Spider-Man Reboot Gets Title and Full Costume Pic!

Ok, so I promise I'll take a break from Marvel movie news soon, but I couldn't hold back on this one. As I mentioned in the Captain America post, Marvel is rebooting the Spider-Man movie franchise, with a new flick coming out on July 3rd, 2012. Details about the film have been scarce so far. We know that Peter Parker will be played by The Social Network's Andrew Garfield, and his love interest this time around will be Gwen Stacey, played by Easy A's Emma Stone (with a particularly sexy blonde dye-job, last seen at the Golden Globes). Sally Field and Martin Sheen will play Peter's guardians Aunt May and Uncle Ben, and Rhys Ifans (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) will be the central villain, getting nice and scaly as Dr. Curt Conners/The Lizard. Beyond that, all we know is that this version of Spider-Man will be a younger take on the hero, focusing on his high school years as opposed to Sam Raimi's post-grad take. Further plot details, including whether we will see a complete retelling of the origin story, are still unclear.

But today, Marvel released two very interesting pieces of info. First and foremost, the movie finally has an official title: The Amazing Spider-Man. I like it--a nice homage to the comic book series. However, it is the second piece of info that has got me really geeking out. You see, Marvel also released the below picture, the first image of Garfield in full Spider-Man garb. Check it out:

Initial impressions: I really like the textural look, and how the red and blue areas look like they are made of different materials, kind of like how the Batsuit in The Dark Knight mixed mesh and armor plating. Looks much more real-to-life than all-over spandex would be. But the real zinger? Look at his wrists. I may be wrong (even though I'm almost always right), but to me, those definitely look like web-shooters! You see, in the comic universe, Spider-Man couldn't just produce webbing from his wrists like he can in the movies. Instead, Parker develops his own web fluid cartridges which he loads into mechanical web-shooters he designed using his scientific genius. He has to replace these cartridges when he runs out, and on many occasions has developed special types of webbing to use against different foes (like a hardening solution he used when fighting Hydroman and non-conductive webbing he utilized against Electro). I like this version better than what we saw in the comics, as it accentuates Parker's scientific genius, and sets up so more sticky situations when he runs out of webbing mid-swing or battle. Also, the web-shooters help better explain how Parker can construct some more advanced web structures, like differentiating between simple strands, giant globs, intricate webs, and others.

Spider-Man has always been my number-one favorite superhero. I absolutely loved the first two movies (with Spider-Man 2 being my all time favorite comic book film), but the third kind of pushed it way over the line from powerful-yet-campy to completely absurd and ridiculous. But now that I've seen this picture, I have more faith that the reboot will take the Spider-Man universe a bit more seriously, and reinvigorate this franchise with the bit of reality it was always missing. It's a long way away, but I am definitely looking forward to this one...