Only last week I watched the animated movie Across The Spider-Verse. The last time I watched an animated movie, or cartoon movie to some, was the first part of the trilogy Into the Spider-Verse in 2018.
Although I won’t rave as some reviewers are doing, I found it worth watching. I must admit that I kind of liked Into the Spider-Verse better. The speed at which the action moves in Across the Spider-Verse is so dizzying that sometimes you may have to pause to try and figure out what the heck is happening, especially at the beginning.
But there is no need to pause in order to understand the scenes where the relationship between the characters, particularly Miles Morales and Gwen Stacy, develops. As an avid Spider-Man fan, I feel this crafting of the relationship between Miles and Gwen is the strongest point in the story.
Spider-Man is most loved not because he wears a mask and whacks the daylight out of evil doers. No. He is loved because he reflects part of us, the reader, the audience. The human-ness of Spider-Man and his down-to-earth relationship with others, apart from his sense of humour and quick-wit when masked, is what endears the character to us.
And no one brought this out better than Spider-Man co-creator Stan Lee and artist John Romita Sr.
Stan the Man, as he was popularly known to his legion of fans, died on Nov 12, 2018. And on June 12, just days ago, Romita Sr died. He was 93.
John Romita Sr was, to me, one of the greatest comic book artists ever. He was second only to Steve Ditko, the other co-creator of Spider-Man, in making the web-slinging, joke-cracking yet painfully human character come alive.
He and Lee were able to evoke emotions in readers of Spider-Man. In fact, Spider-Man, to my knowledge, was the first humanised comic superhero. Before him, everyone was black and white and pretty.
The Spider-Man introduced by Lee and Ditko had problems, he fell and rose up and fell again and rose up again. He had problems in high school, he had the anxiety that comes with trying to impress girls or be liked, he had money problems. He was like you and me, except that he also had spider powers.
When Ditko left the series in August 1966, Romita filled his shoes superbly, starting with Amazing Spider-Man number 39, and, together with Lee, fleshed out the characters.
He deviated from Ditko’s rendition of Peter Parker as a somewhat wiry, frail teenager into someone with more flesh and muscle, and a rather rounded face.
In doing so, he redefined Peter Parker and this was well received by readers as evidenced by a rise in sales of Amazing Spider-Man. Soon it became the best seller in the stable of Marvel titles, outdoing The Fantastic Four.
I particularly liked his drawing of women and till today when I think of the character Mary Jane Watson, I picture her as Romita Sr drew her.
And that is why I didn’t like Kirsten Dunst’s portrayal of MJ, as Mary Jane Watson is called. She neither looked like nor had that sexy, vivacious yet cute quality that Romita Sr brought out in MJ.
Zendaya, who played MJ in recent Spider-Man movies, was better than Dunst but still that sparkle that Romita brought to MJ was missing. It was the same with renditions of MJ by other comic book artists.
I rate Romita among top artists such as Neal Adams, John Buscema, Alex Ross, George Perez, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Gene Colan, Gil Kane and Brian Boland.
Although the stories credited Lee with plot and story, Romita Sr contributed to some of them. He was also the original artist for the Spider-Man newspaper strip in the late 1970s, which was published in Malaysia in The Star. He drew it until 1980.
Romita Sr was born on Jan 24, 1930. He started his comics drawing career by assisting a high school friend two years after graduating from Manhattan’s School of Industrial Art in 1947. The friend worked at Timely Comics, which later became Marvel Comics. He later did a stint with rival DC Comics, publisher of Batman and Superman, before returning to Marvel and taking on regular work on Daredevil, another popular Marvel character.
In 1972, Stan Lee made him unofficially Marvel’s art director and as art director, he had a hand in designing a number of Marvel characters, including Wolverine and Punisher, over several decades. He drew most of the major Marvel characters at one time or another, if not on the inside artwork, at least on the cover.
His son John Romita Jr has also drawn Spider-Man and has done a pretty good job of it. Although his style is different, it is no less endearing. I’m sure Romita Sr must have been proud of his son’s work.
It was Romita Jr who informed the world, via social media, that his father had passed away in his sleep. He said: “He is a legend in the art world and it would be my honour to follow in his footsteps.” Indeed.
Romita Sr’s fame will live on as long as Spider-Man continues to swing onto screens in theatres and television and especially comic books.
I read that the Spider-Man movies produced by Sony, from 2002 till now, have grossed about US$8.5 billion at the worldwide box office.
And when even an animated movie such as Across the Spider-Verse can make global box office revenue of US$390 million within two weeks, overtaking its predecessor’s global box office lifetime total of US$377 million, you can imagine the pull of Spider-Man and his staying power.
So yes, Romita Sr will be remembered whenever and wherever Spider-Man is discussed by fans, just as will Lee and Ditko.
So thank you and goodbye John. See you in the Spider-Verse. - FMT
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.
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