Watch: The Cube Interviews Budjette Tan on Trese's International Release and Netflix Series

We have launched our YouTube Channel! For this debut episode, check out our interview with Budjette Tan, writer of award-winning Filipino crime/horror/fantasy comic Trese, on its international release in September and upcoming Netflix series! Don't forget to click Subscribe!

You can preorder Trese 1: Murder on Balete Drive here:

Spider-Rama: Amazing Spider-Man #115

Welcome to Spider-Rama! Every Monday and Wednesday, Ben and Duy will look at a Spider-Man issue from the very beginning, in chronological order, and answer questions for various categories, inspired in large part by one of our favorite podcasts, The Rewatchables by The Ringer. Our goal is to make it to Amazing Spider-Man #200. Will we make it? Grab your Amazing Spider-Man Omnibus or crank up your tablet to Marvel Unlimited, and then tune in every Wednesday to find out!

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #115

Spider-Rama 

by Roy Thomas, Ross Andru, and Tony Mortellaro

Spider-Man fights Doctor Octopus... who has Aunt May working for him!

POINTLESS TRIVIA 

BEN: Villain appearance count:

• Doctor Octopus: 15
• The Kingpin: 12
• Green Goblin: 11
• Kraven the Hunter: 8
• The Vulture: 7
• The Lizard: 7
• Mysterio: 6
• Professor Smythe/Spider Slayer: 6
• Sandman: 4
• Hammerhead: 3
• Electro: 3
• The Enforcers: 3
• The Rhino: 3
• Man Mountain Marko: 3
• Silvermane: 3
• The Chameleon: 3
• The Schemer/Richard Fisk: 3
• The Ringmaster: 2
• Scorpion: 2
• Molten Man: 2
• Shocker: 2
• The Beetle: 2
• Morbius: 2
• The Gibbon: 2

WHAT'S AGED THE BEST?

DUY: There is really good action in this book, more than I expected from Romita. 

BEN: He’s been killing it.

WHAT'S AGED THE WORST?

BEN: Otto and May totally had sex right?

DUY: We're really, really close to the last appearance of Gwen and we've wasted, WASTED, so many damn issues on this whole thing with May. Gwen goes out of her way to find May and he just pouts!

BEN: This should really be the last straw for any woman. Him walking off to pout alone. Break up with him! Get over it, Peter! She’ll be okay!

NITPICKS

DUY: Okay, I'm gonna say, Hammerhead, it might be great that your head is invulnerable, but you should still probably not use it to hit things as much as you do.

BEN: His brain isn’t invulnerable.

DUY: We've seen the exterior of The Daily Bugle before, and this has never been its signage, ever.

FAVORITE PANEL

BEN: The ridiculousness:

DUY: Clever. I like it:

WHO WON THE COMIC? 

DUY: Gwen Stacy, mainly because we're soon going to be able to stop naming her.

BEN: Gwen with a special mention to Romita.

DUY: That's it for Spider-Rama this week. 

BEN: Thank you, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko— 

DUY: —for telling us we aren't the only ones. 

Leave us a comment below or on our Facebook page. See you tomorrow!

Spider-Rama: Marvel Team-Up #6

Welcome to Spider-Rama! Every Monday and Wednesday, Ben and Duy will look at a Spider-Man issue from the very beginning, in chronological order, and answer questions for various categories, inspired in large part by one of our favorite podcasts, The Rewatchables by The Ringer. Our goal is to make it to Amazing Spider-Man #200. Will we make it? Grab your Amazing Spider-Man Omnibus or crank up your tablet to Marvel Unlimited, and then tune in every Wednesday to find out!

MARVEL TEAM-UP #6

Spider-Rama 

by Gerry Conway, Gil Kane, and Mike Esposito

Spider-Man and the Thing fight the Puppet Master and the Mad Thinker!

POINTLESS TRIVIA 

DUY: Out of the six issues of Marvel Team-Up so far, Spider-Man has teamed up with a member of the Fantastic Four three times. It should be noted that the FF was their most popular comic that wasn't Spider-Man (It had the tagline "The World's Greatest Comic Magazine" for a reason), and the Thing, in particular, was their most popular member. This very issue is only nearly a year away from the debut of Marvel Two-In-One, another team-up book, this one anchored by the ever-lovin' blue-eyed Thing.

BEN: Spider-Man and The Thing seems like it would be a good pairing but I don’t really remember it ever being so.

DUY: No, they're the guys that share a mutual friend. That's never a good pairing. It's only good if you want to highlight how awkward it is to actually hang out with each other.

WHAT'S AGED THE BEST?

BEN: Putting this here because it made me chuckle.

WHAT'S AGED THE WORST?

BEN: No, it does matter, Alicia, it really does.

DUY:  Yeah, seriously, Alicia. There are lines you don't cross.

NITPICKS

BEN: With all his senses and agility, Spider-Man sees The Thing get zapped and is too slow to keep himself from getting zapped?

DUY: Speaking of, the Puppet Master sure is moving with a lot more agility than I've come to expect of him.

BEN: He's a spry old man. 

FAVORITE PANEL

BEN: Bonk!

DUY: Presenting, the most clever solution ever:

WHO WON THE COMIC? 

DUY: I got nothin'.

BEN: Marvel, for realizing Spider-Man is a cash cow.

DUY: That's it for Spider-Rama this week. 

BEN: Thank you, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko— 

DUY: —for telling us we aren't the only ones. 

Leave us a comment below or on our Facebook page. See you tomorrow!

Spider-Rama: Amazing Spider-Man #114

Welcome to Spider-Rama! Every Monday and Wednesday, Ben and Duy will look at a Spider-Man issue from the very beginning, in chronological order, and answer questions for various categories, inspired in large part by one of our favorite podcasts, The Rewatchables by The Ringer. Our goal is to make it to Amazing Spider-Man #200. Will we make it? Grab your Amazing Spider-Man Omnibus or crank up your tablet to Marvel Unlimited, and then tune in every Wednesday to find out!

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #114

Spider-Rama 

by Gerry Conway, John Romita Sr., Tom Mortallero, and Jim Starlin

Hammerhead is here! And it's a gang war!

POINTLESS TRIVIA 

BEN: Villain appearance count:

• Doctor Octopus: 14
• The Kingpin: 12
• Green Goblin: 11
• Kraven the Hunter: 8
• The Vulture: 7
• The Lizard: 7
• Mysterio: 6
• Professor Smythe/Spider Slayer: 6
• Sandman: 4
• Electro: 3
• The Enforcers: 3
• The Rhino: 3
• Man Mountain Marko: 3
• Silvermane: 3
• The Chameleon: 3
• The Schemer/Richard Fisk: 3
• The Ringmaster: 2
• Scorpion: 2
• Molten Man: 2
• Shocker: 2
• The Beetle: 2
• Morbius: 2
• The Gibbon: 2
• Hammerhead: 2

DUY: John Romita Sr. is credited first — a rarity because writers are conventionally credited first — because apparently Gerry Conway worked the first year of the book as an "apprentice" to John.

BEN: First appearance of Jonas Harrow, and the origin of Hammerhead.

DUY: No joke, I confused Harrow with Mendel Stromm for a second.

BEN: Or Smythe. I confuse all the mad scientists.

DUY: You said "first appearance" and I went "Wait, what? No....."

BEN: I couldn’t even tell you right now which one invents what.

DUY: Who even has the time to keep track? And even if you could, why would you?

WHAT'S AGED THE BEST?

BEN: Gwen finally having enough of Flash.

DUY: Miles Warren shows up again, having aged 20 years, apparently. And now written by the guy who would turn him into... what he would eventually become.

BEN: I wonder if he already had plans.

DUY: And we're back to crime! Again, as discussed several times before, during the Crime-Master storyline, the Kingpin and the Petrified Tablet saga, and all that, before Frank Miller got onto Daredevil, Spider-Man was the book for organized crime for Marvel Comics.

BEN: I've said it before, but I hated the organized crime stuff as a kid but now I love it. I especially love the intersection between it and costumed villains. There’s no reason Doc Ock should be feuding with a gangster.

DUY: And it works too. The beauty of the superhero genre.

BEN: Duy, who is your favorite gangster character in Spider-Man? Because I think mine might be Hammerhead.

DUY: Hammerhead had a big role in the PS4 game too, which was kinda weird because I don't really expect it from Hammerhead. I like the Kingpin, but not as a Spider-Man villain. Mine might actually be Tombstone.

BEN: Tombstone is up there but only for one specific run. His storyline with Robbie Robertson in Spectacular Spider-Man. I haven’t really liked him any other time

DUY: He was great in the Spectacular cartoon too and also fun in the game. And I just like the general idea of him.

BEN: He’s like the Kingpin in that his increased strength makes no sense.

WHAT'S AGED THE WORST?

BEN: I hate when they do this. There’s a zero percent chance they don’t kill him.

DUY: I can't really find much. This whole issue's pretty good.

NITPICKS

BEN: Super hearing?

DUY: Okay, theoretically some phone speakers are really loud.

BEN: Peter is really going to have some concussion problems after getting knocked unconscious twice in one day.

FAVORITE PANEL

BEN: Mine is Gwen telling off Flash.

DUY: I enjoy the turning office:

WHO WON THE COMIC? 

DUY: I'm gonna say John Romita wins this issue.

BEN: The art has been really great recently.

DUY: That's it for Spider-Rama this week. 

BEN: Thank you, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko— 

DUY: —for telling us we aren't the only ones. 

Leave us a comment below or on our Facebook page. See you Monday!

Spider-Rama: Marvel Team-Up #5

Welcome to Spider-Rama! Every Monday and Wednesday, Ben and Duy will look at a Spider-Man issue from the very beginning, in chronological order, and answer questions for various categories, inspired in large part by one of our favorite podcasts, The Rewatchables by The Ringer. Our goal is to make it to Amazing Spider-Man #200. Will we make it? Grab your Amazing Spider-Man Omnibus or crank up your tablet to Marvel Unlimited, and then tune in every Wednesday to find out!

MARVEL TEAM-UP #5

Spider-Rama 

by Gerry Conway, Gil Kane, and Mike Esposito

Spider-Man and the Vision battle the Monstroid.

POINTLESS TRIVIA 

DUY: Oh good Lord, it's the freaking Vision.

BEN: The Vison is Duy's favorite Marvel character.

DUY: As drawn by Gil Kane. Great. Just great.

BEN: In hell, this will be the only comic you own.

WHAT'S AGED THE BEST?

BEN: We’ve finally found Duy’s comic book doppelganger.

WHAT'S AGED THE WORST?

DUY:  The Vision. Kane's art. Ugh, I dunno, this whole thing was painful. Why did you do this to me.

BEN: This may be even worse than that Amazing Spider-Man annual with Peter Parker's parents.

NITPICKS

DUY: No, Vision, you are not having "epileptic seizures," you overdramatic synthezoid.

BEN: He’s a real boy!

FAVORITE PANEL

BEN: Melodramatic villainy:

DUY: Awkwaaaaard:

WHO WON THE COMIC? 

DUY: NOT the Vision, who is 100% useless until the very, very end of this story.

BEN: These three characters have nothing in common. It seems like they spun two wheels and one landed on the Vision and one landed on the Puppet Master. So I’m going to give it to Conway, for making anything out of this.

DUY: That's it for Spider-Rama today. 

BEN: Thank you, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko— 

DUY: —for telling us we aren't the only ones. 

Leave us a comment below or on our Facebook page. See you on Wednesday!

Spider-Rama: Amazing Spider-Man #113

Welcome to Spider-Rama! Every Monday and Wednesday, Ben and Duy will look at a Spider-Man issue from the very beginning, in chronological order, and answer questions for various categories, inspired in large part by one of our favorite podcasts, The Rewatchables by The Ringer. Our goal is to make it to Amazing Spider-Man #200. Will we make it? Grab your Amazing Spider-Man Omnibus or crank up your tablet to Marvel Unlimited, and then tune in every Wednesday to find out!

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #113

Spider-Rama 

by Gerry Conway and John Romita Sr.

Doctor Octopus is back! And it's the first appearance of Hammerhead!

POINTLESS TRIVIA 

BEN: Villain appearance count:

• Doctor Octopus: 14
• The Kingpin: 12
• Green Goblin: 11
• Kraven the Hunter: 8
• The Vulture: 7
• The Lizard: 7
• Mysterio: 6
• Professor Smythe/Spider Slayer: 6
• Sandman: 4
• Electro: 3
• The Enforcers: 3
• The Rhino: 3
• Man Mountain Marko: 3
• Silvermane: 3
• The Chameleon: 3
• The Schemer/Richard Fisk: 3
• The Ringmaster: 2
• Scorpion: 2
• Molten Man: 2
• Shocker: 2
• The Beetle: 2
• Morbius: 2
• The Gibbon: 2

BEN: The first appearance of Hammerhead, the most Dick Tracy-esque villain Marvel has.

DUY: Define "Dick Tracy-esque."

BEN: Cartoonish physical feature on a gangster character.

DUY: With a very on-the-nose name. I agree.

BEN: First reference to Spider-Man’s other regular comic series, Marvel Team-Up. Gerry Conway was writing both comics at the time.

WHAT'S AGED THE BEST?

DUY: The entire issue is pretty good, I'd actually say, so I'm just going to point out that Dr. Bromwell is back. 

BEN: Conway has definitely injected new life into the series. Sorry Stan.

WHAT'S AGED THE WORST?

BEN: T. Mortellaro and Jim Starlin are credited with art assists, which makes sense because some of these pages look awful. I’m giving Mortellaro full blame for the bad stuff.

DUY: I'm going to blame Conway for this because this has only happened in his issues, but there's a way he writes two words as a dialect type of thing that clearly has not aged well.

NITPICKS

BEN: Thor would never win “best dressed”:+

DUY: This is just a storytelling nitpick, but this makes it look like the webbing is coming from Ock's arms: 

FAVORITE PANEL

BEN: That harness looks kinda cool:

DUY: This is the first time I'm gonna make this pick, but I'm gonna say the cover. That is a cool cover.

WHO WON THE COMIC? 

DUY: Pretty good comic, so Gwen Stacy.

BEN: It's always Gwen Stacy.

DUY: That's it for Spider-Rama this week. 

BEN: Thank you, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko— 

DUY: —for telling us we aren't the only ones. 

Leave us a comment below or on our Facebook page. See you tomorrow!