Marvel Flipside

Spidey's Horror-ible Rogues Gallery

POP QUIZ!

Since everyone is turning to Halloween-themed content for their posts lately, for some reason, I thought I might do the same with another pop quiz-- this time with pictures!

Spidey s Horror-ible Rogues Gallery » Online Exam maker

The Waxman

Know your Foes!

Once, a lowly scientist, racing to find a cure for his own disease, was forced to turn the cure on himself! As things sometimes do, the result was a horrible accident. His flesh was little more than a waxy substance that would seek out the warmth of other human bodies, smothering them. He's a zombie body snatcher, vampire, blob, and serial killer, all in one! And Spider-Woman has just happened to cross his path!

Spider-Woman #18 (1979)

Let's try a new feature: Know Your Foes, where I give a little blurb and a little tidbit about a Marvel villain, without going so far as making a Re-Villaining. In this inaugural post, the Waxman!

When I was a youngster, most of my favorite moments was searching through back issues and grabbing up whole runs at a time. The early 70s' Spider-Woman was one of my favorites. It wasn't that she was a favorite character-- it was just that each "run" I was able to gobble up seemed to be an entirely different character! Marvel didn't seem to know what to do with Spider-Woman. For a large part of her series, she was a private investigator. Other runs had her as a generic super-hero with a wheelchair-bound sidekick, other runs a spy, others a pseudo-horrorific outsider.

The Waxman fits into this latter. At the time, Spider-Woman wasn't sure of her own origins-- it was even suggested at she could have been a mutated spider-made-into-woman. What a perfect protagonist for a horror comic! She found herself involved with the mysterious, the creepy, and the type of oddball you'd expect to see in a darkened alley of the Twilight Zone. 

I have to say, this was one comic that truly creeped me out. I was genuinely interested in Spider-Woman's plight, especially as it happened to coincide with her own bout of self-doubt. Of course, there are other reviews out there that read into the story a bit more than I would have--

"This book has played around with sexual tensions and sexual fears in the past, typically through Wolfman's covert fascination with bondage scenarios. But this is a completely different card from the deck . . . I wonder what Gruenwald was riffing on. I think it was around this time that the sexual revolution brought about by the widespread availability of birth-control pills was being squashed by the spread of herpes, and the fear of same. Perhaps he's giving a superhero take on Looking for Mr. Goodbar. Or maybe there was no period-specific trigger, and it was just general psycho-sexual unease about puberty, etc. that Gruenwald wanted to explore. It doesn't matter. This story is raw, and it's fearless enough to venture into territory that still feels taboo thirty years later."

I honestly think that finding all the sexual subtext of it is giving the issue too much credit, but you could judge for yourself.

The Impossible Man

Caught in the Act!

Then there was the time that Spider-Man got tea-bagged by an alien. 

(There, that oughta get me some more hits from Google searches.)

Yes, I'm back! Courtesy of Spidey Super-Stories #39, March 1978. Or at least, I'll try to be back-- still extremely busy with Life Stuff, so no original content for a li'l bit more. Enjoy the non sequitors  I can come up with in the meantime!

Oh, in case you were wondering-- the Impossible Man came from his planet to learn how to play baseball since no one on his native world liked to have fun. (Not sure if baseball's really going to be able to do that, Impy. Better try MMA or even Settlers of Catan.) But eventually he took a picture of Spidey by the Statue of Liberty.

Link-a-Palooza

I don't really talk about a lot my Day Job or Real Life or whatever, but it is sure slamming me with busy-ness of late, and will most likely continue in the future. It's not all bad! There's just a lot of extracurriculurs at work and play (including camping this weekend) which keeps pushing "Keep up the Flipside Blog" down on the list. I'm sure how interested all y'all are in that stuff, and I'm not sure how much it really matches the theme of this blogsite, so let's just keep it "over there."

So to keep you busy, I'd like to point out a few of the great links that I often visit, comics-wise:

• The Comics Vault: I knew Scott Harris from the infamous Avengers Mailing List (and thus he's a collaborator on Assembled! and Assembled! 2. He's got a great layout, great vision, and although he's new, up to date and great content! Keep it up, Scott!
• Slay, Monstrobot of the Deep: Blogger "Snell" has some of the most variegated content of all comics blogs. The topics range in company and contemporariness; it's not just reviews of what happens each week! Admittedly, the content is a bit vitriolic at times, but it's only because he cares!
• Actually Slay is one of Spacebooger's Friday Night Fights regulars, and any of them have blogs worthy of perusal if not RSS subscription! And the Boog himself has regularly updated webcomics and reviews worth a look.
• Speaking of webcomics, although there are many I look at, there's something about Nedroid's that always just makes me happy.
• Sequential Tart: A web-zine of high quality and regular updates. The perspective is unique and varied, with a lot of great names. And great archives!
• Progressive Ruin: The blog's not great in terms of layout or design, but the content speaks for itself.
• The Invincible Super-Blog: Chris Sim's infamous blog o' fun, featuring pretty much daily content that rarely, if ever, disappoints. Your mileage may vary, however; apparently he gets a lot of haters? 
• Dateline: Silver Age: Just subsribe to the feed here, and you'll be treated to a funny out-of-context panel when newspapers were all the rage (at least for awkward exposition.) Be sure to read the alt-text. 
• The 4th Letter: I'm not sure what their name means, but the group doing this blog has some great perspectives and regular updates. 
• Eco-comics: When economics meet comics, you get... ecocomics? It's half-serious, mock-academic, and always engaging.

There are a few others I could share, but I'll save those for when I'm running out of content again. (Insert  smiley.) These are the big ones that  should keep you busy in the meantime. Feel free to name-drop the Marvel Flipside when you get a chance, too!

What The--?! Marvel Cover: October

So what did I say about every other media and marketing outlet having a cutting edge graphical design but comics still had a way to go? Looks like someone's been reading my blog, because the internet was all a-buzz about these new designs for the Iron Man title. I love being right.

But NOW it's time for a What The--?! cover. And while it's not maybe as Out There as some of the other What The--?!s I've featured, I had to laugh when I came across this one--

X-Babies #1: Star Comics Variant, cover by Jacob Chabot, in stores Oct. 7.

I was pretty young when Star Comics were coming out, but they were some of the first ones I read. (Yes, I'll admit I was one of the kids who liked Ewoks. You were too, before it became cool to hate on 'em.) So that's why I laughed-- I recognized Planet Terry. And then I looked at Cyclops and laughed some more. I realized that once again, some artists can't draw actual kids nor babies-- they just draw adults but disproportionate and puny-sized. But don't let me rag on that too much or I'd have to make it a candidate for the "Worst" of the month. For now I'm content to laugh and just say "What The--?!"

 

Worst Marvel Cover: October

So many covers, while not being truly BAD, are surely BLAH. Many fans have been lamenting this for years, a product of a corporate policy that engenders generic poses that are interchangeable and therefore unremarkable.

Here's a cover that's a little bit better than simply a pose of the assembled characters, but not by much. It's Dark Avengers #10, by Mike Deodato, in stores 10/ 21.

The "bit better" is that there is some attitude in the posing, and some suggestion of a story. I mean, don't you want to know what they are all looking at? Chances are, it HAS to be one of the countless heroes who've promised to take down Norman Osborn once and for all, right? (Not that that narrows it down at all-- note the sarcasm.)

But on all other accounts, the cover is just lifeless and dead. Look at the thumbnail! It's just a big blur of blah colors, muted and muddled together with no clear direction for the viewer's eye nor any focal point at all. And that's WITH a character with a golden costume, several characters with shiny elements/armor, AND a glowing grate beneath them all!

Perhaps they didn't want to draw your eye in at all-- because if you do, you realize that virtually every character has a curious absence of lower limbs. Some of that could be foreshortening, like, *maybe* Marvel Boy's, but what about Ares? Where is his body below the knee? And what happened to Karla Marvel's right leg? I imagine that the reason all of these are missing is because the background is actually not appropriate to fit everyone on proportionately. That's probably also why the Sentry and MacGargan-Spider-Man seem more pasted in than actually interacting with the environment. In other words, shouldn't there be depth in between the fire escape and the ladder? Or between the the landing and whatever bricky-thing the Sentry is on? 

Good rendering never excuses poor layout. Sorry, Deodato, just ask Brian Hitch!

Best Marvel Cover: October

There's a lot of great stuff out there this month! As our runners-up will show, this ranges from the abstract and cartoony (Deadpool #900 by Dave Johnson) to the fully rendered and painterly (Guardians of the Galaxy #19 by Alex Garner).

But there's one style of cover that I want to see more of-- and that's the cover that works as pure design overall. Something happened a little while ago, where the way we manipulate images and color and design has both been simplified and complicated at the same time thanks to our embrace of the digital world-- consumer products, commercials, movie posters, book covers, even T-shirts, all have changed to be playful but purposeful in their design. So why are comic books still having the same generic pose of a hero and/or a static freeze frame?

To be fair, there's some of this spirit to be found (as I've said before, mostly on the fringe products like Marvel's Noir line) and I'll usually seek out those covers right away for the "Best" candidates. After all, there's something to be said if these kinds of covers immediately catch my eye with an inaudible "hey!" of interest as I pass by image after image of Standard Poses 1 through 5.

 And that brings us to Nomad: Girl Without a World #2, cover by Rafael Alberquerque, on sale Oct. 14.  At first, it may seem like an odd choice, because it's certainly not a headlining title (the whole "Nomad, Girl Without a World"  already an odd choice for a title in the first place,) but this cover has a lot of what I was talking about above.

First of all, the colors and the images world beautifully together to make it an eye-pleasing arrangement. There's competing angles from the figures, the buildings' perspective, and the lines in the background/sky. It's unifying but also dramatic, and yet it doesn't lose the viewer's eye, keeping it centered.

But overall it's the colors that are the most subtle and, paradoxically, the most effective. Notice there are only three colors: Red, white, and blue. Even the shadows are not black but a different shade of blue. The red and the white are also striped, reminiscent of the flag, but the lines are not straight. The jagged lines help lend the air of urgency and disruption, especially in contrast to the solid areas of color and straight lines of the building. Thus, the colors/lines work thematically, too. Nomad is a character who is supposed to be a patriotic hero (red, white, and blue) but is without a world and direction in life (the jagged/broken flag and dichotomy between disruption and solid areas.)

What could have been really cool, would be to incorporate a star somehow in the billboard/logo where the "--IS" stands.Or maybe that'd be over the top and ruining the subtlety that makes this the Best winner.

Friday Night Fights: Batroc versus ...?

Feet of Fury!

Hear the plaintive strains of Eye of the Tiger in the background? That's because it's time for Friday Night Fights!  

The Fight:

BATROC vs. CROSSBONES... or IS IT?

as featured in Captain America #412, by Mark Gruenwald and Rik Levins!

What's the story here?

Fooled ya! That's not really Crossbones. That's Captain America posing as Crossbones so that he could infiltrate Batroc's underground villains-only brawling-boxing ring. You see? MMA caged match has always been popular with the super-villain set. Turns out, Batroc was in on it, but rather than allow Cap to continue (AND make him look bad by losing to "Crossbones," Batroc outed him and the whole arena descended down on him to create the cliffhanger.

Okay, it's more complicated than that, but still, for a comic featuring Batroc, Stilt-Man, AND Shang-Chi, there were a conspicuous lack of kicking in the face.   

Here's how it all goes down!

    * Take a look at all of Fights participants, hosted by spacebooger.com!
    * Before Sunday at 11PM (EST), cast your vote for the best Friday Night Fights by posting a comment there! Voting is encouraged and will be open to all visitors and participants.
    * The winner of the round will be posted there on the following Tuesday with the Pre-Fight Rules for next time!

ENJOY the FEET O' FURY

Super-Villain Team-Up: Mole Man & Armadillo

Haven't done some sketches in a while, so here's something I kicked out during the premiere of Flashforward. For some reason, I was still thinking of Armadillo, and it seemed natural that he might end up a flunkie for the Mole Man. Perhaps Moley's empathy for monsters might allow him to influence Armadillo without his knowledge, until he's pulled in so deeply that he has no choice but to turn against some of his former almost-but-not-quite friends in the Avengers... until the Avengers would be able to get the 'Dillo to turn on the overbearing Mole Man before it's too late!

Flipside Handbook: Spider-Man

or
What if Spider-Man were a Villain?

As seen in the pages of the Green Goblin fanfic (linked above), Spider-Man was a recurring villain there, and in fact he made a pretty good one. Also in fact, the Marvel heroes could all just as easily have turned out as villains, if you just nudged or tweaked their origins stories a bit. Maybe that's why I always liked the complexity of the Marvel hero.

Case in point, Peter Parker. He already showed his "true" intentions in his real origin story-- he tried to use his powers for fortune and glory on the television, and even made a pretty good sensation judging by a Ditko-penciled montage splash page. But Parker made a decision after that burglar shot his uncle, and the rest is history.

What if Parker made a different decision, however? What if instead of great power, he shucked all responsibility and realized that life should only be lived for himself? Spider-Man has the power and the brains to really make himself into a master criminal!

The trick is to also include Aunt May. They still love each other, and they are all the family they got. Spider-Man will do whatever it takes to make himself *and his Aunt* happy, because he is all she's got. (Yes, in this version, Aunt May is just as "evil," keeping Peter under his thumb with healthy sides of guilt with those wheatcakes.) This adds a little extra to Spider-Man-- he is desperate NOT to get caught, because he wouldn't want the shock to kill his aunt, let alone leave her, well, alone.

Good thing Spidey is so smart; he's got the head of a master criminal with the scope of a petty thief. He only steals what is untraceable and easily converted cash. He'll mislead authorities by targeting areas that are only peripheral to his true targets. He'll always have an exit plan. The worst thing you can do? Corner the guy. He will fight more ruthlessly than you'd believe possible.  

This carries over into his public identity, too. Peter Parker is a bit of a jerk and sarcastic mouth-off, but he'll never try to show off (lest he risk exposure.) He'll sell-out his own defeat with pictures to the Daily Bugle, and he'll lie and cheat his way to ensure a date with scores of meaningless one night stands.

In a manner of speaking, the best way to defeat a Flipside Spider-Man is to entice him to become a bigger criminal threat than he already is. It's the only way to make him break the web of security he's built for himself and his persona, and maybe, just maybe, he might slip up.

He's a spider-menace, I tell you!