From Caracas to Pittsburgh: The Week In Spider-Man Related News

It has been a couple of years since I've looked at a new Spider-Man comic, so I have no idea what the web-slinger is getting up to these days in the Marvel Universe.  However, as I learned from reading the Robot 6 blog at Comic Book Resources, in what we sometimes ironically refer to as the "real world," your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man has been wreaking all sorts of havoc.

In Venezuela, new President Fredric Wertham...er, excuse me...Nicolas Maduro has apparently concluded, after watching Spider-Man 3, that violent American super-hero films are responsible for making Venezuela one of Latin America's most crime ridden countries, with over 16,000 murders committed last year and 3,400 in the first three months of the current year.  According to Maduro, "That’s the trouble, from the beginning until the end there are more and more dead. And that’s one of the series small children love most … because it’s attractive, it’s from comics that are attractive, the figure, the colors and movements … so much so that we finished watching it at four in the morning.”  To me, this is eerily reminiscent of the periodic attacks on Hollywood that come from American politicians seeking to divert attention from the real problems in this country and focus public anger on an easy target.

Meanwhile, somewhat closer to home, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Friday, a 21 year old local college student attempted to rob a convenience store while dressed in a Spider-Man costume.  Jonathan N. Hewson, the would be hold-up man, fled the scene empty handed after the store clerk pulled out a Taser.  At least he had the class not to say "Don't Tase me, bro."   However, he apparently didn't have the common sense to go home and change his clothes, as he was picked up by Pittsburgh police officers not too long after the incident only about a block away from the scene of the crime and still wearing the Spider-Man suit.  It kind of makes you wonder what kids are learning in college these days.  Back when I was in school, they taught you how not to get arrested after a failed robbery attempt.