Carlie Cooper Archive

I have felt many things for the Superior Spider-Man since this series first launched last year: curiosity, frustration, disgust, shock, surprise, joy … pick your adjective. Except sympathy. As much as we are living an era filled with anti-heroes that we have been conditioned to cheer for like Walter

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While it’s easy to crack wise about how Superior Spider-Man writer Dan Slott promotes every upcoming issue as being “huge” and the one  “you can’t miss,” it’s equally amazing to read a comic like Superior #21 and realize just how much things have changed for the series and its

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When the Superior Spider-Man era kicked off in January, I was certainly intrigued by a series that focused on long-time villain Otto Octavius learning how to be a “hero,” via the great power/great responsibility credo of his “sworn enemy” Peter Parker, but I also wondered if such a concept

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My tolerance for all things Superior Spider-Man was starting to go into a bit of freefall a few weeks ago, largely fueled by the events of Superior Spider-Man #14 (and to a lesser degree, the pointless reboot of Avenging Spider-Man as Superior Spider-Man Team-Up). For a story with a

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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

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Like the day after a big blow-out party, the issue after a major comic book storyline of the size and scope of a Spider Island tends to focus on the new status quo and how that will set-up the next wave of storylines. As a result, these “issues after”

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When you look back to the earliest days of superhero comic books, the titular character’s girlfriend always seemed to be more of a damsel in distress than any kind of equal in combat. Even throughout Spider-Man’s history, his first girlfriend, Betty Brant was constantly drawn as emotionally fraught and

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Spider-Man is the superhero. Peter Parker is the man who plays the superhero. What I found really captivating about Amazing Spider-Man #668, and the premise behind the Spider Island storyarc overall, is how the idea of who is the actual “hero” is shifting. Because as the title of ASM

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It’s always been the toughest choice Peter Parker has had to make: be a normal guy with normal relationships or be Spider-Man. When it comes to romance, he’s almost never been able to be both (the marriage he had with the one woman he was both openly Peter Parker

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