Welcome to our letters page. These letters are answered by Jonathan Couper, who uses them as a chance to sharpen his otherwise dull wit. If you want a serious response, your chances will be increased by posing your question, respectfully, to our Spider-Oracle.
Heya, did you know that the U.S. Department of Education has a Spidey page as part of their Read * WRITE * Now program? You can find it at http://www.ed.gov/inits/americareads/spidey/index.html. They have reading puzzles, games and stuff, all featuring Spidey, all designed as a teaching resource to help kids learn to read. You can download the whole site as a PDF.
Hah! That's cool. OK, any teachers out there, go hit the 'net right now and grab that stuff. I expect to see it in a hundred classrooms by tomorrow morning!
Just browsing through the web and noticed a write-up on Amazing Spider-Man #30, which posed the question of whether or not the "Jack Harris" of Wilmington, Delaware was the same "Jack C. Harris" who later scripted "Spider-Man: Web of Doom" years later. Being both the letter writer and the scripter, I can answer the question with a "Yes!"
Brilliant! We love it when this kind of thing leaps out from the past. Well, congratulations from having made the bold transition from dedicated fan to starring scripter. Nice one.
why did Stan lee create spiderman. what was his goal and what was the socail environment at the time. do you know if spiderman's origin had any thing to do with the fear of radiation poisioning in america???
Stan's goal was to make money. But it's no coincidence that many of the super-hero stories of that age featured radiation - the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, the X-Men. America had both a fear and a worship of the atom in the sixties. Stan Lee and Marvel have always played off the issues of the time. Spider-Man's origin is no exception.
Most "history of comics" books cover this. "Comic Book Nation" by "Bradford W. Wright" is a good book if you're looking for a solid grounding in this kind of material.
I haven't collected comics in a long while, decided I wanted to check out your web site to see if I was missing anything. I was noticing what you called the "Reboot" where the spiderman universe changed. My question is, did marvel simply start over with peter parker, his family, friends, villians? So everything that happened in Volumn 1 isn't carried over to volumn 2? For instance Aunt May didn't die, Gwen Stacey wasn't killed, Spiderman didn't have that clone fiasco. The history of his battles with Green Goblin, Venom are void? What was the point of that move?
Somehow, Marvel in the 90's desparately tried to re-invent Spider-Man. They felt that he had become too old, and was encumbered by too much history. They attempted to re-invent him a few times. Firstly, the clone saga tried to get rid of his marriage, by having Ben Reilly be a single, happy-go-lucky Spider-Man once more.
That failed, sensationally, so the "Reboot" was the next idea. Bring back a major "classic" villain, the original Green Goblin. Bring back Aunt May (her death was just a cunning trick played by Norman Osborn), and then restart the title numbers. They didn't attempt to erase past history, merely just bring back some major characters from their "supposed" deaths.
It wasn't a full reboot. That was done with "Chapter One", which was a massively embarassing failure, and with "Ultimate Spider-Man" which was a resounding success.
Hey, I noticed that you guys are really getting into gear with your Spider-Man UK series reveiws. Good job! As a great fan of the 90s series, it's nice to know that that particular version of Spidey is not completely dead, as I recall it to be one of the only competent 'children's' adaptations of spidey. My question is simple: do these UK magazines continue that continuity; and if so, does it explain what happened after the final episode of the series and what became of Mary Jane and Norman Osborn in Limbo?
Thanks, UK artist Jon Haward sent me a few mags and introduced me to the series. Thanks Jon! As for your question, yes, the mags live in that general continuity, but not strictly so. No, I don't believe they ever answered the "What became of Mary Jane" question. I think Mary Jane has always been safe and sound - except for the occasional super-villain kidnapping, of course.
Thank you so much for giving me information about those Spider-Man "Neighborhood Heroes" books.
I have to tell you a little story about just what a hero spider man is.... My grandson didn't speak until he was almost three. He seemed really anti-social. I thought he might be autistic...he just lacked an interest in communicating with people, didn't make eye-contact.
And then....Spider Man, the movie came along...and my grandson finally found something worth talking about. His vocabulary and communication skills took off like a wild-fire. It's just evidence of the power of our imagination...an amazing thing!
When we read his little Neighborhood Heroes books, "spider-man" is the first "sight" word I'm teaching him...in otherwords, every time we come across those words, I stop and ask him what does that say?..."pie-d'min" ..thats the way he pronounces it... I'm so glad for those books and the way Spider-man has fired his imagination.
Well, if you ask me... any kid raised on Spider-Man is bound to turn out just fine. :)
I was just wondering, if you knew of any online fansite comics? I ask becuase Bat-man seems to have one and i was wondering about spider-man. If not, do u know of any people who would be intrested in putting one together?
Like, full-page comics? We have a short strip, our "Spider-Fun" feature. But, err... we're hardly serious. But no, I don't know any full-blown fan comics. As for people who might help put one together? Well, Stan Lee is probably at a loose end. You don't hear of Steve Ditko doing much these days either, maybe you could ask him?
I have to do a report on a modern-day hero in one of my classes, and so of course I chose spiderman. I need a list of Spiderman's girlfriends and all the villians/enemies he has encountered, so I went to the "characters" page on your site. However, there were very many characters to sift through to find what I needed, so I was wondering if you could send me a list of all of spiderman's "girls" and "enemies." I would be very thankful. Thank you so much!
Heh, go buy a Spidey Encyclopedia. They're very reasonably priced at Amazon!
What city does spiderman protect?????
Des Moines.
About your Fans : Spider-Fun weekly strip. I just wanted to say that every once in a while someone stumbles across a line that generally shouldn't be crossed in comic books, ect... But do you cautiously avoid that line? Hell no! You play hopscotch on it!
Thanks! Excellent third-party indemnity insurance. That's the secret.
What ever happened to Amazing Spider-Man annuals?
Good question. They just seem to have fallen out of vogue. I'm sure we'll see them again one day.
Did you realise that in the UK, Australia/NZ market there is a hard-back annual produced each year? We list those Spider-Man Annual (UK) books here in our Comics Database. They only have reprints, plus a few puzzles, but if you're a dedicated collector...
I am writing to you to ask to give me some advice. I'm currently creating a Webzine for a college project (For Media Studies) and being a big spider-man fan I thought it would be great idea to do one based on Spider-man.
I know the basics of what to include on my website, looking on various sites especially yours which I use quite frequently to check the latest reviews on each comic. But what I am asking you is this:
What makes a great webzine/website and what things should be best to include when including Spider-man into the whole concept.
Firstly, I know very little about layout, and such things. I get help now and again from graphic artists who drop in and assist. I just try and get a very clean and simple structure so that people can find what they want as quickly as possible.
But your real question is about content. I believe that "content is king", but regarding what aspects of Spider-Man would make a great website, the only advice I would offer is to write about what you know, and what interests you. If you really love Spidey postcards, then write about that. If you're a fan of Spider-Man team-ups, then there you go. Just do what you know, and what you love.
hi can u please give me spiderman's address so i can mail him something. i love SPIDERMAN. i am his #1 FAN.
You're the seventh number one Spidey fan I've met this week! At least you're in good company.