Spider-Ham

Peter Poker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham #1

Peter Poker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham #1 comic reviewThe first issue of the five-issue mini-series starring everyone’s favorite spider-powered super-hero pig, offers a quick recap of the hero’s origins before plunging him into a new adventure. It seems his time in the Spider-Verse hasn’t helped Spider-Ham make friends with the other heroes of his world. Holding his accomplishments over the other heroes, Spider-Ham’s ego has gotten to be too much for many of the other heroes to bear (even when they might need his help).

There’s not much more to the comic than that from writer Zeb Wells and artist Will Robson, along with trying to shoehorn in as many cameos from other anthropomorphic versions of the Marvel Universe heroes as possible (though for fans on animal heroes that’s enough).

Peter Poker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham #1 Read More »

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

  • Title: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
  • IMDb: link

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse movie reviewI never expected to see Spider-Ham show up in a theatrical film as a major supporting character. I also never expected Sony to outdo Marvel in producing the best super-hero movie of the year. These are but two of the wonders of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse which give us the origin story of Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) as the new Spider-Man while also offering a few different versions of Peter Parker (Chris Pine, Jake Johnson, Nicolas Cage), Spider-Ham (John Mulaney), Peni Parker (Kimiko Glenn) and her robot, and Spider-Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld) as heroes from other dimensions brought to this Earth to help Miles stop the Kingpin (Liev Schreiber) who threatens to destroy reality while furthering his own selfish desires.

With a visual style that looks and feels like a moving comic book, the film by directors Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman offers everything a Spider-Man fan could want (with the exception of not including the Scarlet Spider, sigh). While staying true to the original characters, small choices such as the breeze to blow Spider-Man Noir’s (Cage) overcoat and adding ballet as a piece of Spider-Gwen’s fighting style are genius.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Read More »

Ultimate Spider-Man – The Spider-Verse Part 4

  • Title: Ultimate Spider-Man – The Spider-Verse Part 4
  • wiki: link

“A pig in a Spider-Man costume wanted a reasonable explanation. And it was the best day ever!”

Ultimate Spider-Man - The Spider-Verse Part 4

Wrapping up the Spider-Verse saga (which was really just a thin excuse to showcase various alternate versions of the character), Spider-Man (Drake Bell) returns home to confront the Goblin (Steven Weber) who has successful extracted DNA from all the other Spideys. After the villain transforms himself into the new Spider-Goblin, Peter needs all the help he can get and decides to enlist the various Spider-Men from other worlds to fight the Spider-Goblin.

Ultimate Spider-Man – The Spider-Verse Part 4 Read More »

Spider-Gwen #2

Spider-Gwen #2Set on an alternate Earth where Gwen Stacy was bitten by a radioactive spider, I felt a bit lost reading the first issue of the series that, other than the look of Gwen as this world’s Spider-Woman, did little to sell me on the concept. The second issue, which picks up following our heroine getting her ass kicked by the Vulture, is a little more entertaining thanks in large part to the appearance of Spider-Ham as a delusional sidekick only the heavily-concussed Spider-Gwen can see and hear.

The rest of the comic continues the storyline from the first issue as Gwen puts off dealing with both her father and the Mary Janes, each interested in finding Gwen for different reasons. We also learn George Stacy has been replaced on the Spider-Woman case by this world’s Frank Castle who appears only moderately more reasonable than the regular Marvel Universe version.

Other than Gwen (and the hallucinatory pig) the only variation of a well-known character that has caught my eye is that of crime lawyer Matt Murdock who is going to have to be given a much larger role to keep my interest (especially if the end of Gwen’s concussion means farewell to Spider-Ham). For fans.

[Marvel, $3.99]

Spider-Gwen #2 Read More »