So the new Spider-Man movie opened this week, and you probably think I’m excited about it! But I’m really not. For one thing, there are only so many superhero movies I can be interested in, and right now my brain space is reserved by the Avengers and all its related movies, and the Christopher Nolan Batman movies (though I am, at this point, a bit tired of Christian Bale’s raspy Batman voice, and am mostly going to see the new one because it was shot in my hometown of Pittsburgh. Of course, you might not want to trust my judgment, because of all the earlier Batman movies, my favorite was always the Val Kilmer one).

And those earlier Batman movies bring me back to my issues with the new Spider-Man movie—it’s just too dang soon for a reboot. Not that I’m super attached to the Tobey Maguire version—I never even saw his Spider-Man 3, because, like I said, I can only care about so many superhero franchises. But with the Batman movies, eight years elapsed between the last Clooney movie and Nolan’s reboot, and that was after over a decade of Batman movies starring four different dudes. That’s the approach I wish they’d taken with this new Spider-man movie—recast it, bring in Emma Stone/Gwen Stacy as a new love interest (Peter Parker didn’t meet her till college anyway) and send Spidey on new adventures. I mean, it’s worked for James Bond for forty years! 

I don’t want to watch another movie where Uncle Ben is going to tragically die and Peter will be all mournful, and I definitely don’t want to watch a creating-a-superhero-suit montage (I assume this new movie has a scene like that). I want to watch something new and interesting. Apparently this new movie has Stuff about Peter’s parents (which . . . ok, that is a little bit interesting, I actually don’t know anything about them) but I’m just not interested. I’m sure it’ll still do well at the box office, but nowhere near Avengers-level.

The movie’s tie-in nail polish is pretty cute, though.

And because I can clearly never stop talking about the Avengers movie, here’s an interesting article about why Loki actually won, and how this might be setting up possible sequels. Intriguing stuff!

In non-superhero news, this week I want to recommend Carla Speed McNeil’s series Finder. This is a great series that has been in and out of print, and sporadically published, for a long time—but is much easier to find and read now that Dark Horse has published two collections of the majority of the series to date. (Volume 1 and Volume 2)  Finder is kind of a weird sci-fi epic, full of insanely cool worlds and characters. The main character is ostensibly Jaegar, a gifted tracker and societal outcast, but pretty much every other character is an awesome girl of some kind or another. McNeil writes really interesting storylines involving everything from mysteries to romance to somewhat philosophical storylines on culture clashes. And her art is really stunning. Recommended for probably high school and up because of some sexual situations. And Highly recommended for those allowed to read things like that. 🙂