West Coast Spider-Man?

Peter didn't seemed too concerned about losing his job when he trailed Mary Jane to Hollywood. Not to mention that, since Peter is a freelance photographer, Jameson really has no authority to fire him, just to reject his photo offers. Not at all like any of this matters, because soon enough, Jameson will hire Peter back. Unless, of course, Stan Lee is trying to take the strip into the new direction of West Coast Spider-Man. I would be rather sad if that happened, so I hope it's not the case.

Metapost: New Links

As you can see, a preliminary list of links has been added to the sidebar. If you've read this post on my other Blog, then you can safely skip this one, as I copy-pasted the post into the two Blogs. I shall now expound upon the links:

BC (Blasted Cavemen!) is a Blog dedicated to the comic strip "BC", and is much like this one. Therefore, you may want to avoid it.
Green Circle is a cyber-comic which I do the art and writing for. So it's my webcomic, is what I'm saying. It features the little green fellow who is currently my profile picture, among other creatures.
The Meekrat Entertainment Group is the saddest of Internet phenomenon: a web site currently without purpose. I do not know what it will be used for, save that it will be used for something.
Retro AOMP is a collection of sprite comics I did nearly ten years ago. It too features the green fellow among other creatures.

The remaining two sites in the first list of links are not mine, but I do things for them.
Spider-Fan is, in my opinion, the best Spider-Man site on the Internet. It has character bios, detailed reviews of nearly all Spider-Man comic appearances, and various other things which are also quite nifty. I submit reviews and am the Fans Sub-Section Editor for it.
Zounds! is my friend's site. It is still in its early stages, and wants to be a site dedicated to science fiction. I did a good deal of the preliminary HTML and graphic design for it.

The other list, of course, is a bunch of Blogs.
The Comics Curmudgeon is the premiere site for humorous comic strip reviews. However, while I choose to focus on two strips, the whole comics page is the Curmudgeon's domain.
Dave's Long Box is dedicated to comic books, but makes infrequent forays into movies. As the title suggests, Dave reviews his comic books. He does this in a funny way.
FredSez is the personal Blog of comicsmith Fred Hembeck. He's the one who draws swirly knees.
Jabootu's Bad Blogging Dimension deals mostly with movies, both good and bad. However, it makes infrequent forays into comic books.
Joe Mathlete Explains Today's Marmaduke is fairly self-explanatory.
The Silent Penultimate Panel Watch is dedicated to the idea that the next-to-last panel of a comic strip should not be wordless.
Silver Age Comics is an informative Blog dealing with many facets of the silver age of comics.
Yet Another Comics Blog is what it purports to be: yet another comics blog.

I will most likely add more links in the future, as is my wont. I have bookmarks folders bursting with the things.

From Here On Out...

There's many ways it could go from here. Here's how I want it to go:
Doctor Octopus, who is still on the loose, comes up with the scheme to kidnap rising starlet Mary Jane Watson-Parker in order to lure Spider-Man out into the open. To accomplish this with considerably more tact than his recent armored truck robbery, he disguises himself in a long trench coat and a wide-brimmed hat and infiltrates the fans which have no doubt surrounded the Parker's west coast headquarters. Doc Ock makes his way into the Parker's apartment, where Peter cannot do anything as it would give away his identity as Spider-Man, and he cannot immediately follow Doc Ock as the fans and paparazzi would also give this secret away. So Spider-Man has to search California, possibly in a race against time, to find his wife and defeat the foe who kidnapped her. This storyline would end with the studio cancelling yet another of Mary Jane's projects, and wanting to make a movie about Spider-Man with Mary Jane's nemesis from the previous storyling taking the part of Mary Jane. Spider-Man, of course, would refuse, and the Parkers would return to New York while being happy with what they have.

However, this is probably what's going to happen:
No mention of Doctor Octopus and his escape, while we follow a storyline where Spider-Man does not do anything remotely super-heroic. Perhaps heroic, but not super-heroic. While this is happening, Mary Jane would continue making her movie.

Spider-Man: The superhero strip with more soap than super.

Hollywood Hates the Parkers

Peter seems remarkable happy about the fact that a gleeful mob is giving chase to him and his wife. This whole thing seems remarkable unrealistic. I mean, she hasn't even been in a movie yet. At least not, one that's been released. Mainly she's been hyped to all hell and been involved in two projects involving murder (Kraven trying to off Peter and the butler guy falling off a cliff). This just reiterates that her disguise sucked.

Come to think of it, this is like the fourth movie one of the Parkers has been invovled with. Peter was a stunt man for one movie and wound up in an independent vampire film, while Mary Jane has the Miss Marvel thing and the debacle with Kraven. I'm not joking about the independent vampire film, by the way. It really happened.

Jonah Jameson, SUPERSTAR.

So Jonah Jameson finally gets the attention he wanted a few days ago. It's nice to see that the comic isn't as predictable as I thought it would be, as this unexpected devolopment means that Peter's lack of pictures passes virtually unnoticed by Jonah. Yes, indeed, that Jonah is such a publicity hound. I wonder if Doc Ock is still watching from his rooftop perch.

Blonde Mary Jane

The whole reason the usually red-headed Mary Jane donned a blonde wig is to avoid media attention such as this. This only goes to show one of two things:

1) Mary Jane is an attention whore and will draw attention to herself no matter what ulterior motives she may have.
2) Mary Jane's disguise sucked.

Considering how Mary Jane artfully maneuvers Maria Lopez to Jonah Jameson kind of rules out the first option. Next time, Mary Jane should probably consult someone who's good at disguises to hide her identity. You know, like a superhero...

Speaking of superheroes, Spider-Man's one-liner makes him sound like a pansy.

Lazy Octopus

Jesus Christ, Doctor Octopus, couldn't you have at least made an attempt to get back to your hideout? You're hiding behind a chimney across the street from your archfoe. As for you, Spider-Man, if you got off your lazy butt and went after Doctor Octopus instead of schmoozing with the media, you'd be able to get Doc Ock. The best part is that, on the rooftop, there wouldn't be anyone to get in your way. Seriously, you two are the laziest superhero and supervillian on the comics page. At least Mary Worth and her cadre drove her nemesis to drive drunk.

Jonah Put-Down Again!

Apparently, it's "put down Jonah Jameson" week in "Spider-Man". I would feel bad about this, save for the fact that he makes the silliest facial expressions when he gets put down in one way or another. This is sort of a one-two punch today, with Maria Lopez telling him to leave, then snuffing him to talk with Spider-Man who really should be going after Doctor Octopus but may just consent to an interview.

If Spider-Man was a quick thinker, he would respond to Lopez's question with, "I hate it, because it means there's crime in Los Angeles." I admit, however, that I have no idea how that would actually sound.

The Proportionate Put-Down of a Spider

I realize that title makes little sense. Anyway, Jonah is getting to be pretty furious by a mess that he basically caused. Of course, Peter Parker is going to get yelled at for Jameson's lack of pictures for a comic or two, then Pete is going to pull out his camera and say, "I got your pictures, you old goat!" and Jonah will get a sour milk expression on his face and Peter and his wife will laugh and laugh.

As for the television media, the cameraman looks really creepy and the woman looks like she wants to sleep with him. Those crazy cats in the liberal media with their casual sex! No wonder Jonah Jameson disapproves.

Jonah Jameson Vs. The Amazing Color-Changing Suit!

I know that Jonah's suit is blue in the daily strips and brown in the Sunday strips because different people color them. I just feel stupid for not noticing it yesterday. Also, I find it rather unbelievable that Jonah Jameson, the consummate gentleman, does not wear some sort of necktie. I find the third panel in this strip quite funny, for a number of reasons:

1) Jonah's facial expression
2) Spider-Man's webbing is landing right above Jonah's head, perspective-wise, making it look like a visual effect of Jonah realizing something.
3) Spider-Man is admitting he wants to beat the crap out of Jonah.

There's a reason Jonah dislikes masked heroes and Spider-Man in particular, but I'm not sure what the reason currently is.

Jonah Jameson Vs. Gravity

Doctor Octopus has fuzzy motives. If I remember correctly, his whole reason for robbing that armored truck was to lure Spider-Man out. Doc Ock would then kill Spider-Man, at least according to the plan. As it is, Jonah Jameson is paying for his crime of getting too close to the action and the television media people are paying for their crime of trying to scoop Jameson. Spider-Man saves everyone, but in the process Doc Ock merely leaves instead of using one of his tentacles to knock off Spider-Man's head while he was saving Jonah. You'd think these super-villains didn't really want to kill their arch-foes due to all the wasted opportunities.



I had also completely forgotten about Spider-Man's wife, seen here watching the battle. Usually, she has red hair but recently started wearing a blonde wig so she and her husband could sight-see incognito. She needs a disguise, you see, because she's a famous movie star now and the reason the Parkers (Spider-Man=Peter Parker, as the first two panels tell us) are in California.

Wait a second, that explains why the Parkers are in California. Why is Doctor Octopus there? Other than the fact that Stan Lee needs him in California to fight Spider-Man. Hopefully, the answer will come shortly.

Placing the Blame

Spider-Man is none too pleased by his employer's blunderheadedness. However, Spider-Man doesn't realize that he could have averted (or, at least, diverted) this whole situation by saying "Going to find a better place to take pictures" or something when he ran off as Peter Parker. Then again, Jameson did stand right next to the battle and expect to get off scot-free. Chances are tomorrow's Spider-Man will be a recap or something, but we'll put it up anyway.

Jonah Jameson Vs. Stupidity (He loses)

Jesus Christ, but that was fast. I was expecting to wait for at least a week until Jonah was injured/kidnapped, as was bound to happen. Seriously, though, as much as I admire his bulldog tenacity to get the news out, he walked within reach of Doctor Octopus' tentacles. It's Jonah's own damn fault for getting captured or whatever. Well, at least Jonah seems to not care all that much about being within the grasp of a homicidal supervillian, insofar as his new suit is taking precedence over petty things like physical injury and death.

The worse part of all this is that Jonah dropped his camera. After all that, the thing's probably going to get crushed right when Jonah is free to pick it up. Luckily, it will be revealed that Peter Parker had snapped some shots of the fight, and everything will be hunky-dory.

Jonah Jameson Vs. the Television Media Industry!

Spider-Man is still fighting Doctor Octopus, who acts surprised that Spider-Man has the proportionate agility of a spider. Doc Ock must really have a shoddy memory, as this is far from the first time the pair have battled. Doc Ock even kept referring to Spider-Man as his archenemy and whatnot a week or so ago. If I had an archenemy, I think I would be pretty well versed in what powers they had.

Meanwhile, Jonah Jameson won't let some hussy with a cameraman and botox injections keep him away from a scoop. This is why Jonah Jameson successfully runs a newspaper: tenacity. Despite a loathing of Spider-Man, Jonah has a nose for news and will make sure the story gets told. Which is why he ran out and bought a camera and is now bravely sneaking towards the two super-combatants, ready to snap a few pictures and give the readers of the Daily Bugle something to talk about.

It's a shame, then, that he's bound to get injured or kidnapped in some way.

Jonah Jameson Vs. Agism in the Television Media Industry!

Well, Jonah Jameson finally got the lenscap off the camera, only to be both physically and emotionally shunted by a young newswoman and her cameraman. Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus no doubt saw this and are also dismayed at the turn of events. In fact, Spider-Man probably even feels bad about the fact that he cost Jonah some pictures of the fight by not bringing his own camera. Meanwhile, Jonah's shock at being called Grampa is understandable, but rather odd. The man is somewhere in his fifties, most likely, and he has that gray on the sides of his that denotes a certain amount of age and maturity in the Marvel Universe. He's lucky his flattop is still brown.

I'm still glad he got that lenscap off, though. Woe will befall us if Jonah picked up a digital camera, though. It doesn't look like one, but you never know with Spider-Man.

At Long Last...

At long last, after about two and a half years of Spider-Man doing nothing more exciting than trying to get insurance, we get an honest to God superhero/supervillian fight. This isn't just Spider-Man versus some lame villian like the Shocker or Trapster, either. He's fighting Doctor Octopus. Not only is Spider-Man fighting Doc Ock, but Spidey is also dishing out some of his patented but not-that-witty "web-zingers". I realize that by using the phrase "web-zinger", I have no room to talk about things being witty, but as a Blogger, I am above such laws. Anyway, here's hoping the next week or so is dedicated to super-fisticuffs and not Jonah struggling to get the lenscap off of his camera, or Mary Jane trying to sightsee unseen. Or, indeed, Peter Parker trying to get medical insurance.

Jonah Jameson Vs. the Lenscap!

Before we begin, a helpful tip: never start a Blog about a serial in the middle of a storyline. Now then, we join J. Jonah Jameson (esteemed publisher of the Daily Bugle) and Mary Jane Watson-Parker (wife of Peter Parker, Spider-Man and aspiring actress) as they sit on the sidelines and watch Spider-Man battle his archenemy, Doctor Octopus. Instead of showing us the fight directly, however, all we get is a silhouette of the combatants and the (more exciting?) battle between Jonah and the lenscap to a camera he bought to take pictures of the battle. While some may call it an exercise in artistry, it is easily recognizable that the person drawing the strip (Larry Lieber?) did not want to spend time drawing Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus engaged in battle. Whether this is laziness or a desire to tone down the violence in the strip is unknown. Actually, here's a hint: it's not the second one.