Tag Archives: Sinister Six

Jun 11 2014

The Superior Foes of Spider-Man 12

Today, Taylor and Spencer are discussing The Superior Foes of Spider-Man 12, originally released June 4th, 2014.

Taylor: The excellent blog kottke.org recently brought to my attention a video on visual comedy. In this short feature, Tony Zhou makes a strong case for the lack of visual comedy in your typical comedic film. He also highlights a lot of movies, like Hot Fuzz, which make excellent use of visual comedy. It got me to thinking about how difficult it is to pull off visual comedy in film, much less in comics. Like in writing, something about pulling off a comedic still frame is surprisingly difficult. As with movies, I think we often aren’t treated to great visual comedy. However, Superior Foes of Spider-Man 12 bucks this trend and shows just how funny a comic can be based almost entirely on its visual elements alone.

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Jan 14 2013

The Superior Spider-Man 1

Alternating Currents: The Superior Spider-Man, Drew and Patrick

Today, Drew and Patrick are discussing The Superior Spider-Man 1, originally released January 9th 2013.

Drew: What does it mean to be good? Is it about thought or action? That is, does a good person have only good thoughts, or are they simply keeping their bad thoughts from influencing their actions. The popular notion of a conscience as a little angel on your shoulder (or well-dressed cricket, depending on who you ask) suggests that we expect even the best people to consider less-than-savory options, even if they don’t ultimately act on them, but it’s ultimately one that we don’t see dramatized very often. Peter may want to stick around for his date with Mary Jane while a bank heist goes on up the street, but there’s never really any doubt that he’ll be jumping out the window in the next page or so. Otto Octavius doesn’t have that sense of duty, so when he battles with his conscience in Superior Spider-Man, we’re not exactly sure who is going to win. Continue reading →