Tag: Spawn

What to watch on YouTube right now – Part 57

What to watch on YouTube right now – Part 57

carlocarrasco

Welcome back my readers, YouTube viewers and all others who followed this series of articles focused on YouTube videos worth watching. Have you been searching for something fun or interesting to watch on YouTube? Do you feel bored right now and you crave for something to see on the world’s most popular online video destination?

I recommend you check out the following topics and the related videos I found.

Revisiting the Ultraverse – When it comes to 1990s comics, the short-lived Ultraverse is the one franchise that defined the decade the most as it had lots of engaging concepts, solid stories and captivating characters to follow such as Prime, Mantra, Harcase, Prototype, The Strangers, The Solution and more! Behind the scenes, publisher Malibu Comics had a great creative team who brainstormed and developed the Ultraverse a lot prior to its 1993 launch. To learn more about the Ultraverse, watch the following videos below.

The 1993 debate between Peter David and Todd McFarlane – Way back in 1993, I learned bits of information about a certain debate between the prolific writer Peter David (The Incredible Hulk, Spider-Man 2099) and Todd McFarlane (Spider-Man and Spawn) through word-of-mouth and comics-related print media. Of course, Internet access here in the Philippines was not yet available back then but there was local awareness about the David-McFarlane verbal battle. Fortunately for us, an actual video of the entire debate was uploaded to YouTube and the YouTuber Strange Brain Parts posted an analytical video about it. The videos are now available for your viewing pleasure.

Lefties Losing It (Trump, Richard Gere, Taylor Swift booed and more) – In this recent episode of Lefties Losing It hosted by Rita Panahi, you will see how demented the current congressional Democrats have gotten, US President Donald Trump being cheered and how Taylor Swift was booed during the recent NFL Super Bowl, Richard Gere failing to accept reality and much more. Seriously, a lot of Leftists are still bitter over Trump’s return as President and they prefer to move on with their distorted view of reality. Wokeness truly is living wrongly. Watch and enjoy the video below.

VKunia reacts to Poltergeist (1982) – A lot of people find 1982’s Poltergeist (directed by Tobe Hooper and produced by Steven Spielberg) a scary viewing experience. It has been the subject of many documentaries or reaction or retro reviews on YouTube. YouTuber VKunia posted her own reaction video of it and you can how it affects her in the video below.

PatmanQC explains the history of The House of the Dead – The House of the Dead is a horror-themed series of video games that Sega first launched in 1996. During that year, there were The House of the Dead machines that suddenly appeared in local arcades here in the Philippines. Due to its horror theme and high level of violence, it caused some disturbance to concerned parents whose children saw or even played it. Regardless, the newer The House of the Dead games made its way to the local arcades as the years passed by. If you want to know who created the said Sega franchise and what were the inspirations for each game, watch the in-depth video by PatmanQC now.

Dawn of the Dead reaction videos – To make things clear, I was never a fan of Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead remake. I saw it in the local cinema back in 2004 at a time when the new movies released were not so interesting. Even with modest expectations, I was not so entertained by it. Still the movie is popular with YouTubers who posted their own reactions to it. Watch and learn from the selected videos below.

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Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below, share this article to others and also please consider making a donation to support my publishing. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at  @HavenorFantasy as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram athttps://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco

A Look Back at Spider-Man #1 (1990)

A Look Back at Spider-Man #1 (1990)

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Disclaimer: This is my original work with details sourced from reading the comic book and doing personal research. Anyone who wants to use this article, in part or in whole, needs to secure first my permission and agree to cite me as the source and author. Let it be known that any unauthorized use of this article will constrain the author to pursue the remedies under R.A. No. 8293, the Revised Penal Code, and/or all applicable legal actions under the laws of the Philippines.

Welcome back superhero enthusiasts, 1990s culture enthusiasts and comic book collectors! Today we go back to the early 1990s and explore a part of the Marvel Comics shared universe through a tale of the Spider-Man monthly series.

Back in the late 1980s, Todd McFarlane proved to be a highly talented artist who helped Marvel sell a lot of issues of the Amazing Spider-Man series. McFarlane was also highly involved with the creation of Venom which not only became Spider-Man’s deadliest foe but also an icon of Marvel’s. In the year 1990, a brand new monthly series of Spider-Man was launched and it had Todd McFarlane writing and illustrating the tales.

With those details laid down, here is a look back at Spider-Man , published in 1990 by Marvel Comics with a story written and drawn by Todd McFarlane. This marks the beginning of the Torment storyline.

The cover.

Early story

The story begins in New York City where countless people walk to their respective destinations not realizing that the local hero Spider-Man was swinging above them. In a dirty alley, Spider-Man prevents an armed thug from harming a woman and leaves him hanging covered with a lot of web.

Elsewhere in the city, a sinister figure conducts a ritual, prays to evil forces and begins using magic.

In yet another location, a hideous creature emerges from the water. It’s the Lizard…

Quality

This page is an example of Todd McFarlane creating a travel sequence that allowed him to draw something great. It’s a classic example of moving back into the comfort zone.

To make things very clear here, this comic book is pretty shallow and hollow mainly due to its storytelling as this was the writing of a very young Todd McFarlane. There is no denying that his art here is great to look at from start to finish. In fact, this was one of McFarlane’s finest visual works ever with Marvel.

But if you look beyond the great visuals, the writing is very weak all throughout the issue. At best, this comic book is a grand-looking yet shallow set-up for the conflict of the Torment storyline complete with shared emphasis on the iconic web-slinger, the Lizard (looking more menacing than before) and Calypso (the one behind the magic and rituals).

In fairness to McFarlane, he added his own touch on emphasizing the personalities of Peter Parker and wife Mary Jane simultaneously as a couple. If you were used to seeing in-depth character development and witty dialogue about the two major characters as portrayed in the Amazing Spider-Man, Web of Spider-Man and Spectacular Spider-Man series of 1990, you won’t find them in this comic book. Under McFarlane’s writing, Spider-Man in this issue showed signs of sarcasm and cockiness in the first scene, and with Mary Jane he (as Peter Parker) expressed himself philosophically. To say the least, the portrayal of Spider-Man here is noticeably different under McFarlane.

The Lizard, a long-time rival of Spider-Man’s, was presented to be very violent and murderous in this issue. This was clearly McFarlane’s approach on emphasizing the force of opposition that awaits the iconic web-slinger and he obviously went for a more adulterated approach with the visuals. That being said, the violent content in this comic book is very unique and clearly stood out from the rest of the Spider-Man-related comics published by Marvel in 1990. Lastly, I should say that McFarlane’s visual take on the Lizard is the best I have seen.  

Going back to the visuals, McFarlane implemented strong elements of horror, darkness and grittiness which went along well with the adulterated approach to violence.  These mixed elements, as they turned out in reality, became part of McFarlane’s future works past Spider-Man.

Conclusion

McFarlane’s vicious and horrifying approach on visualizing the Lizard can’t be ignored. This Lizard makes the cinematic Lizard of the 2012 movie The Amazing Spider-Man look cartoony.

Spider-Man (1990) is a very mixed bag when it comes to literary enjoyment. It clearly has great artwork by McFarlane whose adulterated approach on expression and spectacle made it very unique. The writing by McFarlane (who was very young at the time of production) is clearly the big letdown although his own approach on portraying Spider-Man, MJ and the Lizard are very notable. Take note that this was Todd McFarlane starting with writing while doing the art (his true strength), and at this point in comic book history his talent on telling compelling stories would not be realized until a few years later (particularly with Spawn and Image Comics). Notably, his use of visual horror and darkness predates his work in Spawn which makes his Spider-Man take very distinct. Ultimately, this comic book served as a build-up for things to come in the Torment storyline. Don’t expect too much when acquiring this comic book.

Overall, Spider-Man (1990) is satisfactory.

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Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below, share this article to others and also please consider making a donation to support my publishing. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at  @HavenorFantasy as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco

A Look Back at Web of Spider-Man #100

A Look Back at Web of Spider-Man #100

carlocarrasco

Disclaimer: This is my original work with details sourced from reading the comic book and doing personal research. Anyone who wants to use this article, in part or in whole, needs to secure first my permission and agree to cite me as the source and author. Let it be known that any unauthorized use of this article will constrain the author to pursue the remedies under R.A. No. 8293, the Revised Penal Code, and/or all applicable legal actions under the laws of the Philippines.

As many of you already know, the 1990s was a decade of excess when it comes to American comic book publishing. It was a time when publishers released comic books with special covers (AKA gimmick covers) and high cover prices.

During that time, the presence of comic books with flashy gimmick covers really stood out among the many other comic book on display at retailers’. In 1993, there was this one time I spotted Web of Spider-Man #100 which not only had a flashy looking foil cover but also the introduction of Spider-Man’s armor. Unsurprisingly, I started speculating how significant Spider-Man in armor would be, what features the armor has and how will it be relevant for the foreseeable future of Spider-Man stories. Shortly after, I bought the comic book.

Here is a look back at Web of Spider-Man #100, published in 1993 by Marvel Comics with a story written by Terry Kavanagh and art by Alex Saviuk.

Cover
The cover and its excessive cover price for 1993.

Early story

The story begins with Spider-Man facing off with Dragon Man, Dreadnought, Super Adaptoid and a few others on top of a building. After surviving the attacks thrown at him, he discreetly places a spider-tracer on Dragon Man before finally getting away.

The next night, Peter Parker works on a high-tech project at Empire State University where he is taking a graduate program. His experiment fails which ironically gives him an opportunity to use the equipment until the next morning. He did not just use the equipment to make more web fluid but also something new to wear.

Meanwhile, chaos continues to happen around the city with the involvement of Nightwatch, Dragon Man, Dreadnought, Super Adaptoid, and Blood Rose to name some.

Quality

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This is Spidey’s armor.

I’ll say it straight. Web of Spider-Man #100 is a big disappointment when it comes to highlighting Spider-Man’s new armor, the 100th anniversary issue of the monthly series and even telling a compelling Spider-Man story.

What is clear with the main story of this comic book is that it is heavily loaded with action scenes which eventually resulted a hollow reading experience. The plot is quite shallow and there was not even a single moment that I found Peter Parker in anything interesting. You wanna see Peter Parker interact with Mary Jane? Nothing. You hope to see him pay a visit to his Aunt May? Nothing. Technically this story showed Spider-Man getting involved with a bunch of uninteresting troublemakers, take time out to make his armor, and get back to the troublemakers wearing it. As a story, there is certainly no depth at all.

Regarding Spider-Man’s highlighted armor, its use in the story is also a major disappointment. You will get to see the Spidey Armor for ten pages (including the silhouette appearance) but there really is no payoff for anticipating it.

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An armored Spider-Man in the middle of the action.

More on the presentation, it is clear that this comic book served another purpose that is quite shameless and even irresponsible – to build up Nightwatch, a caped and masked character in dark costume that was arguably Marvel Comics’ blatant imitation of Todd McFarlane’s Spawn. This comic book even contained an origin story of Nightwatch which was not interesting to read.

Conclusion

To make it clear, Web of Spider-Man #100 was a big disappointment for me personally back in 1993. By today’s standards, this comic book is even worse in terms of quality, artistic value, entertainment value and literary value. As a Spider-Man comic book, it is a big letdown and there really is not much for Spider-Man fans to enjoy here. His armor was just a useless showpiece and it’s even insulting that a useless character like Nightwatch got a lot of spotlight. I suppose Marvel Comics’ executives at the time thought they could lure fans of Todd McFarlane and Spawn to their side with Nightwatch serving as a magnet. Quite obviously, Marvel failed.

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Sorry Marvel, but your blatant imitation of Todd McFarlane’s Spawn is pathetic and I’m not even a Spawn fan. 

If you are seriously planning to buy an existing hard copy of Web of Spider-Man #100, be aware that as of this writing, MileHighComics.com shows that the near-mint copy of the regular edition costs $11. As for the near-mint copies of the newsstand edition and the Alex Saviuk-signed edition, they cost $39 and $26 respectively.

Overall, Web of Spider-Man #100 is not recommended. Do not ever waste your money on this comic book.

Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below and also please consider sharing this article to others. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me as well. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me at HavenorFantasy@twitter.com