Look up in the sky it's Amazing, no it's Spectacular, is it a Web, no wait is it a Ham, nope it's just Spider-Man!

     Hello folks and welcome to another edition of The Shadow Knows. What pray tell does the Shadow Know this week? Well from what I understand you should never take Preparation H orally. I hear that it causes shrinkage and would cause you difficulty eating... Shrinkage huh, I think it is best left to not use it anywhere but intended less be ousted by the ladies. Alas yet again I digress. I apologize for those who went to the podcast last Sunday expecting The Crow talk only to not find it, well some people did not do their homework. They used some excuse about being on a cruise and out of the country. So we have tabled that discussion for another date. This Sunday at How I Geek, on Podbean.com Greg and the gang will hopefully be discussing the Japanese classic Godzilla. We do this of course in honor of the opening of the new movie. Besides it is always fun to watch fake monsters eat cities. We shall see how this goes, so join us Sunday, have some coffee and talk. 

     So on to the topic of discussion folks hip. hip, hooray!!! Today we discuss Spider-Man AKA Peter Parker. Spidey is one of my personal favs as he was a character I could relate to. Minus the being orphaned and spider powers I lived a similar life to his in high school. Any who, Spidey came to us in the pages of Amazing Fantasy number 15 in 1962 and was created by Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, and cover art by Jack Kirby. Kirby was originally tapped to draw the book, but Stan did not like the look and direction Kirby was taking the character (though he still made him look very good in true Jack Kirby style) and so instead had Ditko do the book art and Kirby do the cover art. The protagonist of this story is Peter Parker, a brilliant teenage high school student. He was orphaned as a small boy and had to live with his aunt and uncle Mae and Ben Parker. One day while at a science exhibit he is bitten by a radioactive spider and given super powers. He gets all the proportional powers of a spider, minus the ability to shoot webs. He gets his web shooting ability from his genius, by creating gadgets that do it for him. He then dons his spider costume and becomes somewhat of a television celebrity. It is during this time he learns hard lessons. While leaving a shoot he lets a criminal get passed him. Later this same criminal would rob and murder his Uncle Ben. In that act Spider-Man the superhero was born, through the words of his uncle, "With great power comes great responsibility".  In this age of comics teenagers were usually relegated to the role of sidekick. Stan Lee found this distasteful and decided to make the would be sidekick a hero. This would be a direction that proved to be money in the bank as they say. Spider-Man was an instant success and all in part due to his realistic life. This is a niche that Stan Lee and Marvel would tap again and again to give us wonderful stories and serials.

     Speaking of stories Spidey had many that were covered over many different books. After high school he went on to college where he met Harry Osborn and girlfriend Gwen Stacy. A great friendship was struck between the 3 of them, a friendship that would cause him trouble and heartache. As it turned out Harry's dad was Spidey's arch nemesis The Green Goblin and if that was not bad enough Gwen's father Detective, Captain Stacy was accidentally killed in a battle between himself and Doctor Octopus (Amazing Spider-Man #90). Spidey's greatest heartache came at the death of Gwen during a battle between himself and the Green Goblin (Amazing #121). She was thrown off a bridge and her neck was snapped in the attempt to rescue her. This would be an event that would haunt our hero. Spidey would love again from the Black Cat to Mary Jane Watson, the later he would marry and then that marriage would end by the hands of Marvel execs who disliked the marriage to begin with (blah). From 1984 to 1988 Spidey would don his black and white costume. During Secret Wars this costume is destroyed and to protect his identity the Beyonder gives him a symbiotic one to replace it. This would bring more problems to our hero as this symbiont had ideas of its own. Trying to change his personality and make him a much harsher crime fighter. Spidey with the help of Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four removed the symbiont from him for all time. Unfortunately the symbiont found Eddie Brock who was not a Peter Parker fan and together they became Venom one of Spider-Mans greatest foes. Over the years Spidey has had many great stories and some rather bad ones, like One More Day, and Superior Spider-Man to name two stinkers. His stories though are to numerous to mention, so I say to you pick him up and give him a read.

     With every protagonist you have to have a great antagonist and Spidey has had some of the greatest villains of the Marvel universe each with their own interesting back stories. You have number one the Green Goblin. He is Norman Osborn, millionaire and father of Spidey's best friend Harry Osborn. Another interesting villain is the Lizard. Curt Connors had lost a limb during war time. When he returned to his Florida home he began work with lizard DNA research to regrow lost limb. He had some success with a rabbit and thought it would be a great idea to skip more research and try it on himself. Clearly not a rocket scientist here. Peter is sent to Florida on assignment to take pictures of this lizard creature in Florida and with help from Connors notes changes him back. Curt Conners is himself not a villain (though idiot does come to mind) though through his alter persona as the Lizard is. Next we have the ego driven Doctor Otto Octavius, or Dr Octopus to his pals. Doc Oc has an ego the size of Asia and desires to match. Spidey has dueled Doc Oc on many occasions and in recent history even had his body taken over by the lunatic thinking he could be a better Spider-Man then Peter. You have Venom who I mentioned earlier... nuff said. On the bruiser bully side of villains you have the Rhino, Sandman, and Scorpion. Scorpion was created with the help of scientists by Daily Bugle man J Jonah Jameson in an attempt to learn Spidey's secrets. He goes crazy and turns on the man. Imagine that you mutate the guy and this is the thanks Jonah gets, hmmm some people I tell you no gratitude. There too is the Shocker, Electro, Mysterio the actor gone crazy, the Vulture, Kraven the hunter, Hobgoblin, and Chameleon to name his most popular. With each new villain Spidey has to use his wits to get himself out of jams. In the end using not only his smart wits, but his smart ass to save the day. He is no Batman and come on there is really only one Batman. He gets the job done and does it with flair and style only the wall crawler knows how to put down. This is something that shows in his big screen and small screen roles.

     Spidey on the screen you say? Why yes secret voices in my head our valiant hero has been on screens large and small. Starting in 1967 with an animated series that lasted 3 seasons and remained in syndication for decades. This was my first introduction with Spidey and I loved watching this show as a small boy. Later in the 70's came the Japanese mecha version and the US TV series both of which were live action. I like the 70's US show and can only say the Japanese version was well, interesting. In the 80's we got Spiderman and Spiderman and his Amazing friends. Again these were shows I loved as a kid and with them got introduced to more Marvel hero's I knew nothing of at the time. The 90's gave us Spiderman the animated series. I think that of all the 90's marvel programs this one was the best. I mean Marvel was really reaching and trying to capitalize on the big comic boom of that era. The end of these shows was the only really good thing that came from the comic decline later in the decade. The next 2 decades have given us The New Animated Series, Spectaular and Ultimate Spiderman. With this final incarnation I think that Marvel has got something decent and hearkens back to the Amazing friends days. I am afraid though with great power comes great responsibility and I don't know if Marvel can handle the pressure of keeping a good quality series. They may, I am afraid screw it up like the Avengers Earths Mightiest Hero's... Alas once again I digress. Spidey has also graced us upon the big screen in 5 total feature films. Three staring Tobey McGuire and 2 starring Andrew Garfield. Mcguire's movies got progressively worse until finally ending with the train wreak that was 3. I will not go into my usual tirade on how bad they screwed up the story. Let me just say it was bad, real, bad. Now Garfield on the last 2 movies has done a fine job and I think these Amazing Spider-Man movies have been well, Amazing. I mean with a great cast, script writing, and special effects I believe the franchise can gives us some more great movies. I will say though that the villains in the last movie were sub par and that was unfortunate because the rest of the movie was great. IMHO. I mean come on I thought the Green Goblin was going to take off with his lucky charms instead of battling Spidey. Jamie Foxx played a great Electro and his character was far better developed then Gobbies. There were just really technical issues with him. The Rhino though really had no development at all and his armor was a joke.

     Well Shadow fans that is all the time we have this week. Tune in next time where you'll hear Joe Quesada say, "Would you like fries with that". So what do you think Shadow fans? Is the franchise safe? Will the Sinister Six movie be awesomesauce? Can Peter Piper actually pick a peck of pickled peppers? These are the questions the voices in my head keep me up at night singing and they just wont stop. Let me know what you think and I will see you next week in the shadows.