Character Pak Contest #4 Announcement

[tomasina]

ozbot.typepad.com/spideyguide/

After a bit of a delay, we would like to officially announce the fourth Character Pak contest, which begins today in preparation for the release of the fourth Character Pak on May 15, 2006.

To make sure everyone understands how the contest works, here is a recap of the rules:

The upcoming Character Pak will include 14 characters (Shathra to White Tiger). During the contest, you will have a chance to guess at naming all 14 characters that will be included in the Pak (including the two which we just gave to you). The names are alphabetical. The one who comes the closest to naming all 14 characters will win the contest. In the case of ties, multiple prizes will be awarded.

Now... what do you get for winning? The winner of each Character Pak contest will receive a free CD ROM with all of the available downloads, including 8 bonus characters (4 heroes and 4 villains... well actually 1 of them it just depends on what kind of mood he's in that particular day) that did not make the official cut. These CD's will be awarded upon completion of "Spider-Man's Guide to New York."

The contest will run from now until midnight (Eastern) on May 10, 2006. So while you have a while to think about which characters are in the Pak, don't delay too long.

Good Luck to Everyone!

- The Unofficial Spider-Man Roster Book Development Team

ozbot.typepad.com/spideyguide/

[dorkknight23]

Shathra
Shriek
Sleepwalker
Solo
Speedball
Speed Demon
Spot
Swarm
Tarantula
Vermin
Vulture
White Tiger

[shigoki]

Shathra
She-Venom
Silver sable
Sleepwalker
Speed Demon
Spider slayer
Spot
Swarm
Tarantula
Torgo
Vanisher
Vermin
Vulture
White Tiger

[dagonex]

Shathra
Shriek
Silvermane
Silver Sable
Smythe, Alistair
Solo
Speed Demon
Spider Slayers
Spot
Tarantula
Tombstone
Vermin
Vulture
White Tiger

[Beacon]

Shathra
Shriek
Silvermane
Silver Sable
Smith, Joe (“A Guy Named Joe”)
Speedball
Speed Demon
Spider-Kid (currently Steel Spider)
Spot
Stiltman
Swarm
Tombstone
Vulture
White Tiger

Most of my picks are pretty obvious. As for the ones that aren’t:

Joe Smith is there because … well now that I think about it, I shouldn’t have to justify a Lee/Ditko creation that’s been given a lot of development over the past forty years.

Speedball is pretty much THE New Warrior my mind so it’d be silly to skip him and yet do Namorita.

Spider-Kid is there because he’s the only Misfit that doesn’t have a bio yet. I figure anyone who goes to the trouble of doing Frog-Man is already planning on doing Ollie.

The Spot is a great, off-the-wall character who, while not used very often, has escaped obscurity because of his involvement in the Fox cartoon.

Stiltman is there because I figured at least one more DD baddie was called for.



Those who didn’t make it:

Despite showing up in Last Hunt and Child Within, Vermin is as much a Captain America or general Marvel villain as he is a Spidey villain. He was still the hardest to justify dropping.

Stegron was another that just barely missed the cut.

Non of the Spider-Women ever really felt like part of the Spider-Man world (except for maybe Mattie and I think most of us would just as soon want to forget her) so I skipped them.

If Black Tarantula didn’t make the cut I figured there’s no way his lame cultural-stereotype Tarantula predecessors would.

Solo is just a teleporting Punisher so I don’t particularly see the need to list him.

I considered Will O' The Wisp but he’s always been the weak link in the Outlaws (he isn’t even on the team half the time…and it wasn’t like he had a lot of meetings to attend ) so I figure that, if Rocket Racer and Puma didn’t make the cut, this guy doesn’t have a chance.

I almost put Shocker on my list but then remembered he got a tiny bio in the Avengers book. Similar logic applies to the current Venom, both beings that compose him already have bios so it wouldn’t be that hard to figure out what Gargan’s stats would look like if we dropped the tail and added a symbiote.

Sin-Eater was left out because his actual stats would be pretty generic.

Sorcerer was omitted because his sudden jump in popularity is a really recent development (even though the character was originally created for Untold Tales a decade ago).

Toxin is too new.

I figured it would make more sense give the Spider Slayers their own section than to have a single bio for something that’s had over twenty variations. Because Alistair Smythe has essentially turned himself into a slayer I figure he’d fit best here too.

Walrus and White Rabbit would have just been wishful thinking on my part anyway.

Spidercide and Stunner are both fairly minor Clone Saga/Pre-Reboot villains that haven’t even been mentioned since Byrne came along. Regardless of how you felt about them (to be perfectly honest, I thought that, despite the stupid name, Spidercide would have made a much better Spidey villain than the symbiotes), I think we can agree that their fifteen minutes are up. If Kaine didn’t make it into the book then these two don’t have a chance.

[thunderball]

Shathra
Silvermane
Silver Sable
Solo
Spark
Speeddemon
Spider-Woman I (Drew)
Submariner
Swarm
Timespinner
Tombstone
Volture
Whiplash
White Tiger

[The Punisher]

Shathra
Shriek
Silvermane
Silver Sable
Smythe, Alistair
Solo
Speed Demon
Spider Slayers
Tarantula
Tombstone
Toxin
Vermin
Vulture
White Tiger

[rogueborg]

I haven't seen anyone predicting the Scorpion. If he's not in there it's a travesty!

[rogueborg]

Then again, he might have been one of the obscure writeups from one of the official books.

[dagonex]

rogueborg said:

Then again, he might have been one of the obscure writeups from one of the official books.

Yeah, Scorpion's tucked away in the Guide to the Hulk and the Avengers. Shocker's in there, too.

[spidergod313]

Shathra
Shriek
Silver Sable
Silvermane
Smyth(Alistaire)
Spider Slayers
Spider-Woman I
Spider-Woman II
Swarm
Tarantula
Tinkerer
Tombstone
Vulture
White Tiger


Come on, give the girls some love. We need more female NPC's.

[Ricochet]

I'm not gonna compete with you guys since I wouldn't know where to start (damn ADD). But aren't you forgetting someone?
I'm talking about the daughter of Spider-man guys. Miss May Parker, you know, Spider-girl. How could anyone forget her? She's like a New Yorker, and a Spider-man relative. Yes I know her series is about to go out with a bang (and a surprise announcement?) but still, keep your eyes on her for a little while longer.

[Beacon]

ricochet said:

I'm talking about the daughter of Spider-man guys. Miss May Parker, {/quote]

The stats for a two year old baby (stop ignoring the f-ing plotline Marvel) would be kind of bland. Why not do stats for AUNT May too?

you know, Spider-girl. How could anyone forget her?

I didn't forget her. I just don't think she belongs in this (unless there's a time travel adventure in the back and the books just did that with Avengers)

She's like a New Yorker, and a Spider-man relative.

She's also an alternate future character. Space is limited enough without having to worry about Spider-Man 2099, Spider-Ham, Spider-Girl, ect.

Plus, we’ve already seen that the guys doing the Spider-Man Guide seem to want to ignore most of to Clone Saga. Mayday has some pretty strong ties to that.

Yes I know her series is about to go out with a bang (and a surprise announcement?) but still, keep your eyes on her for a little while longer.

They’ll probably just relaunch it. I don’t buy for a second that they’ve actually cancelled it for a number of reasons.

• Spider-Girl isn’t the huge commercial failure it’s made out to be. It may be a poor seller in comic form but the digests are doing great in bookstores.
  
• Even the low single issue sales are better than Arana’s sales and Marvel insists on claiming that series was an overnight success.
  
• The series is finally getting mainstream exposure (not to be confused with mainstream comics, which I think we’ll all admit is a total oxymoron). Its showing up in literacy awards nominations, recommended reading lists, ect.
  
• How many times has Marvel pulled this one in the past? They’ll claim its cancelled, wait for our outraged screaming to attract attention to the book thus saving their advertising department the trouble of doing any actual work, and then they’ll “reluctantly” give the series a last minute stay of execution due to the increase in sales. Then they’ll turn around and pull the exact same crap in another two years.