Guide to the Spider-Verse: Spider-Woman

Jessica Drew (despite not really being affiliated with Spider-Man) is almost as iconic to the Spider-Verse as Spider-Man. The first-and-current Spider-Woman began her path to superheroics when she was diagnosed with radiation poisoning as a small child. Desperate to save her, Jessica's father put her in a gene-therapy pod and infused her with the DNA of spiders to infuse her with the spider's resistance to radiation. Jessica hibernated in her pod until she was an adult, where she was found by the evil organization HYDRA. She emerged with a bizarre set of powers; while she had the basic spider-abilities of wall-crawling and proportionate spider-strength and speed, she also had the power to glide on air currents via glider webs under her arms, fire bio-electric "venom" blasts, emit emotion altering pheromones, and could develop immunities to any toxin or poison she was exposed to. HYDRA trained her to be their agent, gave her a red-and-yellow costume designed to resemble the deadly black widow spider, and sent their villainous Spider-Woman to kill SHIELD director Nick Fury. But she was stopped and saw the error of her ways, becoming a reluctant hero. Upon her switch to hero, she slightly altered her HYDRA suit, replacing the cowl with a domino mask, adjusting the yellow emblem, and reducing the size of her glider webs and adding a web-pattern. A darker, crimson-and-metallic gold spider-symbol emblazoned costume was designed for her but she never wore it. After an adventurous career as a hero, Spider-Woman lost her powers and found that Julia Carpenter assume the role of Spider-Woman. After a few years, Jessica tried to regain her abilities and found herself kidnapped by alien shapeshifters and was replaced by their queen. After the heroes of Earth repelled the shapeshifters, they found the real Jessica Drew and she regained her powers and identity of Spider-Woman. She became an Avenger, and a mentor to young spider-heroes such as Spider-Girl (Anya Corazon) and Silk. Spider-Woman later altered her costume, adding black leather accents and and a spider-emblem. In the Ultimate Universe, Jessica Drew is Spider-Woman, and a female clone of Spider-Man, with the same powers plus the power to fire organic webs from her fingertips. Initially she wore a dark garnet bodysuit with a white spider emblem, but deciding she wanted to be a different individual from Spider-Man, changed her identity to Black Widow (dying her hair red, and wearing a black-and-red bodysuit with a red jacket with a black spider on the back). In a possible future Jessica drew still fights as Spider-Woman in the land of the Dead, wearing a green-and-purple version of her original costume. In another future timeline, she fights as Spider-Woman in a suit that combines elements of her red-and-yellow suit and Spider-Man's. And in a timeline where mutants are hunted by the government, Jessica Drew is the deadly mutant killer known as Redback, possessing all of her original powers (plus the ability to release retractable stingers filled with venom from her wrists) and wearing an armored black-and red version of her original Spider-Woman costume and black tinted goggles.

Guide to the Spider-Verse: Arachne

Julia Carpenter was only trying to earn some money by taking part in medical studies, unknowingly taking part in a secret government experiment to create super-powers. Taking what she thought was a vitamin injection, she was injected with spider-venoms and plant toxins from the Amazon rainforest. The injection gave her spider-like strength and speed, as well as the power to climb walls and create webs out of pure psychokinetic energy. Given the codename Spider-Woman (an identity formerly used by Jessica Drew), and a black-and-white costume, Julia escaped her government handlers and joined the Avengers. After Jessica Drew returned and reclaimed her identity, Julia assumed the alias of Arachne. After the events of the Superhuman Registration Act, Arachne fled to Canada and joined the superhero team Omega Flight, creating a more stylized version of her classic costume to wear. She returned to America to help Spider-Man fight a cult of hunters who were targeting spider-powered people. Arachne tried to help spidery-pyschic Madame Web when the hunters gravely injured the elderly woman, only to have Madame Web use the psychic nature of Arachne's powers to link their minds and giver her own psychic gifts to Julia. Now the new Madame Web, Julia now had precognition, clairvoyance, and astral projection added to her powers. Giving her Arachne costume to Anya Corazon (the new Spider-Girl) the new Madame Web donned a red costume with a red trenchcoat over it. Underneath the trenchcoat, her costume has a white spider-symbol (similar to that of the original Madame Web) on a dark red bodysuit with light red gloves and boots with a pair of red spider-like goggles. In a reality created by a crazed sorceress, Julia is Arachne, a knight who wears an armored version of her original costume. In the future, Arachne is one of the last surving Avengers, clad in a version of her original costume, modified with stinger-blasting wrist gauntlets, belts, and no white boots.

Guide to the Spider-Verse: Scarlet Spiders

The Scarlet Spider is one of Spider-Man's most famous allies. And there have been quite a few individuals to don the webs of the Scarlet Spider. Ben Reilly was the first, and most famous, Scarlet Spider. A spider-powered clone of Spider-Man created by the Jackal, Ben initially believed that he was the real Spider-Man. Creating a red Spider-Man costume of his own from scavenged materials and tossing on a blue spider-hoodie , the Scarlet Spider swung into battle alongside Spider-Man, even taking over as Spider-Man for a brief while until his death. Joe Wade was a spy trying to infiltrate the ranks of the henchmen of Lady Octopus, but the villainess found him out and forced him to be her guinea pig in her holographic projector. Initially he was used to power a solid-light hologram of the Scarlet Spider used to discredit the real Scarlet Spider, but the tech malfunctioned and fused into Joe, changing him into the second Scarlet Spider. Clad in silver-and-scarlet armor, Joe terrorized the public until her was stopped by Ben Reilly (who was in the guise of Spider-Man). The third Scarlet Spider was also a clone like Ben, but unlike Ben, he was a clone of a Avenger trainee. Patrick and his brothers Michael and Van were clones of a super-hero in-training named MVP who was killed in practice while training to be an Avenger. A clone was sent home to pose as the real MVP, but three more were created to put MVP's athleticism to use in copies of Spider-Man's super-powered red-and-gold Iron Spider armor as the Scarlet Spiders. During the course of their career, Michael and Van would fall in battle, leaving Patrick the last surviving Scarlet Spider. A second clone of Spider-Man would take on the title Scarlet Spider after he was cured of a debilitating clone disease. Kaine was a disfigured Spider-Man clone who hated Ben Reilly for being a prefect clone. Kaine would be a villain for years until he was forced to undergo a metamorphosis and emerge completely cured and given powers the real Spider-Man didn't have anymore. In honor of his "brother" Ben, Kaine became the fourth Scarlet Spider in a high-tech red-and-black. In addition to his his tech Scarlet Spider suit, Kaine also took Spider-Man's black-and-red stealth suit. In the Ultimate Universe, Peter Parker was seen as a Scarlet Spider in a potential future wearing a variation of Patrick's Scarlet Spider armor. In another timeline, Felicity Hardy (daughter of the Black Cat) used her acrobatics and spider-themed gadgets to become the Scarlet Spider (wearing a garnet-and-light blue variation of Ben's costume). In a possible future in her timeline, Felicity upgraded her Scarlet Spider suit into high-tech garnet-and-black armor and led the Avengers.

All images owned by Marvel Comics.

Jurassic World: Rise of the Mutant Dinosaurs?

So a plot synopsis of the fourth film in the Jurassic Park franchise states that the movie will take place on a functioning amusement park called Jurassic World. However declining sales prompts the scientists to create new mutant dinosaurs using spliced DNA to draw in more tourists. Of course we all know what will happen with the dinomutants.The funny thing about this is that the ideas of a Jurassic Park filled with dinomutants was already tried via Kenner in the late 90's with a toy line called Jurassic Park: Chaos Effect. The premise of the toy line was that geneticists working for the park combined dino DNA to create new dinosaurs such as:

Compstegnathus, a hybrid of Compsognathus and Stegosaurus

 Armagospinus, a hybrid of Amargosaurus and Spinosaurus

 Ankyloranodon, a hybrid of Ankylosaurus and Pteranodon

 Paradeinonychus, a hybrid of Parasaurolophus and Deinonychus

Velocirapteryx, a hybrid of Velociraptor and Archeopteryx

And Ultimasaurus, a hybrid of Triceratops, T-Rex, Velociraptor, and Ankylosaurus.

Most of these toys never saw it onto the shelves due to poor sales and a lack of interest. Although the film Jurassic Park 3 did employ the idea of the researchers genetically enhancing dinosaurs to create giant Pteranodons with teeth and spiked super-Velociraptors, they never actually used dinomutants. However we may yet see Ultimasaurus chase tourists on an island next year in Jurassic World.

Wonder Woman on the Big Screen

Despite numerous films featuring Superman and Batman, DC's mightiest mythical marvel, Wonder Woman, has had only a few appearances in the realm of film. Linda Carter was the first Wonder Woman in the 70's. Fighting for our rights in her satin tights (and a whalebone corset so tight she couldn't bend at the waist), Linda Carter's Wonder Woman was a TV icon. Over 30 years later, Adrianne Palicki was cast to play Wonder Woman in a made-for-tv movie that never aired due to advance fan-hatred over the shiny vinyl costume and bad script. And now in 2015, Gal Gafot will be the first Wonder Woman ever to appear on the silver screen in "Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice", clad in a darkly armored version of the classic Wonder Woman costume.

My feelings about Marvel's changes to Thor and Captain America

With the upcoming Superman/Batman movie next year, a new Batmobile is set to be revealed. Here are a few cars set to potentially be the next Batmobile. First we have a sleek black modified Lamborghini in definite Batman style. The second, and recently mentioned more likely to occur, candidate is an Audi inspired Batmobile with elements of the Michael Keaton era Batmobile, allegedly being designed by GM. The third is a modified Corvette  with elements of the Adam West Batmobile. Fourth is a mixture of the Christian bale Tumbler Batmobile with an armored sports car. The 5th is a futuristic retake of the Adam West Batmobile. And the final contender is a heavily modified black muscle car taking inspiration from the Batman comics.