Now usually I put up links to previous posts on these artist oriented posts but I won´t even bother to do this for Ron Frenz since everybody who has followed this blog over a longer period of time knows that I am not only a big fan of his runs on THE MIGHTY THOR and THUNDERSTRIKE but also of SPIDER - GIRL and I´ve done too many posts on these to put them here.
By the way, all of these series were written by Tom DeFalco which is one of the reasons why I can´t understand when people say he is not a good writer. Besides these he also wrote one of my favorite runs on FANTASTIC FOUR which was drawn by the great, late Paul Ryan and that´s already four of my all time favorite books. And with SPIDER - GIRL you have to keep in mind that Tom DeFalco not only wrote the best Spider - Man series when everything else in the Spider - universe made you puke, he also wrote the only comic that gave you the old Marvel Comics feeling when the rest of the books were too busy trying to be the new iMAGE or Vertigo series.
When I thought about doing a post for Ron Frenz´ birthday I naturally thought about doing something THOR - centric but since I have done so many there would be nothing special about doing another THORSDAY post.
I also thought about doing one with the issues where Spider - Man guest starred on THE MIGHTY THOR - in honor of SPIDER - MAN WEEK but then I decided to do a straight Spider - Man post. There will be THORSDAY posts with Ron Frenz in the future and believe me after watching . . . I mean, suffering through the THOR - RAGNAROK movie I was all set up to remind people of the real Thor but I need some time to calm down. Usually I call these crappy films train wrecks or abominations but that does not even come close as it was more a violation of my childhood. Those Disney bastards f - worded Thor up in every possible way and I can´t believe that people like Comicbookgirl19 say that it was their favorite Marvel movie.
Here I thought this was finally a girl who knows about comics AND films but as it turns out she has no idea about either. How anybody who has read one single issue of THE MIGHTY THOR - and I´m explicitly not talking about those who only know Not - Worthy - Odinson and SJW - Compatible - Former - Nurse - Thorgirl - can even stand to watch this without blowing his brain out is beyond me. But I see that I´m already getting worked up and I wanted to save all of my bile and vinegar for the THORSDAY post.
In this post we will only talk about positive things and Ron Frenz´ tenure at AMAZING SPIDER - MAN is a happy memory that helped Subzero through SPIDER - MAN : HOMECOMING where Michael Keaton did an Oscar - worthy performance as the only actor who was worth his salary in that movie.
Maldicion, I´m doing it again. It seems that I can´t write about any Marvel Comics without mentioning how crappy the current series is or how they f - worded up the latest movie with the character. I guess the only solution is to write about Like Cage, Iron Fist, Daredevil or the Punisher because their tv shows are as good - if not better - as the original comic books. At least as far as I know. I have seen neither the Punisher nor the Defenders series at this point ( which are really the HEROES FOR HIRE but I guess DEFENDERS has a better ring to it ) and they may have destroyed them completely. But I´m starting to go on a rant again and I don´t want that.
Okay, Ron Frenz on AMAZING SPIDER - MAN did not begin with SECRET WARS ( see, I told you we would come back to this crossover again and again ) like I initially thought but actually a bit earlier. As is so often the case at Marvel he did not start AFTER a big storyline but smackdab in the middle of it. One of the biggest antagonists of Spider - Man in the 80s was the Hobgoblin and there was a dramatic confrontation between Spider - Man and him in a two part story starting in AMAZING SPIDER - MAN 250 which was drawn by John Romita Jr and concluded in AMAZING SPIDER - MAN 251 drawn by Ron Frenz who took over the art reigns in that issue.
And in the very next issue Spider - Man returned from SECRET WARS with a brand new black costume that I thought he would keep for the rest of his - granted published - life. At first he wore the black costume all the time but then he started to get our the old Spidey costume and for a while he was alternating between the costumes. In one issue you would get new Spider - Man and in the next you would get the old familiar webhead. In some issues you even might get to see him wearing both.
For me it made sense. I mean, who wears always the same outfit when he has two ? Nobody. Okay, looking back I might have caught on to the fact that the writers at Marvel were slowly preparing the readers that the original costumes was going to make a comeback but I was just too busy getting excited that now we got two costumes for the price of one.
But it was not only the new costume, there were a lot of great stories like another gang war that involved Daredevil and the Punisher ( Don´t you just love these gang war stories ? Those stories are when Spider - Man is at his best ! ), Mary Jane confessing that she knew about Peter Parker being Spider - Man ( Mary Jane became a very important character in his life and was a strong and independent woman before the SJWs - at least until the boss of Marvel decided that to keep Spider - Man interesting and engaging for the readers he had to get rid of her and wrote one of the most heinous stories in Spiderhistory ) and of course SECRET WARS II.
But not only the Beyonder was introduced during that time there was also the enigmatic Puma who was trained from his youth to battle this godlike being. He is one that I liked from the start, his backstory with the whole native american culture that you did not see a lot of back at that time but which was present in many of the western comics like BESSY, LASSO or SILBERPFEIL that I read as a kid, the visual, the powers and that he had his own sense of honor and moral code. Speaking about morally ambiguous character besides the Puma´s introduction in AMAZING SPIDER - MAN 256 there was somebody else who started his career around that time. She is sadly always overlooked and constantly underappreciated super heroines but Silver Sable is really one of the most capable, business savvy and sexy women in the Marvel universe. And since I grew up with the aloof blonde goddesses in Alfred Hitchcock movies I was instantly enthralled. I still have a hard time with the unceremonious way in which Dan Slott dumped her.
Which is my cue to bring this part of the post to an end with the next chapter of THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER - GIRL from SPIDER - MAN FAMILY 7.
For those who missed my previous Spider - Girl posts here are the links to part one and part two . And since we still have Tombstone as Spider - Girl´s opponent in this one I have to mention once again that Disney needs to get its butt moving from the couch and continue reprinting Sal Buscema´s fantastic marathon as artist of SPECTACULAR SPIDER - MAN.
Well, I guess that was unexpected and while the death of the one real Spider - Girl, Mayday Parker ( for me she always was the real one even though this dilemma was never definitely resolved and she could have been the real clone ) came out of the blue I guess it was still better than ending up as cannon fodder in the Spiderverse storyline. So Tombstone has one Spider - Girl down and one more left to go and the question is if the clone can win where the original failed. Don´t miss our next episode.
There has been a lot of controversy about Stan Lee´s accounts on who created what in the early days of Marvel Comics but I always had my suspicions as he claimed to have created the first teenage superhero while Peter Parker was predated by an entire Legion of Super Heroes at DC who were all teenagers. Well, as comic historians know he also wasn´t the first comic book writer who came up with a spider themed super hero.
It´s been a while since I posted one of these and like last time I picked one where the outfit emphasizes her mindblowing physique and especially her boobs which might be augmented. Another reason why I chose this is that I could actually embed the preview video where the whole exercise is explained in detail for those that are not content with simply watching Zuska do the workout but who want to participate in a more active role.
It´s back to Spider - Man content with another look at a classic cartoon show as Retroblasting analyzes Spider - Man And His Amazing Friends.
Okay, this is spider - related in the name of the band only but I have no other music video that has something to do with Spider - Man, sorry.
Now I thought about ending this post with Comicbookgirl19´s review of Spider - Man : Homecoming but after the fiasko with Thor : Ragnarok ( which is called Thor : Day of Decision in Germany ) I have to reevaluate all her videos before I can post any. Instead here is a film - or better the last episodes of the tv show cut together - that is better than Spider - Man : Homecoming even though the sound and picture quality is incredibly low.
New to the blog ? Everything you need to know about TALES FROM THE KRYPTONIAN : top ten posts / more posts of interest / best of the best
Spider Friends, go for it !
2 comments:
CBG19 is getting a hell of a lot of stick since the whole marijuana use came out and the fact that she had ingested too much when going to review a movie. Her boozing on shows -not a lot of comment. Her swearing -again not much. Comments about outfits she wears -a lot. Marijuana usage -lots of comments.
I've known people who use marijuana for medical reasons: it is a very good pain reliever and I've seen it first hand help someone who was gasping and choking to breath normally. I do NOT support "social use" of marijuana but then I do not approve of tobacco usage and have seen what over use of alcohol does. CBG19 really screwed up and that's it but it gives people leverage for their complaints.
Thor:Ragnarok I saw the stills of and thought it would be bad. Then came the clips with buzz-cut hair and remaking Thor as some cheap Netflix Sword and Sandals character. THEN "Hey -I know this guy from work!" (my first thought "WTF??") then all the bro slang -and BIG guns. Thor:God of Thunder having to use BIG GUNS?? And Loki "Hi"...I've seen a lot of clips and luckily do not have the money to go see the movie! CBG19 probably liked it because it was all very 2017 California hip talk but Thor -rather the actor- did not even try to keep the usual accent when speaking and it crossed between Australian and American. When Thor meets the Guardians of the Galaxy with "Who the hell are you guys?" I cringed.
I just do not think people are educated enough to understand the Lee & Kirby character or mythology. Thor 1 and 2 I liked but this is just Disney Americanisation that does not work.
It worked for CBG19 because she is the sort of person it is aimed at -Americans who are not into mythology and unlike Lee who was heavy into the classics and Kirby who knew his subject matter. It is a pity...and when you hear CBG19 crap on how awful the X-Men movies were because the characters mean a lot to her well...time to get real. As I've mentioned before, I noted a good few things she has said that were wrong -but I'm listening and not paying attention to how she looks! :-)
Tom Defalco was one of my favourite writers and he worked with Ron frenz on A-Next which was better than the real Avengers title at the time. No talents and Can't Do's will always attack the ones WITH talent.
Now, I'm off to rest... ;-)
Okay, that´s one hell of a comment.
In regards to Comicbookgirl19 I think a lot of people use the marijuana incident to bash her. My opinion on drugs has always been that I try to avoid them except for the ones printed on paper. And how am I supposed to enjoy a comic 100 percent if my brain is handicapped because it has to deal with drugs ?
Now I try not to tell other people if they should take drugs or not. That is something everybody has to know for himself. In my opinion the real question here is why somebody can´t watch a movie sober and if that is really the audiences fault or if the movies have become so bad. As for the drinking and sweating on the show - well, I´m not sure if it makes the shows better but I have struggled on my posts with how much I really want to censor myself and at which point I am just pandering to the masses and not keeping it real anymore. So to speak.
As for the whole X - Men thing as far as I see it she probably first encountered the characters in the cartoons in which almost everything was different so when she says that she loves the characters she is talking more about the characters in the cartoons and maybe WOLVERINE AND THE X - MEN and not so much about the characters in the comics beginning with Jack Kirby´s version. I DID enjoy the epic X - Men theory though and you can see that she has affection for the X - universe. Also I think every reader creates his own X - universe and decides what is canon and what isn´t. I for example can´t stand Gambit because while he may be interesting in the comics I have met too many Gambits in real life and they always screw things up but are never around to pick up the pieces and never accept any responsibility whatsoever for their actions. Other are just swooning because he´s such a " lovable rogue " and the coat and the accent and think he´s the best. For me he´s just a cheap Longshot knock - off wannabe with no depth. He perfectly embodies everything that was wrong with comics in the 90s.
Okay, the Thor movie. I expected it to be bad but I had no idea how bad it was. I´m not going to talk about everything that was bad in that movie - because there was only one good part and even that had some cringeworthy moments - but as an example : the minute that drunk floozie stepped out of the space ship and tripped into the pile of trash I knew that she would be somebody important, she would be one of those " empowered " women, she would be super badass and she would save the hero. Even if she looked like she could not find her way to the toilet without help.
What I didn´t know and what saved me from being even more traumatized by this movie is that she is not ONE OF the Valkyries but THE Valkyrie from the comics. The one that fought with the Avengers, had sex with Thor and was a member of the Defenders. Who are not Heroes for Hire. Unless it´s a tv show.
But hey, why should a nordic goddess be white and have blonde hair ? Let´s be political correct and change her hair color and skin color to bring a little diversity to the movie.
Anything else I have to say about this movie will be in a post on my blog.
Yes, A - NEXT, Mother - f - ers ! Another great book by Tom DeFalco and I was reading all the books from the MC2 universe because they were much better than what was going on in the regular Marvel universe.
Okay, that is a very long answer, sorry.
Post a Comment