“When am I finally going to break down and get a widescreen?”
Star Power #14
(May, 2016)
“Star Power & The Mystery Of The Zel Gux Dynasty”
WRITER: Michael Terraciano
ARTIST: Garth Graham
Apparently the end of the Spider-Marriage in the main Marvel universe lasts forever. But Marvel thinks they can thrown Parkers fans a bone…in a reborn Ultimate universe.
I wasn’t planning to do two Spider-Man articles this week but I just learned on Tuesday about Marvel’s reborn Ultimate universe, or at least the imprint being reborn. This is not the universe Miles Morales escaped from, where Peter Parker died and Miles took over before it was ultimately (not sorry) destroyed to make way for a hyperspace bypass or whatever was going on in the latest event that I stopped caring about because events are a dime a dozen now and don’t hold the same meaning anymore.
No, this new Ultimate Spider-Man features a still breathing Peter Parker married to Mary Jane Watson. Now we know that 616 will never restore the Spider-Marriage. The Spider-Writers are too invested in making Peter a total loser who won’t keep a girlfriend for more than three storylines so we have no reason to get invested in his love life. It’s like those 80s TV action shows where Michael Knight or someone would meet a girl, they’d kiss at one point, and then they’re never brought up again. There’s no reason to care about Peter’s relationships outside of Aunt May. Even his ties to the Daily Bugle don’t seem to matter anymore.
So, fine. Alternate universe but at least we can finally see more of the Parker family, with Peter fighting crime and MJ as his support and all the cute, fun, and drama-laden moments that come with it. They’re even going to have kids…including Peter’s first son in the multiverse! Isn’t that great? Well, as usual the Mephisto is in the details, and that one was on purpose. When you look into what’s actually about to happen this isn’t what we wanted at all, because Marvel will not do that with Spider-Man anymore.
Tell others about the Spotlight:
“How can one Smurf weigh more than an elephant?”
The Smurfs Free Comic Book Day (Silver Book) 2014
Papercutz (2014)
LETTERER ON MOST STORIES: Janice Chiang
ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Michael Petranek
Another anthology featuring the Smurfs and other kids Papercutz comics. Chiang is the only recurring creator except for the one comic she’s not part of. I’ll list the rest with the review.
Tell others about the Spotlight:
Catch more from Nerdstalgic on YouTube
Ones I’d like to see him talk about are Stalker and, yes, Mad Stan. Also how Return Of The Joker showed us why Terry is different but unlike a lot of today’s replacements still Batman.
Tell others about the Spotlight:
A few years ago Jerzy Drozd and Rob Stenzinger started the Art Soundoff Challenge. Creators would take maybe 15 minutes to record an audio or video blog, a “micropodcast” I think is the term, and share it with everyone using the #ArtSoundoff hashtag on Twitter. It was a good way to share comic creating perspectives, go over what creators are thinking about, and just interact without actually sharing a stream. It was and still is a good idea.
I decided to join in the fun, and it was a good experience. I learned, got to share my point of view as critic and writer plus my experiences trying to improve my limited drawing skills. I took part every year, including the year I was out of commission for most of the year. I even dragged Jake and Max into it with special Art Soundoff editions of Jake & Leon from the perspective of comic strip characters who also make their own comics and art. (Jake and Max are art buddies, and that’s how Max was introduced to the comic.)
Last year I was the only participant. Actually, I think colorist Owen Jollands did one, but otherwise just me. Even Jerzy and Rob didn’t do one that I recall seeing. On my final Art Soundoff of the year I was questioning if I would even do one this year. This article is my answer, and the fact that it is an article instead of a v-log may already hint at my answer.
Tell others about the Spotlight:
Enerjak spends time with his Chaotix Amiibos.
Knuckles #8
Archie Comics Publications (January, 1998)
“Dark Vengeance” part 2
WRITER: Ken Penders
PENCILER: Manny Galan
INKER: Andrew Pepoy
COLORIST: Barry Grossman
LETTERER: Vickie Williams
EDITOR: J. Freddy Gabrie
BW Media Spotlight 
BW’s Daily Video> Talking About Creators Instead Of Comics
Yes, I know I did a whole week of just Comics By Perch last week but this is a real good and recent commentary and I didn’t want to put it in the backlog.
Tell others about the Spotlight:
Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on November 3, 2023 in Comic Spotlight and tagged comics, Comics By Perch, commentary, DC Comics, Marvel Comics.
Leave a comment