C.T. Smith’s Favorite Spider-Moments of 2015
By C.T. Smith
There were a lot of drastic changes in Spider-Man’s life during the year of 2015, and that statement applies to more than his year in comics. I enjoyed a lot of the Spider-Man related things that happened this year, but some occurrences stood out to me more than others. So without further ado, here are my, in no particular order, favorite Spider-Man related moments of 2015.
Marvel Acquires Movie Rights to Spider-Man
Marvel’s reacquisition of Spider-Man’s movie rights was the standout Spider-Event of 2015. Although Amazing Spider-Man 1 & 2 were good movies in their own right (though they weren’t my favorites), it truly felt like Spider-Man was coming home when it was announced that Spider-Man would first appear in an upcoming Marvel film (supposedly Captain America: Civil War). With Spider-Man being an integral puzzle piece in the grand scheme of the Marvel universe, Civil War in particular, it’s a wonderful thing knowing that we’ll eventually see Spidey swinging along with the Avengers on the big screen. I don’t have an opinion on Tom Holland being cast as Peter Parker, except that Marvel has rarely done wrong thus far so we’ll have to wait and see.
The Spider-Verse Concludes
When I first heard/read about the Spider-Verse event my Spider-Sense went off against the danger of excitement. This entire event was basically fan-service to Spider-Man readers around the world, and the best part is that the comic event was actually good –really good. 2015 brought the closing chapters of the excellent event, bringing together all of the awesome Spider-Totems into one final battle. If I had to choose specific moments from the event I would have to say anything that featured Leopardon was great in my book, as well as the final showdown against the Inheritors -with Spider-Man going to town on both Morlun and SpOck. If you haven’t read the arc I’d highly recommend it.
Spider-Verse comes to Future Fight
Branching off the hype that the Spider-Verse generated, another great Spider-Moment of 2015 was the addition of Spider-Verse characters Miles Morales, Spider-Gwen, and Silk to my favorite Marvel game Future Fight. With Spider-Man, the Superior Spider-Man (whose addition would get a spot on the list but if the others weren’t added all at once), and Spidoc already in the game, no one expected three more Spiders to join the ever growing roster. Better yet, their animations are fluid and incredibly entertaining to watch, making them some of the coolest characters in the game. Silk is also top tier, ‘nuff said. Spider-Verse and Future Fight, a dream come true. Future Fight also gets my vote for mobile-game of the year.
Spidey Murder Mystery
In October of 2015, YouTuber Meghan Camarena (Strawburry17) and a group of people consisting of actresses, a stuntman, a twitch streamer, a photographer, and more, put together a Spider-Verse murder mystery on their respective Instagrams. Each person played a different Spider-Totem (ranging from Miles Morales and Yu Komori to Amadeus Cho as the Iron Spider), and posted images with captions that helped viewers solve the mystery. The images were filled with Spider-Costume goodness.
Now I’ll be Honest, I didn’t keep up with the mystery or follow the plot whatsoever, nor did I even attempt to solve it. I was simply too distracted by the awesome cosplay of the characters. Everyone involved had pretty solid costumes, with my favorite being actress Joanna Sotomura as Silk. This made my list purely on their cosplay, but I’m sure they had a great story too. You can check some of the cool group shots on their Instagram’s here and here.
Ultimate Spider-Man Web-Warriors: Contest of Champions
Now I haven’t seen all the episodes of the Disney XD cartoon Ultimate Spider-Man, I’ve only seen season 1 in its entirety to be exact, but I did tune in to the 4-part finale of the latest season. Funny thing is, I only intended to watch the Spider-Verse episodes from earlier in the season until the title Contest of Champions caught my eye. Contest of Champions is the name of Marvel’s high grossing mobile app that pits Marvel super heroes and villains against each other, and it’s also the name of a comic series they launched with the same premise.
I always love super hero team ups and I really, really like the tournament arc in any comic or manga, so seeing Spider-Man team up with various heroes against villains was a treat. I also like the way they made it into a literal card/board game between the Collector and the Grandmaster. Plus any plot that lets showdowns like Spider-Man, Thor, Agent Venom, and Iron Spider vs. Annihilus, Terrax, and Attuma happen always delivers on entertainment value. Even if you don’t watch the show I’d suggest you give these episodes a view.
Spider-Comics and Reboots
Of course another great thing about 2015 was the continuation and introduction of great Spider-Man comics such as the Amazing Spider-Man, Silk, The Radioactive Spider-Gwen, and Spider-Man (Miles Morales). 2015 ushered in a wave of spider-verse content and it looks like 2016 will be a strong year in the world of Spider-Man. Honorable mentions for top Spider-Moments of 2015 go to Secret Wars and the All-New, All-Different Spider-Man reboot. It was certainly nice to see Peter and MJ together again in Renew Your Vows, though it seems like that pairing will never succeed with the new direction of Spider-Man. Speaking of new directions, Spidey’s new suit and wealthy lifestyle are interesting, but I’ll have to give it a few more issues to see if I really like where they’re heading in the comics. In any case, there are many Spider-Man related things that were list-worthy this year, but here’s my short list of things that stood out to me.
Let me know what your favorite Spider-Moments of 2015 were in the comments below, and Happy New Year WASC readers!