Monthly Archive:: August 2011

There are numerous things about Marvel’s newly minted FF series that have made me skeptical, all of which have nothing to do with the actual writing and artwork in the comic book. For one, the premise of the FF, the Future Foundation, came after the death of the Fantastic

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My inability to negotiate is the stuff of legends. And let me tell you, that’s not something as a collector I should go about touting, but it’s true. When I was a little kid, my parents held a garage sale with our neighbors and I was told I could

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Maybe Amazing Spider-Man #664 should have the subtitle “How Eddie Brock Got His Groove Back” because this was the most I’ve been interested in Brock/Anti-Venom in years. As I said during Chasing Amazing’s “Venom Week” a few weeks back, the Venom/Brock character has undergone a number of changes over

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Considering how much pain and suffering Peter Parker has had to endure because of his secret life of Spider-Man, I’m always filled with the warm and fuzzies when something goes right for him. When Marvel transitioned to the Brand New Day story-arc a few years back, the rotating crew

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On more than one occasion, when I’ve used Chasing Amazing as a soap box and stand on to yell about some of the undesirable qualities of the comic book industry – its overuse of “special edition” issues marking new characters, deaths, variant covers, gimmick covers, etc. – I’ve had

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Part of what keeps me coming back to Spider-Man years after opening up my first Amazing Spider-Man comic book is his long-standing hopefulness. What makes this hopefulness so effective is the fact that it’s contrasted by a character who’s backstory is predominantly cynical. Peter Parker/Spider-Man is an orphan, who’s

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There’s not a lot in my life that’s managed to remain apolitical, but I would like to think my love of comic books and Spider-Man is one of last things that has more or less remained untainted by the cesspool that is Washington, DC, and the media punditocracy that

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Amazing Spider-Man #219 was published in August 1981, which means this month this issue is celebrating a milestone 30th anniversary. I know this because, in addition to knowing basic math, today is my 30th birthday. So, happy birthday to ASM #219 and me. There’s no significant story behind my

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Peter Parker/Spider-Man has been a staple in the Marvel superhero universe for nearly 50 years. During this time, numerous heroes and villains have been introduced, killed off, retired, married, etc. But there’s never been a world without Peter Parker as Spider-Man. In the six-part miniseries Ultimate Fallout:Spider-Man No More,

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The Haul: ASM #35 (Good plus) ASM #27 (Good/Very Good) ASM #22 (Good plus) Final Tally: 16 issues to complete the run. Let me preface this post by saying that every issue of Amazing Spider-Man I pick up that moves me closer to collecting every issue in the entire

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