Super Geek: Okay, Spidey-2 is out and it's getting just wonderful reviews. The first one was just about everything you could have realistically asked for in a Hollywood movie. Director = perfect (thank God they got Raimi and not Cameron who was going to put DiCaprio in the title role); Peter Parker = perfect (love him or hate him, Maguire says more with an eyebrow than most with twenty lines); Spidey: perfect; villain: well-portrayed, if not a perfect concept (Dafoe is good, but he can't help but chew the scenery); MJ = perfect (that upside down kiss of hers in the rain!); back story and supporting character = nearly-perfect. All this perfection despite the fact the producers were working against thirty years of anticipation. People like me who read every one of the Spidey titles that Marvel put out over the years, with the stories and artwork getting better as the years went past. That movie had a much better chance of being dashed upon the rocks of our collective memories.

Spidey was our first wise-cracking superhero. He wasn't some second-tier guy like Hawkeye, who flung arrows side-by-side with his own verbal barbs. He was "The Man", yet he was a boy, forever, a boy. He was smart, yet horribly un-cool. He was the perfect (mutated) human specimen, yet he was relegated to photography and helping his elderly aunt and uncle out around the house. He was good looking and funny, yet only the piggish lout got the girl next door. So, just about everyone who read the books could relate to all or part of his plight.

Yet put him in costume and he ... soared. He couldn't be stopped, and whether it was punches *pow!* or his ascerbic wit, the enemy was helpless in his web. He was my favorite.

I'm going to see it when I get back from my northern adventure this weekend. Even more to look forward to, Alex Ross re-tells Movie 1 in the opening credits through a series of his gorgeous drawings. That alone is worth the price of admission. I can't wait.