The Amazing Spider-Man

I suppose the Spider-Man reboot, coming so soon after the Ramini movies had to walk a fine line between pleasing the old fans who loved Ramini's game changing Spider-Man and the new comers, who thanks to the likes of Christopher Nolan's Batman movies and the recent Avengers have come to expect big things from superhero movies. Neither party should be too disappointed.

 I went along to see the movie with my two young daughters and I must say I enjoyed every moment of it and in my opinion Andrew Garfield is a far better Peter Parker than Toby McGuire ever was. As for the CGI Spidey - well the technology has moved on but the 2012 version doesn't look that much better than the 2002 version, but then both are great so that's not a criticism. It is worth pointing out that  Martin Sheen is absolutely brilliant as Uncle Ben and even if he doesn't get to say the, "with great power comes great responsibility" line he does get some other snippets of home spun philosophy that sets Peter Parker off in his duty to help mankind.

The Amazing Spider-Man, coming post Dark Knight, is also a far darker movie than any of Ramini's Spider-Man movies which made it feel far more substantial.Of course it's an origin movie and treads the same ground as Ramini's original Spidey movie, but there are some differences that doesn't make it too much of a retread.

My audition piece for Amazing Spidey 2

There's no J Jonah Jameson in this one and I did miss the comedy the character usually provides, but then the tone of the film was much bleaker and maybe too much character comedy would have been out of place. Another point worth mentioning is that this movie features, without a doubt, Stan Lee's best ever cameo appearance. In short I think this is better than 2002's Spider-Man as well as Spider-Man 3, but that Spider-Man 2 is still the benchmark for Spidey movies.

It's been a massive hit taking a record $35m (£22.5m) on its opening day - US filmgoers flocked to see it on the eve of the Independence Day holiday. The film has also benefited from good reviews and looks likely to be one of the year's highest grossing films despite predictions in some quarters that it might struggle to compete with  rival superhero flicks such as The Avengers and the forthcoming The Dark Knight Rises.  And Sony Pictures have just announced that there will be two more Amazing Spider-Man movies, so maybe these will end up being the definitive Spidey movies after all.

Spidey Masterclass: All you need to know about Spider-Man

Me and Spidey - second and third from front

The Spider-Man reboot is getting good advance reviews and all indications are that Marvel may have another major hit on their hands. Spidey is this time played by relative newcomer Andrew Garfield - whom I once worked with on Dr Who and am really chuffed because I can say I know Spider-Man.



And so in anticipation of the movie the Archive presents a crash course in all things Spidey.

Spider-Man was created by writer Stan Lee and artists Steve Dikto and he first appeared way back in 1962  in issue 15 of Amazing Fantasy. Spider-Man was very much a child of the Sixties and what made him so refreshing was that unlike Batman and Superman, he was an ordinary Joe which made him easier to identify with and readers of the time made Spidey and his weedy alter ego Peter Parker  instant superstars. Peter Parker was a teenager and the star of the strip when teenagers in most other superhero titles were relegated to the role of sidekick.

"With great power there must also come great responsibility." The line, used so effectively in the original Spider-Man movies actually comes from the first ever Spider-Man comic strip story.


Spider got his own title in 1963 with issue 1 of The Amazing Spider-Man and was an immediate success, especially with the counter culture who considered Spidey to be anti-establishment. A 1965 Esquire poll of college campuses found that college students ranked Spider-Man and fellow Marvel hero the Hulk alongside Bob Dylan and Che Guevara as their favorite revolutionary icons

It wasn't too long before Spidey made the transition to the small screen and the 1967 animated series is considered a classic. Although produced on a small budget the cartoon series would run until 1970 and is still repeated across the world. The show would eventually transform into Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends but rights problems soon ended the show in 1983. In 1994 a new Spider-Man cartoon his the screens. Titles simply Spider-Man this show was darker than previous shows and featured a revamped version of the original theme this time performed by Joe Perry.


There was also a Spider live action TV series - it played on primetime when I was a kid and it was popular with us fantasy starved kids but it soon vanished from screens. The effects were not so special and the low budget was painfully visible. The series is fondly remembered though and until Ramini's Spider movie there was talk of bringing the series back.


THREE MUST READ SPIDEY STORIES:

The original Clone Saga - Marvel's Clone Saga of the mid 90's was one of the worse comic book events in history, but the original Clone Saga from the 1970's should not be ignored. The story is about the Jackal – originally Miles Warren, Peter Parker’s biology professor at ESU – who we learn had a secret obsession with Gwen Stacy and blames Spider-Man for her death. Out of his pain he clones both Gwen and Peter, leading to a rather tormenting series of events for the wall crawler.

The Conversation - Babylon 5's creator, J Michael Straczynsk had a great run of stories but this was surely his finest.  JMS tackled a conversation decades in the making: Aunt May confronting Peter about being the wall-crawler. The twist comes with JMS giving May her own share of guilt over Ben’s death – it seems the pair had a tiff the night he was killed, and she’s felt responsible for what happened. This was clever comic book writing at its finest that can stand head and shoulders with any other kind of literature.

The Wedding - Spider marries Mary Jane, the marriage lasting twenty years, and comic book fans were served a wonderful celebration story. MJ ponders becoming domesticated, giving up her life of parties and rich boys to become the wife of a superhero while Peter reflects on Gwen Stacy's death and how his being Spider-Man directly contributed to it.

A big screen version of Spider-Man was in and out of production many times during the 80's and 90's and for awhile it looked as if James Cameron would direct the movie but many fans were surprised when the film went to Evil Dead creator, Sam Ramini.The movie which starred the Toby Maguire as the webhead was a triumph and was Marvel's biggest money spinner until this years, Avengers squashed everything it its path. The sequel was even more polished and to many remains the best of the three Ramini Spidey movies. The third movie sunk under the weight of all the bad guys and killed the franchise until the latest reboot.

Will the latest Spidey movie be a hit - early reviews seem to suggest that this one will be a biggie, but there is plenty of competition to be the biggest superhero movie of the year. The Dark Knight Rises with its promised death of Batman seems a sure thing and of course Avengers Assemble is proving to be unstoppable.




The Amazing Spider-Man opens next month