#the miniseries is a retelling of the original and is faithful to the source

[slashernipples]

In me heart, Killer Frequency has like, 8 movies, 2 failed reboots, and a tv miniseries.

#the second movie sees henry tryign to somewhat adjust af6er marie stepped off whistling point. #He pulls an axel and ends up killing a buncha cops and shit to avenge marie #movie 3 sees marie return a la ft13 part 6. its very sexy. they go on a murder spree again and marie walks off into the mosty woods #while henry ia shot and left for dead. #movie 4 is full of red herrings and a mysterious figure turns out to be henry after he survived the shot. the duo reunite #movie 5 is the copycat killer thay is ultimately offed by marie and henry. henry is killed for real. undead marie is distraught #she goes on a rampage and gets exploded. the town thinks its all finally over #but henrys hand rises from a shallow grave in a post credits scene #movie 6 henry rolls up to exact revenge for his mom AGAIN this is probably where some of the kills have a sense of humour to them #movie 7 is the obligatory Whistling Man In Space movie. henry has been played by a wwe wrestler since movie 6 #he shows.significant decay but turns out the alien nonsense suddenly made him powerful and idk brings back marie Again probably. #movie 8 was the crossover event slasher royale movie. marie and henry have an upper hand and emerge victorious. #the first reboot attempted to be super gritty and replaces forrest and peggy with college students with a campus radio program. #it was terribly received. #the second reboot attempted to place the focus on henry and made him the main murderer while saying he was possessed by a demon #this was one is widely considered to be the worst in the franchise. #the miniseries is a retelling of the original and is faithful to the source #its well appreciated for it even if critics said it was unimaginitive. the fans liked it bc it was clearly made for the fans. #why the FUCK have I put all these in the notes. #killer frequency #send help im so brain dill about this

[moviemunchies]

Alright it’s a bit past Hogswatch but we’re going to talk about the Sky One Hogfather adaptation, ‘kay?

In the wake of the premiere of BBC America’s The Watch it’s good to remember that Sky One did adaptations of Sir Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books and that they actually cared about the original content. The Hogfather is a two-part miniseries that is a faithful retelling of the book. Some might say too faithful--there are scenes which add very little to the Plot, which are in the movie/miniseries because they’re in the book, when specific bits that give them context are not. I imagine if you haven’t read the book, it’s a bit hard to follow. Like, “Why is there a little rodent Grim Reaper?”

Still, it’s made with such care and attention to detail that if you ARE a fan of the book you’re sure to love this movie. No, it doesn’t have the budget of a big Hollywood movie, and it shows at times. But I think it also shows that a big Hollywood budget isn’t always the best way to adapt a book, as I imagine we’d have gotten something more like The Watch if this had been made by a large studio.

So the story goes like this, if you don’t know: in the Discworld, a satire of fantasy worlds, there are beings called the Auditors of Reality and they hire an Assassin to kill the Discworld equivalent of Santa Claus (a being called the Hogfather) in their plan to eradicate humanity because they’re jerks like that. Death, the Grim Reaper, being somewhat fond of humanity, takes it upon himself to fill in for the Hogfather while he’s indisposed. Death’s granddaughter, Susan-- currently working as a governess in Discworld’s most populous city Ankh-Morpork--gets drawn into the Plot and takes it upon herself to go and save Christma--I mean Hogswatch.

What follows is a bright satire of basically all the Christmas specials, stories, and cliches, as well as a surprisingly deep reflection on the nature and purpose of human belief in the supernatural, especially when it comes to children’s stories.

This miniseries is pretty long. On DVD it’s split into two parts, each an hour and a half, which makes it more manageable for me to sit through. But just be aware if you decide to watch it that if you want to try it all in one go, you’re going to be there for about three hours, at least.

Some quick highlights from the cast: 

Michelle Dockery, pre-Downtown Abbey, plays Susan, who is more or less our main character. And I’m not going to lie to you: not all of her acting in this miniseries is on point. I get that she’s going for someone who is very emotionally detached, reacting to the weirdness of the supernatural world with exasperation and cynicism rather than wonder or terror or awe. But having seen this movie a bajillion times there are lines that she delivers with no emotion at all. Not stoically, but like she really doesn’t care what she’s saying, and that kind of bothers me.

Marc Warren plays Jonathan Teatime. He apparently modeled his performance off of Johnny Deep’s Willy Wonka, which is an interesting choice but one that makes sense. He hits all of the creepy vibes and he does a pretty good job. He’s not how I imagined Teatime, but he does a good interpretation that fits with the character and makes him a good villain.

[Also because of this miniseries apparently an alarming number of fans ship Susan and Teatime? No I don’t get it.]

The late Ian Richardson plays Death. Death is Awesome. I don’t know if it’s him in the suit, but regardless, Death’s remarkably expressive considering he’s a skeleton in a robe (and then a Santa costume). Whoever is in the suit, whether it’s Richardson or someone else, should be given a lot of credit, as well as Richardson for imbuing his voice with a personality that feels if not straight out of Terry Pratchett’s work, very close to it indeed. And no, I suppose he doesn’t look like a realistic skeleton, but he still looks really good on screen, like straight out of one of Kidby’s illustrations for the series.

Longtime Discworld fanboy David Jason plays Albert, Death’s butler, who is desperately trying to smoke and can never get to finish rolling his cigarette. He’s one of the best parts of the film, cynically trying to get his boss to be a jolly sentimental icon while maybe (probably) being drunk off his butt.

Joss Ackland is Mustrum Ridcully, the Archchancellor of Unseen University. Head of the wizards, more or less. He is both the sane man among the wizards (if you don’t count Ed Coleman’s Ponder Stibbons, who is actually sane and very good at his role too), and very ridiculous, though I suppose that might in part be the other wizards are pretty silly. He’s a joy to watch too.

And there are other cast members who all look like they’re having fun in this miniseries, but most notably: Terry Pratchett. All of these Sky One adaptations have Terry Pratchett in them at one point or another, and always delivering the final line of dialogue in the film. 

If you’re a Terry Pratchett fan, or are curious about Terry Pratchett’s work, I imagine you’ll probably like this miniseries. If you’re not, I can’t promise you’ll have a good time, but it’s an adaptation made with unwavering love for the source material, and in today’s world that’s sometimes pretty difficult to come by.

#Hogfather #Movie Munchies #reviews #Discworld

[aion-rsa]

Best Jane Austen Adaptations on Screen So Far

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With Emma and Sanditon making waves (seaside resort pun!), we're listing up the best screen adaptations of Jane Austen's work.

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It is a truth universally acknowledged that every Jane Austen novel must be adapted an infinite amount of times and we will be grateful for all of them. (Yes, even the Pride & Prejudice & Zombies film, the best part of which was not the movie itself but a supercut of Matt Smith as Mr. Collins eating scones.)

There have been a lot of adaptations of Jane Austen's six major novels and some of her other works, including the recently-released Emma starring Anya Taylor-Joy. These are the ones we recommend watching.

Best Pride and Prejudice Adaptations

Easily the most adapted of Jane Austen's works, Pride and Prejudice is a foundational work in the broader romantic comedy genre and in so much of our mainstream storytelling. People tend to have opinions about which of the P&P adaptations are the best. (Who is the best Elizabeth? Who is the best Darcy? Which is the most faithful? Does it matter?) Here are the ones we think are worth checking out...

Pride and Prejudice (1995)

There’s nothing more iconic Austen than BBC/A&E’s 1995 miniseries adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, starring Jennifer Ehle as proud Elizabeth Bennet and Colin Firth as prejudiced Mr. Darcy. The six-part serial was adapted by Andrew Davies, who would go on to pen many more Austen adaptations, and was the project that shot Firth to stardom. The scene of Firth’s Mr. Darcy coming out of the lake, long shirt soaked through, has been riffed on countless times (a personal favorite? St. Trinian’s), and for good reason. Mr. Darcy has never been so begrudgingly sexy.

Bridget Jones' Diary (2001)

An adaptation of the book of the same name which is a contemporary reimagining of Pride and Prejudice, Bridget Jones’ Diary has Colin Firth reprising the Mr. Darcy role (here, Mark Darcy) alongside Renee Zellweger as Bridget Jones, a 32-year-old woman looking to stop smoking, lose weight, and find Mr. Right—who most definitely is not snooty barrister Mr. Darcy.

Written by Richard Curtis (Love Actually), Andrew Davies (screenwriter of the 1995 Pride and Prejudice), and source material author Helen Fielding, this script has it all: romance, comedy, and plenty of heart. The film spawned two sequels—neither of which are as good as the original, but neither of which is terrible either.

Bride & Prejudice (2004)

This Bollywood-style contemporary adaptation from Gurinder Chadha (Bend It Like Beckham) stars Aiswarya Rai as Lalita Bakshi, a young Indian woman who lives in Amritsar with her parents and three sisters. When Lalita and her sister meet British-Indian lawyer Balraj (Naveen Andrews) and well-off American Will Darcy (Martin Henderson) at a wedding, strong feelings ensue. A great cast and a fresh cultural setting make this adaptation a must-watch.

Pride & Prejudice (2005)

Basically a masterpiece, Joe Wright’s first feature film has a great cast (Kiera Knightley, Matthew Macfadyen, Rosamund Pike, Carey Mulligan, Jena Malone, Judy Dench, Talulah Riley, and Donald Sutherland), but it’s the director’s interest in getting the setting right that makes this adaptation special. Using his trademark long shot, Wright invites viewers into the world of the Bennets: from the homey, organic mess of the Bennet house to the cheerful chaos of a dance hall, Pride and Prejudice has never felt so lived-in.

Lost in Austen (2008)

If you like your Austen with a speculative fiction twist, might I recommend Lost in Austen? This 2008 ITV miniseries stars Jemima Rooper as Amanda Price, a huge Jane Austen fan who gets pulled into the world of her favorite Austen novel and must make choices accordingly. This four-part story doesn't totally stick the landing, but it's well worth the quick watch for its humor, creativity, and meta fun, as well as to see Gemma Arteron as Elizabeth Bennet. 

The Lizzie Bennet Diaries (2012)

Who knew Austen was so well-suited for the vlog style? Hank Green and Bernie Su, apparently, who were the creators behind this Emmy-winning adaptation, which reimagines Elizabeth Bennet as a mass communications grad student still living at home with her parents and two sisters.

The story is told chiefly through a series of vlogs (as well as through supplementary social media accounts for the world’s characters, making this a transmedia storytelling experience). In universe, Lizzie (Ashley Clements) begins a vlog series chronicling her life as a thesis project, an event that just happens to coincide with the moving in of a wealthy medical student Bing Lee (Christopher Sean) and his even wealthier friend, William Darcy (Daniel Vincent Gordh), next door. Told in real-time over the span of year, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries was a truly special storytelling experience, and is still well-worth watching even without the real-time aspect.

Best Emma Adaptations 

While slightly less well-known than Pride and Prejudice, Emma has had its fair share of on-screen adaptations. The story of the spoiled 21-year-old Emma Woodhouse, Emma follows Emma on her matchmaking adventures, which are more the ego-driven meddling of a bored, rich girl with too much time on her hands than anything else. With Emma, Austen set out to tell the story of an unlikable protagonist, but Austen never intends for us to root against her, making Emma’s realistic journey of self-growth that much more cathartic.

Clueless (1995)

If you’ve seen one Emma adaptation, it’s probably this one. A contemporary retelling of Emma Woodhouse’s story, Clueless’ reimagining of Emma as bratty Beverly Hills teen Cher is downright genius. Starring Alicia Silverstone in the main role and Paul Rudd as ex-step brother and unassuming love interest Josh, Clueless is more than just one of the best Austen adaptations out there—it’s one of the best teen comedies of all time.

Emma (2009)

If you’re looking for a faithful miniseries adaptation of Emma, we recommend this 2009 version. Starring Romola Garai as Emma, Jonny Lee Miller as Knightley, and Michael Gabon as Mr. Woodhouse, and written by Sandy Welch (who also gave us the glorious North & South adaptation), this four-part serial will give you more bang for your buck than any of the feature film adaptations.

Emma Approved (2013)

From the web series company that brought you The Lizzie Bennet Diaries comes this similarly-structured Emma adaptation. Recontextualizing Emma Woodhouse as a young lifestyle coach and matchmaking entrepreneur, Emma Approved comments on YouTube/influence culture in insightful, empathetic ways. While not as good as its predecessor, Emma Approved is still a delightful adaptation worth the watch if you're into this form of storytelling.

Emma. (2020)

Bright, colorful, and at times absurdly pretty, this highly-stylized adaptation of Emma highlights the comedy of Austen’s classic tale without sacrificing any of the drama or romance. Anya Taylor-Joy delivers a masterful performance, as we watch Emma go from the rigidly-controlled noble to a more empathetic, thoughtful version of herself, but it’s Bill Nighy and Miranda Hart in supporting roles who really get to chew the scenery.

Other Best Jane Austen Adaptations

Sense and Sensibility (1995)

Emma Thompson. Kate Winslet. Hugh Grant. Alan Rickman. Need I say more? Written by Emma Thompson and directed by Ang Lee (his first English-language feature film), this faithful adaptation of Austen's Sense and Sensibility is a classic. Whether you're a fan of the film or simply a cinephile, I highly recommend checking out Thompson's "screenplay and diary" chronicling the making of this film.

Persuasion (1995)

If you're going to go for an adaptation of Austen's final novel (published after her death), try to find this 1995 made-for-TV film. Starring Amanda Root and Ciarán Hinds as Anne and Captain Wentworth respectively (not to mention Killing Eve's Fiona Shaw as Mrs. Croft!), Persuasion is not the story of two people coming together for the first time, but two people reuniting after eight years apart. We mentioned 1995 was a good year for Austen fans, yeah?

Mansfield Park (1999)

Mansfield Park doesn't get a lot of love when it comes to the adaptation, but this 1999 film starring Frances O'Connor and Jonny Lee Miller is one of the best Jane Austen-inspired films out there. A looser adaptation of the novel that also incorporates elements of Jane Austen's life into the story, Mansfield Park has all of the swoon-worthy romance, sharp social commentary, and relatable female protagonist you could want from an Austen adaptation.

Northanger Abbey (2007)

Andrew Davies is back at it again with this 2007 television movie, starring Felicity Jones as protagonist Catherine Morland (Carey Mulligan also pops up as friend Isabella Thorpe). One of the OG stories about fandom, Northanger Abbey follows young, naive Catherine as she visits Bath, becomes the object of two men's affections, and begins to confuse real life with the kind of things that might happen in the Gothic romance novels she obsessively reads. If you've never engaged with this most meta of Austen's works, we recommend checking out this adaptation.

From Mansfield With Love (2014)

If you're a fan of the vlog diaries adaptation format (if you can't tell by now, I am), then I also recommend this endearing adaptation of Mansfield Park. Created by Foot in the Door Theatre, what this production lacks in budget, it makes up for in heart. From Mansfield With Love reimagines the story of 19th-century protagonist Fanny Price to modern-day Britain where Frankie Price is working as a housekeeper at a hotel owned by the Bertrams. In an effort to keep in touch with her brother Will, she begins to send video diaries chronicling her life at Mansfield and with the Bertram family, in particularly with friend Edmund. Austen has never felt so real.

Love and Friendship (2016)

Austen in the style of Armando Iannucci (this film is actually written and directed by indie filmmaker Whit Stillman), Love and Friendship is an adaptation of Austen's epistolary novel Lady Susan, which follows the recently-widowed Lady Susan (Kate Beckinsale, having so much fun) in her efforts to secure advantageous marriages for both herself and her daughter.

Sanditon (2019)

The new kid on the block, Sanditon just wrapped up its first (and hopefully not only) season on PBS. Based on the unfinished Austen novel, it follows country gentlewoman Charlotte Heywood (Rose Williams) into the relatively more exciting world of Sanditon, a fishing village with aspirations of being a seaside resort.

While Sanditon isn't without its indulgent plotting, it is beautiful to look at, and includes some memorable performances from Theo James, Charlotte Spencer, and a massively underutilized Crystal Clarke, playing a rare character of color in Austen adaptations. More than anything, it's interesting to see Andrew Davies (yep, he's back) extrapolating out Austen's unfinished novel. Perhaps, fittingly, we most likely will never find out what happens next in this on-screen adaptation.

What is you favorite Austen adaptation? Let us know in the comments below...

Kayti Burt is a staff editor covering books, TV, movies, and fan culture at Den of Geek. Read more of her work here or follow her on Twitter @kaytiburt.

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The Lists Kayti Burt

Books

Feb 26, 2020

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#aion-rsa #Books

[bryancroidragon]

My Top 10 Favourite Giants

Colossus, behemoth, Brobdingnagian, whatever you call them giants are one of the greatest figures in mythology and fiction. Having done dragons and witches I am continuing with the theme of miniseries of the comic book continuation of the Jim Henson series “The Storyteller.” 

By the way, great read. I highly recommend it. Without further adieu, lets get started.

1. 

What is a sure way to get to the top? Be a character in a Kenneth Branagh film, I only wish the gifs from that film were at the top. Now, I might be cheating here but here me out! Loki has been referred to many things but he was a giant by birth and an Aesir by adoption, of course Odin and Loki’s grandfathers were brothers so them being blood brothers too kind of makes it like how a good portion of Augustus’ adoptive sons were his own grandchildren only with the relation changed from grandfather and grandchild to... some form of cousin. Also with this portrayal, Loki is not a full-blooded giant. As Kenneth Branagh himself stated Loki is Laufey’s bastard son and that Loki is at least part frost giant but at the end of the day it doesn’t really matter due to the original version of Loki having been a born giant. Is the MCU portrayal the most faithful portrayal of Loki period? No, that honor would go to “God of War” and even then it has problems such as adaptational heroism but later on down the line he might gain the negative traits of his original counterpart. Is this the second most accurate portrayal of Loki? No, that would go to the DC Comics portrayal due to DC being more faithful than Marvel with the Norse myths just as Marvel is more faithful than DC with the Greco-Roman myths. Is this the most faithful portrayal of Marvel’s Loki? Well, it is one of the most faithful but the portrayal of from “The Marvel Super Heroes Heroes”, which is the ancestor of motion comics, and the portrayal of “The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” are both tied for the most faithful so I’d say the MCU Loki is the second most faithful at least when it comes to portrayals of Marvel’s Loki. I would also like to clarify that this is for Loki as a whole not a specific portrayal and I really love the portrayals I have mentioned but you should also read the various retellings of the stories he featured in such as “Myths of the Norsemen” by Roger Lancelyn Greene.

2.

Polyphemus is one of the most famous giants in all of literature and is probably the most famous of his sub-group: the Cyclops. Why is he one of my favourites? Probably because I was introduced to him at a young age with the series “Mythic Warriors.” He is a fantastic antagonist for his section of the Odyssey and perhaps one of the most famous giants of mythology.

3. 

Willie might be something of a goof but he is the first giant I was ever introduced to and coming from an adaptation of one of the most famous giant stories, he shouldn’t be overlooked. 

4. 

Another giant I was introduced to at a young age, and perhaps one of the few moral giants on this list, was the BFG. He is a lanky fellow, as lean and hungry as Cassius but as sweet as honey. He is a good character and he is someone I think of when I think of giants as heroes.

5. 

Another moral giant, Grawp is the full-blooded half-brother to the half-giant Hagrid, who due to being a half-giant and the way they tend to be different from full giants would probably require a list of their own, really Antaeus would probably be in the number one spot. He is a good fellow, at last becomes one after a few years.

6. 

Enter Atali, the titular character of the “Conan of Cimmeria” story “The Frost Giant’s Daughter.” Her role in life is to lead wounded warriors of the North to be killed by her brothers, sons of the Frost Giant Ymir. She puts some sort of enchantment over them that fills them with lust so they will follow her, if they are able to. Everything goes terribly wrong when she ends up enchanting Conan, who kills her brothers and is so under the power of Atali’s enchantment that his code that puts rape beneath him means he probably would have done so had Atali not ended up calling for her father to rescue her. At the end of the day, Atali is still out there but without her brothers she probably won’t be luring any wounded warriors anymore and with the Hyborian Age being a “lost age” it is prime fan fiction fuel for what she may have become. An example of the Fair Folk perhaps?

7.

One of the great biblical villains, Goliath would make an excellent villain protagonist. I figure if the other biblical strongman Samson can get movies about him then Goliath can as well. Of course with the Dead Sea Scrolls text of Samuel, Josephus and the Septuagint manuscripts all giving his height as 6′9, he isn’t the tallest giant on this list, but those are the oldest manuscripts to make mention of his height. A mistake many screen portrayals make is that they do not do the research, “David and Goliath” and the “Xena” episode “The Giant Killer” for example are particularly bad about this. They just make him really big. Just do a Cecil B. DeMille and explain the sources to the audience at the beginning and outright state that is Goliath’s height in the oldest manuscripts.

8. 

Going from biblical back to classical, Typhon is one of the greats. Being the father of all monsters does not hurt either. Perhaps what I love so much about him is that he basically made a lot the Greek gods go “Screw it, lets move to a different country” and in classical tradition they went over to Egypt and some of them started wearing animal heads, it is kind of hilarious but also shows the Greek thinking of things but I have never seen an Egyptian explanation of equating some of their gods with the Greek ones, in the one time the two mythologies do crossover it is merely “X, Deity of Y, whom you call Z” back and forth between Greeks and Egyptians. Just the thought that Typhon so scared a bunch of Greek gods to basically change their names and go into hiding is funny but also kind of badass. If you are wondering why I went with the “God of War” picture it is because even though it isn’t accurate, “God of War” might be the most faithful depiction of classical and Norse mythology I know of but even then it is not perfect, I genuinely like the look.

9. 

Nearly bookended with another character from Kenneth Branagh’s “Thor” we have Laufey. Now, in the original mythology Laufey was Loki’s mother while his father was Fabauti. Why were the names switched around? I have no idea, neither seems particularly more sinister a name than the other. Actually, when I think about I don’t know any other portrayal of Laufey with an on-screen appearance besides this one. Sure, he has appeared in the comics by Marvel but in “Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” he is mentioned by Loki, if my memory serves, as having been killed by Odin while in “God of War” she is already dead meaning I’m left with only this portrayal of Laufey to use for the GIF and I’m okay with that. I love Kenneth Branagh films and Colm Feore is a terrific actor that I have seen live as King Lear. Going back to MCU’s Loki not being a full-blooded frost giant, Laufey is possibly the only one who knows the identity of his mother and that means he was the one who could have given the answer of just what exactly Loki’s heritage is. We know he is part frost giant but what is the other part? Was she an Asgardian or even a human Laufey took as a war prize? Honestly, the identity of Loki’s biological mother is one of the great mysteries of the MCU because we know who his biological and adoptive fathers were, we know who his adoptive mother was but who was his biological mother? Laufey knew and now he is dead so we can’t ask him.

10.

Yet another giant from Norse mythology, Surtur is perhaps one of the best. You hear “Fire Giant” and you think Surtur. Unfortunately, he is kind of underused. He barely got used in “Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes”, had both a minor and a major role in “Thor: Ragnarok” and hasn’t even appeared in person yet in “God of War.” He is an excellent antagonist and one of the great giants.

#giants #the storyteller #loki #thor #god of war #polyphemus #the odyssey #willie the giant #mickey and the beanstalk #bfg #harry potter #grawp #conan of cimmeria #goliath #typhon #laufey #avengers earth's mightiest heroes #thor ragnarok

[theawesomesource]

Charting the many origins of Marvel’s Wall-crawling Web-head

Everyone loves a good origin story, and comics have some of the best in the business. They’re so good in fact that people can’t seem to leave them alone. Aside from the fact that they were first told anywhere up to 80 years ago, classic origin stories have been told and retold so many times that it’d be easy to get confused. Batman has one of the most successful retelling with “Batman: Year One”, and just a few years ago Scott Snyder retold his version in “Zero Year“.

In the last few years the Amazing Spider-Man has had two series attempting to fill in some of the gaps of his early years. Firstly there was 2014’s “Volume 1.1: Learning to Crawl“ by Dan Slott and Ramon Perez which, much like its numbering suggests, sets out to fill in the gaps between the early panels, pages and issues that cover the origin of everyone’s favourite wall-crawler. It’s aim was to flesh out one of the more famous origins in comics while still remaining faithful to the original. Nothing is getting rebooted here; everything that happened has happened, but as the introduction insisted, “you don’t know the whole story”.

More recently was the ongoing series from 2015 -2016 (because yes, ‘ongoing’ these days at Marvel means ’12 issues’) “Spidey” by Robbie Thompson and Nick Bradshaw. Much like an earlier, (and most would acknowledge more successful) series called “Untold Tales of Spider-Man“, “Spidey” attempted not to retell any stories but to weave new tales between the existing ones.

So all of this is great right? This way the early years can be explored and retold in a way that doesn’t invalidate anything that’s come before it, plus you get to squeeze in extra stories. It’s win-win. Except…except these aren’t the first times Marvel’s done this. Hell, it’s not even the first time Marvel’s done this with Spider-man. There have been a number of books that have ‘filled in the gaps’ of those early days of Peter Parker, so I’m going to highlight some of the more prominent ones. I’m going to focus specifically on the origin itself, and see if they all complement one another nicely, or contradict one another completely. After that we’ll try and sort out some kind of timeline, because continuity is fun!

Honourable mention – “Spider-man: Chapter One” (1998-99)

Back in the glory days of the late nineties comics were rarely better. OK, I couldn’t write that with a straight face. Unfortunately the nineties weren’t very kind on our superheroes, and while a lot of good came out of that era, a lot of terrible things did too. Take “Spider-Man: Chapter One“.

Written and drawn by John Byrne, this was a retelling unlike any other. Designed to be a revamp for new audiences before the reboot of the main “Amazing Spider-Man” title, Byrne cherry picked his favourite parts of the origin story –

  #gallery-0-13 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-13 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-0-13 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-13 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

Like the covers…

– and completely disregarded the rest. The worst offenders? Well apart from updating the way people spoke and dressed:

Yeah girl, the Stones are… cowabunga…or something.

He completely changed the setting. Did you catch that subtle change above?

He’s heading where for what now?

Yep, turns out Peter’s fatal spider bite happened not at a Midtown High Science Exhibit: Experiments in Radio-Activity (Room 30) –

Myeh. Thought I was making that up didn’t you?!

– it was actually in one of Doctor Octavius’ Great Radiation Chambers, in a crude attempt to link their destinies.

Pictured Above: Epic Superior Foreshadowing.

Obviously things go wrong:

Many arms make terrible chamber ventilators.

And the rest is history. Horribly rewritten history.

“His recovery is…amazing…spectacular…even sensatio- ok I’ll stop”

That’s not all John Byrne changed. Wanting to reboot the burglar’s origins (you remember, the one that shot Uncle Ben? Keep up), he has it so that the reason the burglar broke into the Parker residence is because he saw Spider-Man leaving…

“He must be robbing the place! ONLY LOGICAL CONCLUSION.”

…and assumed he was ‘casing the joint’.

The start of a beautiful friendship

It’s only an honourable mention on this list because for all intents and purposes it’s been completely erased from history. It didn’t even get a convoluted Mephisto handshake – it’s just quickly and quietly been brushed under the rug as a sort of awful dream…

The Amazing Spider-Man: Parallel Lives (1989)

Ah yes. One of the more famous retcons in Spider-Man’s history, ‘Parallel Lives’ is a Marvel Graphic Novel from 1989 and follows Peter Parker and Mary Jane’s lives in tandem as they grow up in the same circles.

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These truly are…Parallel Lives.

Again it goes over Peter’s origin –

Pictured Above: Drama.

Yet apart from the odd phrasing there are no real changes to the birth of Spider-Man. For the most part, Peter’s side of things is a fairly faithful adaptation of the source material. There’s even a great page that recreates and expands on two panels from AF #15 –

With great power, comes great feels.

Most of the new material comes from Mary Jane’s side of things. Her back story gets fleshed out some more in order to change her from Party Girl into Party Girl…with emotions.

Because no one is allowed to be that much fun. NO ONE.

The major retcon however comes about a third of the way through the book…

Wait for it…

Say whaaaaaaaaaaaa??

Yep. Turns out all these years – before they married, before Gwen died, hell before they even officially met – MARY JANE KNEW PETER WAS SPIDER-MAN.

Wowsers

This was a pretty huge change in the Spider-Man mythos at the time and one that caused quite a bit of controversy. People could accept that MJ could suppress years of family tragedy, but ask people to believe that she knew all along about Peter, even when she was stood there at the door –

With her thighs thicker than her waist. What a dame.

– That seemed like too much for a lot of folks. Thing is though, aside from having to view those early interactions differently, it doesn’t really affect anything else too seriously. In the long run it also adds a lot of depth to Mary-Jane that wasn’t there before, and helped her become one of the best supporting characters in comics. So for that reason it’s slowly just been accepted that yeah, she always knew. Onto the continuity pile it goes!

Spider-Man: With Great Power… (2008)

Now here is a strange miniseries. Writer David Lapham (of Stray Bullets fame) attempts to fill in the gaps between two panels in Amazing Fantasy #15, namely this one…

Face front True Believer! Excelsior! etc

…and this one…

He never mentions that award. So humble.

It’s a great idea in theory. It’s always confused me how Spider-man goes from being the ‘sensation of a nation’ to a superhero seemingly overnight, and no one ever mentions his wrestling career again. Clearly things get glossed over. So this is where ‘With Great Power…’ comes in. Set after the spider bite, but before his Uncle Ben’s death, this mini suggests there was about… a week and a half maybe?… where Peter kind of bumbled around becoming a flash in the pan success, all the while moping over Liz Allen and receiving the gift of a car from Uncle Ben. Which he promptly sells, along with his wrestling money to buy a better car, just to impress Liz Allen.

Was he really this obsessed with her?

Anyway, the whole point is he has all the power but no idea what it means to be responsible.

Then this happens.

And with eyes like a chameleon, so she can watch two different Cute Darlings at once!

Like a mid-eighties Cher mixed with a mid-nineties Cher, Tiffany Lebeck enters Peter Parker’s world and for some reason she’s his perfect woman?

Stupid Parker! You could have been the next Sonny Bono! (Ask your parents)

As the story progresses we see the usual plot points get hit – he becomes a wrestling star:

There’s that rhyming phrase again. So nice you’ve seen it twice!

…annoys Jonah…

It’s here that Parker realised “J.J.” is a better nickname than “Sheepy Mcsubtle”

…plus it also covers the infamous scene with the burglar, because that takes place between those two panels in AF #15…

He’s wearing a beanie in this version? CONTINUITY RUINED.

The series ends with a news report telling of that same burglar still on the loose, in a typically ominous fashion.

WUH-OHS.

Overall it’s an odd series. I get the point that it was going for: there was a gap in the story that needed filling, but five issues was way too long, and the characters were in sort of a holding pattern. Peter couldn’t really learn anything because that had to happen when his Uncle died. Besides, back in AF #15 before Ben is killed Peter is kind of a jerk, so all the way through this Peter is also a jerk, and whiney to boot.

Ergh. GET OVER YOURSELF.

It does have some interesting ideas. Jameson’s editorials brandishing Spider-Man a menace start to annoy his promoters…

…so they’re the ones that encourage him to be a hero, in order to clean up his personal image. Ok, that’s a strange angle to take, but not entirely unbelievable. Peter doesn’t take too well to it though…

Even Cher can’t take his whining.

So yeah, I get it. Even when given the opportunity to be a hero on a plate, Peter can’t handle it because he hasn’t had that one hard lesson yet.

There’s that speech.

Oh that reminds me! After he got his powers, but before he became a superhero, Peter Parker wussed out on helping the Fantastic Four in stopping a monster invasion, and wound up indirectly killing a man:

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Ok, not really, he tried to help him but just sucked really hard at it.

So yeah, not a great series this, and while the premise was good the execution was pretty awful. If it wasn’t Spider-Man it’d be a great examination of a teenager taking on the responsibilities of a superhero, but for Peter Parker? It just doesn’t sit right. It just further reinforces the notion that Peter Parker isn’t inherently good or heroic, and that unlike other heroes like Superman, he needs one of his family members to die before he learns the “hard” lesson that helping others is the right thing to do? Still, it doesn’t actually contradict anything that’s come before, so I guess it goes in the pot.

Amazing Fantasy #16 – #18 (1995)

Extremely similar to “Amazing Spider-Man 1.1″ in both premise and execution, these 3 issues aimed to fill in the gap between “Amazing Fantasy #15″ and “Amazing Spider-Man #1″. Here’s where we’ll potentially have troubles, because there are discrepancies between this and “Learning to Crawl”.

Written by Kurt Busiek (the writer of previously mentioned “Untold Tales of Spider-Man”) in 1995, with art by Paul Lee, these are three standalone stories that all deal with the themes of power and responsibility: the first issue sees Peter fight a ring of scam artists that pick on widows and widowers (including Aunt May):

Wolf of Wall St up in here

…the second deals with a fellow teenager Joey Pulaski who also has superpowers –

His first superhero meeting…?

But uses her powers to help the mob target select buildings to destroy, so they can reap the benefits in insurance and construction.

All the power, none of the responsibility. LESSONS, PEOPLE.

The third issue takes a similar tack, pitting Spidey against a villain called Supercharger who charges himself up in a super way –

Electro’s dad AMIRITE LOL

Overall this is a pretty awesome, if seemingly forgotten series. There’s a definite feel of “Marvels” about it, which Busiek also wrote:

The artwork is very cool too.

…and because it’s Busiek it’s extremely faithful to the source material. Anyone who’s read “Avengers Forever” knows how much he loves his continuity. So because of that there’s nothing here that really contradicts anything that came before it. Spidey’s manager is called Maxxie Shiffman here instead of Monty Caabash in “With Great Power…” but with a little artistic license you can easily see these stories fitting together. Just about.

Different name, same Jerkweasel.

Spidey has never experienced ‘Spidey Sense’ before either, and gives the sensation its name in these issues.

“Some sort of – Arachnopathy? Web-Brain? Tarantulovision?”

There are a few other things, like apparently he’s never met Jonah Jameson before –

FORESHADOWING

…and Busiek shows you Uncle Ben’s funeral…

Popular fella.

…both of which get contradicted by later storylines. The Jameson thing in ‘With Great Power…’:

Although Jameson being knocked out gets around that particular continuity knot I guess so you know, GET OVER IT

…and Uncle Ben’s funeral gets shown again in Amazing Spider-Man 1.1 Learning to Crawl, which we’ll get to shortly. In either case they’re stories that came after Busiek’s issue, so if anything they contradict his work and not the other way around.

Amazing Spider-Man vol 1.1: Learning to Crawl (2014)

 Now, as much as people may lampoon Mr Slott, there’s one thing he’s good for and that’s continuity. He knows this character inside and out, so a flashback to Peter’s early days shouldn’t be too much of an issue for him, and this story is no exception.

Picking up literally one second after Amazing Fantasy #15… (seriously, check it out:)

Here’s the last panel of AF #15…

…And the first of ASM 1.1. Neat huh?

…this series aimed to fulfil the same promise that Busiek’s issues did, i.e. fill in the blanks between “AF #15″ and “ASM #1″. So the question is, can there possibly be enough room between those books for another 3 issues?

Slott gets the agent’s name right at least

This book covers a lot of ground that’s already been covered in the books mentioned above. For example, as mentioned earlier, here’s Uncle Ben’s funeral…

He’s more popular now at least

…Jameson’s beef with ol’ Webhead…

“rasser-frassing-grumble-my son’s an astronaut-grumble”.

…as well as introducing a fellow teen who is like Peter but not…

In this case a fanboy rather than a kid with actual powers

All in all though it’s not bad. It doesn’t majorly contradict anything continuity wise –

Not at first. Unless you count ‘With Great Power…’ which I’m sure no one is at this point.

… so there’s no reason it can’t sit alongside everything else in that regard. Plus the art is just gorgeous. Ramon Perez is fantastic and it’s clear he loves the source material.

Love the Ditko dots in Spidey’s eyes.

So yeah,  I think it’s fine to go on the continuity pile! The trouble comes when you try and make one coherent whole however…

Piecing it all together.

So. Now that we’ve seen all the various attempts at filling in the blanks, do they all come together to form a coherent story? Well, if we put them in order…

“Amazing Fantasy #15” is first, at least the first part up until he starts to become famous. Then we cut to

“With Great Power #1-5″. Taking place between the panels before cutting back to

“Amazing Fantasy #15″ where we find out what happens after the burglar shoots and kills Uncle Ben. As Peter leaves his bedroom at the end of the third page of part 2 however we jump over to

“Amazing Spider-Man: Parallel Lives”, where we see (Shock, Horror!) Mary Jane catching him leaving and figuring out that (Horror, Shock!) Peter Parker IS Spider-Man! Back to

“Amazing Fantasy #15″, and right as it ends, it gets picked up in

“Amazing Spider-Man vol 1.1: Learning to Crawl” (Can you see now why the numbering is stupid?) Then

“Amazing Fantasy #16 – #18″ which would then take us up to

“Amazing Spider-Man #1″. The first one. The first number 1. Ergh.

So that’s it. Does it make sense from a continuity stand-point? Meh, I’m going to go with a solid “Just about”. Does it make sense on a story-telling perspective? Probably not. If you read them all like that, you’d end up with a bit of a mess. Peter learns, then forgets, then re-learns – twice – that with Great Power there must also come Great Responsibility. Plus reading them this way means he has a tendency to forget people and places, meet people for the first time twice, and be surrounded by characters that change names and motivations.

Apart from Flash. Good…

…old…

…faithful…

…Flash…

…Thompson.

If I had to choose, I’d say you could probably remove ‘With Great Power…’ (Sorry Mr Lapham, love your other works!), and then most everything else sort of works itself out.

Ooh I forgot to mention Silk! She also gets bitten by the radioactive spider in “Amazing Spider-Man (2014-2015) #1“:

  – but seeing as her story doesn’t effect Peter’s origins in any way and rather just runs parallel to what I can only assume is Peter running off to immediately fall in love with Cher, we can just acknowledge it as a fun extra.

So what do you guys think? Was there anything I missed? Let me know below, on Twitter or on the Facebook page!

From Amazing Fantasy to the modern day, charting The Many Origins of Peter Parker, The Amazing Spider-Man Charting the many origins of Marvel’s Wall-crawling Web-head Everyone loves a good origin story, and comics have some of the best in the business.

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