My Most Prized Possession

I have been a fan of Marvel Comics for as long as I could read. I remember getting a copy of Origins Of Marvel Comics and Here Comes The Bad Guys as a birthday gift. I remember reading the origins of The Fantastic Four, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, Doctor Doom, The Green Goblin and Doctor Strange. Heck, I still have that copy of Bring On The Bad Guys, all beat up as it is. But inside Origins Of Marvel Comics, I read a story that cemented my love of comics for the rest of my life and that was the origin story of the Amazing Spider-Man.

I loved the fact the Peter Parker was not much older than I was (Actually, since I was probably 6 at the time, he would have been a lot older than I was). I like the fact that he had such cool powers and dressed in a weird costume. Instantly after reading the story, Spider-Man became my favorite super hero. I read as many Amazing Spider-Man, Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man and Marvel Team Ups as I could get my hands on. Sure, I still loved watching Batman and Super Friends on TV, but Spider-Man was the man to me. I owe a huge thank you the man who helped create this wonderful character. Stan Lee.

Now, I know half that thank you would also go to Steve Ditko, who was just as instrumental to bringing Spider-Man to the heights of popularity that he enjoyed, plus he is now credited as a co-creator of the character. But since Mr. Ditko has now since become a recluse, I can only express my gratitude here to Mr. Ditko.

 Now Stan Lee on the other hand is still touring the country at the ripe young age of 91 years old. This man should be celebrated for without him, there is no Fantastic Four. There is no X-Men. There is no Avengers. There are no movies to spend our hard earned bucks on or cartoons on TV or merchandise to pick up. Without Stan Lee, life would have been all DC Comics. Not that it's a bad thing. But last I checked, Spidey was shooting webs at Marvel.

One of my dreams is to meet Stan Lee. Unfortunately, I have not as of yet the closest I have yet to come to meeting him was at last year's Comikaze. The line though was way too long and I didn't want to put my girlfriend and her daughter through that. Not that they would have minded. They are so awesome that they would have waited and had fun doing so. Maybe another time.

My most prized possession is a Stan Lee item. See, a few years back, Stan was still signing his mail (He's long stopped doing so) and I wanted to send something Spider-Man related for him to sign. Now, I wasn't going to send a comic or a DVD cover of Spider-Man to him. Mo, I wanted to send something meaningful to me for him to sign. One day, as I was reading a Spider-Man comic, the idea came to me. I went out and bought a poster of Amazing Fantasy #15. The very first story I remember reading of Spider-Man. So, I packed it up and sent it to his POW Entertainment offices along with return postage.

A couple of months later, this came back to me:

Sorry about the bad picture. I took this with one of my old cell phones which had a crappy camera on it.

But this doesn't look too bad though.

This poster is my most prized possession. To have, essentially, the father of Spider-Man sign my poster is just amazing (No pun intended) to me and I will cherish it for as long as I live. My plan is to be able to have it professionally framed and hung on my wall in the very near future. For now, I have it guarded by 4 ravenous pit bulls and it's also booby trapped. No one is getting this poster if I can help it.

I may never get an opportunity to meet the man who is responsible for hours of enjoyment as a kid, teenager and adult. I can only hope that many of the people who get to meet him express to him just how much happier he made their lives with his creations and fantastic books. Hopefully, one day, I will have that chance. Hopefully, I will have the opportunity to walk up to him, knees shaking, extend my hand out and simply say Thank you. Thank you for all the wonderful stories and characters you created. That, my fellow geeks, would mean a lot to me. Just as it has, I'm sure, to all those who already had the good luck to shake the hand of Spider-Man's dad.

Funko Pop Comikaze Exclusive Peter Parker Vinyl

I remember seeing this cover as kid and ever since then I have been fascinated by Peter Parker unmasked as Spider-Man. Some of my favorite Spider-Man stories have Spidey unmasked for one reason or another. Like when Parker caught a 24 hour flu in Amazing Spider-Man #12 and lost all his strength. He went to fight Dr. Octopus anyway because he had kidnapped Betty Brant and Peter felt like he had to save her. Because of the flu, Parker was over whelmed and unmasked. Luckily, Doc Ock thought that Parker was masquerading as Spider-Man and threw him aside.

Or probably the most famous Spider-Man unmasking, which occured in issue #39. That is the issue when the Green Goblin discovers Spider-man's true identity, with the help of a gas that dulled Spider-Man's spider sense. He didn't know he was being followed after a fight with some crooks on the observation deck of the Empire State Building, where one of the crooks, who was hired by the Goblin, threw the gas at Spider-Man. Afterward, Goblin followed Spidey and saw him change back into Peter Parker and followed him to his house. After a fight on Parker's lawn, he was subdued, roped up and dragged away by the Goblin. Also in this issue, we discover that the Goblin is Norman Osborne. (SPOILER ALERT!)

Now, ever since I found out that Funko was releasing a Unmasked Spider-Man POP Vinyl, I knew I had to have one. The fact that it was a Comikaze exclusive and that Comikaze was taking place in Los Angeles and I'm a New Yorker was irrelevant to me.I was either going to get this on eBay or I would fly out to the con and get one myself, which is just what I did.

Only the Hot Topic booth was selling this figure, a fact that I didn't know until I was at the con for about an hour and after going to booth after booth looking for one. Lucky for me, one of the dealers told me where to find one.

The first thing is the packaging. One of the things I love about the boxes is the drawing of the figure you're getting on the bottom left. The drawing on this one is very well done as usual. The coloring pops off the package. We also have the usual clear cellophane that shows off the figure as well as the number on the top and the name of the figure on the bottom.

There's the sticker that proclaims this as a Comikaze exclusive. I've said it once and I'll say it again, management needs to think of a better logo than that octopus.

As usual, the back of the box shows off the other POP's in this line. Now, if I wasn't just strictly collecting Batman and Spider-Man, I might grab that Ghost Rider POP because it looks awesome. I also like the Dr. Doom and Silver Surfer. I know that Deadpool POP is going to be a popular one as well.

Now, as much as I like the sculpting on this figure, what jumps at me right away is the paint job. The black on his boots are all over the place. I love that he is looks like he is about to spin a web and Parker has been de-masked,  but that paint job on the boots just irritates me.

The back of the figure doesn't get any better. There are white spots galore on his left hip and left shoulder area. And the boots are pretty funk-a-fied on the back as well. Unlike myself, there is not a spot of white on Parker's hair. As if being Spider-Man isn't enough for me to be jealous of Parker.

One thing I remember, there was a dispute if POP made any bobbleheads and sure enough, this one is a bobblehead. I also see that Parker has been branded. I need to find out what that marking on the bottom of his foot his. I am not sure if any of my other POP's have a number on the bottom of their feet. Again, the boots are a complete mess. It looks like Spidey has been hanging out in the mud pits over at Lallapalooza instead of fighting crime.

Overall, this is could have been a fantastic figure had it not been for the paint job on it. Somewhere, a painter is getting destroyed by his boss so bad that he is shrinking into his beret and rightfully so. There is no excuse for a company to have released a figure so badly painted as this one was. I just hope that anyone else who managed to pick one of these up has a better painted figure than the one I got. I'm still going to display this next to my regular Spider-Man POP, but man, it should have been painted better.

I'm pretty sure you guys are getting tired of reading POP reviews and I promise this one will be the last review for a bit. I can't promise you how long because I am addicted to these little guys. They're inexpensive and look great displayed. Plus, there are others I will be picking up, but in the meantime, I will be reviewing other stuff and discussing other topics for the foreseeable future. But, I dare you to try walking past these at Barnes N Noble, Toys R Us or any other of your fine retail stores. They are like Lays potato chips. Once you get one, you just can't stop. I dare you to try.