Bonus Episode: The Amazing Spider-Man

Spider-Media

Compare and contrast these two.  It’s really kind of fascinating.

The Amazing Spider-Man trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atCfTRMyjGU

Spider-Man trailer

Spider-Suggestions

The reason these movies are so much fun are because they adhere closely to the source material and capture all the fun, drama, danger, and adventure of the books.  If you, or someone you know, loves these movies (and would like to spend more time with Spider-Man) but have no idea where to start, here are some suggestions:

• The Amazing Spider-Man — The unofficial epilogue to the movie.  I played this before I saw the movie and shouldn’t have.  The story picks up pretty much right after the movie ends.  It’s a fun if not short game that answers some questions left dangling by the movie.  I don’t know if it’ll be considered canon by the time The Amazing Spider-Man 2 comes out, but you’ll have so much fun web-slinging around the Big Apple, you really won’t care.  It’s available for Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS.
• Ultimate Spider-Man #1 — About a year or so before the original Spider-Man movie came out, Marvel relaunched the Spider-verse in Ultimate Spider-Man.  It’s a more contemporary re-telling of the Spider-Man story.  This entire series was written by Brian Michael Bendis (and is still going today).  It’s a great place to start and both movies owe a lot to this particular telling of the origin.
• Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1 — Last summer, the unthinkable happened:  Peter Parker was killed.  But soon thereafter, a new hero stepped up and took on the Spider-Mantle.  His name is Miles Morales and this is the current (Ultimate) Spider-Man.  Still written by Brian Michael Bendis, this is my favorite Spider-Book out there right now.  This collection tells Miles’ origin story and is a bit different (while still remaining very true to the larger Spider-mythos).  This is a great place to jump in and start reading.
• Spider-Man:  Spider Island — Spread by contaminated bed bugs, New York City becomes infested and eight million people start exhibiting the same kind of powers Peter Parker has — but not everybody understands that with great power comes great responsibility.  I took a five year hiatus from Spider-Man after a story called “One More Day” disappointed and infuriated me (look it up).  This astonishingly fun story, written by Dan Slott, brought me back.  It’s ridiculous and I can’t recommend it enough.
• Spectacular Spider-Man — A fantastic animated adaptation of the Spider-Man story that is completely family friendly.  Much like Avatar and The Legend of Korra, this was a series that was written with the young and adult in mind.  It’s a guaranteed good time.