posted
Don't have time to reply properly right now, but I can't let this go, even if it was said in jest
quote:Originally posted by Cobalt Kid: Cut me a little slack though...many of those posts were written when I first came here and sometimes a little repetitive and filled with spelling errors. Things I would never do now
Okay, spell the word blanked out in the following sentences correctly (i.e., the way the OED would spell it. The blanks are s all the same word until mentioned otherwise, it's just because I can't exactly read it out )
After coming out of prison, the now ex-criminal went _________. The equation of a _________ line is y=mx+c To go "as the crow flies" is to go in a _________ line from A to B. "Gimme a whisky. Not "on the rocks", not with a mixer. Just ________".
Oh, and, just for comparison, a different word:
The sailor came afoul on the _______s of Gibraltar.
Betcha can't do it .
-------------------- My views are my own and do not reflect those of everyone else... and I wouldn't have it any other way.
posted
I'm not going to even try. When we learned that in school, I was already hitting on the cutie most likely sitting next to me
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Cobalt Kid: Are you a big Spidey fan Lardy? I wasn't kidding...check out past pages of this thread for reviews of tons of Spidey's history! I left off somewhere in the late 80's/early 90's and one day will have to catch up on my reviews.
Des, I've done a lot of lurking on this thread, so I've read pretty much all of it. And, yeah, I consider myself a big Spidey fan, though, ironically, my knowledge isn't as encyclopedic as yours because of gaps in what I've read.
My Spidey roadmap's a little odd. My first exposure to the character was in the old cartoon (summarized here by prof) and the live action TV series. Then, when I transitioned from Harvey Comics (Casper, Richie Rich, etc.), the first superhero comic (though I did pick up the star Wars series) I ever remember picking up was Marvel Tales at the local 7-11, a title which featured Spidey reprints. I din't know they were reprints, though! First issue I remember buying featured Harry Osborne as the Green Goblin. It was that great (Gil Kane?) cover with Peter confronting Harry as the spectres of their alter egos loom above. "Yes, it's true--the Green Goblin lives again!" (or something like that)
So for a while, I read those supposedly all-new issues featuring such threats as Mindworm and the wedding of Doc Ock and Aunt May!
I stuck with Tales for a little while, then drifted over to DC titles and bought some sporadic Superman and Batman titles. I especially liked the team-up books, DC Comics presents and Brave and the Bold. And eventually discovered LSH!
Then, a friend showed me this cool title called the X-Men, and transformed me into a Marvel Zombie! I sold all my DC titles, so I could buy more X-Men!
So as I branched out to other Marvel titles, I decided to check back up on ol' webhead. And wouldncha know it, it was early on in the classic Hobgoblin saga! I was big-time hooked and started buying Amazing, Spectacular and Marvel Team-up!
Trust me, coming aboard Spidey during the Hobgoblin mystery (and soon, the black costume saga) was a great time. To make it even better, Marvel tales started reprinting Spidey stories from the beginning, so I got to catch up on a lot of classic Spidey. And I bought a lot of back issues, encompassing all of Stern's run and a lot of the gaps after where those Conway reprints I read left off. I was particularly interested in the Green Goblin and hunted down the Green Goblin III story.
(to be continued)
-------------------- "Suck it, depressos!"--M. Lash
From: The Underbelly of Society | Registered: Jul 2003
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Ep.49 "SPECIALISTS AND SLAVES" managed to be a remake (or is that, ahem, "sequel"?) of 2 earlier episodes: "SWING CITY" and "TO CAGE A SPIDER". Incredibly, that INSANE scientist who called himself "The Master Technician"-- now calling himself "The Radiation Specialist"-- is out of jail after "a few years" (he says), and shows up at the SAME experimental nuclear power plant, stuns the guards, and takes over. AGAIN! This guy's parole officer must have been sleeping on the job.
Using a "robot car" he lures Spidey outside the city, then after it crashes off a cliff, gloats via radio transmitter. This time out, the guy uses radiation to deaden the minds of everyone in NYC (okay, so maybe he doesn't have that far to go), then "seals off his kingdom" by LIFTING Mahnattan into the air. ("AGAIN? But that trick NEVER works!") Spidey makes it UP to the city-- somehow-- but "The Specialist" causes an Earthquake, knocking him loose from a building (and causing the building to collapse in the process). A mob encircles him, but he's taken to a prison infirmary on the orders of Captain Stacy-- one of the only people whose mind has not been "enslaved". (Only "strong" minds and "evil" minds would not be affected, the Specialist tells us.)
While recovering, Spidey is witness to an attempted jailbreak (WHAT, ANOTHER ONE??). He saves Stacy, makes it to the power plant, is teleported inside...and you know, if you've seen "SWING CITY" or "UP FROM NOWHERE", you've already seen the rest of this TWICE before!! Really.
The number & type of onscreen mistakes are so great, one suspects they were having fun seeing how much they could get away with. When Manhattan rises into the sky this time, it's got a bubble over it (like in "UP FROM NOWHERE") but that disappears in the next shot. When Spidey climbs up thru the sewar pipe, the animation of his movements is running BACKWARDs-- and repeats about a half-dozen times. Captain Stacy's appearance completely changes in 2 scenes, but he's his usual self the rest of the story. In one shot, "The Specialist" has pointed ears and a crest on his head (from when the animators turned him into "Dr. Atlantean" in "UP FROM NOWHERE"). When Spidey reaches for the lever on the control panel, in one shot, you see the lever, floating in mid-air. The next shot, it's connected to the control panel. When Manhattan lowers back in place, they use the wrong image of it, making it look like it SHRUNK to half its normal size!
Compared to this, having "The Specialist" use a COMPLETELY different voice as we heard used by "The Master Technician" (he sounds more like Dr. Noah Boddy in this one) is nothing-- but it does make you do a double-take when Spidey instantly recognizes him over the radio, when his voice AND name are different from his last appearance.
Ep.50 "DOWN TO EARTH" is just about the last straw, as it's a remake of one of my LEAST-favorite 2nd-season episodes, "NEPTUNE'S NOSE CONE". Do I really have to summarize the plot? It's easier just to list the differences. Instead of a missile nose-cone (which looked like a space capsule anyway), this time we have "Rabbit-Ear Meteor", a hunk of rock with what looks like really big TV antennas sticking out of it. It comes down near the North Pole rather than the South. Pete goes after it with "Osa Olsen", and land on an ice flow instead of a prehistoric jungle island. Pete calls the natives "Snowmen", and suggests they probably live in underground caverns, warmed by a geyser (as opposed to a volcano). Unlike Penny in the original, Osa is NOT captured by the savages, though in long shots we keep seeing what looks like a girl tied to the meteor! The flying snake, steel-tendrilled plant, huge wooden door, underground cavern with stone statues, monstrous creatures & fires that start to go out at just the wrong time are all IDENTICAL to the original-- only the music has changed!
Osa meets Spidey-- yet NEVER connects that she never sees him & Pete together! (And they're at the NORTH POLE!!) When he tries to stop the savages from dumping the meteor into the geyser, we keep seeing shots of the white space caspule instead, one of them including the girl tied to it. (OOPS-- wrong episode!!) This time, when it takes off-- the rocks surrounding it breaking off, revealing a weird-looking flying saucer inside-- both Spidey & Osa are dragged along into the air, until they manage to drop off into the snow.
The original's scene of Pete giving Jameson a box containing a flying snake egg-- which hatches-- is missing from the remake, but instead Pete & Osa talk about her maybe getting an exclusive "interview" with Spider-Man, Pete baffling her when he laughs about how it might be easier than she thinks. (And STILL she never connects him & Spidey being the same? What kind of a reporter IS she???)
Just 2 more to go now...
Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
You know (to longtime readers of this thread), I've reread a lot of my reviews from a few years ago of roughly Spidey's first 30 years and I'm a little embarrassed by how unorganized they are, but especially but really by how repetitive/grammatically incorrect/etc. are (from an editorial standpoint). One day I may have to edit them
That doesn't mean content-wise mind you. I know I posted those reviews relying solely on memory and taking a very positive standpoint on most of Spidey's history, but I'm kind of glad I did it that way.
I'm currently rereading the entire run (am up to around ASM#186/PPTSS #20--not going 'month for month' and not doing every MTU) and am picking up other things though. Like the change-offs in writers and artists, which is very apparent. As a kid when I reread the entire run time and time again, I would never pay attention to that stuff (and in a way, that made it more enjoyable). But there are some ineresting things you notice from an analysis of the creators.
This post is partially inspired by how great Prof's reviews of the episodes are. I've fallen behind at times and then caught right up and they're really great (thanks Prof!).
I'm rereading the Spidey's for the first time in years. When I was 11, I read the entire thing, month by month, from Amazing Fantasy #15 to the then current issue (roughly the tail end of Larsen's run in ASM, but I read the other titles too). I then quickly reread the entire thing. And again. And again. I basically did it four or five times a year for three years, and then did it again every end of summer, which (as I got older and busier) would take me all the way to Christmas. My goal was to read the first appearance of the Hobgoblin on Christmas Eve. Even when I was too caught up in high school and college life to spare the time, I always read that Hobgoblin issue (ASM #238) every Christmas Eve. I'm currently on-target with time to spare
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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posted
"This post is partially inspired by how great Prof's reviews of the episodes are. I've fallen behind at times and then caught right up and they're really great (thanks Prof!)."
You're welcome!
See, I DON'T have much good to say about the comics themselves (after John Romita left-- and that's a LONNNNNNNNNNG time ago!!!!!) but I didn't wanna dump on your parade, so, I figured, why not review the Spidey I'm the most enthusiastic about (and the stories I've exeperienced the most-- the comics I've mostly read ONCE apiece, the better ones maybe twice, the tv episodes maybe 30-40 OR MORE times apiece).
Even with the REALLY BAD ones (and obviously there are) it's gotten to the point where I manage to enjoy them IN SPITE of their shortcomings. (Gotta watch the last 2 again...)
Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
And that brings us to... the end of the line.
Ep.51 "TRIP TO TOMORROW" is that most hated of episode types (and lazy of production methods)-- the "all-flashback" episode! Spidey is swinging around when lightning shoots upward, zapping his webline, sending him crashing thru the roof of a railroad box car. When he wakes up, he finds a kid running away from home, hoping to head to Podunk to become "The Caped Protector Of Podunk". He asks is Spidey can teach him how to become a superhero, and what follows are excerpts of 3 earlier episodes.
First up is "THUNDER RUMBLE", where we see Boltan & Boomer steal gold from the Depository, then watch Spidey fight Boltan, who gets whisked to space via his own badly-aimed and out-of-control lightning bolt. Much longer is "RETURN OF THE FLYING DUTCHMAN", where Spidey fights Mysterio for the 2nd time. In both cases, they pretty much just took the films as-is with no changes.
The 3rd flashback comes from "THE EVIL SORCERER". What makes this stand out is, it starts with Spidey in the other dimension, hopping a ride on the fire-breathing whatsit, getting to Kotep's lair and being snagged by the giant spider. THEN, it switches to the fight in the museum, followed by Kotep's summoning the demon army, who demand he destroy his "rival" or they will kill him. At which point they cut to the climax of Spidey vs the giant spider, the sceptre getting broken and Kotep being sent back to "the depths of time", On top of re-structuring it so there's a flashback within a flashback, ALL the music from the original cartoon has been replaced with much darker, weirder stuff!!
The kid winds up running home, saying "My mom won't even let me cross the street!" Spidey laughs, and we never do find out where that lightning bolt came from. Even as a kid, I HATED these type of episodes-- to me, they were a rip-off, and a waste of time. I noticed not long ago that this is apparently listed LAST on the recent DVD set-- but when Channel 57 re-ran the show in the early 80's, it was NEXT-to-last.
Ep.52 "THE WINGED THING" is another quickie "remake", this one combining elements of "THE SKY IS FALLING" and "THE VULTURE'S PREY". Following a penthouse robbery, The Vulture (not "Vulture-Man" as earlier) warns people to stay off the streets. When some fail to comply, he destroys a skyscraper under construction. Then, he steals a mini-missile, and uses it to attack a helicopter carrying a device that can control animals. He ditches the missile, then attacks the city with a swarm of vultures obeying his commands!! At least, until they inexplicably turn on HIM. If you've seen the 2 earlier episodes, you can see how this was pieced together. Virtually all the dialogue is new, and the sky backgrounds have all been replaced with those dark, demented, "psychedelic" skylines. Same goes for the music. Very little Ray Ellis, almost entirely "KPM" stuff-- and the darker, demented stuff at that.
Among the gaffs this time are Vulture having his feet webbed to the missile before Spidey ever reaches him, and Spidey having a handful of dollars in his hand (as he did at the climax of "THE SKY IS FALLING") despite it having nothing whatsoever to do with the plot! The "animal-control" device would seem to make this a PREQUEL to "THE SKY IS FALLING", even though everything else screams "sequel". No point trying to figure it out...
"CONNOR'S REPTILES" is basically a remake-sequel to "WHERE CRAWLS THE LIZARD". All the dialogue is new, but ALL the animation is the same, most of it in the same sequence as the original! The backgrounds & music, as with the other half of this "twofer", have all been replaced with the dark, demented variety. The sequence of The Lizard overturning the boat with the 2 fishermen has been moved to the middle of the story from the beginning. Also, instead of Connors turning into a Lizard, this time, he was experimenting with "reptile intelligence", and reportedly, one of his "creations" kidnapped him and is planning to create an intelligent reptile army to take over the world. As Connors was supposedly being held in "the old Spanish fort", it would have been a PERFECT opportunity to reuse footage of Connors being held prisoner in "FOUNTAIN OF TERROR"-- but we never see Connors until after his rescue! The "thing" (as Spidey calls it) is also called "Reptilla" at one point, and is (big surprise) wearing the same clothes "The Lizard" did in the original. Inexplicably, while Billy Connors recognizes Spider-Man, he makes no mention of having met him before!
At one point, Pete wonders why he puts up with Jameson, but muses "I guess life would be pretty dull without him." If that's all the justification he has for sticking with that job, he should consider some serious psychiatric help.
And so, the series creeks to a rather ignominious end... All the excuse one needs to go back to Ep.1 and start watching all over again!
Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
Apparently, JMS wanted his name off OMD, and had to be guilted into letting his name go on the last two issues:
quote:JMS, at http://jmsnews.com/msg.aspx?id=1-17697 , said: In the current storyline, there's a lot that I don't agree with, and I made this very clear to everybody within shouting distance at Marvel, especially Joe. I'll be honest: there was a point where I made the decision, and told Joe, that I was going to take my name off the last two issues of the OMD arc. Eventually Joe talked me out of that decision because at the end of the day, I don't want to sabotage Joe or Marvel
Bodes well really, doesn't it?
-------------------- My views are my own and do not reflect those of everyone else... and I wouldn't have it any other way.
posted
Wow. Yeah, bodes real well. JMS and Joe Q always seemed so tight and on the same page (and usually I didn't like that page they were on). The obvious assumption is JMS doesn't agree with what's about to happen to MJ.
Wow. That's pretty interesting stuff.
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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posted
I'll stick by Spidey as always, but I'm cringing at what is to become of Spidey's continuity if the rumors I'm hearing are true (and by all accounts, they seem to be)...
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
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Hyperpath: Email this page to someone!
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