Was #67 just a bad place for me to jump in? Should I give #68 a shot?

I'm never going to tell anyone not to read BoP, because yes, I am that big a fangirl -- but you came in at the end of a fairly crazy arc, so I can definitely see the confusion. It looks like 68 would be a better place to try to pick it up, but if your store has the back issues around, going back to, hmm... 63 or so? -- I don't remember the first issue of the arc, I'm afraid -- would also be good.

Plei, when you get here, do you happen to remember when Sensei and Student started? And have you seen scans past 64 around anywhere?

Were they specifically referring to Ultimate? Or did they just mean in general?

It seemed to me he was referring to Ultimate. He was talking about how his kid didn't want him to kill Ben, but I suppose he could have meant the series in general, not wanting to explain to the kid the entire history of comics and what "canon" means and all that.

Did you see the order form in the back of #60, where you can get a bunch of Marvel titles -- including Ultimate Spidey AND Astounishing X-Men -- for 50% off? The only thing that irritates me is you have to call or mail it in; the discount doesn't work on their website

I remember glancing at it, but deciding not to bother.

Cool. I finished the first trade. I liked it. One thing I found interesting was the Afterword, in which he said they made up Uncle Ben specifically to give Spidey his motivation for being a super hero. I thought I remembered Uncle Ben from the animated series. Was he not part of the original origin story?

I think they're referring to Spidey in general, because Ben's death has always been the reason for Spidey to become a hero.

I have a question -- I downloaded a bunch of DC Who's Who in a big giant download that took forever and now I can't open any of them. When I tried to open them I got a message that the extension was recognized and I think it was .cbz --- I think.

Any suggestions on what I need to open them?

It seemed to me he was referring to Ultimate. He was talking about how his kid didn't want him to kill Ben, but I suppose he could have meant the series in general, not wanting to explain to the kid the entire history of comics and what "canon" means and all that.

Hmm. Well, the Ultimate-verse does re-write a lot of stuff. My guess is they were toying with the idea of not killing off Ben in Ult. Spidey but in the end decided it was an integral part of the Spiderman mythos.

Any suggestions on what I need to open them?

You need a comic reader program. Some others might have different preferences, but CDisplay was the first one I found and I have no complaints with it.

I was just going back to add that I have CDisplay and it still doesn't work.

My guess is they were toying with the idea of not killing off Ben in Ult. Spidey but in the end decided it was an integral part of the Spiderman mythos.

That sounds like a good explanation. Thanks.

One thing that bugged me about the trade is they didn't have the covers. Maybe two of them, but that's it.

askye, those are Comic Book Reader archives. If you're on Windows, download CDisplay. On Mac OS X, the equivalent is Jomic. Both programs are free, and will let you read cbr and cbz files -- pretty much any comics you find online will be in those formats.

(You can also futz with the file extensions to make them into ordinary zip or rar archives, but it's way, way easier to read 'em with the software than to change extensions, unzip, then view each page individually.)

I have CDisplay and it still doesn't work.

Oops. Never mind.

Is it windows asking you to pick a program for that file extension, or does CDisplay open a blank/gray screen and then put up an error saying that it can't read the file?

cereal: September previews/solicitations/whateveryoucallems are up at DCComics.

The good: Rucka is back for another run on Gotham Central. Whee! Also, The Loeb/Sale Catwoman miniseries starts.

The bad: Tarantula still. won't. just. go. away .