“Could The Amazing Spider-Man have been the best superhero movie of 2012?”
No, no it couldn’t.

No…everything that happened to Spider-Man this year was bad, particularly non-comics stuff. “The Amazing Spider-Man”, although not terrible, was still a disappointment, retreading many of the same beats of the original 2002 movie, confusing differences in the story’s details with with a different story.

I mean, come on, both movies feature a scientist at Oscorp working on some project that will usher in the next stage of human evolution who make the rash decision to turn themselves into test subjects to prevent corporate meddling, but is in turn transformed into a green monster who immediately exacts revenge on whoever was doing the meddling in the first place. Meanwhile, it also features a conclusion on top of a building named for the company who owns it named after the person who runs it while the hero has to stop the villain from activating his device at the top of the building that will unleash a blue energy and destroy New York. Definitely didn’t see that one in the Avengers a few weeks earlier.

Meanwhile, the animated series “Ultimate Spider-Man” earned the ire of…pretty much anyone that likes Spider-Man. Not only is it a bad show, but it’s a significant step down from the previous animated attempt at Spider-Man, Greg Weisman’s “Spectacular Spider-Man”. Meanwhile, it also had a hand in the cancellation of the fan-adored “Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” in favor of another Avengers series that is in line with “USM”. Jeph Loeb was so frightened to admit this, he lied to the crowd at Comic-Con at told them it was a continuation of “A:EMH”, a statement which since then has proved terribly false.

If you watch Raimi’s Spiderman and Webb’s Spiderman, Webb’s is clearly the better film. If you think otherwise I’d love to hear why, not including the “unnecessary” argument which is just redundant. Yes, they had to make a film to retain the rights. They didn’t have to make a good one, but they did. Setting it at the beginning of Parker’s story effectively distances itself from the original trilogy and adds the foundation for a successful and quality series. I’d rather have a fresh start, get to know this version of Spiderman, Gwen, and MJ, and then move into some new storylines than just accept Raimi’s atrocious series as the standard for Spiderman. This one was better than those ones. I’ll agree that I think it’s a better realized universe than the Avengers was, and I’d say it’s a better film. Of course, it doesn’t help for me that I find Downey Jr.’s shtick to be increasingly grating.

As for Slott, I tried to get back into Spiderman several times during his run, and couldn’t do it. It’s no longer an interesting title for me. Doesn’t mean it’s necessarily bad, just a little bland for me personally.

This has been the first year that I look forward to Image releases far more than Marvel or DC ones, I’ve always loved Image books, but now I give every number 1 a try and genuinely get way more excited for Image heavy weeks. I’d say it’s been a fantastic year for geek culture in terms of exposure and having cool things get made, but I think there’s plenty of room for the next generation to bring in a new level of quality and talent. Source material should be adhered to a little closer in films to come, and hopefully we’ll see more ambitious projects emerge.

Saga, to me, is what Avatar could and should have been if Cameron had some balls and had stayed away from children level colonial tropes.

As a 40 year old former geek/nerd/dork/whatever seeing how mainstream the nerd image has become is confusing and amusing. It’s a natural course of events though. I can see that now that I’m older and could give a damn about what an 18 year old wants to wear or do. Most “counterculture” trends eventually get sucked up and made popular to “the masses.” I use quotations because these things aren’t really counterculture. It’s the nature of things. I remember how pissed off my 20 year old self was in 1991-92 when punk rock shows went from small events in intimate clubs to huge festivals where it seemed that every frat boy and cool kid who ridiculed you in high school was now “totally into the mosh pit maaaan!” I was mad because they took MY thing. That thing that made me different. What I didn;t acknowledge is that I was just different like all the millions of different people just like me. We all wore the sam clothes and listened to the same music.

However, it’s one thing for a really cute teenage girl to actually gravitate toward comic books and video games instead of the Kardashians and Jersey Shore. It’s another thing to take the perceived look as strictly a fashion choice.

The worst thing about this is that it can water down whatever it is that you are really into. Disney buying Marvel and the rights to Star Wars SHOULD make people cringe.

The thing about Teenage pretty girls being geeks: this is happening since before my time, Nathan. There were always pretty girls that liked comics, games, rock, sci-fi, skating or bikes. We were the ones that felt unimpressed about Barbie’s dolls and would not wear pink anything till late twenties (or never).

The unnerving of the situation is that some girls decided to make it a thing, to try to profit from it somehow just like some guys do, wearing ridiculous glasses or clothes. They are not genuine but they will pass. It’s a trend and it will pass.

Pretty girls have the same right to enjoy a comic book or are they doomed to be boxed in what people think that’s ok concerning pretty girls? The fact that people gets so amazed that an attractive girl can really get a kick in playing a game or even get crazy about D&D or adore zombie stuff is infuriating. I imagine that a lot of nice looking girls like all of what is labeled as “Nerd Stuff” and like it in private to avoid that kind of reaction. Girls that grew up close to their brothers, cousins or fathers, who used to skate with them or play videogame until they got to the phase when was not normal to a girl to continue like those things and not fall into a stereotype. And the only reason I’m telling this is because I know a lot of boys really believe in this idea that the pretty nerd girl is a new thing, almost like a sweet X-rated dream. Have a little faith, boys: there are pretty real smart girls that love the stuff as much as you do.