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Comic Book Herald

A Comic Book Reading Order Guide For Beginners & Fans

Spider-Man

When Peter Parker Has To Die So Spider-Man Can Live

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“With great power must come great responsibility” feels more ripe for a high school graduation gift card than the backbone of a billion-dollar piece of intellectual property at this point, but the creative powers behind Spider-Man continue to hammer it home. 60 years into his existence, from the funny pages to animated films to the last vestige of the Hollywood blockbuster, Peter Parker still adheres to the ideal that readers and fans have seen across every medium.

The presence of multiple Spider-characters simultaneously on screen and on page has exploded since 2014’s “Spider-Verse” storyline in Marvel’s The Amazing Spider-Man. Now even the youngest of superhero fans know that there are multiple spider-folk due to the cinematic adaptations Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Spider-Man: No Way Home in 2018 and 2021, respectively. That overarching philosophy of selflessness in the face of the grimmest of circumstances still remains true throughout the entirety of the multiverse. No Spider-Men are afraid to make the ultimate sacrifice. [Read more…] about When Peter Parker Has To Die So Spider-Man Can Live

Spider-Men: Worlds Collide: A Boy Without a Home, A Story Without Direction

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peter and miles together in comics

Ladies and gentle web-heads, we are currently in the throes of a Spider-Man golden era.

If you somehow haven’t noticed, Spider-Man is everywhere these days, even more so than he usually is. The webbed hero is in critically acclaimed high budget games like Spider-Man PS4/Miles Morales; Into the Spider-Verse saw the popularity of character Miles Morales leap to new heights as it became the definitive Miles Morales story and won an Academy Award(!); Marvel Studios is bringing the beginnings of MCU Spider-Man to Disney+ with their animated entry titled Spider-Man: Freshman Year; and how could we forget about the staying power of the live-action MCU Spider-Man portrayed by Tom Holland? No Way Home is the perfect embodiment of what it means to be a Spider-Man fan right now. What’s that? What about the comics, you ask? Well, they’re…ok.

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What Comics Best Match The 3 Live-Action Cinematic Spider-Men?

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Thanks to the box office success of Spider-Man: No Way Home, the cinematic history of Spider-Man is a hot topic around the water cooler for about a billion reasons, and with almost two decades worth of Peter Parker on the big screen, there is a lot to discuss. In those twenty-odd years, Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland have each given a take on the live-action wall-crawler that captures fundamental aspects of the character we love, all while telling vastly different types of stories about who Spider-Man is and how he fits into the world around him.

Believe it or not, dear reader, there are even debates on this here Internet about which big-screen version of Spidey is the best! And it’s true that while all three performances are undeniably Peter and his alter ego, they’re not quite the same Peter. So where should you start if you want to read the stories that best represent your favorite on-screen Spidey? [Read more…] about What Comics Best Match The 3 Live-Action Cinematic Spider-Men?

Spider-Man: No Way Home Review!

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It’s 2002 and I’m in Junior High, sitting front row (but too nervous to slide four seats over next to my crush) for the debut of the first Spider-Man movie of my life. I’m way too shy to talk to my crush after, but I can’t stop talking to anyone within earshot about Spider-Man. From this point forward I will refer to Spider-Man as my favorite comic book character (sorry Wolverine and Nightcrawler).

It’s 2012, and I’ve been married just over a year, and I’m watching the rebooted Amazing Spider-Man on DVD in my Chicago apartment, gin and tonic in my hand. I’ve started a comic book website recently, but it’s a fledgling little project. I won’t even cover the film there. I’m quite unsure of where my life is headed professionally, stressed out and aimless, but nonetheless I have a great time watching.

It’s 2021 and I have a rare night out without my three young boys, watching Spider-Man: No Way Home in a theater screening that required proof of vaccination against a virus sweeping the world yet again. Today I’ll worry about all the maskless moviegoers around me enjoying their popcorn, but for nearly 3 hours, I’m fixated on the webbed mask Steve Ditko designed so perfectly in the early 60’s.

A lot’s changed for me in two decades, but one relative constant is that I’m more likely than not to enjoy a great Spider-Man movie, and Spider-Man: No Way Home is no exception.
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