Aunt May: Superhero?

As seen in Marvel's What If..? #23:
"What if Aunt May had been bitten by the radioactive spider?"

Equipped with bread dough with too much yeast in place of web shooters, Spider-May (never is given a name in the story) foils Leap-Frog's bank robbery in view of a faint Peter Parker who's terrified at the sight of her. Dig that beret.

As seen in Marvel Team-Up #137:
Aunt May and Franklin Richards vs. Galactus

Galactus comes to Earth to take Franklin as his new herald. Aunt May calls Galactus a big bully and shields Franklin from his blast and is transformed into GOLDEN OLDIE! Franklin offers Galactus Twinkee's in place of devouring a planet. Aunt May rounds up every Twinkee she can find to sustain G's hunger. Then there's a Doughboy in space who makes desserts- May suggests he become the new herald and everything goes back to normal....What?!

As seen in What If... #34:

97 to go

97 to what you ask?

Craziness, that's what.

I'm a geek. I like goofy things. I buy comic books- not for them to go up in value, not to have them graded, or throw them out when I'm finished reading them.

I buy them because I love the art- the stories, the color- the sense of escapism you control in your hands. And the ads, my goodness, the ads- a flashback to my childhood of memories from past movies and games.

I love comic books. I don't think I'll ever stop buying them. Here in lies the problem. Comics are my crack, my achilles heel, you get the idea. I buy them whenever and wherever I can. And because I'm anal retentive (my friends can vouch for this), I bag and board my books. ALL of them.

So today as I got to bagging my most recent treasures, I thought it was time once again to re-organize the bunch. This is quite the daunting task to a comic geek. One-shots, Mini-series, Crossovers, Revamps, Promos...these are just a few possibilities among ONE character. Just one! And how was I going to organize titles within one characters' multitude of books? There's Spectacular Spider-man, Amazing Spider-man, Sensational Spider-man, Spider-man 2099, Spider-Man Family....the list goes on. Do I put the books in order of oldest to most current? Or books I know I'll look at more often than others? Leave room for further books in that series or just fill up the boxes? I overthought this way too much...but again, I'm anal retentive, I'll admit it.

Anyway, 97. What does that mean?

97 books until I break 1,000. ONE-THOUSAND. COMICS. ONE-THOUSAND COMICS.

I can't believe it. It's amazing and terrifying....

How many more books could I possibly obtain? More importantly, how much longer until my 2nd floor closet gives out from the weight?

Wow. Just...wow.

Pinball at the Zoo

Man, those gorilla's sure know how to rack up points!

No, not that kind of zoo. Kalamazoo, Michigan folks. Dan of d-r-m invited me along to partake in the arcade auction at the Kalamazoo County Fairgrounds this morning. Arcades as well as pinball machines were set on free-play mode to test 'em out or simply play for nostaliga. Lots of great games from Pac-man to Crusin' USA. Even a two player Joust pinball machine- COOL!! We also noticed there was a reptile show going on in the hall next door.

WHAT?!

Apparently reptiles and arcades go together like ham and eggs down in K-zoo. I don't get it- and I use to live there.

There's more to this tale, but I'll let Dan take it from here...Go to d-r-m in my links- Tell 'em Jeff sent ya!

*Dan, I hope you have you're post up to date.

New Comic Wednesday March 18th

Yeah comics!!

Lots of good stuff came out this week- Justice League, Ultimate Spider-man, Mighty Avengers, Robin, Flash, and even a Nightwing Annual.

I never buy Nightwing. I don't hate the character- I just never got into it.

Anyway, this issue reads like a grown-up issue of Ultimate Spider-man to me. Batgirl and Robin (he later becomes Nightwing- in case you're not up to speed) flashback and forward in their relationship as friends, crimefighters, and partners (romantically). Verbal jabs, bat-jokes, and smooth art creates an issue worth re-reading. Fantastic!

Grindhouse a-go-go

Watched Grindhouse on Saturday afternoon with friend Dan, of d-r-m fame. Yowza!
Having endured many zombie/horror flicks in my lifetime- Grindhouse raises my tolerance bar for indeceny and gore. People explode like hot dogs in a microwave, get run over, and have rashes you'd have nightmares about. I'm sure the FACES OF DEATH series will seem tame after this. (There is absolutely no way I'd watch those. There's quite a difference between HOLLYWOOD death and ACTUAL death. Besides, it's just morbid.)

The movie is broken up into two films: Planet Terror and Death Proof. There's also delightful trailers in-between such as: Machete, Nazi Werewolfs of the SS, Don't!, and Thankgiving. Thanksgiving the most disturbing of the bunch- I....I can't even go into words how painful.

Planet Terror weaves the tale of a zombie plague attacking a town of various characters and features the absurb Cherry Darling (Rose McGowan) taking out the bad guys with her AK-47 leg.
Some great lines and zombies a-poppin'. Worth rewatching- except the groin infected scenes. YUCK.

Death Proof on the other hand- was a snooze-fest. Four girls gabbing on about boyfriends- then four more girls gabbing on about THEIR boyfriends. Oh, I forgot to mention, there's another small plot of Stunt Man Mike (Kurt Russel) killing people with his death proof car. Then the second group of girls get their revenge and beat the snot out of him- for trying to kill them. Okay.....
Not worth rewatching except the brief conversation between SMM and Rose McGowan's character in the bar. Rather funny, but overall, Eh.....

Now, don't get me wrong- I didn't despise this film in the least. Grossed out?... completely. Mortified? Yes. But it was for all the right reasons. Tarantino/Rodriguez nailed this 70's explotation/grindhouse genre. It is just a movie after all. It's okay to let yourself go once in a awhile. Just as long as you don't start running over people for kicks.

Slurpee-Sense Tingling!

7-11's got Spider-man 3 Slurpee cups available right now! (Spidey, Sandman, and Venom) While not nearly as large as the Superman Returns cups- they both use lenticular artwork (it changes when you rotate it). Very cool! No Spidey flavored/inspired Slurpee flavor though.

Asleep at the switch (er...keyboard)

So... I haven't blogged in two weeks. Either not much happened or I was really busy. Was a combination of both. Anyhoo- that means a lot of comics were bought and I didn't tell you about them. Here's what I bought (in no particular order) and which were good or bad.

Spider-man and the Fantastic Four #1- Wieringo art and Spidey with the Impossible man. Nice.
Justice League of America #7- Many cripes from others about the Hall of Justice. I don't mind it.
Teen Titans #45- big fight issue.
Supergirl #16- the new art/writer issue, confused by the story- but read it in a hurry.
Madman #1- Filling the void for my X-Statix fix, Allred delivers once again!
New Avengers #29- another big fight issue- minus the fight. Wha-huh?
Omega Flight # 1 (of 5)- Recruitment of Canada's new super-team. Good stuff, eh?
Fantastic Four #544- Debut of Storm and Black Panther on the team. Ughhh....pass for awhile.
Friendly Neighborhood Spider-man #19- a story as bad as the clone saga, with Chamelon.
Ultimate Spider-man #107- Losing steam fast. Or I'm just getting board with the teen angst.
Uncanny X-Men #485-...IN SPACE!! Deathbird marries Vulcan. Vulcan kills more Shiar. Yeah.
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Spider-man #1: Ironically they tell you to visit the Marvel website on the inside cover for more entries, so I could've saved $4. Thanks a lot. Still, nice to catch up on the stories without tracking down all the back issues.

Fun with DC

DC Superheroes: Steel

Gave in and bought the DC Superheroes Steel figure the other day. Being a fan of the Death of Superman storyline a few years ago, I couldn't pass him up. Really nice figure- metallic and determined, this is one tin-man you don't want to cross. Packaged in the new 'purple box', Steel comes with a cardboard standee you can use to display the figure- kind of like a mini wax museum- if you bought enough of them. Good scale with my other Superman figs- now all I need is an Eradicator and a Cyborg. Neither of the Doomsday figs impressed me- the scale is way too small- so I'll hold off for now.

On a side note- I'm not a huge fan of the skin tone used on the DC SH figs. Both my Superman and Supergirl look like they've just returned from Spring Break. Yet my Superboy DC Direct figure is fine. Huh. I'm torn between the price and the quality. DC Direct look so much better- D'oh!