21 Spider-Man Theme’s Oscar Lyricist
When the 1967 Spider-Man cartoon debuted, its unforgettable theme song came with lyrics by American lyricist Paul Francis Webster. Webster was already one of Hollywood’s most decorated songwriters, with three Academy Awards for Best Original Song and 16 Oscar nominations to his name. That meant the simple line, “Spider-Man, Spider-Man does whatever a spider can,” came from a writer with a major film-music pedigree.
22 Loki’s Mewling Quim Insult
In The Avengers in 2012, Loki insulted Black Widow by calling her a “mewling quim,” an archaic phrase that many viewers did not recognize at the time. The wording sounded old-fashioned, but commentators quickly pointed out that it roughly translated into modern English meaning something like “whining cunt.”
23 Stan Lee Snuck in Spider-Man
When Stan Lee first pitched Spider-Man, his publisher rejected the idea and called it the worst one he had ever heard, arguing that readers hated spiders, teenagers could only be sidekicks, and superheroes could not have personal problems. Instead of dropping the character, Lee moved ahead anyway and had Spider-Man appear in the final issue of the canceled series Amazing Fantasy. That issue sold so well that the same publisher quickly reversed course and wanted a full Spider-Man series.
24 Spider-Man Hatched From Himself
In the 2005-2006 The Other comic book storyline, Peter Parker died after his brutal fight with Morlun, and then his body later appeared to have been reduced to an empty sack of skin. Under the Brooklyn Bridge, he spun a cocoon, underwent a spider-like rebirth, and emerged alive in a new, healed body. The story was so bizarre that fans often joked Spider-Man had “given birth to himself.” Marvel used the storyline to reset his body, restore old injuries, and push Peter further into the stranger mythic side of his powers.
25 Doctor Strange Changed Ancient One
In 2016, Doctor Strange changed the Ancient One from the comics’ elderly Tibetan man into a Celtic woman played by Tilda Swinton. Screenwriter C. Robert Cargill stated that the original version posed a dilemma, as using a Tibetan character could potentially anger Chinese authorities and jeopardize access to one of the world’s largest movie markets.
26 Captain America Became Nomad
In late 1974, in the Marvel Comics, Steve Rogers abandoned the Captain America identity after discovering that the leader of the Secret Empire was a high-ranking U.S. government official heavily implied to be President Richard Nixon, a storyline that clearly echoed the post-Watergate mood in America. Shaken by that betrayal and the wider disillusionment of the Vietnam and Watergate era, Rogers concluded that he could no longer serve as a symbol tied so directly to the government. He then took the name Nomad, which the comic explicitly framed as meaning “man without a country,” and debuted the identity in Captain America #180.
27 Gwen Stacy and Fridging
“Women in Refrigerators,” often shortened to “fridging,” is a fiction trope where a female character is killed, maimed, or otherwise made to suffer mainly to motivate a male character’s story. The label came from comic book criticism, but the pattern appears across movies, television, and superhero franchises. Gwen Stacy’s death at the end of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is often cited as a modern example because her fate primarily deepens Peter Parker’s grief and drives his arc forward.
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28 Japanese Spider-Man Created Power Rangers
In 1978, Japan produced a live-action Spider-Man series that radically changed the character by giving him a giant robot called Leopardon. That robot became a major hit, and Toei carried the idea into later entries in its Super Sentai franchise, where giant robot battles became a defining feature. Years later, Super Sentai was adapted in the United States as Power Rangers, which carried that same giant-robot formula to a new audience.
29 Spider-Man’s Real Ingram Street
In Marvel lore, Peter Parker grew up at 20 Ingram Street in Forest Hills, Queens, and that address turned out to exist in real life. The real twist was that a family actually named Parkers lived there, and after comics exposed the address more clearly in 1989, they started receiving mail addressed to Spider-Man from fans and children.
30 Stan Lee Approved Gwen’s Death
In the early 1970s, Marvel’s writers wanted to kill Gwen Stacy, but Stan Lee did not grasp the decision when they raised it as he rushed out to catch a flight to a meeting in Europe. Wanting to clear the office quickly, he waved them on with a casual approval, only to leave without realizing he had just signed off on one of Spider-Man’s biggest tragedies. When Lee returned, Gwen was dead in the comics, and the story had already become permanent.
RE: Fact #7 (Nick Fury Was Samuel Jackson) – I actually have a few of those exact comics in a box. It was a more realistic, modern take on the Avengers. I clearly remember a scene where they were discussing who would play them in a movie, and when they got to Fury, who now looked exactly like Jackson instead of an old white guy, there was a close-up panel where he just gave a big grin and said something like, “C’mon, son.”
If I recall correctly, they suggested Johnny Depp for Iron Man, Brad Pitt for Cap, Lucy Liu for Wasp, and Steve Buscemi as Hulk.
The Ultimates. The fandom generally hates it, but I enjoyed reading it.
RE: Fact #17 (Jennifer Connelly Voiced Karen) – But don’t forget her first superhero movie was that little masterpiece from 1991, The Rocketeer.
RE: Fact #27 (Gwen Stacy and Fridging) – The term actually started with Kyle Rayner in Green Lantern, whose girlfriend was murdered by a villain and stuffed into a fridge.
I was wondering why the original example that actually coined the term wasn’t included, though Gwen fits the criteria.
Probably because, before Spider-Gwen, she was just known as the dead girlfriend who served no purpose other than dying.
RE: Fact #38 (Anthony Mackie Signed 95 Posters) – It was pretty poor judgment for him to start signing merchandise without checking with the store manager first.
RE: Fact #50 (Sony Bought Spider-Man Cheap) – That number is meaningless on its own. How much have the James Bond movies grossed in that same window? Without a comparison, you don’t really have any info.
RE: Fact #6 (Spider-Man’s Missing Movie Suits) – My dad worked on the Sony lot during that time for a different show. They detained everyone and searched every single car leaving the parking lot, including my dad’s, and they did it for every person at the studio that day.
RE: Fact #19 (Nick Fury Almost Visited Pollos) – That would have been worst and probably the best, most ridiculous cameo ever. But I’m actually glad it didn’t happen. Breaking Bad was so deliberate with even the tiny background details. Having Nick Fury pop up in the back to grab some chicken would have really distracted from such a serious show.
RE: Fact #1 (Captain America Punched Hitler Early) – > When Kirby joined the army, he ended up serving as a scout, an extremely dangerous job that involved sneaking into enemy territory and drawing what he saw to help prepare future missions. Before setting off for duty, Kirby cranked out an increased flow of comics, stating that he wanted “”to get enough work backlogged that I could go into the Army, kill Hitler, and get back before the readers missed us.”” > > Kirby, who grew up in Manhattan’s rough Lower East Side, knew how to throw a fist and didn’t back down from anyone, especially a Nazi. >As Mark Evanier describes in his biography Kirby: King of Comics, “…Jack took a call. A voice on the other end said, ‘There are three of us down here in the lobby. We want to see the guy who does this disgusting comic book and show him what real Nazis would do to his Captain America’. To the horror of others in the office, Kirby rolled up his sleeves and headed downstairs. The callers, however, were gone by the time he arrived.”
This is why I was so annoyed when Marvel did the storyline where Steve was a Hydra sleeper agent. His creators literally fought Nazis, and then Marvel turns around and makes Cap a Nazi.
Kirby: ‘About time we had a scrap, I thought it was never going to happen.’
RE: Fact #14 (Andrew Garfield’s Cheeseburger Audition) – Excerpt: > The Amazing Spider-Man director Marc Webb shared why he picked Andrew Garfield for the role: “We tested a lot of talented young actors. There was this one moment , it sounds ridiculous, but it’s true. We were filming a test scene not in the movie where he was eating a cheeseburger while trying to get Gwen to calm down. > “The way he ate that food, it was such a simple, random task to give an actor, and he just committed to those tiny details. I hadn’t seen that before. I can’t really explain why, but I just knew that was it.”
Dude sounds so high, like he figured out a way to float on a cloud during that burger scene and never came down.
It seems pretty obvious what happened. When he was handed the burger, instead of just waving it around while talking, he actually ate it. The director must have been blown away, thinking they’d never seen an actor actually eat food before.
I’ve only ever done stage acting, and it’s surprisingly tough to make a meal scene work. You have to time everything perfectly so you aren’t chewing when your lines come up. You also can’t act like the food has been sitting in a gross prop fridge for a week, and you have to eat enough to make it look like the plate is actually getting empty. Plus, you’re often playing someone intoxicated while managing props like menus and drink refills. It’s all while trying to stay visible to the audience and keeping up with dialogue. In film, I guess the biggest headache is just the continuity of a burger randomly becoming whole again.
RE: Fact #17 (Jennifer Connelly Voiced Karen) – Jeez, it’s been 26 years since Requiem for a Dream? I always assumed she was younger than me. 2000 doesn’t feel like that long ago. I think I’m officially getting old.
RE: Fact #25 (Doctor Strange Changed Ancient One) – Why not just make the mentor Nepali instead of Tibetan? That would keep the location culturally accurate without involving China.
RE: Fact #46 (Blade Proved Marvel Movies Sold) – Back then, I don’t think most people realized it was based on a comic book. Not in the way they did for Batman, Superman, or Spider-Man, at least.
RE: Fact #23 (Stan Lee Snuck in Spider-Man) – The publisher must have felt like a real idiot afterward. I bet Stan Lee never let him forget it, just to mess with him.
According to Lee, after Spider-Man hit it big, publisher Martin Goodman acted as if the idea had been his all along.
Considering how much Stan Lee allegedly lied about his actual involvement, I lean toward believing Goodman. Lee became Marvel’s lovable public face later on, but in the 60s and 70s, he was notorious for claiming credit for everyone else’s hard work. Marvel pushed the “Marvel Method” where Lee would just pitch a basic idea like “The Fantastic Four fights Galactus!” and the artists did all the heavy lifting, only for Lee to tweak a few lines of dialogue at the end to make it sound like his. That’s exactly why so many early artists left for DC with major grudges. Spider-Man was really created by Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko; Lee’s only real input was wanting the hero to be an awkward, unpopular teenager.
RE: Fact #34 (Marvel’s Tiny First Salaries) – Robert Downey Jr. was already a well-established, high-caliber actor, while the other two were relatively new to the scene.
Who were Chris Hemsworth or Chris Evans before those roles? RDJ had been in movies since the 80s.
He was mostly established as a troubled alcoholic. Iron Man actually brought RDJ back as a serious actor who was finally recovering. Before that, Mel Gibson even had to pay his insurance bond because no studio wanted to take the risk on him.
RE: Fact #29 (Spider-Man’s Real Ingram Street) – So in that world, Peter Parker doesn’t exist, but his parents are alive?
RE: Fact #7 (Nick Fury Was Samuel Jackson) – This was a genius move. Nick Fury isn’t the main hero who needs constant screen time, but he’s involved in everything, which makes it easy to put him in almost any movie. Sam really set himself up for life.
Or maybe it was an elaborate setup just to get Samuel L. Jackson to play the part.
He has done at least two movies a year since the early 90s, so he would have been fine either way.
True, but now he can spend his downtime on a massive yacht between movies. Maybe not a huge one, but definitely a 50 to 100-meter boat.
RE: Fact #7 (Nick Fury Was Samuel Jackson) – The Ultimates was a great comic. It set a benchmark for how heroes can have internal conflicts even while working toward the same goal. I wouldn’t be surprised if it inspired later movies, but even if it only gave us Samuel L. Jackson as Fury, that is enough. It was a breath of fresh air. There were some great stories in the 2000s that still haven’t been adapted. I am still waiting for an Animal Man or League of Extraordinary Gentlemen TV series.
RE: Fact #9 (Thanos Tortured David’s Birthdays) – He also messed with a young woman’s path, forcing her into a totally mediocre life. Then, when she was dying, he showed up just to taunt her with the version of herself she *could* have been if not for his meddling. Thanos is just a massive jerk.
Her name was Stephanie, and he changed her trajectory just by helping a grandma cross the street. That delayed her bus just enough that she missed meeting the person who would’ve changed her life. Gotta keep the evil quota filled, I guess.
There’s a Reverse Flash comic that’s similar. I forget if it’s Zoom or Reverse Flash, but one of them has an origin story where he just tries to rewrite time to make his crush date him. He kept killing whoever she was seeing, and when that didn’t work, he went back further and left her in a vegetative state. That stuff was insane.
RE: Fact #4 (James Gunn’s Quill Playlist) – It is basically free marketing whenever he picks a song. I figure plenty of the younger audience isn’t even familiar with those tracks.
I am in college, and after Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 came out, I kept hearing “The Chain” at student parties. It definitely gives songs a massive boost.
RE: Fact #24 (Spider-Man Hatched From Himself) – Yeah, Marvel really wanted Peter Parker to have natural webbing like in the movies, so they retconned it. And it was weird, I mean, the guy literally gave birth to himself. If you think the movie stuff is corny, you haven’t seen anything yet.
That natural webbing in the first Sam Raimi movie was just a metaphor for Parker discovering masturbation.
RE: Fact #22 (Loki’s Mewling Quim Insult) – I was the only person in the theater who laughed at that line. I remember being surprised it made it into a PG-13 movie, but since nobody else seemed to get it, it makes sense that they let it slide.
RE: Fact #13 (Robert Downey Stopped in Japan) – I think he got busted riding around with a gun and some hard drugs like crack or heroin.
Did that happen in Japan, or was it a record he already had in the US?
It was in the US. If he had been caught in Japan with that stuff, he wouldn’t have just been released. Countries like Japan and Canada are extremely strict about letting people with criminal records enter their borders.
RE: Fact #20 (James Cameron’s Dark Spider-Man) – You also left out the best detail: it was written while he was going through a divorce.
When isn’t James Cameron going through a divorce? He’s on his fifth marriage now, isn’t he?
RE: Fact #8 (Tobey Maguire Nearly Lost Spider-Man) – That is interesting. It makes the sore back scene in No Way Home hit a bit differently now.
Pretty sure that was just a callback to the “my back!” line in Spider-Man 2, which was likely included as a nod to Tobey’s actual back issues at the time.
The Tobey Maguire “my back!” meme comes straight from Spider-Man 2, and the No Way Home reference plays on that since everyone knows it. The original line was a reference to his real-life back pain.
RE: Fact #12 (Stan Lee’s Missing Spider-Man Profits) – “There is no net.” It never ends. That is classic Hollywood accounting for you. A movie costs 200 million to produce and makes 500 million, but somehow the studio claims 400 million in marketing costs, oops, no net profit, so no payout for you. Edit: All the comments below are spot on. It is all part of the wild, shady labyrinth studios use to avoid paying the people actually doing the work. Sometimes, just getting a flat fee upfront is the only realistic goal.
David Prowse had a deal for a percentage of the net profits when he played Darth Vader in Return of the Jedi. He hasn’t seen a dime because the movie still hasn’t technically made a profit on paper.
The author of the Forrest Gump books actually refused to give up the film rights for the sequels, saying he couldn’t in good conscience let the studios blow their money on such an unprofitable project.
The Forrest Gump author is a terrible writer. The original book is bad and the sequel is way worse.
Forrest Gump was based on a great story idea. I doubt the author was even thinking about a movie when he wrote it, he was just focused on telling a good story. I think the movie turned out amazing, it is one of my favorites to re-watch. I read the second book when it came out, though. It was really bad. It wasn’t the writing, but the forced scenarios the author put Forrest in. In the first one, the situations felt natural, but the sequel felt like it was written specifically as a cash grab for a movie. I have read other book sequels like that and they are never as good as the original, which was written just because the author had a solid, engaging story in mind. Pixar has a quote carved into their wall: “No amount of technology will make a bad story good.” That really hits on how important the story is above everything else.
RE: Fact #16 (Spider-Man Musical Lost $60 Million) – Even Sesame Street made fun of that show!
that’s not even as bad as the actual production, which had six performers injured during stunts, multiple state and OSHA safety violations, and a record 182 preview shows before it officially opened.
I remember going to the live Spider-Man show at Universal Studios back in 2001 and watching the actor playing Spider-Man snap his leg just like Joe Theismann.
RE: Fact #5 (Guardians Avoided Baby Driver Songs) – Suicide Squad checked in with other movies to avoid reusing the same songs.
RE: Fact #3 (Chris Evans Feared Captain America) – People forget actors are just people. I’m glad he’s been open about his anxiety; it shows others that they can still accomplish great things.
I love it when celebs show their human side. It helps a lot of us struggling with the same thing. I mean, if Captain America can handle it, maybe we can too.
That’s why Carol Danvers from the Ms. Marvel era is my favorite. I was going through chronic pain, depression, and withdrawal at the time, and I had nobody to talk to. Reading about her struggling with alcoholism while everyone else abandoned her really resonated with me.
RE: Fact #30 (Stan Lee Approved Gwen’s Death) – Lee was the only one who liked her. To me, she always felt like a total male fantasy: a blonde bombshell in a miniskirt who was somehow perfectly sweet and innocent. There wasn’t much depth there; MJ was a way better character. Still, I’m glad she was included because her death is a highlight of the original Spider-Man lore.
RE: Fact #6 (Spider-Man’s Missing Movie Suits) – A minor villain who poses as a security guard to steal hero costumes and sell them to collectors sounds like the perfect addition to a classic rogues’ gallery. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were already a few real-life people like that out there.
RE: Fact #33 (Sally Field Hated Aunt May) – She basically said she couldn’t find any depth in the character, no matter how hard she worked with the script.
Don’t try to pass something off as Aunt May’s peach tea when it’s just garbage.
RE: Fact #29 (Spider-Man’s Real Ingram Street) – I’m wondering if that was just a coincidence or if Stan Lee knew they lived there and just didn’t care about the trouble it caused.
RE: Fact #46 (Blade Proved Marvel Movies Sold) – I feel like Superman had already proven you could pull off a successful comic book movie.
Exactly. Plus Batman, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
RE: Fact #48 (Ultimate Twins Became Lovers) – The best part? Ultimate Captain America was totally grossed out when he realized their relationship was actually sexual and not just a ‘European thing’ like he thought. The rest of the Avengers just started attacking him for being a closed-minded bigot. He was like, ‘Cap, I know you’re from the 50s, but it’s a new millennium, incest is the new interracial.’
RE: Fact #9 (Thanos Tortured David’s Birthdays) – To recap: – At 5, Thanos kills David’s father in front of him. – At 16, he uses David’s phone to send such a nasty text to his girlfriend that she dumps him. – At 21, he poisons the booze at his birthday party and everyone dies. – One year, he burns down the university where David was supposed to start grad school. – Another birthday, he kills David’s cat just as David gets fired. – On his 30th, David finally thinks he’s safe because Thanos was defeated, but Thanos returns and resets everything to keep the cycle of torture going. – By his 45th, David is totally broken and living in a dump. When he finally tries to stand up to Thanos, Thanos just floods his apartment and leaves, telling him he’ll see him next year.
And the whole time, David tries to tell people Thanos is personally targeting him. People react exactly how you’d expect.
Not even the Avengers help? You’d think they would be the type to hear “it’s Thanos” and actually step in.
We have very different ideas of what constitutes a ruined day if the first thing on that list is a man’s father getting murdered.
It is kind of wild that one year he murders a man’s father, and the next year he’s out here pulling middle-school level pranks.
it’s impressive that David managed to get into grad school given everything else happening.
Handling the absolute worst life has to offer sometimes makes for the strongest people. Just look at Lincoln.
RE: Fact #34 (Marvel’s Tiny First Salaries) – Keep in mind that those figures are just the base pay. They don’t include performance bonuses, residuals, or the inevitable salary bumps they negotiated for sequels.
RE: Fact #37 (Weapon X Meant Weapon 10) – Am I the only one who gets sucked into a multi-hour Wikipedia rabbit hole every time someone shares a Marvel fact?
RE: Fact #26 (Captain America Became Nomad) – He eventually returns to being Captain America because he figures out he can stand for American ideals without blindly following the government. That was the main point.
Exactly, the whole arc was designed to reach that conclusion. Now he calls the government out when they mess up and only supports them when they align with his values. They even created their own version of the character, USAgent, to replace him.
RE: Fact #42 (Thanos’s Brother Was Starfox) – It’s a sad day when Thanos just gets reduced to ‘the purple villain’ at the end of an Avengers movie.
Totally. He was the same ‘purple dude’ in Guardians of the Galaxy, too.
RE: Fact #22 (Loki’s Mewling Quim Insult) – Also, in Avengers 2, Tony Stark jokes that if he successfully lifts the hammer, he’ll rule with an iron fist and enforce “prima nocta”, the historical claim that a lord could sleep with any bride on her wedding night.
RE: Fact #31 (Spider-Man’s Pulled Twin Towers Trailer) – I saw that trailer in the theater and thought it was pretty cool at the time. A shame about the timing.
RE: Fact #14 (Andrew Garfield’s Cheeseburger Audition) – His Peter Parker was definitely unique and pretty compelling. I’ve heard people argue he was too cool to play Peter, and I kind of agree, he would have been the most popular kid at my school. But that’s fine. It was a fresh take and made his specific approach to Spider-Man work well.
RE: Fact #9 (Thanos Tortured David’s Birthdays) – This reminds me of that comic where Santa sneaks into Apokolips every year just to give Darkseid coal for being naughty.
RE: Fact #35 (Avi Arad Mocked MCU Spider-Man) – They apparently almost had Hugh Jackman do a cameo in the first Sam Raimi Spider-Man movie, but they supposedly lost his costume.
Looking back, it was probably for the best that they didn’t launch the MCU until they really figured out how to handle superhero franchises.
RE: Fact #16 (Spider-Man Musical Lost $60 Million) – I remember seeing The Lion King, which Julie Taymor also directed, when I was younger. There were these moving staircases on stage, and I saw a dancer fall off one and break her leg, it looked like a nasty compound fracture. She was carried off in agony, but the show just kept going. I was the only one in my family who even noticed, and it has honestly haunted me for years.
Someone must have wished that dancer “good luck” before she went on stage.
RE: Fact #12 (Stan Lee’s Missing Spider-Man Profits) – Freakazoid nailed this back in the 90s: always negotiate for a percentage of the gross, not the net. The net is just pretend.
Imagine trying to negotiate that: “We have hundreds of actors wanting this part, and we’re offering it to you.” “I want a percentage of the gross!” “We’ll find someone else. Thanks for coming in.”
Plenty of actors have demanded and received a percentage of the gross. Marilyn Chambers is a classic case. She went to an audition not realizing it was a porn film, but the directors loved her look. When they asked what she wanted for pay, she just asked for “10% of the gross” because she had heard it on TV, and they actually agreed to it. Behind the Green Door ended up making her a millionaire.
RE: Fact #39 (Black Widow Toys Were Blocked) – I think they would have sold quite well, especially since heavy hitters like Captain Marvel, Gamora, and Nebula weren’t even in the mix back then.
RE: Fact #13 (Robert Downey Stopped in Japan) – Serious question: does that still limit his ability to travel for movie premieres? Iron Man was his big comeback, and it really served as a second chance. His public reputation has completely turned around since the first iron man.
RE: Fact #4 (James Gunn’s Quill Playlist) – The Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack hit number one on the Billboard 200, which was a huge milestone for an album made up entirely of older tracks.
RE: Fact #26 (Captain America Became Nomad) – Superheroes try to lead by example, which maybe gives this generation a shot at real change. Superman even gave up his citizenship in 2011 because he decided truth, justice, and the American way just didn’t cut it anymore.
RE: Fact #10 (Charlie Cox Won Blindness Award) – I legitimately thought he was blind when I first saw him. He definitely earned that recognition for his performance.
He mentioned in an interview that it actually messed with his head a bit, because he stopped making eye contact when talking to people. He had to re-learn how to act like a sighted person afterward.
I heard he actually bombed an audition because he stayed in Matt Murdock mode and just didn’t blink the whole time.
RE: Fact #20 (James Cameron’s Dark Spider-Man) – My favorite part: “If you worthless chunks of vomit show your faces around here again, I’ll decorate my Christmas tree with your intestines. Got it?” Not exactly the nicest thing Spidey has ever said.
That dialogue is such a mouthful. It reminds me of a little kid who just started swearing, they try to sound tough, but it just sounds like they’re forcing profanity into sentences where it doesn’t belong.
And yet, I’d still prefer that over this.
Spider-Man, directed by Tommy Wisseau. I did not hit her, I did naaaaht. O hai Green Goblin!
RE: Fact #12 (Stan Lee’s Missing Spider-Man Profits) – It is bizarre that we just accept this blatant fraud under the label of “Hollywood accounting” with a shrug. Is there any other industry where this kind of thing is so widely tolerated?
RE: Fact #40 (Amazing Spider-Man Sales Collapse) – There was definitely a massive comic book boom in the 90s after the whole ‘Superman is dead’ thing. These days, I can barely find a comic shop open near me.
RE: Fact #12 (Stan Lee’s Missing Spider-Man Profits) – Then there is Steve Ditko, who plotted and drew those early Spider-Man stories and designed iconic villains like the Green Goblin, Electro, and the Vulture. He tried to get fair recognition and pay in the 60s, but it didn’t go anywhere, so he quit Marvel in protest. Stan did a lot for Marvel, but he wasn’t a one-man show. So many talented people never got the credit they earned. Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby deserve just as much praise as Stan. They were the ones creating the actual characters and concepts. Only years later did some of them finally get a chance to share in the financial success, though Ditko famously refused for his own reasons. Stan was paid well as Marvel grew, but he clearly wasn’t satisfied with his share either. In the long run, he did alright. I just wish the actual creators got a fair cut of the profits their work generated. It is such a messy, complicated situation spanning decades and shifting corporate ownership.
That is just capitalism for you: creators are treated as worthless while the investors get all the value. It is the nature of the game.
This is the classic dynamic. Steve Jobs wasn’t the one soldering components in the garage, Woz was. But the flashy frontman is almost always the one who ends up on top.
RE: Fact #5 (Guardians Avoided Baby Driver Songs) – I loved how Baby Driver was edited to the beat. I am a huge music fan, so I really appreciated that attention to detail. Guardians had a great soundtrack, but it felt more about the nostalgia and overall vibe than the specific integration of the tracks. I assume they avoided using the same songs as other films just to avoid audience burnout or keeping viewers from thinking of a different movie while watching theirs. Either way, I’m glad they are putting more thought into the music again.
Guardians 2 put way more emotional weight into its soundtrack, especially with “The Chain.”
I am not saying Guardians didn’t use music well, but the movie didn’t revolve around it like in Baby Driver. The music added to the atmosphere, but Baby Driver focused on syncing the action to every single beat. I love both movies for different reasons, I just tend to overanalyze these things.
Baby Driver is a love letter to filmmaking. There is so much going on that you have to look for to really notice. Everyone catches the gunshots or cuts synced to the music, but even car horns, footsteps, and the dump truck in the opening scene hit the beat. It is wild and I love it.
Totally agree. That is exactly why I love it. The detail and execution were spot on, and I think the film was underrated.
RE: Fact #43 (Dave Bautista Cried for Drax) – He totally stole the show. Every part he had was great, but his delivery was top-tier.
RE: Fact #1 (Captain America Punched Hitler Early) – I can’t recall if it was Jack Kirby, but there’s a story about an American Nazi Party member showing up at the office to complain about how they were being portrayed in the comics. Apparently, Kirby ran downstairs to fight the guy, but he had already taken off by the time he got outside.
That definitely sounds like Kirby! We tend to forget, but a lot of the Golden and Silver Age creators were military veterans or just physically tough guys. Jack Kirby was legitimately strong.
Kirby served in WWII, though this office incident likely happened before he was drafted. During the war, he did recon work, which meant sketching maps, a pretty dangerous gig that involved hanging out in vulnerable areas with no backup.
RE: Fact #18 (JayFunk Choreographed Doctor Strange Magic) – Remember when Mordo gave Strange the WiFi password? That wasn’t the only weirdly modern convenience in Kamar-Taj. A lot of the students were wearing some pretty fly sneakers, I’m pretty sure most of them had on monochrome Boosts.
RE: Fact #5 (Guardians Avoided Baby Driver Songs) – It would be incredible if Edgar Wright and James Gunn made a movie together.
The amount of jokes, easter eggs, and references per frame would be totally overwhelming. But I agree, it would be awesome.
RE: Fact #2 (Chris Pratt Stole Star-Lord) – My friends and I made some sweet Avengers costumes four years ago. One friend spent about 200 hours building Iron Man armor, and I put in 50 hours on a Hawkeye bow and quiver. We volunteered at a Children’s Hospital a couple of weeks later, and the kids loved it. I managed to get one kid with cancer to eat his lunch by trading him arrows for every bite. I’ll never forget that. You don’t have to be a celebrity to help out, you just need the heart to do it. Seeing the kids and their parents smile really hit home. My sister was in tears within half an hour.
Trust me, you’re a celebrity in the best possible way. Who is cutting onions in here?
RE: Fact #20 (James Cameron’s Dark Spider-Man) – I don’t even want to imagine how many more awkward faces Tobey Maguire would have made. Thank god that sex scene never happened.
Unless he kept his mask on the whole time and it was just Mary Jane in a bunch of different poses.
RE: Fact #41 (Disney Lost Marvel in Florida) – I go to Universal Orlando and the Disney parks all the time, and it is definitely weird seeing Marvel merch in both spots. Universal definitely leans into the comic aesthetic, which makes for a different vibe. Also, the Incredible Hulk coaster and Dr. Doom’s Fearfall are fantastic.