It sometimes feels like a majority of the people who complain haven’t even been reading Spider-Man for years. 

***

I know Matt until recently was a consistent Spider-man reader for a long long time.

But it does bring up a point abiout some people.  "I haven't read Spider-man in 20 years.  Aaargh! I hate that new costume.  I will voice my displeasure by.... continuing to not read Spider-man.  That will send a message."

Letters are probably more effective. 

Joe Mayer: It sometimes feels like a majority of the people who complain haven’t even been reading Spider-Man for years.

I stopped reading AMAZING SPIDER-MAN after "Sins Past."  That story just finally made me realize that Marvel has no clue how to handle the character correctly.

I've been reading Spider-Man for twenty-five years.  I used to read every title he was in.  Next to Iron Man, he's my favorite character.  In effect, this Iron Spider thing does a double hit to me, since it seems out of character for both of Peter Parker and Tony Stark. 

Luckily, in Spider-Man's case at least, I have lots of back issues to search for that feature the character done right so I don't feel like I have no new (to me) Spider-Man stories to read.  Iron Man, however, is not so lucky.  I own his every appearance in TALES OF SUSPENSE and IRON MAN, and about 85-90% of his AVENGERS appearances, so there's a void of competent Iron Man comics out there for me right now.

I haven't been able to locate an unlocked thread about the 3rd "Spider-Man" film, so I'm going to post the tidbit I have in this thread, as it is related to the character.

My friend sent me a quote from a website, but didn't let me know where it came from. I'll post the source as soon as I learn it, unless someone here recognizes it first. Anyway, it deals with someone who says that they have seen what the villains look like in the new film:

Basically the costume design in spiderman 3 is a disaster, just like Mr. Green Goblin in the first Spidey. Our scooper writes in, "If you thought the first 'Spiderman' was bad in terms of development, just wait until you see the next film. The first problem is with Venom's costume, which Spiderman wears first. Instead of being pure black, they took a bit from the comic and gave it a disgusting purple tint. In the comic the reason for the tint was to Venom stood out in the shadows, but in film there's no reason for this. Now I've actually seen the costume designs and they're terrible. The purple looks awful.

And yes it gets much, much worse. All I can say about the Hobgoblin outfit is "yikes"! He looks like a skateboarder or something."

Ed: Don't ask me how he was allowed to ride the two-wheel bike in T2 but
that's the likelihood the studio is going bare the risks if he wasn't skilled
and lawful for the shoot? He did have a European motorcycle license at
some point. Maybe that was valid then.

*****

Considering his last valid license (from what I read) was in Austria pre-1968 (when he moved to the US), I doubt he had a legit license to ride a motorcycle. Probably it was a case of "don't ask, don't tell" by James Cameron, which would constitute serious negligence.

If the insurance bought on Schwarzenegger for T2 included stunts (and it must have), if he didn't have a valid license, the insurance company wouldn't have paid off for a motorcycle accident.

Cameron is probably slapping his forehead with relief that he dodged a bullet on that score.

Venom ought to be solid black-- no need for friggin' highlights in the movies! Yeesh!

As for Hobgoblin, I assume that's what Harry Osborn will be, rather than Green Goblin II. But yes, Venom (Topher Grace) and Sandman (Thomas Haden Church) are definitely in the movie. No idea how prominent any of the three will be, however.