This is an unapologetic geek nerd look at this subject. I am a fan boy. I can’t help it. Look at the site and you can tell I’m a fan boy… so with no further adieu.

Comic Books are infamous for marketing gimmicks. Just like TV they try crossovers, cliffhanger endings, team ups, and anything else they can think of to keep the money coming in. From wars, crisis’s, civil wars, I’ve read them all. Marketing gimmicks in comics are my favorite things ever. Recently Marvel has become the overall king of these gimmicks when it unleashed the Civil War upon us right after Planet Hulk (which was also excellent…).

Civil War had a major impact to comic fans. It took an entire universe, without making it an alternate reality, and tore it completely up. Make characters have more depth, and in many ways change personalities in a major way and act against their own type cast. Which is where people started to turn on them, and others like me embraced it to the hilt. Many people didn’t like heroes vs. heroes. Cap wouldn’t do that. Iron Man wouldn’t fight Cap no matter what… all valid arguments and all make sense but honestly… superheroes are human beings with just a few extra chromosomes that help them along the way and frankly humans are made to have hate, anger, and feelings of betrayal as much as they are meant to be loyal, friendly, helpful, and loving.

Civil War drew me in, and brought me back into comics in a big way after a 10 year hiatus of only picking up a book or two here or there… that’s quite a feat to be honest. With Civil War it had all the Marvel staples; it had drama, action, surprises, suspense, and even a lot of realistic points. Marvel excels at that. Realism in otherwise unrealistic situations, the cities and places are all real for the most part and it draws you in seeing “Famous Rays” pizza in NYC instead of a random pizza place in Gotham.

One of the things Civil War did do was bringing Spider-Man even MORE depth then he already had. His story line crossing from Ol’ Iron Head’s side to Caps side and the torment that doing the ‘right thing’ did for him was my favorite in the whole series and kept me going. This all came to a head after Civil War when the infamous Black Costume was once again brought back in the wake of Aunt May’s shooting.

This works for me.

Big time.

I know it’s a marketing gimmick to tie in with the release of Spider-Man 3. To bring more movie fans to the comics and vice versa. It’s been done 100 times before.

But I like “Back in Black” quite a bit. This is probably because one thing.

Web of Spider-Man #32. Kraven’s Last Hunt vol. 4.

Yes at first I missed parts 1-3 but I also was barely 6 years old, walking through a small Independent Grocers store when they had those small spindle racks of comics, and I saw that cover. Just recently getting into horror movies and zombies the image of Spider-Man clawing his way up from his own grave drew me in. I had comics before… but this one looked so dark, evil, sinister… I just couldn’t say no. This was my first true taste of Spider-Man and it happened to be during one of the most famous storylines he has ever had.

Kraven’s Last Hunt was, and still is, astonishing. Kraven losing his mind slowly, “killing” Spider-Man, burying him and taking his place in his own black Spider-Man costume almost as a forewarning of the upcoming Venom saga, even though Venom TECHNICALLY appeared before all of this. Interesting indeed! Spider-Man stopped using the Black suit not too long after the “last hunt” story line, after Kraven (this was an error used to bring Tommy back from the dead, I know it was Venom with his pretty smile that did this) attacked Mary Jane and Peter realized it wasn’t right to wear anymore really.

Now we’ve seen the black costume here and there occasionally but the facts is it was retired completely, that is until the civil war.

After Aunt May was shot, Peter finally lost his mind, which is fine with me. In Amazing Spider-Man #539 it began the “Back in Black” saga and officially made me start buying ASM regularly again. Why? It all goes back to Web of Spiderman #32, and it’s profound effect on me. Now I’m drawn in, Aunt May is hurting, Peter is being borderline psychotic and is hell bent on killing Kingpin, it’s so crazy and dramatic and absolutely stunning. I’m back into comic mode… World War Hulk is raging… Iron Man still deserves a kick to the throat… Bucky’s back yet again… Hawkeye appears… my god… thank you.

It brings me back to my childhood – that time when I was so excited for a new comic, waiting to see what Kraven would do next – wondering what this mysterious Black Hand was that kept attacking Peter without him knowing it… I’m back again, and I couldn’t be happier.

Thank you Marvel for making sure I give you all my money again.

Bastards

I’ll see you every Wednesday Mr. Comic Book Store Owner… I’ll see you every Wednesday.

-Stevo
: Coming Soon – Horror Comics Resurgence and how it can save Modern Horror… if they fucking pay attention:

1. Ok, couple of things. Venom is the one who scared the shit outta MJ and caused Pete to stop wearing the black tights. The symbiote (though we didn’t yet have a name for it) did appear before this storyline but Venom had not yet appeared. As for this week’s (tomorrow’s) Amazing Spider-Man, I have to say its the best of the Back In Black story so far. I just read it tonight and it kicks all kinds of ass. I won’t spoil it for you but Spidey takes his shirt off in prison. I hope he doesn’t drop the soap!

   Posted by Tommy | July 25, 2007, 12:42 am

2. Man it takes a small error (on purpose by the way) on my behalf for you to show you’re alive? I sent you 105 e-mails, and it took me doing a Spider-Man error for you to do anything!?

   Jerk!

   

   Posted by Stevo | July 25, 2007, 12:39 pm