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As I've written before, Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 2 is probably my favorite superhero movie after the original Christopher Reeve Superman. (I'm not in love with the Nolan Batmans although I get why people like them.) It's one of the very few superhero films with an autuer's imprimatur, and it's just plain goofy as heck, veering between horror pastiche of the directors own work, sappy musical and a sad meditation on middle-aged loneliness. Raimi is old enough to have the original Ditko Spidey as his inspiration, from the upside down kiss to the rogue's gallery of old men in greying wife-beaters—supposedly one of the reasons Raimi and the studio parted ways on Spidey 4 was that Raimi wanted the Vulture as the villain, and the studio wanted a more up to date bad guy. In Marc Webb's Amazing Spider-Man 2, all the references have been updated. This is the ultimate world of Bryan Hitch, Greg Land and Greg Horn, all blazing cgi and mottled, gloomy photoshop. The soundtrack has been similarly updated, with a group known as the Magnificent Six—which includes everyone from Pharrell Williams to Johnny Marr—blasting catchy singles. In what passes for innovation here, a scene where Peter Parker does the obligatory Google search to find out a mystery, instead of the chugging string music of every other superhero movie, we get a Phillip Phillips song.

C2E2's on once again, and this year, it's being held in the South Hall.  (Oh, how I await the day when it takes up...

Torsten's Tip:  If you are taking public transportation to LaGuardia Airport, hop on the 7 train express to Roosevelt.  Then grab the Q70 bus. ...

You will need 3D glasses to completely appreciate thissexually explicit comic by Jason Little it looks mighty fly in any mode.

Over at Thrillbent, the webcomics portal he devised two years ago, Mark Waid has announcedThrillbent 3.0, which includes an iPad app that will allow users to sync their website purchases, see where theyleft off, and other up-to-date functions. In addition to the free comics Thrillbent has always offered, Waid is adding what he calls a “Hulu Plus” level that includes new content for a monthly subscription of $3.99, which is, as Waid points out, is the price of one comic. For this you get:

The NY Times has the first official look (aside from iPad sightings over the years) of Scott McCloud's The Sculptor, his first sustained fiction...

§ Beware the timeslot! It seems that the aborted single season of Beware The Batman will finish but new episodes will be shawn at...

There's a pretty lively discussion of Comixology's Submit program going on in the comments of this post. And while SUbmit seems to be...

If you want to know what Marvel is shipping in July, the answer is GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY!

This story has been majorly edited as I have learned new facts...or new interpretations of facts.

A little indie news here -- 2D Cloud a micro publisher which has put out some outstanding books like Anna Bongiovanni's Out of Hollow Water, various books by Noah van Sciver, etc. —has announced some plans.

This May, IDW will continue to develop their range of all-ages titles with The Littlest Pet Shop, from the twin creative teams of Georgia...