The 5 Smartest People in the DC Universe

The 5 Smartest Men of the DC Universe:

The DC universe is literally jam-packed with smart people left and right. I think you need to be fairly intelligent to fight crime and save the world on almost a daily basis. But that doesn't mean that some people are more intelligent than the rest. These are the five people that through whatever means and reasons are the smartest of the smart, a League of Intelligent Men. This list will give a brief summary of the character and just how exactly smart they are and what separates them from the rest of the DC universe. So without further ado, the 5th smartest man:

#5, Ted Kord:
Theodore Kord graduated from high school at the age of 16, developed drones the size of insects at the age of 19, stopped the world from being taken over by his insane uncle while he was in college, revamped his fathers dying industry soon after and became the tech powered superhero known as the Blue Beetle. He's a brilliant scientist, a genius engineer and an all around nice guy to be around.

#4, Ray Palmer:
While studying at Ivy University in Connecticut, young Raymond Palmer found a piece of a white dwarf start that had fallen to earth. After this discovery his interest in matter suppression grew and he deduced that if he made a focused lense from the dwarf star material and shown an ultraviolet ray through it, he could shrink anything, and it did. He learned how to shrink matter in his first couple of years in college, leading to the construction of PalmerTech and The Atom suit and his ability to shrink at sub atomic levels and study atoms very very closely.

Ray Palmer as portrayed by Brandon Routh in the CW's "The Arrow"

#3, Michael Holt:
At a young age of 6, Michael Holt would read the works of Bohr, Einstein, Planck and Feynman in order to gain a greater understanding of the world of science. Growing from age six he studied space and time. Michael himself admits to having "a natural aptitude for having natural aptitudes." Before he began his superhero career of being Mr. Terrific he already had 14 Ph.Ds. Soon after he developed T-spheres (allowing one to be completely invisible to all technology), he was a self-made multi-millionaire, owned his own company and was a gold medal Olympic. As a superhero he plays a vital role in solving the worlds problems and is the chairman of the Justice Society of America.

#2, Bruce Wayne:

"Sometimes I think of Bruce as a man in a costume. Then, with some gadget from his utility belt, he reminds me that he has an extraordinary inventive mind. And how lucky am I to call on him."

~Superman

As a young boy Bruce wear tear through old literature ranging from Dickens to Tolstoy, he was always searching for something new to learn. After Bruce Wayne saw his parents gunned down in front of him, he swore an oath to protect his city that was tearing itself apart. At age 14 he would attend seminars and courses at Cambridge, the Sorbonne, and universities across Europe. He traveled the world for nearly a decade in order to reach physical and intellectual perfection training in everything including but not limited to: Chemistry, Forensics, Escape Artistry, Martial Arts, Disguise, and Martial Arts. He trained with Kirigi the Japanese ninja to learn stealth, Nepalese monks to learn healing, man hunting from the Frenchman Henri Ducard, hand to hand with World Class Boxer David Cain, and even trained in archery under Oliver Queen, the Green Arrow. He was soon to join the FBI at age 20, but deduced that he would not get to fight crime in Gotham the way it needed to be done. Bruce may not know as much about astrophysics as Michael Holt, or shrinking technology like Ray Palmer, but he has made it a priority to become proficient enough at literally everything in case it was ever needed in his crime fighting.

#1, Lex Luthor:

Alexander Luthor was born in the poverty stricken neighborhood called Suicide Slums in Metropolis. His parents were abusive and living the slums instilled aspirations to become better, somewhat. He dedicated his life to bettering himself and as a teenager orchestrated the death of his parents in order for him to gain a large life insurance from their deaths. With this money he created LexCorp. He would build this company from the ground up until it owned every media corporation in Metropolis, and was creating technology for the betterment of man. By the time he was a young man he was sitting atop a throne he had built himself. If anyone got in his way, he had blackmail on them. He kept the gangs of Metropolis active by selling them weapons and then striking the gangs down as a philanthropist, making himself appear as a hero. Everything he has was because of himself and nobody else. This is perhaps why he hates Superman so much. For as long as Lex has lived everything that has happened to him was through his own hard work, his own smarts, and here comes Superman, everything given to him from birth. Because of this, Lex developed Kyrptonite technology in order to keep Superman at bay. When Gotham was destroyed by an earthquake and abandoned by the government it was Lex Luthor who poured his funds into fixing the broken city. All in all, it shows the darker side of being the smartest man in the world, the one where he uses his smarts to gain advantage for himself. It's a shame that the smartest man in the world is a very crooked and bad man, but in the more recent comics he is portrayed as more of an anti-hero, even teaming up with the Justice League at times to save the world and his own empire. Too bad the only thing he can't seem to invent is some form of working hair growth serum.

Captain Britain, A Brief History

Captain Britain:

Since Captain America: Civil War is more than six months away, lets talk about Captain Britain, (see that perfect segue).

In all seriousness though, on the list of the most popular Marvel characters from a poll by Observationdeck.com, Captain Britain came out number 28, above Deadpool, Loki, Namor and Black Panther. Is this correct by any standards? No, I don't know who they were polling, (Probably Britain), but he isn't that popular. However, he has gathered sort of a cult following, and I'll admit, I've always been intrigued by him. So lets take this journey together, to find out who he really is.

Origins:
Brian Braddock was born in Malden, Essex. He was a graduate student in physics from England's Thames University. He worked under his mentor Dr. Travis at the Darkmoor Research Centre. When Darkmoor was raided by The Reaver, (a British Crime Lord), Brian jumped on his motorcycle to get help but was quickly run off the road and crashed by the Reaver's men. Luckily he was approached my Merlin, a man shrouded in mystery with a gift to give Brian. He told him that in order to survive he would need to become Britain's great hero by choosing between two artifacts, The Amulet of Right and The Sword of Might. Brian didn't consider himself much of a warrior so he chose the Amulet. When he touched the amulet he was transformed into Captain Britain with costume and super strength, he was then given the Star Sceptre by Merlin which enabled him to fly. Unfortunately the Reaver caught up with Brian. The Reaver claimed the sword turning him into an armored knight with great strengths. Brian defeated the Reaver and so Captain Britain was born.

Captain Britain in the Early Days

America:

Through his adventures in Britain he had various run-ins with many villains indigenous to Europe and even teamed up with Captain America to defeat the Red Skull during his escapade to England. It wasn't until Brian was studying abroad that he came to New York City and shared a room with Peter Parker at Empire State University. They did not know of eachothers alter egos, but as superheroes they teamed up a lot, finally Spiderman deduced his British Roommate was indeed Captain Britain, though Brian remained unaware that Spiderman was Peter Parker. 

Excalibur:

Upon Brian's return to Britain he would face many other villains but ultimately retire the life of being a superhero to his twin sister Betsy (better known as Psylocke from the X-men), who was quickly blinded while fighting crime in Britain. Through twin telepathy Brian felt her pain and went after the offender, The Slaymaster. Brian killed him and then resumed the mantle of Captain Britain. During the Fall of the Mutants, Brian was so upset over his sisters death that he took to heavy drinking and it wasn't until Nightcrawler threw Brian off of a lighthouse and convinced him that the other mutants needed saving. While successfully saving the X-men, Captain Britain and a few other mutants formed Excalibur, the premier British superhero team.

The Avengers:

After the Skrull invasion Captain Britain joined MI-13. While working at MI-13 he was approached by Steve Rogers at an international meeting and asked to join the Avengers as a reserve member, only fighting if they needed him. He joined despite murmurings from the other MI-13 members. He was just a reserve member at first but soon became a sworn in member of the Avengers at one point.

Captain Britain Corps:

During a multiverse crisis all iterations of Captain Britain banded together in order to fight the evil threatening the multiverse. This group of alternate Brian Braddocks is known as the Captain Britain Corps. During incursions where worlds collide the original Captain Britain was thrown back to his own Earth while the rest of the Corps was wiped out, and Brian losing an eye at some point.

Presently...

Presently Captain Britain is part of the Illuminati, (A think tank organization consisting of Reed Richards, Tony Stark, Namor, Stephen Strange, and other smart minds). He helps them find a solution to the many incursions popping up around earth during Time Runs Out.

Most Powerful Weapons in the Marvel Universe

Most Powerful Weapons in the Marvel Universe:

What is the most powerful weapon in the Marvel Universe? It could come in handy when the Avengers battle Thanos, or whenever they decide to fight Galactus, (Hopefully they'll get the rights to that). So rather than try and rate these by how powerful they are, we'll go over some noteworthy items in the Marvel Universe that are hailed as super powerful, then I'll tell you what is actually the best one. Lets get started.

Mjolnir:
Thor's hammer, Mjolnir is regarded in Nordic mythology as one of the most fearsome and powerful weapons capable of leveling mountains. According to Nordic legend the dwarves Sindri and Brokkr messed up on the length of the hilt making it shorter than intended, but still deadly enough for the God of Thunder to wield it effectively. The interesting thing about Thor's hammer is that it can only be wielded by those that are worthy, courtesy of Odin, (noteworthy people who can do this are, Captain America, Storm, Beta Ray Bill, etc). So why doesn't it fall to the ground when he hangs it on a coat hanger as seen in the movies? Is the coat hanger worthy? I popular theory as to why is that the hammer is sentient to some extent, meaning it knows when it's being handled by a human and when it's just being placed on a hanger. A sentient hammer capable of leveling mountains? Pretty great!

The Mandarin's Rings:

The Mandarin, (not Trevor the actor, the real Mandarin), is one of Ironman's most terrifying foes. What makes him so terrifying are the ten rings that he wears, (the Ten Rings being the name of the terrorist group in the movies). These rings can do a lot of stuff. They are almost like the b-list Infinity Stones. Not only are they functional for combat, but they are also very magical. Take a look:

The Destroyer Armor:

It is briefly seen in the first Thor movie but this thing is some seriously powerful stuff. It was created as a brainchild of Odin, Zeus, and Brahma; the three gods of their respective pantheons. The Celestials decided to judge humanity and cut their ties to the other worlds so Odin built this armor out of an unknown mystical metal and enchanted it to be stronger. The armor housed the powers of all three of the God Kings in order to stop the Celestials. It resides in Asgard and Odin only uses it under dire circumstances.

The Evil Eye:

It is a rod with a translucent eye forged of another unknown metal. It is indestructible and has the power to manipulate matter at a molecular level, shoot fire, break down force fields, create force fields, suck energy from power sources and has time/dimension traveling capabilities. It's like the Swiss army knife for superheros. Not only that, but if it's power is charged too high it would burst into six beams of light destroying everything in their path until they reach a sun.

The Infinity Gauntlet:

The glove of Thanos. Something that the MCU has been building up to for nearly ten years now. It houses the six infinity stones and has the power to do almost anything. Rearange matter? Done. Traverse time? Easy. Reverse the laws of nature? No problem. Punch someone really hard? That works too. This gauntlet has to be the most powerful things right? Not quite.

The Most Powerful Weapon Is....

DareDevil's Staff/Grappling Hook/Escrima Sticks:

No no no, just kidding. But seriously, as far as nonpowered, purely technological weapons go, his multi-functional fisticuffs assistance apparatus is really effective when it comes to battling crime from Hell's Kitchen to Thanos. The actual most powerful weapon is....

The Ultimate Nullifier:

Gifted to Reed Richards by The Watcher in order to fight Galactus, the literal "eater of worlds". It has the power to erase somebody from existence. It is the only thing in the entire Universe that Galactus fears and is the only reason that he didn't eat the planet Earth. It also has never actually been used. Reed only threatened Galactus with it and keeps it at the Baxter building in case Galactus ever comes back for more. It seems underwhelming, and it is, but the fact that for whatever reason Galactus is afraid of it, makes it the most powerful weapon in the Marvel Universe.

Educate Yourself: Blue Beetle

The Blue Beetle:

For those of you who missed the first part of this two-part series, (Educate Yourself: Booster Gold), let me bring you up to speed. Booster Gold is a superhero from the future and great friends with the Blue Beetle. DC announced a teamup movie in the works with the creators of The Flash and Arrow on board. It will play as a buddy-cop comedy and is extremely exciting for these cult classic superheroes.

 The Blue Beetle is a title passed on through three people. This post will give a brief rundown of the three bearers of the name.  Keep in mind, we do not know which Blue Beetle we will see in the upcoming movie, but it is 99% going to be the second one. In comic book history Blue Beetle was acquired by DC comics in the Charlton comics buyout and has remained a big part of the DC universe ever since, no matter how small the role.

Dan Garrett:
In ancient Egypt, the Pharaoh Kha-Ef-Ra was said to have possessed a legendary artifact, a figurine in the shape of a Blue Scarab. With it, Kha-Ef-Ra protected his people from all evils and danger until he died and it was buried in his tomb. Many were killed trying to find it but never could, until Dan Garrett entered the tomb with his companion Professor Luri Hoshid just before the start of World War 2. The tomb started to collapsed as they entered the room with the Pharaoh's sarcophagi. Dan leapt to save Luri and the Blue Beetle resting atop the coffin lit up transforming Dan into the Blue Beetle and transferring it's powers, allowing him to stop the cave-in and save Luri. With his newfound abilities he became one of the mystery men of WWII and moved on to help with the Vietnam War. Little is known of Dan's career after that, but he was married and had a child. He settled down to teach archeology at a university where he met Ted Kord.

Ted Kord:

Theodore Kord, 5th smartest man in the DC universe, was 16 when he graduated from High School. At age 19 he developed a new way to create drones the size of an insect of which Lex Luthor said was "revolutionary". In college, Ted's uncle planned to take over the world, with the help of his archaeology professor Dan Garrett he planned to thwart his attempts. During the battle Dan was killed and passed the Blue Scarab to Ted. Unfortunately the idol did not work for Ted, but Dan's acts inspired him to train himself to his physical peak, create a vehicle adequately named "The Bug" and created a costume resembling Dan's. He revitalized his fathers company and created Kord Industries, rivaling S.T.A.R. Labs. During the Crisis on Infinite Earths he met Booster Gold where created a lifelong friendship surpassing their sarcastic whit and tomfoolery. 

Sadly after all his adventuring, Ted was killed by his old friend Maxwell Lord shortly after losing the Blue Scarab at the Rock of Eternity, (The Wizard Shazam's home). Maxwell shot him in the head with Ted's dying words being, "Rot in hell, Max." With the deed done, Barbara Gordon who was a long time friend of Ted, created a memorial for the hero. But the mantle of the Blue Beetle was yet to continue.

Jaime Reyes:

Jaime Reyes was a normal high school student in El Paso, Texas, until he found the Blue Scarab half buried in a disused lot. (When the Rock of Eternity was destoryed in a battle between Shazam and the Spectre all it's contents were blown across the world, the Blue Scarab landing in El Paso). With the discovery the Blue Scarab latched itself into Jaime's spine sending off signals that he was now a magical metahuman and giving him all it's powers and magic armor when in danger. Booster Gold sought out Jaime, for Booster had been to the future where Batman would look for The Brother Eye, and fail, getting killed. (The Brother Eye being a interdimensional phantom satellite capable of monitoring anything no matter where). The Blue Scarab was the only thing capable of finding the Brother Eye. Booster took Jaime to Batman and with Jaime's help, the Brother Eye was destroyed. Jaime is the current Blue Beetle.

Regarding the Movie:

As I said earlier, the Blue Beetle that will appear in the movie is 95% going to be Ted Kord. The movie will be set in the Arrow-verse, and there have already been easter eggs regarding Kord Industries. It only seems natural to pull both Booster Gold and The Blue Beetle in. Since Booster Gold is from Gotham City it may lead to even more references to Gotham within the Arrow-verse. Exciting things are in the works for the the Arrow/Flash Universe and for the DC Cinematic universe as well.

The Batman Family: Alfred Pennyworth

The Batman Family:
Alfred Pennyworth

Alfred Pennyworth is the loyal and rather astute butler to Bruce Wayne. Everybody knows him for always being there for Batman when he needs a hand, nourishment or a doctor. But for the most part, everybody just assumes Alfred was always there at the Wayne Manor. Some may ask, what is Alfred's story? Well, depending on the continuity he has been in the Wayne manor for a long while, since before Bruce's birth. The history we will discuss in this post is the one expounded upon in Batman: The City of Owls and the New 52 universe altogether.

History:
As a young man Alfred Thaddeus Crane Pennyworth was a member of the British Guard and was later an agent for MI-5. During his service he became proficient at the use of firearms and medical

Alfred's Father, Jarvis.

care. As he grew older he decided to retire and pursue his passion for acting. While acting on the stage his father, Jarvis Pennyworth was the butler at Wayne Manor. He was trusted by Thomas and Martha Wayne and is one of the few people to know that Martha had a second child. One day Alfred received a call that his father Jarvis had died in a car crash, (which was later discovered to be the Court of Owls who tampered with the car). In Jarvis' last letter to Alfred he urged him to take up the mantle as the butler of Wayne Manor since Jarvis trusted Alfred most.
Alfred complied with his fathers wish and became the butler of the Wayne's as Bruce was just a little boy. When Bruce's parents were killed Alfred became the legal guardian of Bruce as described in Thomas Wayne's will. As Bruce went missing for years Alfred took care of the manor and made sure it was ready if Bruce should return. When Bruce did return with tales of becoming a masked vigilante, Alfred reluctantly agreed to help Bruce become Batman. With that, Alfred has spent many nights nursing Bruce back to health, keeping him well nourished and always putting away the cape and cowl when Bruce was too tired to.
Alfred is one of the most loyal characters in Batman's life, someone who Bruce has always trusted, who Bruce's parents have always trusted and the best supporting character in the DC universe.

Things You May Not Know:

• Alfred has a lost daughter named Julia Pennyworth.

• Alfred reads Artemis Fowl

• Alfred is the only member of the Batman Family that Bruce permits to use a firearm.

• Alfred, not having the martial arts skills as Batman, is fairly good at fisticuffs. Alfred has escaped 27 kidnappings in the past.

• Alfred is one of the few characters in comic book history to deliver a headbutt such as this:

Educate Yourself: Booster Gold

Booster Gold DC announced a Booster Gold/Blue Beetle movie in the works for the future and to fans of the heroic duo that is very exciting news. It will play as a buddy cop movie and will be directed by Greg Berlanti, known for his work on the CW's Flash and Arrow TV shows. Sadly these two heroes have fallen into obscurity so the aim of this post is to educate you on who Booster Gold actually is, (with a post on The Blue Beetle following soon). Comic History: In 1983 DC comics acquired Charlton Comics during the bronze age of comic books. Charlton comics contained the rights to heroes such as Captain Atom, The Question, Blue Beetle and Booster Gold. There was a dispute about whether to have these heroes enter the universe of Watchmen during early stages of development but the auther, Alan Moore decided to make Watchmen an entirely new story and based many of his characters as archetypes of Charlton's heroes, (hence why Rorschach looks like The Question and Dr. Manhattan bears many similarities with Captain Atom). During the following years we began to see more of Booster Gold but not as much compared to the original DC heroes. But he has remained a cult classic and has even been featured in an episode of Smallville, (which was....underwhelming). Booster Gold in Smallville Credit: www.smallville.wikia Character History:

Michael Jon Carter was born in 25th century Gotham. He did not know his father but his future seemed bright. He played football at Gotham University and earned the nickname "Booster", and was looking towards a good education until his father reentered his life and convinced Michael to lose a game on purpose so his father could use the money for gambling. Michael was exposed and kicked out of Gotham University.

After that he moved to metropolis where he secured a job at the Metropolis Space Museum. There he learned a lot about the superheros of the twentieth century. He realized he might have a better future in the past, with the help of a security robot named Skeets he stole artifacts from the past such as a flight ring from the Legion of Super-Heroes, Braniac's force field belt and Rip Hunter's time machine and he escaped back to the twentieth century in order to become famed as a "superhero" under the name of Goldstar. However the names were merged when U.S. President Ronald Reagan messed up when commemorating him.

In the proceeding years he would meet the Blue Beetle, and both of them would go on to fight crime with the Justice League. However, Booster's personality and ever going quest to become the most famous superhero in history makes him a fairly annoying person to work with especially when working with the likes of Batman, Martian Manhunter and Superman.

Booster Gold and Blue Beetle
Credit: www.newsarama.com

Powers:

• Flight
• Shooting Lasers from hands
• Impenetrability (because of his force field belt) 
• Skeets: his robot companion can give him information on anything and everything.

Various Interpretations:

New 52 Booster Gold
Credit: www.vacanard.com

Justice League: Unlimited
Credit: dc.wikia.com

Lego Booster Gold
Credit: lego.wikia.com

Smallville Booster Gold (again)
www.polygon.com

Which Spiderman Movie is the Best?

Which Spider-man Movie is the best?
And a look at the Spider-man franchise as a whole.

As I have stated before, Spiderman is one of the most recognized heroes of all time, so much in fact that we've had two reboots of his character spanning five movies, countless animated series, fairly decent video games and of course, the iconic comic books. Yet another reboot is in store for our quippy hero and with that "untitled" movie announced. Lets take a look at what we liked about the previous movies and what we could definitely avoid in the new one, (as well as the best movie in the franchise). Buckle up, this will be a long post.

SPIDERMAN 1:
This was the first film adaptation of our hero and for the most part, it was received extremely well in 2002. Up until this point, Blade was the only half decent comic book movie. But this one revolutionized comic book movies by adapting an A-list character. Tobey Maguire was cast as Peter Parker, Kirsten Dunst was cast as Mary Jane Watson, James Franco as Harry Osborn and Willem Dafoe as Norman Osborn. What this film did very well was tell a fairly comic accurate origin story of the Webslinger. We had likable characters, a solid villain (sort of), and a good-enough story. What didn't work so well was that the script-writing was only so-so. Tobey Maguire gets a bad wrap for not acting the part well but I think it was due partly to the fact that in this movie, Spiderman wasn't written like a sarcastic and funny comic book Spiderman, but more of a serious and mopey adult. Also, can we address the Green Goblin. They cast Willem Dafoe, whose face looks a lot like a goblin, but then they put a greenish motorcycle helmet on him. Because of this, the characterization of Norman Osborn was pretty clean , but since there was a mask over his face, the facial expressions weren't there and that could have lent to a better act. All in all however, it is a pretty solid movie and worth the sequel it received.

SPIDERMAN 2:
Released in 2004, we see a graduated Peter Parker, (still played by Maguire), who is juggling a life of being a college student and being a costumed hero. Mary Jane is an actress making it big on Broadway, Harry Osborn has taken the mantle of his deceased father and Peter's aunt May is adjusting to life without Uncle Ben. We see the rise of a new villain, Doctor Otto Octavius (played by Alfred Molina). This movie is really solid. The story is easy to follow along, you genuinely care for the characters, (even if the actors themselves didn't). It built upon what made the first movie great and really delved into what made Peter Parker Spiderman. It is well worth the watch and it is the highest rated Spiderman movie on Rotten Tomatoes. Yet no movie is without fault. It's apparent that Kirsten Dunst pretty much stopped caring at this point in the films. There is also the factor that Otto Octavius is just a man, and every punch from Spiderman should have just knocked him out. Also, Dr. Octavius' plan was to create a mini sun...the whole movie he just wants to build his sun. It's kind of pointless. However this movie does feature one of the greatest lines in a comic book movie, that being: "Hey! Spiderman just stole that guy's pizza!"

SPIDERMAN 3:
I still am not sure what happened here. The first two of these movies showed just how great comic book movies could be, then this one killed the franchise for five years. This was released in 2007. All the same actors return but this time they decided to villain overload. We see Sandman, Venom, and a new Green Goblin. Not only were we sick of the first Green Goblin, but this time Harry Osborn takes up the mantle, this time on some sort of hover board or something. Sandman worked pretty well within the movie, especially the scene where he wills himself to live on by thinking of his daughter. He's a relatable villain that way, and the movie at least stays faithful in that respect. And then there's Venom. Venom himself should have had his own movie as a villain, he is that pivotal of a villain. Not only did he look a little weird in this movie, but he was depowered and the actor himself was not on board with playing him. In addition to all this, we see a symbiote infected Peter and he goes full. . .cool popular guy? There is this completely awful scene where Peter Parker starts to "act" cool and starts to just. . .ruin everything in the most out of style way possible. If you don't believe me, look it up. Also, the story is pretty much just the same as the other ones, it didn't really bring anything new to the table other than a lot of villains. There is so much more wrong with this that I could dedicate a whole post to this movie detailing what happened. I'm not going to say the worst Spiderman movie on this list, but this is it.

THE AMAZING SPIDERMAN:
In 2012 a reboot of the Spiderman franchise was initiated. It did away with the trash of the last movie and started to build a semi-solid foundation. We see Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker, and Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy. This movie was way more comic accurate, it had a very funny Spiderman that stole the show in every scene, we had a very comic accurate suit, and a story that did the original comic book justice. We see The Lizard as the antagonist, one of which we haven't seen in film yet and we had another faithful origin story. Andrew Garfield plays the part well, (except he does look a tad too cool to be Peter Parker), and Emma Stone gave Gwen Stacy a good adaptation for once, (did I mention she was in the last movie....must have forgot because it was crap). The thing about this movie though was that it kind of seemed like we were retracing our steps a bit. It was slightly forgettable and the Lizard's plan to turn everybody else into Lizards was not a very good plan at all, (especially considering that they'd all just turn back into humans the next day). But it set up for another movie very well and had us excited to see what was next.

THE AMAZING SPIDERMAN 2:
Now, at first glance, I really really liked this movie. It came out in 2014, right in the heart of good comic book movies, (Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain America: Winter Soldier). It expounded upon Peter and Gwen's relationship in a pretty good way, (but perhaps to the detriment of the film). Maybe it was just me, but it felt like it was turning into a romantic comedy and then it would suddenly shift to a comic book movie. It was jumpy that way. Also we got another villain overload, and it wasn't good. We see a half-baked attempt at the Rhino, Electro, and yet another Green Goblin. It also attempted to create this sort of conspiracy about Peter's parents that he spends thirty minutes of the movie milling about on. There also isn't any real immediate danger within the movie until about an almost 45 minutes in, and as I stated, Peter is doing other things than getting to the bottom of it. I feel they could have also spent a bit more time developing Harry Osborn's character before having him go full Green Goblin on everyone, this time with no green helmet, but also no goblin face; just really gross makeup and hair. This movie did however set up for a Sinister Six movie, but it was inevitably thrown away once the deal with Marvel Studios was made to let Spiderman join the Avengers universe. But bear in mind that we would have seen possibly five more Spiderman movies like this before the deal.

Which One is the Best?
If I had to choose the one I enjoy most of all it would be the original Spiderman 2. It's story was very well done, it had one villain, there was no origin story and besides the cast, it is one of the best comic book movies out there. In fact, if we just took the whole cast from the Amazing Spiderman and put them into Spiderman 2 it would be the perfect Spiderman movie, except keep J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson, he's perfect, they could literally make him Jameson in every Spiderman adaptation until he dies and I would be happy. Should the new Spiderman be more like this? No, I'm thinking they should change the formula altogether in order to make something new. I'd rather have something new than another Antman/Ironman/Captain America/Thor.

What Next?
As I mentioned, we are going to see another movie with the Webslinger in it. Tom Holland has been cast and will appear first in Captain America: Civil War as the Webhead himself. Marvel has been all hush-hush on what information is released about this incarnation of the hero but I trust Marvel Studios to make something great. But just in case, here is what I think needs to happen in order to get a truly amazing Spiderman.

Obviously we need to just quit telling his origin story. We get it now, he was bit by a spider and got powers. It can be summed up in one sentence. I don't want to see another 30-45 minutes of him getting bitten then his transformation. From what we have heard in Antman he has already been established as a hero right now so I think we won't get a whole lot of time dedicated to his origin.

I don't think we've seen a fully comic accurate Peter Parker/Spiderman yet either. I feel that the original trilogy saw a super mopey and serious Peter Parker which worked at times but it was not at all like the comic Spiderman. The new Peter was a fairly good take at the characters quippy nature and sarcasm, but perhaps too much. I feel as though Andrew Garfield made Spiderman too cool. I think we need a healthy balance between the two Spidermen we have seen in order to get a really great one.

Also, get a new storyline! Tell me if this is familiar:
Spiderman has trouble juggling life and his powers, he has girl problems and can't sustain a relationship, oh look a new bad guy from his past, (or maybe multiple), better catch him, but not before he makes up with his girlfriend. She gets kidnapped then the villain ultimately kills himself while Spiderman either A-Saves the girl or B-ends up in a graveyard crying. In most cases it's both those endings, (minus the last movie).
Here's a hint: That is the plot of every single Spiderman movie. I want to see something different, something we haven't seen before. Break away from those chains.

Lastly, pick one villain. I don't want three villains again, just pick Venom and do him some justice. (Cast Robbie Amell as him too, he has expressed interest). Any villain can be done if he has enough focus, relatability and doesn't have a green motorcycle helmet or goblin phlegm on their face.
Seriously, I don't want to see another Green Goblin, (in case you couldn't tell).

Exciting things are in store and I can't wait to see them all unfold, but one thing I can guarantee. We will still get great Spiderman toys no matter how bad the movies bomb. Who doesn't want a glove that shoots silly string?

Concept Art of the next Spiderman Suit played by Tom Holland.