The Superpower Union Webcomic

This week’s edition of The Bookshelf features everyone’s favorite web-slinger: Spider-man!  This is part of the ‘Big Time’ storyline, and features the all-new(ish) Hobgoblin, as well as a backup story about Mac Gargan’s return as The Scorpion.

I’m a huge Spidey fan, and this is always one of my favorite reads.  I do have a big problem with this story, and that has to do with the latest Hobgoblin.  He’s now Phil Urich (you may remember him as the good Green Goblin from about 15 years ago), and while he is a pretty cool villian, I just can’t buy his turn to villainy.  He went from being a normal guy to supervillian overnight!  With no real reason!  It just seemed weird and forced.

I do like that Phil Urich is being shown as a darker version of Peter Parker.  He’s getting by peddling exclusive photos of The Hobgoblin in action, and using them to impress his boss and co-workers.  The even did the old ‘half face’ thing they do with Spidey (Where half his face is his own and the other half is under the mask)!

Plus it’s got Spider-man’s new ‘Stealth Suit’, which is pretty sweet.  Be sure to check it out!

See ya next time!

I thought I’d start doing something different, and offer a review of what I’ve been reading lately.  I’ll probably do this every Thursday, after I’ve had a peek at this weeks newest releases.

Anyway, last week I picked up Marvel’s What If? Classic Volume 2.  It was an interesting old-school read.  Featuring ‘What if someone else became Spider-man?’, ‘What if the world knew Daredevil was blind?’, ‘What if the Avengers were formed in the 1950′s’, ‘What if Jane Foster became Thor?’, and ‘What if Rick Jones became the Hulk?’.  All were decent reads, but there was something that caught my eye at the back of issue #7.

The letters page instead featured a list of ideas for fans to vote on.  A quick look at the list showed a glimpse into the future of Marvel Comics…

First, the volume featured two such stories.  ‘What if the world knew Daredevil was blind?’ is now a reality in the Marvel Universe, as its widely suspected that the blind Matt Murdoch is  The Man Without Fear.  The second story of note was ‘What if the Avengers were formed in the 1950′s?’.  The team sees a group of 50′s heroes uniting to save the world.  The team?  Jimmy Woo, Gorilla-Man, 3D Man, Venus and the Human Robot (with an appearance from Namora).  The menace? The Yellow Claw.  Marvel redid this story a few years ago, only it was called ‘Agents of Atlas’ instead…

Now, back to the list of possible what if? stories.  What if:

Aunt May died?
General Ross had been hit by Gamma Rays?
Captain America AND Bucky survived WWII?
The world knew Peter Parker was Spider-man?
Spider-man married Mary Jane?

Any of this sound familiar?  See ya next time!