It’s a “Brand New Day” for Spider-Man fans, but things are looking pretty bleak.
Marvel Comic’s much-vaunted new storyline for the web crawler has dumbfounded many die-hard fans — including me.
After reading “Brand New Day” I walked away with a resounding, “What the hell, man!?” racing through my mind.
In “Brand New Day,” Peter Parker and his wife Mary Jane tearfully agree to end their relationship and forget that each other exist. Why? Well, they were forced to do this as part of a deal with the devil — or Marvel’s version of the devil in Mephisto — who has agreed to save Peter’s Aunt May.
The problem with this plot isn’t so much that Marvel is snubbing longtime readers in favor of new ones; it is that Marvel Editor-in-chief Joe Quesada and company claim they did this so that they could tell more exciting stories.
Is it a risky move? Of course it is. Fan backlash forced them to shut down their message boards because the comments had degenerated into nothing more than namecalling.
Was it the right move? Only time will tell. Time also will test Marvel’s ability to tell new and better stories.
It would be nice, though, if comics writers and editors worked harder to produce compelling stories rather than taking a giant leap backwards in a character’s life. The folks at Marvel cheated, and fans are left to wonder what happened, and how does it effect Marvel’s other titles.
Real fake heroes
The DVD “Confessions of a Superhero” is now available. This is a great film to watch if you’ve ever wanted to know more about the folks that dress up like superheroes. The photos throughout the movie are beautiful and sometimes outright funny — like the image of Wonder Woman reaching into her car while a pair of parking attendants crane their necks to check her out.
I got a chance to interview director Matt Ogens, so visit my blog to read the transcript. And check out the flick.
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Shawn Munguia does graphics and layout for the Valley Morning Star. He also maintains a blog about cartoons and comics at http://toontalk.freedomblogging.com/. Munguia can be reached at 956-421-9870 or you can e-mail him at shawnm@valleystar.com.
