I noticed that here in town last night, there were at least two theaters showing an advance midnight screening of The Amazing Spider-Man, so I'm assuming there were theaters showing it nation-wide. Did anybody go see it? I'm curious if people will like it or not.
I'm still kind of weirded out that they decided to reboot the series fairly soon after the 2002 Spider-Man, but if this new movie is successful, why not?

How were you first introduced to Marvel comics/movies?
Marvel comics - I read a few of my cousin's Spiderman comics as a young child. Marvel movies - The first Spiderman. Watched it on video with my family, when it was first released for home viewing.
I was and still am more likely to read a Spiderman comic or X-Men comic than anything else from Marvel.

Who is your favorite superhero(es)?
Spiderman (not very original, I know). Wolverine and Iron Man are pretty awesome too. The Punisher is interesting but very controversial.

Who is your favorite villain(s)?
I don't know many of them. Venom. I thought Spiderman 3 was mostly a mess but I loved (some) aspects of Venom in the movie. From the movies? Definitely Loki. Mystique is good too.

Who is your favorite secondary character(s)?
I don't know. Black Widow was interesting in the movie, as was Nick Fury.

What is your favorite of the movies?
As of tonight - The Avengers, by a long-shot. I haven't seen a good many of the movies though.

What is your opinion on the adaptations that have been made, turning the comics into films?
From the little I do know, it seems Marvel treats their characters with the respect they deserve (although the Fantastic Four movies were pretty dismal). That said, the majority of Marvel movies are good fun, if not amazing (although some are the latter).

What is your opinion of the new movie The Avengers?
First up, the only Avengers I was familiar with, up until a few years ago, was the British spy TV series from the 1960's. Secondly, I enjoy comics but superhero adventures, beyond Batman, aren't really my thing. Probably has something to do with the silly costumes, over-the-top action, generally simple stories (this isn't true of all of them but there are some real duds) and all that spandex (oi vey!). I also prefer psychological content alongside the action - hence Batman. Finally, I haven't seen any of the associated movies (save "Ironman" - which I really enjoyed) and I only knew Thor from Norse mythology. So went into this movie pretty much blind. Now, onto my review:

! "The Avengers" is perhaps the first true superhero movie, ever. Was the movie perfect? No. Some of the costumes were silly, I didn't like the alien designs and Black Widow could've been better developed. Was it a great superhero movie? Heck, yes! "The Avengers" was well-written (thank you Joss Whedon), most of the acting was very solid (Thor withstanding), the character drama was quality (sometimes even hilarious), the action was spectacular but 'realistic' (up until the final showdown but the audience really cared about the characters at this point, so no harm done). The action scenes were bombastic and the scale of the whole thing was ridiculous but they suited the genre so well. Most importantly, the story was rooted in the characters, lending real weight to the action. I loved every minute of it.

Any thoughts on upcoming Marvel films?
Bring on Avengers 2! And a Black Widow movie would be pretty great.

Here's two new interesting bits of Marvel / Avengers news . .