The Amazing Spider-Man: Trailer #2

[jollyreaper]

Are you fucking dumbtartded?
Spider-Man has always had a dark overtone to it, despite the bright colors.
Parker is a nerd that gets picked on by the whole school, who's parents are dead, who caused the death of his own uncle and accidentally killed his girlfriend trying to save her. His powers have never brought him fame or fortune and are the source of constant struggle in his life as to who he is supposed to be.

Your heroes come in a couple of varieties. There's your Superman who is awesome in public and has a private life. There are your Reed Richards who is awesome incarnate in public and private and is beloved by all. You've got your Batmans who will range from accepted hero in a Justice League team-up to being a vigilante operating outside the law.

Depending on who writes him, Spider-Man the hero might still be an outsider among the heroes as well as in his private life with his secret identity. But the difference between a Spider-Man story and the usual grimdark is he's not supposed to be some whiny emo turd.

Yeah, what a bright and rosy story that is. It's just like fucking Care Bears.

Don't be silly. You have your Hostess Fruit Pie stories with gimmicky villains that's squarely aimed at very young children. You can have your more mature takes on it where Parker is trying to balance a private life and marriage and paying the bills against being Spider-Man. Or you can have your tedious grimdark stuff that's just depressing to wade through. You can have fun, escapist comics without it all being depressing bullshit.

[Zablorg]

Where are you getting the "whiny emo turd" stuff from? If anything, it's the opposite from what we've seen in the trailer: He's a fairly chipper dude after his bite who seems to want to actively stop the Lizard because he feels responsible for its creation. He's not cowering in the face of his power, he seems to be embracing it in a positive way.

[jollyreaper]

Where are you getting the "whiny emo turd" stuff from? If anything, it's the opposite from what we've seen in the trailer: He's a fairly chipper dude after his bite who seems to want to actively stop the Lizard because he feels responsible for its creation. He's not cowering in the face of his power, he seems to be embracing it in a positive way.

Not from that trailer, no. I'm just talking about the trend for angsty, tortured heroes in general.

From the Raimi movies I felt a lot of things were good but the guy playing Parker was just too passive to really have the character down. It's like yeah, he would tend to be a bit more passive as a lone geek at first, would finally let his personality out when he was in the suit, and would eventually allow that confidence to infuse his personal life. Toby wasn't even enough of a presence to be angsty. He was just a very flat character.

The last I'd heard about the comics, they did a retcon to write his marriage out of the story because the Marvel editor wanted to put Spidey back to being alone and dealing with loneliness and heavy personal shit. Really? You think that's what we want to see in a Spider-Man story? Sheesh.

I loved all the characters as a little kid but there was a reason why I never transitioned to reading the books as a teen: they always ruin everything.

It's rare that you ever get something as literate as Kingdom Come. Usually it's just embarrassing stroke material masquerading as a comic book.

So, if they can keep Spidey fun and any darkness be what he's reacting to and not the horrible pain that is in his soul blah blah I'll be quite pleased. It shouldn't be so difficult to make a good superhero movie. Iron Man was very enjoyable. I don't know what they were smoking to ruin the second one. Both new Batmans were excellent.

[Ahriman238]

The reason Spider-man has always been attractive to me is that he's just, basically, an ordinary (albeit very decent) guy trying to juggle school, work, and superheroics. That and he has a sense of humor.

But there have always been some limits to Spidey's good nature. His parents (who seem to be much more a part of this than the Raimi films) have always been a sore spot, which is understandable in a kid orphaned at a fairly young age and raised by his aunt and uncle. In fact, when he finds out early on that his parents were traitors, agents of HYDRA, he flew around the world and ripped the organization a new one, all to clear their names. When the Chameleon, a B-list villain, arranged to have Peter's parents "resurrected" (they were actually robot look-alikes) to spy on him, he very nearly killed the man.

Likewise, things that threaten his remaining family and close circle of friends tend to get a much harsher treatment, with fewer jokes, than the villain-of-the-month.

[Havok]

Is it my imagination or does the Lizard look awfully... human? Also looks like they're going for the Ultimate Spiderman backstory, wherein Peter's dad was a scientist who, together with Dr. Connors created the Venom Symbiote (they were trying to cure cancer) and left Peter a half-finished formula for web fluid.

It makes far more sense that Connors would morph into something that is base human with lizard-like features, than an actual lizard, where his skeletal structure actually changes so that he essentially looks like a walking lizard. Either is fine with me, but it seems like the way they did it is more "sciency accurate"

I don't want to hear about Venom.

Maybe they liked the father son angle in Iron Man 2 where his dad started the work on the new element and left it for his son to finish as well.

[Ahriman238]

Something like the comic version of Harry-as-Goblin, with overtones of addiction relating to the goblin serum, and actual wrestling with his family legacy, feeling the need to avenge his father even knowing about all the horrible things he did would work pretty well. Except that getting away from the previous films will be a priority for them.

The Scorpion would have done as well as the Lizard to introduce the first new movie of a hopeful series. Mysterio, as well, or even go with the villains from the first Spiderman comics, Chameleon and Vulture.

[Cowl]

Appears to be an improvement over the former movie incarnation, but I have my reservations.

1. It's about a teenager. Can't think of a worse backdrop for a superhero than a high school. Do we really need to see more of these angsty adolescent characters from American high schools? Might as well watch Twilight.
2. The suit is an improvement over the former, but it still doesn't come close to the iconic comic book version of the early nineties.
3. Teenagers. I'm still not finished. Why an adolescent Spider-man? Why?!

Conclusion: Teenagers.

Really.

[Crazedwraith]

Yeah, it wasn't like Spider-Man was a teenager for a good proportion of his run or anything. Or that he wasn't a teenager for the entirety of his popular ultimate series of comics either.

[Havok]

Appears to be an improvement over the former movie incarnation, but I have my reservations.

1. It's about a teenager. Can't think of a worse backdrop for a superhero than a high school. Do we really need to see more of these angsty adolescent characters from American high schools? Might as well watch Twilight.
2. The suit is an improvement over the former, but it still doesn't come close to the iconic comic book version of the early nineties.
3. Teenagers. I'm still not finished. Why an adolescent Spider-man? Why?!

Conclusion: Teenagers.

Really.

Based on that one sentence, I am convinced the whole post is a troll. Clever.

[Meest]

Hope he's not referring to McFarlane's 90s Spiderman, because I don't see how those massive eye holes would translate on film, unless he's wearing a protective sports helmet.

[Havok]

I don't know what else he could be referring to. Once McFarland hit big, the word went out "BIG EYES!!"

[Cowl]

I didn't especially enjoy McFarlane's sloppy contribution to the Spider-man franchise, (after re-acquainting myself with some of his work just now). My reference was of course to the rounded look most commonly found in the comic book series, in opposed to the 'shark tooth' variety:



Anyway, I associate Spider-man with college-age students and young adults, the period of this character's life where the comic book received the more favorable responses. I find high school stories to be exceptionally trite, and make it a point to ignore most adolescent movies.

[Zablorg]

Here is a clip of our young Peter Parker being all sorts of awkward.



I think he has pretty hair.

[Havok]

I didn't especially enjoy McFarlane's sloppy contribution to the Spider-man franchise,

Yes, you did...

[Havok]

Zeck and the guy on Amazing at the time Frenz, drew the eyes of the black suit much larger than anyone had before, but that was because there was no outline, so they filled the white out to the edge.
McFarland, who came on in 1988, transferred that to the blue and red. Then he got bigger and bigger with it as he got more and more popular. Larsen followed suit and so did Bagley.

That is the 90's look.

[Crown]

So I'm gonna go out on a limb and suggest they went for the web slingers contraption as a way to squeeze a few extra million out of toy sells than any artistic adherence to the source material*.


*Says the guy who has never read a single comic in his life.

[CaptainChewbacca]

So I'm gonna go out on a limb and suggest they went for the web slingers contraption as a way to squeeze a few extra million out of toy sells than any artistic adherence to the source material*.


*Says the guy who has never read a single comic in his life.

They sold web slingers after the Raimi Spide-man too.

[The Cooler King]

So I'm gonna go out on a limb and suggest they went for the web slingers contraption as a way to squeeze a few extra million out of toy sells than any artistic adherence to the source material*.


*Says the guy who has never read a single comic in his life.

You have a point, of course, but I would still argue that the presence of the mechanical webshooters shows, in a very practical way, how smart Parker is. There was a comic where Reed Richards remarked that Spidey could sell a patent on the web fluid alone and make billions with it.

[Havok]

That's one aspect of Peter's character they have never really explored too much. I think they touched on it in the lead up to Civil War a bit, but I didn't do more than skim anything from around that time.

His intellect and technical skill is close to, if not on par with Stark's and he impresses Richards often enough to take note of it.

The movie seems to imply it is Connor's and his father's work that leads to the web fluid/shooters, but in the comic, it's all him.

[Havok]

So I'm gonna go out on a limb and suggest they went for the web slingers contraption as a way to squeeze a few extra million out of toy sells than any artistic adherence to the source material*.


*Says the guy who has never read a single comic in his life.

Doubtful.

[The Cooler King]

That's one aspect of Peter's character they have never really explored too much. I think they touched on it in the lead up to Civil War a bit, but I didn't do more than skim anything from around that time.

His intellect and technical skill is close to, if not on par with Stark's and he impresses Richards often enough to take note of it.

The movie seems to imply it is Connor's and his father's work that leads to the web fluid/shooters, but in the comic, it's all him.

I'll be more than a bit disappointed if Connor and Parker Sr.'s work is the basis of the web fluid. The Raimi movies kept telling us how smart Peter was, but they never showed it (just like they never really displayed his wisecracking). It would be nice to see actual physical evidence of his intelligence.

The old Marvel listing used to go something like this, in regards to intellect (not counting cosmic entities and the like). Things have definitely changed over the years, and people move up and down the list from time to time. Parker, for instance, does occasionally move up to Stark/Pym's level, depending on the writer.

(1) Reed Richards/Doctor Doom (these two pretty much define 'intelligence' in the Marvel Universe)
(2) Tony Stark/Hank Pym (Pym tends to shade Tony in breadth of knowledge, but Tony's depth is better)
(3) Bruce Banner
(4) Stephen Strange
(5) Hank McCoy/Peter Parker