Having to follow "The Avengers" and released just before 'The Dark Knight Rises," the relaunch of ol' Spidey couldn't have come at a more challenging time, especially with audiences now so savvy as to what is possible in superhero movies, yet "The Amazing Spider-Man" delivered superbly. Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker/Spider-Man was perfect casting. In fact the entire cast was perfectly picked. After seeing Garfield take on Peter Parker, I'm left wondering how we ever accepted Tobey Maguire for three films. This new Peter Parker is just how he is in the comics, convincingly genius, witty, joke cracking, and moves with real fluidity. Maguire's performance now seems so dull and sluggish compared to this newer, more exciting, funner to watch version which ironically is spot on to what gives the comic book version so much likability. Emma Stone as Gwen Stacey was awesome. I liked her more than Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane, and surprisingly Sally Fields as Aunt May, although not as visually similar to the comic books as the previous incarnation of her, pulled off being Aunt May completely and believably: she was Aunt May.

There was nothing wholly original about the actual story plot. That is not what makes the movie so great.  Yet, the story did move along at a very nice pace and you never get bored. What does make the movie so great? Besides the acting, the look and the feel of the movie are more realistic and you feel like Spider-Man could actually belong in our world. Rather than a comic book looking, colorful spectacle it went for the grittier, more real feel, with New York playing a large role in that.  The action scenes were really entertaining to watch because instead of fighting one guy, this Spider-Man takes on several at once and in more than one spot in the movie. The special effects have stepped up since we last saw Spidey in Spider-Man 3 back in 2007. The web swinging was much more realistic like the rest of the movie was and perhaps the biggest jump in technology besides the upgraded costume was the webbing which now shoots much more believably and in more creative ways. The villain was The Lizard and he falls nicely into the regular line of Spider-Man's rogue gallery. Nothing special made him stand out compared to Willem DaFoe's Green Goblin, etc. but he was fun to watch nonetheless.

Overall this film captured the true essence of Spider-Man, making him move from a bright colorful character that could only exist in comic books to a real flesh and blood hero that could and should surface any minute from behind a skyscraper. What is interesting about Spider-Man is that he was always meant to be that really relatable superhero, the teenager with girl problems who finds himself facing tough choices and this movie manages to deliver on that in a way the previous films came close to but didn't quite do. "The Amazing Spider-Man" is a great time at the movies and for a couple hours makes you hopeful, leaves you emotionally uplifted and reignites that small flame we all keep buried deep down for heroes to come and save the day. (Oh, make sure to stay until the end of the beginning credits; there is one bonus scene.)

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If you've watched TV, looked at city buses or had a Dr. Pepper recently, you may have noticed what hopes to be one of the biggest blockbusters of all time, The Avengers. Not only is this a super hero movie but it features one of the earliest super hero teams and promises to deliver yet another hit for Marvel Studios. With all of the hype and promotion I couldn't help but think how close the entire thing came to almost not happening. It was a very real scenario at one point in time that there might not be an Iron Man, Thor, Incredible Hulk and most of what is now known as the Marvel Universe.

The story goes like this: a young Stan Lee, was tired of his job publishing comics that followed the latest craze, whether it was detective or western or war story, and wanted to go off and be a "serious" writer. He had given it a lot of thought and made up his mind that the next day he was going to quit his job publishing un-original comic books  to go do something better. You could hardly blame the guy, he wanted to be a real artist, not a hack pretending to be one, following the latest fad in story genre. So he walked into work the next day ready to quit but there was something he was not anticipating: his boss' news of a super hero team book called "The Justice League." He had played golf with the executive over at DC Comics and learned the super hero team book was selling really well, so of course, like he always did, he told Stan Lee he wanted a super hero book. His boss' enthusiasm for the idea was too high and he decided not to tell him he was leaving until later. He went home and told his wife about his conversation at work and how he didn't want to do it anymore. His wife gave him some good advice. She said, "why don't you write the book the way you would want to do it, not the way you think they want you to and if they hate it then you'll get fired and you didn't want to work there anyway, but if they like it and it sells then you've achieved writing something you want to write." Stan Lee took her advice and wrote a story of a super hero team unlike any other: "The Fantastic Four."

The phenomenal success of "The Fantastic Four" gave Stan Lee the green light to create a whole new universe of characters that were unlike superheroes of the past. His heroes had problems and weren't always perfect. They were relatable and people connected in droves. He went on to create another superhero team "The Avengers," as well as Iron Man, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, The Silver Surfer, The X-Men and his most famous creation: Spider-Man. Regardless of his other successes, Stan Lee faced opposition when he pitched the idea of Spider-Man. His boss just couldn't see how a pimple faced, weakling of a teenager would be a believable super hero and told Stan Lee to toss it. Luckily, he didn't toss away the idea and instead slipped the story into the last issue of a series that was about to end. He figured it wouldn't hurt the series any and at least he'd get his story out there. When the numbers finally came back months later for Amazing Fantasy #15, the first appearance of Spider-Man, it was one of the biggest selling single issues of the decade.

It goes to show that you must always create from a joy of creating, not from the financial need to or to produce something you think will fit into what everyone else is doing. Being original and making something that was not there before is the real reason why we create at all or we might as well just go enjoy the art we tried to copy. Stan Lee had the good sense to listen to his wife and do what he wanted to do and damn the consequences. I think it's a good example to follow when it comes to tackling your work. Always create and do what you want to because in the end you only have yourself to please. I'm glad I knew his story and excited I get to see the characters that almost never were, come alive on a movie screen. Artists Run This Planet!

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