Updated... FROM THE FUTURE!

While I was adding tags, I realized that the week and a half when I chose to hiatus could not have come at a worst time. So, I've come back to post that which I did not post before!
12/26/2006:Technically, the tentacle was already freed. Just a jumbled mess. You'd think being a doctor would enable him to know this.

12/27/2006:This is not so far from the canonical depiction of Doctor Octopus. All of the man's offensive and defensive power come from his tentacles, and I believe Spider-Man finally beat him in their first encounter with a blow to the jaw.

12/28/2006:You guys are in a building, and you could easily catch him if you tried, Jonah. You won't, though, because if there's no Spider-Man for you to complain about your paper is dead.

12/29/2006:
Jonah looks so sad that the camera was busted. Surely the blow didn't damage the film inside, or anything, considering how I doubt Mary Jane could summon up the physical force required to do such a thing.

12/30/2006:Conniving is not something you can take a picture of. At the very least, it's clearly not what Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus were doing.

12/31/2006:So the Jameson-Lopez team splits up. It was disgusting and horrible while it lasted.

01/01/2007:Hooray, I guess.

01/02/2007:Jameson is bitter when he's been dumped. Extra-bitter with a side order of WHINE.

01/03/2007:This is pretty much how this always works itself out. Jameson fires Peter, then wants him back, and Peter always wants a raise. You'd think by now he'd be paid better than Jonah himself.

01/04/2007:Ah, this is how Jameson weasels out of this. He just gives Peter a one-time bonus. Fair enough, though.

01/05/2007:I like this development a lot.

01/06/2007:Hopefully Jonah can hire someone who can help him get the photos to New York in a jiffy, through the Internet. The man has trouble with a lens-cap, so a scanner would be a Gordion knot to him.

Metapost: Hiatus

I'm hiatusing until after New Year's. If you come here simply to read the comic, however, do not fret: here is a link to the comic!

Houston Chronicle Spider-Man Page

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and happy holidays and whatnot.

Broken Up, Broken Camera

I really like the fact that the relationship of Jonah Jameson and Maria Lopez just sort of vanished. That's Stan Lee's Christmas present to us all. Thank you, Stan!

Jonah: Crazy Old Man

Jonah, Maria isn't going to want anything to do with you after all this. Before, you were a rich but slightly senile old man. Now, you're simply a crazy old man. No woman wants that.

My Webcomic is in the Webcomic Battle

As you may know, I have a webcomic called "Green Circle". I've entered it into something called the Webcomic Battle, which is a place where two comics go in and comes out. I bring this up because I was wondering if you could go to the Webcomic Battle site and vote for "Green Circle" when the oppurtunity arises. Unfortunately, I cannot link you directly to the battle itself, but there's only about six or seven battles to go through.

LINK: Webcomic Battle

Thank you.

DAY TWO: Well, it won the first round! Thank you to everyone who helped out. Could you, um, do it again please?

No, Shortest Fight Ever.

What? That's it? All that waiting for a two-comic pay-off? I am very disappointed and depressed now. Thank you, Spider-Man. I just hope we get an explosive end to the Jameson/Lopez relationship now. If I can't have my superhero fights, I'll settle for explosive domestic disputes.

Slowest Fight Ever?

If the fight keeps up at this pace, then it'll probably over in time for Christmas next year. However, I am glad that Spider-Man has worked the incompetence out of his system.

Arachnid

Wow, Doctor Octopus got it right. Usually he chooses to call Spider-Man an insect, which Spider-Man then mocks him about. Also, considering how the webbing did not seem to be doing too much before, lacking it now shouldn't be a big deal. Still, why couldn't Peter have checked how much of it he had when he was standing in the woods?

Jameson's Got Something to Prove

No, we don't want to miss the battle, but why do we have to hang out with you two while it's going on?

Spider-Quip

The notable thing about today's strip is that Spidey's quip actually made me laugh. Hooray for Spider-Man!

Octopuses/Octopi

I'm glad Spider-Man is finally going to strike back. Hopefully Jameson won't get in the way, but it's quite likely he will. Not to mention the fact that both "octopuses" and "octopi" are acceptable ways of pluralizing "octopus". I learned that the hard way.

Spider-Man: With the Proportionate Cowardice of a Spider!

It would seem that Spider-Man's new strategy for everything is to act like a coward. I just hope this leads to something other than more of Ock's gloating. I swear, that man is full of himself... and Twinkies.

A Heroine Shall Rise!

Call me crazy, but I think Mary Jane is somehow going to luck into defeating Doctor Octopus. Afterwards, Jonah Jameson will accuse the whole Doctor Octopus/Spider-Man fight as a publicity stunt put on by the studio.

The Knife Goes Deeper...

Jonah Jameson drives the knife in deeper. Obviously, his love for her was fleeting. She is pretty gullible, though. Spider-Man is obviously doing nothing offensively, he's just dodging. I doubt the web-slinger has even thrown a punch yet.

Optimism

Doctor Octopus is the eternal optimist, believing he can defeat the being who has proven to be his better time and time again. Hopefully that'll optimism will serve him well in prison. Meanwhile, Jonah Jameson is displaying his own type of optimism, or stupidity. Notice how Maria Lopez looks shocked: this is the nail in the coffin of their relationship. Thank God.

Look out, here's the Amazing Spider-Man!

Actually, Doc, you have just held people for ransom before. It's not below you or anything, so don't shoot Mary Jane's suggestion down like that. She's just trying to help and maybe not die. As for you, Spider-Man, I'm pleased to see you but know that this fight won't be worth the inanity we've sat through for the past month. Especially since that month included someone kissing Jonah Jameson. In any case, kick that supervillain's pudgy butt. That'll teach 'em!

Continued Stories

We get it, Peter. It was all a plan so you could save your wife. You should really be telling your wife, as Mary Jane seems to not have a lot of faith in you at the moment. Perhaps you shouldn't have tried to trick Doctor Octopus by shouting, "I WANT TO LIVE! THROW HER FIRST!" The good Doctor isn't without his flaws, as his sole line is simply terrible. How would Mary Jane start any stories at the moment, seeing as how she's being held by a steel tentacle? Are you going to let her fetch a book or magazine, Doc Ock? Would you give her time to read one story, and one story only? Is that why it can't be continued? I think perhaps you should just put her down, go home, and sleep for a bit, Doctor Octopus. You're making very little sense.

What a Surprise!

Oh, so Peter has been tossed over a convenient wall, and now he's changing into Spider-Man? What a surprise! Oh, and they really need to change the little blurb on top. Peter's no longer in college, and we haven't seen Aunt May in the strip for years.

Oh look...

Oh look, Doctor Octopus is throwing Peter Parker over a convienent wall. WHo saw that coming? Oh, and I enjoy that anyone within earshot is going to think Peter is a real coward/jerk now for suggesting his wife gets thrown first.

He Awakens!

Good morning, sleeping beauty. Hopefully you weren't really knocked out, but thinking of a magnificent plan to get you out of this? It's doubtful, but stranger things have happened. Also, Doctor Octopus should keep his "hostages", but I know what will happen. Doc Ock's going to toss Peter over a convenient wall, allowing him to change into Spider-Man. Of course, I've been wrong before.

Deja Vu

Jonah Jameson is obviously trying to be Maria Lopez's knight in shining armor so he can get the "hero's reward" and that makes me want to vomit. Hopefully he'll be able to operate that camera, as I remember him having difficulties with a non-video camera earlier in this storyline. You know, when Jonah rushed in and tried to get some pictures of Doctor Octopus only to get captured, resulting the in the super-villain's escape. Let's hope that does not happen again.

Distinguished Competition

I'm enjoying these little references to the company Stan Lee used to refer to as Marvel's "Distinguished Competition" (Adam West counts as one) but couldn't he say something about Marvel? I mean, they're in Hollywood right now. Simon Williams (Wonder Man) is a superhero/actor. The Parkers could meet up with him. The closest we've gotten to anything like that is Spider-Man's run-in with Ghost Rider from about a month ago, but that doesn't count because it was a stunt-man.

As for today's comic, I'm glad the police have arrived to keep the public out. However, shouldn't they be doing something other than that? Like trying to rescue the two hostages the super-villain has? Then again, if anything happened to Ock, his tentacles would probably either constrict and crush the Parkers, or let them drop to the ground which would just injure them. Speaking of tentacles, the one holding Peter looks like it's about to drop him.

Jameson Arrives on the Scene!

So the media has a quicker response time than the authorities? In any case, this means that soon, both plotlines will be wrapped up. Jonah Jameson and Mario Lopez look a bit scruffy coming out of the back of that news van, though. Doctor Octopus simply looks peeved, and he can't sit still. Here's an idea, Doc: go find Spider-Man yourself! Carrying the Parker couple can't be that much of a drain on you if you're using your remaining two tentacles to grab onto what appears to be a wall that's quickly coming apart.

Notice the guard in the first panel, lying a puddle of something. What is in that puddle? Considering he was smacked with a metal tentacle, I'm guessing blood.

Metapost: New Links! Wowza!

Yep, there's a couple new links over at the ol' links list. Here's a rundown of what they are:

Duck and Cover explains what that quack Mallard Fillmore is raving about today.

Is Nothing Sacred? is the personal blog of Robert J. Sodaro, who writes things and works at Spider-Fan. It's nifty.

Ugliness Man's Comics Blog takes a look at comics that break the fourth wall in some way, or are just interesting in some way.

Finally, Third Attempt! is my new blog. It is about comics, but unlike my current two blogs it expands to the entire comics page.

Impatient Octopus

Sorry, but I completely forgot that I didn't do today's post yet. In any case, here it is. As pointed out by Ken Begg, the elapsed time between Doctor Octopus scooping up Peter Parker and him scooping up Mary Jane is about, oh, maybe fifteen minutes. He's only had Mary Jane for maybe five of those minutes. This proves that one of Doctor Octopus's traits is not patience. However, I have noticed a fatal flaw in Ock's plan: at no point has he demanded anything from the terrified movie-makers and tourists. I don't recall him shouting, "You there! Alert the media that I want Spider-Man in exchange for Mary Jane Watson and her husband!" A note to Doctor Octopus: Just because the fifth bullet point on your plan says "Spider-Man arrives" does not mean he will magically do so. You must take some steps to make it so instead of just having faith that it will happen, or that someone will just take it upon themselves to alert someone. Even then, it's only been like a minute or so.

I would also like to note that I prefer the colors used in the daily strips compared to those of the Sunday one. Mary Jane's Sunday "Marvella" costume just seems to have far too many clashing colors, while I really dislike Peter's powder blue jacket.

Web-Crawler

Each day, Spider-Man reaches new levels of inanity. Please don't tell me the next week is going to be composed of Mary Jane and Doctor Octopus having petty arguments. The title "City at Bay" could mean there'll be some major plot progression. Considering how it took us two weeks to get from Peter's apartment to this point, however, begs to differ. At least it's not Jameson in love.

Predictions for the Future

This simply reinforces my view that next week will be filled with lustful Jameson. Otherwise, we would witness a sort of super-heroic "Waiting for Godot", because Spider-Man would never come. After a week or so of Lustful Jameson, and after Stan Lee figures out how to resolve this quagmire he's stumbled into, we'll come back to Doctor Octopus and Peter will suddenly get a sensational idea. It will probably be something like Peter saying, "Doctor Octopus, you should let me go to alert Spider-Man to the bait!" and Doctor Octopus falling for it. Ah, and Jameson will have a falling-out with Maria Lopez over something. We might stay in Hollywood when everything is over and done, but chances are they won't cancel Mary Jane's movie shoot.

The Plot Hinges...

The only way anything's going to get resolved at this point is if Doctor Octopus drops Peter (without hurting him, of course) and goes off to try and summon Spider-Man. I have an inkling that we're about to see another chapter in the "Jameson-In-Love" storyline, though, so after tomorrow we probably won't see Ock for another week or so.

Remembering the Past

Calm down, Peter. Doctor Octopus won't hurt a hostage right away. He had you for a full fifteen minutes before he slammed you into a wall, didn't he? Also, you should have spent the time you were preparing to unleash you spider-strength steeling yourself for an attack. I see the spider-sense lines. You had time.

Also, when I was reading this installment, I got to thinking of previous installments. Namely, this one. Why in the world would Doctor Octopus go through all the trouble of finding out where Mary Jane was filming and luring her husband there, just to go off somewhere to send Mary Jane a piece of Peter's shirt? Is today "everyone act really dumb" day in the Spider-Man comic strip? And by today, I mean in comic strip time. At least it's better than Jameson in love.

Idiotic Peter Parker

That guard has such an effeminate "getting hit" pose. Also, Peter Parker must have taken some sort of drug when he woke up this morning because he's just doing stupid thing after stupid thing. Trusting an anonymous informant, not trusting his spider-sense, trying to goad Ock into a battle, and now trusting that this guard will take care of Doctor Octopus. Seriously, Peter, what did you expect to happen? The guard to save the day? You're supposed to have the intellect of a science major, Peter. Act like it.

(From the FUTURE: Should have made a SWAT team joke, considering the sound effect in panel two.)

Deformed Octopus

Doctor Octopus looks really deformed in the last panel. I also like how he's doing a Spider-Man crouch.

Illogical Octopus

By Doctor Octopus's logic, he'd be able to crush Spider-Man without Mary Jane as it's been established that Peter and Spider-Man have some sort of business relationship going as well. Also, Spider-Man can hurt you, Doc. He just chooses not to since all you power is in your tentacles. If he punched your body, you'd get splattered against a wall.

Starstruck Octopus?

Doctor Octopus just looks like he's leering at Mary Jane. Is he so star-struck that he can't move a limb, metal or otherwise, to attack? Meanwhile, Peter is being all angsty about the situation he stumbled into. Next time, Peter, trust that danger sense you have. Unless it's a plot-specific danger sense, which doesn't work against malicous butlers and evil scientists, in which case you're just screwed from here on out.

Not Speedy: Cunning.

This explains how Doctor Octopus got from the observatory to the movie shoot so fast. They're the same place. I have to admit, this is the first part of Ock's plan that makes sense. I also enjoy how Ock stole a paper. C'mon, you think he'd actually pay for a paper? Also, the fact that Peter didn't know and Ock did kind of makes me worried about the amount of communication in the Parker marriage. Hopefully we won't have to sit through a marriage counseling storyline anytime soon.

Speedy Octopus

For the record, Pete, Doc Ock doesn't want to harm your wife. He only wants to harm Spider-Man, and would probably only use Mary Jane in the same way he's using you. So, in all actuality, the best thing you can do to protect your wife at this point is absolutely nothing. Also, Doc Ock has a remarkable turn of speed if he could get from that conservatory to Mary Jane's shoot in what appears to be the blink of an eye. Add that to Ock's incredible balance and metal tentacles and he's a force to be reckoned with. Now, if he would only work on his drinking problem...

In the Clutches of Doctor Octopus! ...again.

I doubt Doctor Octopus' plan would have worked out that well, unless Mary Jane had memorized every single shirt Peter brought with him. It would have been a slightly different matter if she had seen Peter in the shirt earlier in the day, though. Then again, I could technically tear off a piece of my shirt, send it to someone, and claim it's Peter's shirt as well. In that case, Ock could have torn off a piece of his own shirt and just sent Peter to Anaheim or something while claiming to have captured him. I wish something would happen in the strip.

Oh, and happy Thanksgiving. I'm thankful Jonah's storyline has been put on the back-burner.

Adam West

While this is carrying on the plot point (ie-Captured Peter) I loathed yesterday, the strip gains a few points from the heavy-handed Adam West reference. Call me crazy, but I like the heavy-handedness of it.

Balancing Act

Doctor Octopus has awfully good balance for a chubby guy with four metal tentacles jutting out of his back, doesn't he? Also, Peter: please do something heroic. I don't think I can stand a week of you "struggling" with a tentacle.

Spider-Sense? Pishaw.

It's a shame Peter Parker doesn't have some sort of sixth sense that warned him of danger, like some sort of oh, spider-sense. Oh wait, he does. Why in the world was it not kicking in when Doctor Octopus grabbed him? Hopefully, this will be explained. Realistically, it won't be.

IT'S A TRAP!

Hm, it looks like Peter Parker's long run of bad luck with public transportation is at an end. Good for him. However, he is not trusting his spider-sense, which warns him of danger. This is the equivalent of you or me having, "IT'S A TRAP!" shouted at us at close range, and still going into the trap. In short, it's stupid. Then again, Peter has been acting weird since he woke up this morning. However, since Doctor Octopus is standing right there in the open, you would think Peter or someone else on the bus would see him and remark on it. As it is, it looks like Peter Parker is going to be captured by Doc Ock in the comic week.

Naive Shoddiness

Ah, comic strip Peter Parker is very naive. Also, is Doc Ock planning on holding Peter as a sort of ransom or something in order to lure Spider-Man and Mary Jane to him? If so, that's a really shoddy plan, right there.