As I alluded to in last week’s “remembrance,” my re-entry into the world of Spider-Man comic book collecting was very deliberate, filled with countless one-toe-in-the-water moments that ultimately went nowhere. In general, I have a tendency to get obsessed with certain things and then abruptly burn out, lose interest

Read More...

If you take Spider-Man, subtract the responsibility and the love and support the character’s alter-ego, Peter Parker, has received in full from friends and family over the years, what you are left with is Kaine, aka the Scarlet Spider. That’s at least the premise Chris Yost and Ryan Stegman

Read More...

When you write  a few times each week about comic book characters, you frequently find yourself debating heroes and villains because they are the most basic and essential ingredients in a good superhero story. Having a superhero without a good group of supervillains to thwart and overcome would be

Read More...

Despite growing up a mere 40-minute train away from New York City in the suburbs of Long Island, I never really grew to know and love the “Big Apple” until I was in college. Interestingly enough, it was also during this time in my life that my interest in

Read More...

While the dissolution of Peter’s marriage with Mary Jane gets all the headlines when fans gripe about ASM’s status quo upheaval at the onset of 2008’s Brand New Day storyline, I was always equally perturbed by the fact that this scene, from Amazing Spider-Man #533, was also erased from

Read More...

Since the very first issue of Amazing Spider-Man, it’s been established how important it is for Spidey’s civilian identity – teenage wallflower/science geek Peter Parker – to remain a secret. The consequences of his secret identity being outed were painted as incredibly severe – the Green Goblin/Norman Osborn was

Read More...

While I’m undoubtedly a Spider-Man fan and enthusiast, my introduction to the Marvel universe and eventually Amazing Spider-Man comic books came through Marvel’s Secret War series in the mid-1980s. For those unfamiliar with Secret Wars, it was a 12-issue mega-crossover that starred pretty much every character who mattered in

Read More...

Given that the Vulture was the prime antagonist in ASM’s #674 and 675 (which are sadly, the last two issues I’ve received from Marvel’s subscription service – come on guys, how hard is it for you to put a comic book in the mail in less than a month?),

Read More...

For those of you who have been following my monotonous griping over the fact that Marvel is using the Spider-Man character on too many superhero teams, you’ll note that one of my biggest complaints is that in the context of Jonathan Hickman’s FF/Fantastic Four and Brian Michael Bendis’ Avengers/New

Read More...

If you’re buying comic books as a collector, you can’t get lazy. Because if I learned anything in my 20+ years of collecting, it’s that if you slack for even one second, that’s when you end up with a less than satisfactory purchase. At least that’s the case behind

Read More...