To the Editor (01-Apr-2005)
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.
Before we start, there're a few new other bits and pieces to mention. Buying comics online, check out pre-order specialists Academy Comics [Now Deceased]. Not endorsed by us, but hey, they look pretty well organised. There's a big Spidey page in Spanish, Spider-Man Bajo la Mascara [Now Deceased]. Plus if you want a break from Spidey later on, maybe try Uncanny X-Men .Net.
[Editor's Note: We used to manually maintain a Links Page, but that just because too much work to keep up to date.]
Over on our Fans : Costumes page we have Massmaster Jack in red-n-blues, and we also have a 1969 AMC AMX rebuild modeled in classic Spidey colors courtesy of Ed Werner in Kenosha Wisconsin. Now that sure is a classic costume!
Over on our Fans : Art page we have new art from SpiderFan regular Shu Min, and from newcomer Gabriel Ates. Also, if you're looking for some great Marvel artwork to use for your computer Desktop, then visit Crimson Comics and look under "Desktops". We also have a bit of a backlog of tattoos that we will try and bring to you next month!
From Doug Barr
I got your website from the Marvel Comics website, I couldnt find anyone there who I thought would be able to help me, all the contacts were buisness contacts, at least it seemed that way- not people who just love comics.
Anyway, wayyyy back in the early 1960s, when 'Spider-man' #10 was published, they used a cover drawn by Kirby for some odd reason, made MORE odd by the fact that Ditko had drawn a far superior cover for issue #10 (one of his better covers in fact) that was finally shown when 'Marvel Tales' re-printed issue #10 in the early-mid 1980s. the only reason I can think of is that this issue came out just after JFK was assassinated in Texas & the cover shows a cowboy-like character with a gun. I know this sounds ridiculous but the times were different.
anyway, I am wondering if you can get marvel.com to show this cover on the site, or if you would direct me to a site that DOES show it.
Indeed. The team pointed me at two alternate covers from that era, which I found reprinted on the back covers of "The Official Marvel Index to The Amazing Spider-Man #1 and #2" back in the mid-80's. Here is the Ditko cover for Amazing Fantasy #15, and the one for Amazing Spider-Man #10.
(And hey, we can't help but feel a little bit smug that Marvel reckons that SpiderFan is the place to go for Spidey info!)
From Larbo
I'm kinda new to the Spidey universe, at least by most fan standards. I loved the mid-90s cartoon and I loved the movies (the first more than the second). I love creative writing, so...three months of an INCREDIBLY dull job later, I present to you, Spiderman 3. I realise if I attach it you probably won't risk opening an attachment so I've simply included a link to its posting on fanfic.net.
Honestly, you wouldn't believe how grateful I'd be if you could cast your eye over it. Most of the reviews I get on fanfic.net are nice and all, but short on actual feedback beyond "wow".
The link is:
Well, I can see you've been busy! We don't actually cover fan fiction any more on this site. There are so many specialty fan fiction sites out there that we leave that stuff to the experts. But if any of our readers want to provide feedback, they can contact ya directly via fanfiction.net.
From Zack Deane
I don't know if you can update review, but in case you can, I have a suggestion. In your review for the 40 Years of the Amazing Spider-Man CD-ROM, you didn't mention one glaring problem with the program: it doesn't contain the annuals! Considering there are 40 of them, you'd think they'd be included. I just thought that that should be part of you review. Otherwise, it is a great program for the Spidey fan who can't afford the old Amazing series.
Actually, there're only 36 of them. But you have a good point, I should have mentioned the lack of the annuals. I've tweaked the review to include that. Best that people know what they're getting!
From Johnny
At the DVD "The Shadow" is wrote something like: "Based on the comic-book by creator of Spider-Man". What Walter B. Gibson have connected with Spider???
Well, there're two links between the Shadow and Spider-Man that we know of. The first is a bit of a stretch. It's well known that Stan Lee was a big fan of those 30's pulp novels. He has often quoted "The Spider" (a major pulp fiction character of that era) as an influence in the creation of Spider-Man. It's quite logical to expect that Stan was also a fan of "The Shadow".
However, the connection you're referring to is far more clear. The writing credits of the Alec Baldwin "Shadow" remake go to David Koepp who was a co-writer for the recent (2002) Spider-Man movie.
From Devletbek
Hello, long time surfer first time mailer here, I absolutely adore your site, i love looking at the bios, but in the biographies section there was a character called venom III but when i clicked it, it sent me to scorpion's biography, whats up with that, please fix it.
We've had probably half a dozen people email to tell us this! However, if you actually read the content of the profile, you see that Mac Gargan (aka The Scorpion) is indeed also Venom III. We've tweaked the title to help save confusion.
From Anonymous
hi I really want to know who is the guy that has a skull on his shirt he also have been to Veatnam war and he lost his family
Umm. Howard the Duck? Was it a guy, or a Duck? Gimme a clue here!
From Jacob
Can you make morrie banch aka hydro-man having down sydrome with learning disbility? I hope like this idea if you could do this making a differance for special olympics just visit www.idso.org for more information about that okay thank you for your time please email me okay.
Awww crap. Tempted as I am to make fun of this letter, I guess even I have my limits. I'll just point out that giving people Down's syndrome is something you kind-a have to do when they're made! Can we compromise? How about giving him a bad case of "water on the brain"?
From Wadegage
my friends and I are arguing who would win in a fight, spiderman or wolverine.
Thoughts?
Thoughts? I think you're really sad people.
From Tritium Design
is it true that peter and MJ had a baby? last time i heard they had just gotten married, but i cant remember the issue # all i remember is MJ was wearing a gold dress and they were drinking champane. i would really like to know what happened.
Oh, for chrissakes. Just think about it. Mary Jane. Gold dress. Drinking champagne. Of course they're gonna end up makin' babies!
From Wer
If you included more Marvel and less D.C. comic charactures I think you will get more visitors because this is a Marvel fans site.
D'oh! I knew we were missing something!
From Merv Johnson
Hey, I noticed something when I first got USM #41 along time ago (the one where Peter and MJ get back together) and I read it again and noticed it again. When Peter kissed MJ in her room late at night (after she must have died her hair back to red), pay close atttention to Peter's clothes...
Blueish/Black jacket.
White shirt.
Dark Greyish pants.
Next day at school, Peter has the EXACT same clothes on. Not just the jacket, if you look closely, he has the exact same clothes on. He was last scene just before hand it MJ's bedroom last night.
See where I'm going with this? ;-) *wink wink*
Oh, what a filthy mind you have! Of course, applying that logic, did you note that in the 90's TV series Peter wore the same shirt every day! That dirty old devil!
From Merv Johnson
When I logged on to Spiderfan.org today to see the newest Spider-Fun, and I saw ULTIMATE style MJ and Peter, I honestly wondered if you did a joke about the point I brought up last time. (Peter and MJ's long night in #41.) But now that I read it, I gotta say...
I'm confused.
Is the punchline supposed to be part two or is there a hidden joke I'm not getting?
Heh, yes, there is a joke. Bendis is famous for the slow pace of his story-telling, he often comments on it himself. Ultimate Spider-Man has lots of "talking heads" pages like that, it's a specific aspect of his style. The strip follows the rule of humour writing that says to make a joke, take something to its extreme logical conclusion. Then take it one step further, and that makes humour.
From Dumbass
It must feel great to notice the 'no spidey' thing was partially resolved in USM 65, huh?
Dumbass.
Well, maybe you read something into it that we didn't - but it didn't look very resolved to us. But thanks Dumbass for taking the time to write.
From Eduardo
Hi, my name is Eduardo and I'm from Rio de Janeiro - BRAZIL. I'm writing because I've downloaded the ams#43 cover(sep-2002) from the site and I printed it in order to use it as a poster, but it didn't work, because the file does not have a good resolution.
My plea is: Could you please send me a better resolution file of this AMS cover?? If you can't, could you tell me who can??
Who can stop forest fires? YOU can!
From Zhenija
My son he is 4 is spiderman's fan. He is very ill now I want ask you were i can take or buy coloring pictures or coloring book with spiderman. In Latvia it is inposible. Please help me.
best regard Rostislav and his mother
Well, of course you can't buy Spider-Man books over there! Doom expressly forbids them! The people of your country will never know true coloring freedom until you help the American troops to bring democracy to your oppressed nation!
P.S. Truly sorry to hear your son is sick. Maybe you could try eBay, and have the books smuggled into your country.
From yvresgyros2
In any database, I cannot find any picture of the vilains portrayed in the 1967 and onwards tv serie. Well, maybe the most popular one but why isn't there anything about them Molemen in your compendium. The world needs pictures of Molemen...
It's true what they say about the Internet, anything you name, there's a bunch of fans out there. Go to google and enter "find pictures of burning goat in lingerie" and it'll come back and say "Too many items. To reduce search scope, please specify breed of goat."
From Jorcho
I'm writing an thesis on spiderman so i really hope you can help me. You probably can for my question is rather simple. The movies are situated in New York, the original comics are not (as I recollect). I'm I right and if so, what's is the name of Parkers hometown?
Spider-Man is the proud son of Des Moines! Good luck with your thesis.