My friend Brad and I had many similar hobbies growing up. In no specific order we liked playing release, listening to Weezer, Dungeons & Dragons, cheap food, whiskey, and comic books. Though we had all these tastes in common, there were small differences. When I play release, I run. Brad likes to strategize and hide. Brad likes the Blue Album, I’m more of a Pinkerton man. I preferred being a wizard in Dungeons & Dragons and Brad liked the fighters and thieves. I liked hot dogs but Brad couldn’t eat them because he has a fake esophagus and would choke. Brad liked to steal whiskey from my parent’s liquor cabinet and I liked to steal from his. And even our tastes in comics were different; he sought out the darker titles, Spawn and Preacher, where I was a classic Marvel man.
Brad and I don’t live near each other anymore and, aside from whisky, we’ve given up these pastimes. Weezer’s last three albums suck and I threw out my damn hip, so I can’t run no more. My childhood was fading away as I approached my 30s. I assumed that somewhere, across the country, Brad’s was too. I hadn’t seriously read comic books in about ten years when I received a curious package from California. It was from Amazon and had Brad’s return address on it. He sent me “The Amazing Spider-man, The Complete Collection” CD-Rom. It literally has everything. It begins with Amazing Fantasy #15 and continues through the next five decades of webslinger soap opera. It even has the annual issues, bringing the total count to five hundred and sixty-six issues of “The Amazing Spider-Man.” Brad has a plastic esophagus but a heart of gold.
So I’m going to be the guy who reads every Spider-man, ever. I’ll write a little blurb about each issue, keep up on the plot, point out some cool lines, and maybe even include a funny comic book advertisement or two. I’ll look for over-riding themes, cultural relevance, and try to figure out if great responsibility really does come with great power. ‘Cause I’m not so sure it does.
Feel free to leave comments and share your memories and experiences with Spider-man. Together, we’ll try to figure out how this modern American legend has stayed relevant for so long and what his story means to us. Um…Excelsior?
The last weezer album (red) was good. Stop being a hater!!
ReplyDeletePork and Beans? Really? Pork and Beans? Is that as good as Across the Sea? Pork and Beans?
ReplyDeletePinkerton is one of the most underrated albums of all time. It's amazing.
ReplyDeleteThe Red Album stinks man.
That was a really solid move on Brad's part. I will stayed tuned.
Blue album was the best. "Trip and punch" is a far superior release technique. And Orendale was the best fighter of all time until Achilla ripped out his heart.
ReplyDeleteBalls.
This dude Brad sounds awesome. We should hump sometime.
ReplyDelete