Monster Zero x SciFi Japan - Archive Only

^Oh, man, I almost forgot that was a thing. Is it legally available anywhere?

^ For the longest time all episodes of the Japanese Spider-Man series were hosted on Marvel's official website. They disappeared from said site a few years ago and since then there's no official way for folks in North America to see it.

There is a long list of marvel animated series that need to get proper home media releases, but Japanese Spider-Man definitely needs to also. Shout factory should work with marvel/Sony/Toei to get the licensing, or failing that Marvel or Sony themselves should release it.

^I had forgotten (or not truly realized) how many people were involved in making this film. I'm glad to hear the future seems potentially very positive; I definitely want to see more superhero projects like this!

I came back from seeing the movie a little while ago, and I think I can say with certainty that this is now my favorite Spidey movie - probably one of my favorite superhero movies in general. I won't claim this is some sort of masterpiece; a lot of the plot beats are familiar in setting up the protagonist and the conflict, delivering comedy and action, and bringing the hero down just enough to get him reflecting and find the final push he needs to charge into the climax as heroically as possible.
What makes this film work so well, however, is the manner in which the medium of animation is used. Character designs of all sorts are able to interact and simply exist thanks to the flexibility of animation - Kingpin is enormous, Noir Spidey is genuinely black-and-white, Spider-pig looks like a Looney Tunes character - and they all work. Numerous visual tricks & gags - from text boxes to squiggly action lines to impact shots highlighting key action moments - are used to great effect, lending extra oomph to moments of comedy and drama. I'm not a regular comic book reader, much less a long-time Marvel fan, so maybe I have no right to say this.... But this movie FEELS like a comic book movie more than possibly any live-action adaptation I've seen. It goes all-out, all-in, and never forgets its heart. I hope the film hits it big at the box office, because this film deserves it!

^ You said it.

Also handled deaths better than most of the MCU (real named characters die, people mourn for longer than a minute, no army of disposable faceless villains)

The original "spider-verse" the last 2 episodes of the 1990's Fox Spider-Man TAS which aired in 1998

This film is incredible.

I've never read a Miles comic, or a Gwen comic, but nevertheless I think it's this movie they gets the concept of Spider-Man better than any film so far (with Raimi's Spider-Man 2 coming the closest before). Wonderful characters, next level visuals - and remember back in the day when we'd complain that comic book adaptation movies would have too many villains and would be overstuffed? This movie throws so many spider people and villains at us and disproves all that. I especially want to point out just how awesome

^ agree on the villains

I think it's not necessarily the number of villains but how villains tend to be approached nowadays. Nowadays it is common to portray villains as not really bad guys, usually this results a diminishing of the character.

Take Thanos in INFINITY WAR as a recent example, in the movie Thanos is on a crusade to save the future of the universe by killing half of all life; he's not really a bad guy, movie-Thanos just has a plan to do some good that most people disagree with. Contrast that with Thanos from the comics, he's in love with Lady Death and Thanos's efforts to cause death and destruction are all for drawing Lady Death's attention & affection.

Heath Ledger's Joker is a popular rendition of the villain because Christopher Nolan does not seek to explain the Joker, nor give him a heart touching character arc. Heath Ledger's Joker just wants to watch the world burn.




I've not had a chance to see Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse yet, but Ialready have a notion that villains are truly villains, truly bad guys in the movie. Wilson Fisk and the other villains in S:ItS need no other motivation than their personal quests for power, wealth, destruction, and maybe even revenge; and they're not lesser characters for not having backstories reveal how they're not really bad guys, just misunderstood.

I loved Infinity War Thanos.

I think the recent spat of bad villains in comic book movies is more about them not getting enough/any development, and less about their motivations being evil, noble, etc...Magneto has LONG been one of THE absolute BEST villains, and he's always been sort of a noble bad guy whose motivations are good. But then you have people like Ant Man & Wasp's Ghost, Suicide Squad's Enchantress, and Dr. Strange's...whatever-his-name was...and people just don't even KNOW the characters at all so they don't care and then they call it a bad villain.

Wilson Fisk in Spider-Verse, by the way, kind of IS "not really bad and just misunderstood." He's got a sympathetic backstory.

I know people were fretting that the film didn't make a ton of money up front, so it's great to hear that it's had a long, leggy run. Indeed, it seems that everyone who's seen the movie has seen it again in one or more repeat viewings!

Not a big Spider-Man fan, but I plan to watch this when it hits home video simply because of all the love it's been getting.

But I have one important question:

Is Supaidaman & Marveller/Leopardon it it???

^ Look at Miles' drawing board and you'll briefly catch a drawing of Leopardon.