Ramblings Spider-Man 3 Coverage Begins: Spider-Man's Black Costume

Greetings, Regal Ramblings Readers!

Well, tomorrow’s the big day: the release of Spider-Man 3. The film’s actually already been in release for the last few days around the world and will be premiering in some places at midnight tonight. But tomorrow is the first full day of the film’s release, and most folks will be hitting theaters tomorrow to see the film.

As promised, I thought I’d give you non-comics readers a little background info on some of the elements of SM-3 that have been heavily promoted in the film’s marketing campaign. These three elements are Spider-Man’s “new” black costume and three villains, The Sandman, Green Goblin 2 (“New Goblin” according to the film’s advertising) and the mysterious Venom.

First up, let’s discuss Spidey’s “new” black costume.

While the black costume in the SM-3 is simply a black version of Spider-Man’s costume, it’s inspired by a black costume that Spider-Man originally acquired way back in 1984. During the course of a comic book mini-series entitled "Secret Wars," Spidey and most of the popular Marvel superheroes were transported to a distant planet by an alien being known only as The Beyonder, who wanted to the heroes to engage in combat with the army of supervillains who'd also been "beamed" to the planet. This led to the “Secret Wars,” so named because no one else but the heroes and villains knew that they were happening on this alien planet.

In the eighth issue of the twelve-issue limited series, Spidey’s costume was damaged in battle. He observed other heroes using an alien costume repair machine (I know, convenient) to repair their costumes, so he went up to an alien machine and placed his hand underneath it. A mysterious black ball fell into his hand and then overwhelmed him, removing the tattered remnants of his old costume and replacing them with a brand new, sleek black costume.

Spider-Man eventually returned to Earth with the other Marvel heroes. He quickly learned that the costume, which he assumed was merely advanced alien technology, had a great deal of special abilities: it responded to his mental commands by turning into civilian clothing and creating an opening for Peter’s mouth when he needed to eat. The costume even produced its own webbing, thus freeing Peter from having to rely on his webshooters. Eventually, Peter learns that the costume is in fact a living alien creature, a symbiote that wants to permanently bond with him. Peter discovers that intense sound negatively affects the creature, and heads to a church belltower, where the loud ringing of the massive bells weaken the creature but almost kill Peter. Unable to move on his own, Peter almost succumbs to the bells. But at the last minute, the creature moves Peter out of harm’s way, having learned about compassion from its time with Peter. The creature seemingly dies, and Spider-Man goes back to his old red and blue costume, sometimes alternating it with a cloth version of the alien costume.

The story of the alien didn’t end there, however. It would later resurface in the form of a new villain, whose history I’ll discuss in my next entry.

Until then, ramble on.