First Black Costume

I'm very excited to have in my hand a ticket to see Spider-man 3 on Friday night. It may be my biggest anticipation of the year, which is both sad and dangerous. I need not explain why it's sad, and as for the danger, that lies in setting one's expectations too high.

Darrell is erring on the side of caution perhaps, lowering his expectations and looking for the potential criticisms now, so when the film is better than he expects he might walk out with a sense of satisfaction. He even posted a video of Tobey Maguire swatting a camera out of someone's hand when accosted on the street, albeit a truncated one that left out the part where he came back outside and posed for a picture with the guy. I honestly don't care if Maguire is secretly a jerk or if it was a natural anti-paparazzi reflex upon being caught at the wrong time. He's a good actor, and solid in his role, and that's one of the things I'm confident about.

I'm also confident in Sam Raimi and the rest of the cast. Other comic book movies, specifically the original Batman quadrology, suffered with the addition of multiple villains in the sequels. I personally blame it all on Joel Schumacher. Spider-man isn't changing directors. This won't be another X3 or (::shudder::) Batman & Robin. It's helmed by a funny, talented guy who knows what he's doing and has proven it twice already. I know the danger of the multiple characters and storylines wrestling for time is a real one, but the time they have is going to look fantastic from what I've seen so far. I'm genuinely giddy and can't wait for the ride, wherever it takes me.

As I continue another journey, toward becoming the #1 Geek Blog, I can't help but reminisce about the first time I saw Spider-man in his black costume. Someone older than me might tell you that our hero first merged with an alien symbiote on an alien world in the pages of Secret Wars, specifically issue #8. His costume damaged after a battle, he used a device to repair it and his subconscious recollection of the new Spider-Woman's suit caused him to gain a similar look. I didn't know this when I was a kid.

Someone younger than me might tell you that Spidey bonded with the suit after a space shuttle crashed in the three-part Alien Costume saga on the animated series. I saw these after I finally read Secret Wars and the first appearances of Venom, the suit's new host after being rejected by Spider-man. I still remember the first time he grew that maniacal grin in the shadows and scared Mary Jane Watson-Parker. The cartoon did a good job of condensing the Venom origin and bringing in the symbiote without tackling Secret Wars(although the series later did a good adaptation of that as well). I think the new movie is going to draw on the animated series in some areas, and some scenes are definitely reminiscent.

So what was my first official exposure to the alien costume? In the pages of a giant-sized comic book reprint collecting the first three issues of a certain series, I saw Peter Parker, the familiar photographer alter-ego of Spidey, duck out of sight of some soldiers and will his clothes to change into his black suit and cover him. He didn't even need web-shooters, as the suit created webbing out of its own regenerating material, and soon he was tackling evil alien robots that had taken over an army facility in the side of a mountain. I should mention these were Decepticons? That's right, in the original Marvel Transformers series, those giant robots coexisted with the rest of the Marvel superheroes, something that was forgotten after the four-issue limited series continued for an impressive additional 76 issues. Once I started collecting comics I went back and purchased the original issues, including Transformers #3 featuring the symbiotic web-slinger. It was the geek equivalent of someone getting peanut butter in my chocolate.

While a cinematic crossover isn't likely, this is also the year Transformers comes to the big screen in live action as well. I don't know how good either of these movies will be. I'm sure I'll have criticisms, but I'm hoping to have an equal amount of that heart-racing, throat-closing excitement that I had as a child. And of course today's children will have a new memory of their first black costume experience as well.

Until next time, true believers, and remember: Vote MCF.