Category Archives: Favorite Stories

10 Great Spider-Man Stories

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Spider-Man, obviously, is one of the most popular characters in comic books (or movies, or cartoons, or video games, or…), and has been for decades now. His popularity has meant for most of the 60+ years of his publishing history, he has had more than one ongoing title running simultaneously. Not counting what if…? or Ultimate stories (those would need to be different lists), I wanted to pick out 10 tales of the webbed wall-crawling wonder that will show you why he, his villains, and his cast of supporting characters are second to none.

I should point out this is NOT a top 10 list, in that these are not ranked in any particular order, nor are they the 10 BEST Spider-Man stories, or my absolute favorite 10. These are just 10 cool stories that maybe slipped your radar or were out before you were reading Spider-Man and/or were born. I imagine I will revisit this topic, because it was hard to narrow it to just 10 for this article.

So, if you haven’t read these, do yourself a favor and check them out, and if you have read them, well… good.


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“SIN CITY: BOOZE, BROADS, AND BULLETS” (VOL 6) – Revisited

Posted by ErikSlader on

Click here for Vol 5 – “Family Values”

“She shivers in the wind, like the last leaf on a dying tree.” – the Colonel

BOOZE, BROADS, & BULLETS

The sixth “Sin City” volume is an anthology, collecting various short stories set in Frank Miller’s Basin City.

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“SIN CITY: THAT YELLOW BASTARD” (VOL 4) – Revisited

Posted by ErikSlader on

Click here for Vol 3 – “The Big Fat Kill”!

“I take his weapons away from him… Both of them.” – John Hartigan

“THAT YELLOW BASTARD”

This has got to be one of the most disturbing tales in the entire series…

Originally released as a six-part mini-series, and inspired by the “Dirty Harry” movies, Frank Miller’s fourth story arc in the “Sin City” saga is “That Yellow Bastard”. While the book is still in black and white, this one’s notable as being the first in the series to include color in it’s dark and grimy pages: the Yellow bastard himself is – you guessed it – yellow. And not just any yellow, it’s a gross, sickly, yellow. And when he shows up, it’s jarring as all hell, something’s just not right about him.

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“SIN CITY: THE BIG FAT KILL” (VOL 3) – Revisited

Posted by ErikSlader on

Click here for PART ONE and PART TWO

“Stay smart. Stay cool. It’s time to prove to you’re friends that you’re worth a damn. Sometimes that means dying. Sometimes it means killing a whole lot of people.” – Dwight McCarthy

“THE BIG FAT KILL”

Volume 3 might be my favorite of the Sin City graphic novels so far! Frank Miller’s “The Big Fat Kill” continues the story of Dwight McCarthy (from “A Dame to Kill For”), as he’s once again pulled into treacherous game of life and death. This one has some of my absolute favorite panels, lines, and character moments in the entire series.

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“SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR” (VOL 2) – Revisited

Posted by ErikSlader on

Click here for Vol 1: The Hard Goodbye!

“Do us both a favor and stay still long enough for me to blow your brains out.” – Ava Lord

“A DAME TO KILL FOR”

Frank Miller’s “Sin City” comics continued in 1993 with “A Dame to Kill For”, a mystery featuring a private investigator, Dwight McCarthy, who becomes ensnared in a plot involving his ex-fiancé, Ava Lord. The story takes place parallel to “The Hard Goodbye” and even includes appearances by Marv!

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“SIN CITY: THE HARD GOODBYE” (VOL 1) – Revisited

Posted by ErikSlader on

“Well, I’m gonna find that son of a bitch that killed you, and I’m gonna give him the hard goodbye. Walk down the right back alley in Sin City, and you can find anything.” – Marv

After having revisited all six volumes of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s “Scott Pilgrim” graphic novels, I decided to jump back into another one of my all time favorite ‘indie’ comic book series: Frank Miller’s “Sin City”!

Frank Miller’s Sin City

“Sin City” is a neo-noir anthology series. It’s basically Frank Miller’s ode to the works of the great pulp crime novels and detective yarns. Sin City aggressively leans into the tropes of the entire film noir genre, but it’s also wholly unique in it’s style and storytelling, thanks entirely to the incredible talent of writer/artist Frank Miller. It’s easily one of the most iconic works of Miller’s career, a career filled to the brim with some of the greatest graphic novels of the era: “300”, “The Dark Knight Returns”, and “Daredevil: Born Again” just to name a few.

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REVISITING “SCOTT PILGRIM’S FINEST HOUR!” (VOL 6)

Posted by ErikSlader on

Reblogged from Geek to Geek Media!

Check out my previous review of Vol 5: “Scott Pilgrim vs The Universe” here!

About a year ago, I first started my six-part nostalgia-laden review of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim graphic novels (read Part One here!) and had an absolute blast revisiting each of these amazing books with the gorgeous Color Editions from Oni Press. At the time, I had no idea that a year later Netflix would be announcing an upcoming anime series based on the original comics, which is really fitting, especially considering the heavy Japanese manga influence throughout each of the volumes!

I really enjoyed revisiting this series and it held up surprisingly well for me. I have to admit, I was hesitant to read Volume 6, because I didn’t want it to be over. I’m glad I finally did though, because “Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour” might really be the best one in the series!

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REVISITING “SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE UNIVERSE” (VOL 5)

Posted by ErikSlader on

Reblogged from Geek to Geek Media!

Check out my previous review of Vol 4: “Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together” here!

Bryan Lee O’Malley’s “Scott Pilgrim vs the Universe” is the fifth volume of the Scott Pilgrim and like the previous one, has very little in common with the film adaptation. The book follows up on the happy ending of Vol 4 where it seems as though Scott and Ramona are finally overcoming their pasts. Scott has vanquished the first four members in the League of Evil Exes, but this time he’ll have to contend with the Katayanagi Twins! But first, the book randomly opens with Scott’s 24th birthday with a super anime inspired overreaction to being called old and then a hilarious panel of him nomming on some chocolate cake.

Scott Pilgrim Vol 5 (Color Edition)

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REVISITING “SCOTT PILGRIM GETS IT TOGETHER!” (VOL 4)

Posted by ErikSlader on

Reblogged from Geek to Geek Media!

Check out my previous review of Vol 3: “Scott Pilgrim & The Infinite Sadness” here!

Bryan Lee O’Malley’s “Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together” (does he though?) is the fourth volume in the Scott Pilgrim saga and probably my personal favorite! It’s also possibly the least like the movie?

Scott vs the Summer

It’s a scorching summer in Toronto, Canada. Scott and friends go to the beach to celebrate Julie’s birthday (at her aunt’s beach house). There are a lot of cute moments between Scott and Ramona in this one, while the two of them awkwardly consider taking the next step in their relationship (aka the L Word: not “lesbians”). During a heat wave, Scott escapes his non-air-conditioned apartment to go hang out at the mall where he runs into Lisa Miller! (see the flashback from Vol 2)

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REVISITING “SCOTT PILGRIM & THE INFINITE SADNESS” (VOL 3)

Posted by ErikSlader on

Reblogged from Geek to Geek Media!

Check out my previous review of Vol2: “Scott Pilgrim vs the World” here!

Scott Pilgrim and the Awkward Silence…

Vol 3 of the Scott Pilgrim saga picks up where we left off last time with The Clash at Demon Head concert, where Scott and Ramona realized that Envy’s bass player / boyfriend is in fact the same Todd that Ramona used to date! For those keeping track, in the movie version this whole volume was basically summed up in one scene: the fight between Scott Pilgrim (23 year old, indecisive loser-hero hybrid) and the Vegan-powered Todd!

Immediately after the concert, Scott Pilgrim, Ramona Flowers, Knives Chau, Kim Pine, and the others are invited back stage with Envy Adams and Todd Ingram to stare each other down. There’s some fun character interactions going here, and you almost need a flow chart to keep track of it all. Scott’s dating Ramona. Knives is currently dating Young Neil. Envy is with Todd. Scott used to date Knives but broke her heart. Scott also used to date Envy, but got his own heart broke. Knives previously fought Ramona over Scott. Ramona dated Todd briefly.

Scott Pilgrim 101

During this super awkward exchange, Knives jumps up in realization shouting “I’ve kissed the lips that kissed you!” and immediately gets her highlights punched out of her hair, by a chick with a bionic arm! During the exchange, Envy seems to get jealous of Ramona and starts to taunt her about her past. That’s when Scott just loses it and decides to start Round 3 early, yelling at Todd: “That’s it! That is it. You cocky cock! You will pay for your crimes against humanity!!!” – but just as Scott’s leaping through the air at Todd, his eyes start glowing and his hair goes super saiyan!

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