Rest in Peace, Spiderman

While on a photo shoot on the afternoon of 9/7/13, at Patterson Park, home of New Jersey’s highest waterfalls; Spiderman – urban legend, crime-fighter, folk hero of millions fell to what can only be surmised as his death.  It is with a heavy heart that I report this to you True Believers.  He plunged from the bridge to the bottom of the gorge during said photo shoot.  I still remember his last few moments.

“Ok, Spidey, could you back up a bit?” I said waiting for the tourists to move along so that we could grab just the right shot.

“Sure.” He said briefly looking over his shoulder. “It sure is a long way DOOOOOWWWWWWNNNNN!”

I ran to the railing but it was in vain.  He was gone.  Crews are still searching for his body at the time of this report.  I am in shock.  It does not seem real.  It has been my great honor to photograph Spiderman over the years at different locations and places the he told me that he wanted to travel.  Spiderman leaves behind his friend the traveling Stormtrooper who was unavailable for comment at time of press.  Some of Spiderman’s past adventures can be found here: http://pinterest.com/theevilchicken/travels-with-spider-man-his-amazing-friends/.   

I get asked, “Do you know who he is?” all the time.  I shake my head and I always counter with, “Does it matter?”  Although responses have varied over the years, for the most part, this silences the inquisitive.  The fact of the matter is it never mattered who he was – what mattered was that he was there.  Always ready to self-sacrifice never asking for anything in return.  I guess ole’ Webhead could honestly be summed up in that song he kept humming…

Spiderman, Spiderman

Friendly neighborhood Spiderman

Wealth & fame

He’s ignored

Action is his reward

The song used to drive me batty but it made him happy.  He always had an odd sense of humor.  Spiderman has been in tough scrapes before and there have been times when we thought him dead in the past.  I hold out hope that he will make his way back to us someday.  They say that you are lucky to know a handful or even one true friend in the course of a lifetime.  Spiderman was my friend.

Goodnight, Sweet Prince.

Godspeed.  

CAP’S COMICS

“I’d like a comic book.” Mother Hen casually said about a month before Christmas.

“You know, I have a bad ear,” I said, “but I would have sworn on a stack of Bibles that you just said that you wanted a comic book.”

“No, you heard me right.” She said.

“Which comic book?”

“The Amazing Spiderman number… five seventy something.” She said.

“Why?” I asked. Now yours truly wanting a comic book not very big news, Mother Hen wanting a comic book, on the other hand, lent itself to having Rod Serling step from around the corner of the doorway and literally explaining the reasons to me.

“Who are you looking for?” she asked me as I searched for Mr. Serling.

“Huh? …Oh, no one…” I said taking one last look at the doorway. “So why do you want a Spiderman comic?”

“Stephen Colbert is on the cover and he is still in the running to be President of the United States in the Marvel Universe. There’s a story written by Joe Quesada in there too.” Oh she was speaking my language. I met Joe (the head of Marvel Comics) Quesada in Philadelphia a few years back and heard him speak. At the time he mentioned that he wished there was no such things as secret identities and discussed how cool it would be if Tony Stark held a press conference just to say, “I’m Iron Man.” That was before he did that in the comics, in the movie and in the whole “Civil War” story arc. There are a lot of Colbert fans out there who would be grabbing up the variant issue.

And so it came to pass, Gentle Reader that yours truly set off on a quest to find the Stephen Colbert issue of The Amazing Spiderman. After a bit of research I found the number (573) and that there were three covers; the regular cover with Venom and the Scorpion, the minor variant cover with Anti-Venom and the Scorpion and, the issue that geeks and Colbert fans are clamoring for, the one where Stephen Colbert is saving Spiderman and emulating the same pose from Amazing Fantasy # 15 (Spidey’s first appearance). I covered the South Jersey area looking for it. I went to three comic book shops before stopping in over at IT’S A TOY STORE (see: http://evilchickenscratch.blogspot.com/2008/11/its-toy-store.html) and they steered me in the right direction.

“Yeah, they have a copy over at CAP’S COMICS in Millville.”

“Millville!? …Cap’s Comics?” I said, truly surprised. It’s just not like me to NOT know about a comic book shop in the South Jersey area. “How long have they been open?”

“Since about February.”

“No kiddin’.”

“Nope.”

So with hot tip in hand I placed a call to CAP’S COMICS. They had it and I said that I’d be there post haste. And I was. Like many of the characters that it deals in the storefront itself is like a secret identity but lest there be no doubt a Comic Book shop is there at 1301 N. 10th St. Suite G in Millville (N.J. 08332 – that is). I paid a fair price for the issue and struck up a great little conversation with the owner – who is not only a nice guy but he’s also a Comic Fan! Believe it or not that’s not always a prerequisite for being in this line of work. We talked Iron Man, Silver Age and Red Hulk for about forty minutes or so and, I gotta tell ya, I can’t wait to get back there. I picked up a card, which says, “Silver age, bronze age and back issues also collectibles. New comics every week. 10% off all subscription titles.” Their hours are Wednesday 6:00 – 9:00 PM, Thursday 6:00 – 9:00 PM, Friday 11:00 AM – 8:00 PM, and Saturday 11:00 AM – 6:00 PM. Their phone number is 856-825-5779. I can tell you CAP’S came through for me (and Mother Hen) and if there’s something that you’re looking for, I bet they can do the same for you.

Too cool.

I’m thinking about getting the Red Hulk graphic novel; hey it’s been a while since I’ve read any comics and I’ve got a lot of catching up to do. Fortunately, CAP’S COMICS is there to ease my transition back.

EXCELSIOR!

Devil Annuls Parker’s Marriage

Precautionary note for you Gentle Reader: if you do not know who Peter Parker is and that he is married to Mary Jane Watson-Parker just skip this particular blog entry; although, if the truth were told, this is more about cohesive writing than comic book characters – so I guess I’ll leave it up to you…

Many moons ago I read a lot of comic books. I had subscriptions pulled for me and I’d faithfully march to the shop every other week or so to keep up with the chosen titles that I read. There were the Batman books, the Superman books and the Spiderman books; all wonderful escapist reading. I came to comic books seriously in college. I didn’t have time to read the headier stuff; I was working full time, going to school full time and just married – you could say I was a busy guy and comics filled a niche. I could read them and still manage to do all the crazy things that my schedule dictated that I needed to do. I got my dose of heroic fiction – which, by the way, has been the bread and butter of storytellers for the last several millennia or so. Simple three act structure – a beginning, a middle and an end. A protagonist faces a challenge, does something (or nothing) and ends up living (or dying) with the consequences.

There – that’s it; deceptively simple really.

“Where are you going Evil Chicken?” Please forgive my ramblings, Gentle Reader, it’s important to understand that stories have structure. Exhibit A: the cave wall. The story – the tribe was hungry so we took some pointy sticks, killed a mighty beast, have feasted on its flesh and now we telling the story, bathed in light from the fire on the wall of our cave. Simple. The tribe had a problem, they did something about it and they had a resolution. Now wouldn’t it be cheesy if instead of hunting a beast Og woke up and realized it was all just a dream and the tribe had plenty of food after all? Or suppose Og is visited by some magical fairy that waves its wand and POOF; there’s food for the tribe.

That’s weak. That’s a writer’s convenience. I am not currently a professional writer and I have been turned down by some pretty good literary magazines in my time. I freely admit that I’m a hack but even a hack can see that is sloppy writing. It cheats the reader, viewer and/or listener. The Greeks called this device deus ex machina. When there was a problem that needed solving in some Greek Tragedy a god would be lowered on a crane to make everything better. Well, the same thing is going on – right now, mind you, in the pages of Spiderman. You see the devil (Mephisto in the Marvel Universe) pops up and makes an offer for Peter to save his dear Aunt May from death – all he has to do is forfeit all memory and knowledge of his wife and the years that they have been together. The trick, since Mephisto savors torturing souls is that Mary Jane retains all of her memories.

Now let me say in all reality it’s not fair for me to say this since I haven’t read Spiderman in years BUT this sort of smacks of deus ex machina – no? It’s an easy fix. Chances are marrying off superheroes isn’t the best of all possible worlds. Spiderman has a certain range and while there’s a lot going on in the life of Peter Parker the simple fact is that your friendly neighborhood Spiderman has been for the last 20 years or so, your friendly neighborhood married guy; probably not what Stan Lee and Steve Ditko had in mind when a gangly teenager was bitten by a radioactive spider back in the sixties. Erik Larson, comic writer and artist made some pretty good points on the issue here: http://www.comicbookresources.com/columns/index.cgi?column=ofo&article=2972.

Still this may be entirely too early to call since, much like our world, in the comic book world anything can happen and usually will. I’m still pulling for Marvel to do right by the character and the fans – they both deserve a little more respect than that.

I’ve got to get back to a comic shop.