"Too Many Crooks" ("The Amazing Spider-Man 2")
Doctor Octopus and Spider-Man (c) Marvel
I admit some fans get carried away when their favorite comic books get adapted to the silver screen. Some refuse to believe things like the costumes the characters wear in the printed page wouldn't look realistic in live action. I've met people who feel if a movie isn't going to follow a hero's origin story beat for beat without any alterations it shouldn't be made in the first place. They get up in arms if a particular actor or actress doesn't have the same hair style, skin tone, breast size, voice, or muscular structure than the heroes they've been cast into playing. And even I am guilty of judging a movie by its trailer before the actual film has come out.
But it doesn't mean comic book fans are 100% wrong. Sometimes our biggest complaint is the easiest problem to fix. And brother, there is a doozy.
Hollywood is set on the idea when it comes to sequels, more is better. If it's a follow-up to a superhero film, then there has to be twice as many villains, twice as many supporting cast members, and double the danger! But rarely does this work. For example the Spider-Man trilogy by director Sam Raimi before Sony Pictures rebooted the franchise. The first movie did pretty good by setting up Peter Parker's origin while he battled the Green Goblin. Now let's fast forward to "Spider-Man 3". (Warning: if you don't want to read a long plot of the film, just skip to the next paragraph).
Still reading? Okay. Peter Parker is about to propose to Mary Jane Watson, who was once dating Harry Osborn, who has become the new Green Goblin after his father, the original Green Goblin was killed. While this is going on, Peter's job at the Daily Bugle is at risk by another photographer named Eddie Brock who is dating Peter's science partner Gwen Stacy, whose father is Captain George Stacy of the New York Police Force. Captain Stacy recently brought Peter and his Aunt May in to inform them that the burgular who they thought killed Uncle Ben was not the actual shooter but another thug named Flint Marko who accidentally trespassed into a science testing ground which turned him into the Sandman. While Spider-Man fights the Sandman, he also comes into contact with an alien symbiote who fuses with him and gives him a black costume. But the costume is evil so Peter gets rid of it, only for it to fall and fuse with Eddie Brock who is angry with Peter when Peter gets Brock fired by pointing out Brock photoshopped and altered photographs of Spider-Man taken by Peter. Now called Venom, Eddie seeks out the Sandman and gets him to team up while they kidnap Mary Jane who really had nothing to do with the plot of the film whatsoever but was just conveniently around to be captured as a hostage. Knowing the odds are against him, Peter convinces the new Green Goblin to fight alongside him; resulting in Harry sacrificing his life for his old friends.
If that gave you a headache reading my summary, imagine what it felt like watching it. The movie was so terrible and overpopulated with characters it killed the franchise. Unfortunately in order to prevent the rights to the character to go back to Marvel, Sony has to continue making a new Spider-Man film every five years. So forty-two months later everything went back to square one and moviegoers were treated to yet another retelling of his origin story.
Now you would have thought Sony learned their lesson. No more dumping a dozen characters all at once. No more frantic storyline where everyone and everything is connected. But alas, it was not meant to be. Not only was "Amazing Spider-Man 2" bombarded with a plethora of brand new characters and villains (along with setting up future villains), but it was also designed as a launch board for three possible spin-off films. What took Sony three films to accomplish last time, they've managed to do in two. Not the progress long-time Spidey fans were hoping for.
But enough about that. It's time I talk about what really makes this particular illustration important.
The reason why I love this illustration is because the pencils were done by Tony and debuted two years after his passing. I came across it (along with a rough sketch he did for an "Expendables" picture) while cleaning up some piles. And since "Amazing Spider-Man 2" kicked off the 2014 summer season, I decided to try another year of the gallery. My feelings were our collaborations was what made the whole thing fun and I couldn't imagine continuing it without his involvement in some way. - Jake