Postage Stamp of the Week: Spider-Man

Batman is my favorite superhero, but the Batman movie franchise has generally disappointed. On the other hand, I've enjoyed Sam Raimi's recent Spider-Man movies a whole lot more. Why? Mostly 'cause I prefer bumbling teen Peter Parker/working-class hero Spider-Man coping with everyday New York to millionaire Bruce "Batman" Wayne brooding over his overly goth Gotham. On the third hand, I like my superheroes dehyphenated (cf. "Batman" v. "Spider-Man"). Let's call it a draw.

Last night we went to a midnight IMAX screening of Spider-Man 3. It was pretty consistent with its predecessors, as far as tone, action, characters, etc. But it didn't have the same level of intrigue as the first two (a lot less, even), and there were too many subplots cluttering it up. Lotsa strands in old Stever's head. Cutting out 20 minutes (and the Sandman character altogether) would've brought the flabby run time in at a relatively tight two hours. But I still dug seeing Spider-Man slinging himself around Manhattan in (hopefully) the final chapter of what was originally planned as a trilogy. Giving this movie the serious benefit of the doubt, 8 stars.

The Spidey stamp won't be available 'til July, when it appears on a pane of 20 with Marvel costars Captain America, Elektra, Iron Man, Silver Surfer, Spider-Woman, Sub-Mariner, the Hulk, the Thing and Wolverine. Click here and scroll down a bit to see 'em all.