Spider-Man on the Huffington Post

An article on Spider-Man's recent unemployment was posted today on the Huffington Post with some quotes from Joe Quesada on how this happened and how this status is going to affect him.

I always find it kind of funny when events in comic book universes make the news, like all the hubbub that occurred when Captain America died. I assume most of these readers or viewers don't actually follow the comics. So do they actually care about hearing things like this presented as news? I'm also vaguely curious about what other sorts of events have made the news in the past. Did Spider-Man's unmasking during the Civil War make the news? What about the Hulk declaring war on all the heroes? The near extinction of mutants during the House of M?

Still, I could see it as a little bit disheartening that a fictional character losing his job is making the news as opposed to stories about real people who are actually unemployed.

Another New Avengers Announcement

This time, the announcement (from CBR) is that Spider-Man's going to be on the New Avengers roster.


I figured it was safe to say that a lot of the more modern, more gritty characters that have been members of the New Avengers previously are going to be in the relaunch. We have Luke Cage and Spider-Man, and Wolverine seems like a safe bet as well. However, it has been confirmed that Bendis favorite Spider-Woman is going to be on the ordinary Avengers team.

But seriously... "I take responsibility for my actions"? What a square.

Underrated Superheroes: The Scarlet Spider

You know who I like? The Scarlet Spider.

That's right. The clone of Spider-Man.

I'm willing to concede that the clone saga never should have happened. Clone stories really seem like an artificial and silly way to induce drama into the series by having a "Who's who?" question thrown out there combined with the fact that you do eventually have to kill off the clone, because as much as every fanboy wants to see 2 Spider-Men flying around New York, it ends up getting pretty messy after 5 or 10 years.

This is exactly what they did to Ben Reilly, Peter Parker's clone, in the end. However, prior to his death, they gave him this really cool costume and identity as The Scarlet Spider. He had the same powers and personality as ordinary Peter Parker, but with a few key differences that make him cooler.

1. Being less experienced as a superhero, he was forced to be more resourceful in order to accomplish his goals. He took Parker's formula for web shooters and developed it into impact webbing - super strong balls of webbing that pack a wallop as well as some spider stingers that have a low dose of toxicity. Badass.

2. Many will disagree with me, but personally I think his costume looks cooler. It looks much more like a homemade costume, with it's solid fill red and blue instead of the intricately stenciled web designs. The external web shooters look nice, too.

3. Treading carefully with his extra inventions, the Scarlet Spider did something Spider-Man could never do: he beat Venom in an all out brawl.

All that, and he brings his own booyah.