Tag Archives: Spider-Man

The Saturday Comics: The Spanish Spider-Man

2 Feb

February 2, 2013

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The Spanish Spider-Man is not a new title, nor is it a new character.

Marvel is pretty transparent when it comes to political correctness. Aside from the white male Peter Parker, they’ve tried to make multi-cultural versions of Spidey for “wider markets.”

After Peter Parker’s death in Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #160 a new character by the name of Miles Morales takes up the mantle of Spider-Man as a black thirteen-year-old superhero.

Spider-Man 2099: A geneticist named Miguel O’Hara gained his spider-like powers from a gene-splicing incident.

Spider-Man: India is a comic book originally published in India by Gotham Entertainment Group in 2004, retelling the story of Marvel Comics’ Spider-Man in an Indian setting.

The Spider-Girl comic book series, originally published under the MC2 imprint, features May “Mayday” Parker, Peter’s daughter in an alternate continuity.

However, this Spanish Spider-Man is nothing like that. These are reprints of the Amazing Spider-Man comic translated into Spanish and branded as El Asombroso Hombre-Arana. I don’t know when these first began to appear, but they started at number one and continued well into the modern era. The title may still be published, though I can’t verify that. So check out the gallery below of El Asombroso Hombre-Arana and enjoy.

Click on the thumbnails for full-size images.

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The Saturday Comics: Marvel Photo Covers

12 May

May 12, 2012

As I’ve shown over the past weeks, back in the 1980’s it was good to be Marvel. From Generic Comic Books to weird Fumetti comics to a No-Prize book that consisted of nothing but reprinted panels, anything Marvel put out sold. Why? Well, their fans are called Marvel Zombies for a reason. And this phenomena was not just an 80’s thing; the 90’s brought, among other things, NFL Superpro.

However, I have saved the best  for last. These are comics with photo covers, regular issues of their series and not some odd one-off special. Nowadays I guess this would be called “value added.” Although they achieved varying degrees of success, they at least showed potential.

 

This is the best of the bunch, and it really works for me. Nicely composed, realistic, and it even reflects the interior story. Of all these issues this is the only one that remains in my collection. Like the rest of these it isn’t particularly valuable.

This is my favorite because it fails on a couple of levels. First, they (I believe) highlighted the webs on Spidey’s suit- compare it to the cover above- and it just stands out badly. Next, the guy in the Cap suit is too earnest, too obviously posed.  And lastly, look at their feet. The are clearly not on the roof, they have been inserted into that background. I had this comic once but somehow over the years it disappeared.

I never owned this but I do recall seeing it on the stands. Does Spider-Woman look sultry or slutty? That’s the story of this cover in a nutshell. Plus The Wasp’s wings look like cardboard..

I don’t think I ever saw this issue until I started to research this post. It is the worst of the lot. The concept is not bad but the execution is terrible. A back-lit woman holding her hands in front of a pair of spotlights just doesn’t cut it.

You have to give Marvel credit for trying. In the 1980’s they were big and bad and, for better or worse, pushing the boundaries of what their fans would buy.

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