WHICH AMAZING SPIDER-MAN BLU-RAY/DVD PACKAGE IS BEST?

FACE FRONT,

TRUE BELIEVER!

Friday's release of The Amazing Spider-Man on Blu-ray and DVD has got most fans' Spider Sense tingling:  who has the best Spider-Man package this November 9?

The good news is that the very best package, which includes the 3-D and regular versions, and two really nice figurines of Spider-Man and The Lizard, is available at Walmart, Target and Kmart.  This set really jumped off the page when I opened the Target ad last weekend.  A large display window on the front of the packaging adds to the impact.

Target is also offering an exclusive bonus disc, called A Hero Will Rise.

At all 3 retailers, the box set will run you a painful $55-60.

But wait, Walmart has another special package for almost a third of that cost.  The "Spider-Man Mask" edition includes a Walmart-exclusive disc that purports to reveal the secrets of The Lizard.  Now, initially, I thought this was the winner, because it sounded like you'd actually get a real Spider-Man mask in the box.  But it turns out that the mask is apparently a DVD case.  Boo!  Still not a bad display piece, though, and a much nicer price.

I had low expectations about this reboot.  It almost sounded like a chore to sit through a retelling of the same story we just spent the last decade paying for in theaters.

It turned out that The Amazing Spider-Man was perhaps the best spider version yet, with Andrew Garfield capturing the Peter Parker of the comic book pages more accurately than his predecessors.  And the whole "Peter Parker's parents" back story, that was very obviously edited out of this initial chapter, has upped the intrigue and anticipation of the next one.

A really great superhero movie, only outdone by The Avengers this year, Spider-Man was far more entertaining than the pretentiously depressing Dark Knight Rises.  With the bonus features, and some of the aforementioned deleted scenes, The Amazing Spider-Man is a must-buy this weekend.