellings (or just a coat of new paint) of a couple of non-strictly related comics put in ...

Earth's Mightiest Heroes, the Avengers, a team that EVERYONE and their brother knows, unless you're some fucking lunatic weirdo psycho that grew up reading about the Justice League of America. Sidenote, why are they called the Justice League of America if they protect more than just America? That's kinda silly. So, can you really call Spider-Man an "Avenger"? Eh, depends on the day, I never saw Spider-Man as part of a team, I mean, sure, he's worked with teams before, but he's always been a loner to me, no sidekick, no team, no nothing, just made him more relatable because sometimes you just gotta do things by yourself. Like I did for Sins Past, I'm gonna look at something similar to what I'm gonna be reviewing next for the JMS retrospective, so I looked for one of the earliest meetings between the Avengers and Spider-Man. So, in order to coincide with Spidey moving into Avengers tower in issue 519, I chose to review the one time Spidey actually DI...

When you hear about the death of your favorite characters, your stomach sinks a little bit, it's like hearing about the loss of a loved one, but much, much worse. This series continues, the first issue was less than stellar, but I did say there was room for improvement... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. That's all I've got, this is Gwenpool '25 #2 by Cavan Scott and Stefano Nesi. BUT LET'S ESTABLISH A NEW RULE: - I have to be brutally honest, the covers for this series all suck, so we're reviewing variants. This is the infinitely better variant cover . This one was drawn by Lesley Li, and it looks great, actually. It depicts Gwen (Stacy) in a cool pose about to murder you. Main cover shows a spoiler, so... "Rated T+", I don't see anyone over the age of 23 picking this up.  I just felt a sharp pain in my chest from picking this up, looks like this post is about to turn out to become the tragic death of the original Spider-Plush... ...

Well, Sins Past is done, it's time to look at something that isn't hated by 99.5% of the fanbase... Skin Deep, the storyline right after Sins Past, no one seems to remember it, but it gave us some damn good covers.  The behind-the-scenes story is very interesting because there is none... Well, I guess J. Michael Straczynski walked into his office one day, and then he got his typewriter ready and started typing away the script, and then on his lunch break, he ate a bagel and drank some coffee... And then he went back to work, and after the script was finished, he handed it off to Mike Deodato Jr. for penciling, and then he did that 3 more times. Oh, and he also told Mark Brooks to draw some flashback sequences. Welp, looks like this is one of the last regular storylines in this run, let's have a big look into The Amazing Spider-Man #515. Believe it or not, I actually DO have these issues! In the form of the digital TPB. The cover (by Gary Frank) is nothing special, but it do...

This is the uncensored version. For the censored cut without all the swearing and the mentions of sex, click here. There are only 4 certainties in life: Death, taxes, Burger King messing up my damn order and having a Spider-Man review site look at Sins Past. You've seen everyone's reviews, you've seen everyone making fun of it (including Marvel themselves) and you even lived long enough to see it get retconned (Thanks, Nick Spencer). The story has it that in 2004, J. Michael Straczynski wanted to write a story about Gwen Stacy and Peter Parker's secret children that eventually tried to kill Peter... Odd, but okay. This is where Marvel's then editor-in-chief Joe Quesada comes in... So, Joe tells JMS that making Spider-Man have children would make the character seem like an old hag, and that would turn off new readers... Joe, I love you as much as I love my own son, but that is total bullshit, and you know it. You may be wondering, what happened last time? Well, Ezeki...