The Big Catch-Up, Week Five: Shocking Developments

Well, it's Wednesday. I had no idea it was Wednesday until about an hour ago when I went to read my daily allotment of web-comics and discovered the ones that update on Thursday weren't updated, but the ones that update on Wednesday were updated. Boy howdy, was I surprised!

09/22:It's times like this that I'm glad I slacked off and didn't update for a month and a half, because I have absolutely nothing to say about this strip and such a thing looks better in a compilation then a single post.

TIL: It's kind of funny how the Shocker is upside down.

09/23:
Thank you for explaining why Shocker didn't just bust out. That is very kind of you. Though I find it hard to believe that Jameson forgot Maria was there.

TIL: How SHOCKED the Shocker looks in the sixth panel.

09/24:
Next up on whatever the heck their show is called: How the Shocker caused a massive earthquake killing thousands, and then afterwards kicked a blind puppy! STORY AT ELEVEN!

TIL: Spider-Man's shattering of the fourth wall.

09/25:
Larry Lieber, after recently figuring out how Spider-Man is web-slinging around California, is going to milk it for all it's worth. I have no problems with this.

TIL: The convenient placement of palm trees.

09/26:
Oh dears, sadness abounds for Mary Jane. It looks like Peter is in the jungle in panel one. Will he meet the Phantom?

TIL: Peter's logic.

09/27:
First thing, I think I mentioned something about how foolish it was that the studio was blindly making a "Marvella" sequel some time ago. It's good to see they've come to their senses before committing themselves to something that may be a disaster. Second, whoever organized that contract is the worst agent in history. Not only will Mary Jane get typecast as Marvella and therefore potentially damn her career, but by the time the second Marvella movie comes out (if ever) no one will remember Mary Jane Watson-Parker.

TIL: LOGIC!

09/28:
"Sorry your movie career has been killed before it was able to begin, but at least I beat up a super-villain!" That's like a postman coming home from work and telling his wife (who is a an aspiring baker) "Sorry your cake didn't win the bake off, but at least I delivered some mail!" While doing your job is something to be proud of, don't try to use it to cheer people up. Unless you're a clown or comedian, in which case knock yourself out.

TIL: The amazing shape-shifting television, as well as the magical shadow-casting signature box.

The Big Catch-Up, Week Four: Questions Abound?

As we approach the anniversary of the creation of this Blog (willickers!) another week of strips is commented upon! Will the backlog be complete in time for the anniversary? Is anyone still reading this? The answers and more eventually?!

09/15:I would like this more if we focused on the battle between super-people and ignored the misadventures of Jonah and Maria. I'm surprised the Shocker is still holding the bag, and wonder if he will still be holding it when he's inevitably caught.

TIL: The "ZRRAKT!" sound effect.

09/16:I am so glad they wasted a Sunday strip with Jonah and Maria. The Sunday strips are nearly always better-looking than the weekday ones, and Alex Saviuk (supposed artist of the Sunday strips) is a man who can draw a pleasing Spider-Man battle. I mean, look at the first and last actual panels in this one. Instead, we get Jonah and Maria flirting. THANKS A LOT.

TIL: As mentioned above, I find the first (er, first actual story panel) and last ones particularly pleasing.

09/17:
Larry Lieber is also a man who supposedly knows his way around Spider-Man and his fights. Why, then, is his work not as visually dynamic as Saviuk's? The answer for this is probably that the man was born in 1931, currently making him seventy-six years old. Seventy-six years old, and they expect him to draw a daily comic strip. That is six comic strips a week, for fifty-two weeks a year. That's three-hundred and twelve strips. Factor in the fact that each strip has three panels (for the sake of argument, we'll call it 2.5 panels) and the man draws 780 panels a year of this comic strip.

Now if this was "Peanuts" or something, that wouldn't be so bad, since the characters in most other strips are stylized to make them a bit easier to draw. Mister Lieber does not have that crutch. He has to draw somewhat realistic people in little boxes somewhere around 780 times over a given year. And, in some of those, he has to draw Spider-Man or the Shocker or Doctor Octopus. In fact, forget the others. He has to sometimes draw Spider-Man. Look at Spider-Man up there, with all those webs on his costume and whatnot.

Larry Lieber has to probably draw those webs, on a deadline, about three hundred times a year.

More so, he has to draw them accurately.

And he's over seventy.

That's pretty hardcore.

(The thing where he draws Jameson as trapped in a television is still pretty silly, though.)

TIL: The "FROK" sound effect.

09/18:
I was wondering how the Shocker would be able to actually hurt Spider-Man with a punch. On another note, there's an email address hovering there between the second and third panels. I can't make out what it says, and my image editing program is being of little help. I can see it's "@aol", though. Can anyone make it out?

TIL: The fact that, supposedly, Larry Lieber agreed to draw Spider-Man's webs and Shocker's quilty costume for several weeks. At least, I hope he agreed to it. I would hate to find out that Stan Lee was just kind of like, "You have to draw Spider-Man and the Shocker for a bit." Which is kind of extra terrible, because Larry is Stan's brother. No joke.

09/19:
Years later, Jonah would tell this story a bit differently. In his version, he intentionally threw himself into the Shocker's blast to save Spider-Man's life. Also, Jameson had better hair and a better physique, and Spider-Man let out a cry of anguish upon seeing "his personal hero" (Jameson's words) go down in the heat of battle. This supposedly gave Spider-Man the strength to beat "the monster who had scared him into hiding".

Oh, and the Shocker had caused a massive earthquake which killed thousands and kicked a blind puppy.

TIL: The sound effect "SZZRAK".

09/20:
Way to point out the obvious, Spider-Man. That blast obviously hit Jameson in the elbow. Unless he has some sort of weird anatomical thing where his elbow houses an important or sensitive organ, there is no reason he should be down for the count like that. Yes, I know getting hit in the elbow hurts a bit, but I doubt it would hurt that much.

TIL: The way the signature box casts a shadow.

9/21:
Spider-Man just pimp-slapped the Shocker, as you can no doubt see. Wasn't the Shocker mocking Spider-Man's webbing as being puny earlier, though? Yes, he was, in the first comic of this update. I'm guessing Mister Lieber put his foot down on drawing both of these guys for so long.

TIL: Shocker's head being engulfed in yellow flames.

The Big Catch-Up, Week Three: The Author of this Blog is a Lazy Jerk?

With this set of strips, our hero confronts the nefarious Shocker in a battle to end all battles! Also, the today's lesson segment will take a brief vacation for reasons known only to it.

09/08:
Oh, like no one saw him change and swing away! Especially since he swung RIGHT OVER THEIR HEADS. The only way this could work is if all those fans have super-human focus on Mary Jane.

TIL: It looks like Peter is getting punched in the face in panel one.

09/09:

That action figure looks quite shoddy. Unless it's a doll, in which case it looks pretty decent. That guy in the third panel of the second row, however, looks like a creepy pervert. That, my friends, is the worst kind of pervert. Also: who's talking in the last panel? Following the narrative leads us to believe it's Spider-Man, whom by this point is blocks away. Common sense dictates that it can't be him, since he is blocks away and it's a speech bubble, not a thought bubble. Unless, of course, he has the proportionate ventriloquism skill of a spider.

TIL: The fact that the fan has destroyed the Marvella action figure's Mint-In-Box status and will soon forfeit its pretty-decent-still status by having someone write on it. Why couldn't she have just had Mary Jane sign the box it came in?

09/10:
The police in Beverly Hills are so highly trained, it would seem, that they instinctively know which mansion is being robbed. They have mansion-sense.

TIL: The cop tossing out his donut. HA HA, COMEDY GOLD!

09/11:
First off, I am sick to death of Stan Lee using the "WHILE..." narration box. It should be "meanwhile," darn it! "While" doesn't look OR sound right, though I'm unsure as to whether or not it's accepted by most people as an able substitute for "meanwhile."

Secondly, I like how they finally explained how Spider-Man was getting around California without the aid of skyscrapers.

TIL:...aw jeez. I kind of did this in the actual post.

09/12:
As if we need any more proof that Maria Lopez is a freaking maniac, she appears today with a manic look on her face speeding after Spider-Man. While she is a reporter, one must wonder what makes her and Jonah go after super-villains. Don't they have any sort of pattern recognition skills? It never goes well for them.

TIL: The disembodied hands steering the car in panel three.

09/13:
...Dara Dorset? What are the odds?!

TIL: The first panel is delightfully hard to interpret. Did Shocker bust through an outside fence to get to an outside pool, or a wall to get to an indoor pool? Only Stan Lee knows for sure.

09/14:Again? I don't think there was ever a time when the Shocker beat Spider-Man. Shocker also proves he's still awfully slow on the uptake. Why the heck else would Spider-Man be there, you bozo?

TIL: The Shocker's refusal to let go of his loot. Now that's dedication.

The Big Catch-Up, Part One: The Rest of August.

A lot has happened since I last posted here. Well, that's not true. Only like two things happened. In any case, those two things took a lot of strips to happen. So, in order to cut down on the load time for the posts, I'll be posting them in two installments. What follows is the remainder of August's posts.

08/22/2007:The bank manager doesn't really care that his bank is in the process of being robbed- he has insurance, after all- but he is quite annoyed that the psycho who's doing it won't leave. The man has a business to run, after all, and he can't do so much as fill out a claims form until the Shocker leaves.

TIL: The Shocker's habit to refer to himself in the third person.
Today's Lesson: Bank managers won't care if you can rob a bank, but loitering is another matter entirely.

08/23:That cameraman is quite cowardly. The Shocker does, indeed, look like a guy in a padded suit and he is one of the few super-villains whose silliness is a canonical fact. If you've played "Marvel Ultimate Alliance", in fact, you'd be treated to no less than two scenes when the heroes mock the Shocker for his lameness. So, all in all, Jameson has been right about one thing as of this comic strip.

TIL: Jameson's ACTION POSE in panel three.
Today's Lesson: Super-villains like to pose for photo-ops. Especially if they're the Shocker.

08/24:
I like Maria Lopez's cameraman more than that schlub Jameson has. I don't know whether it's his confident smile or blazing red ensemble, though. The other guy looks like a cross between Hunter S. Thompson and Dale Gribble from "King of the Hill", and his lines have all been on the cowardly side.

TIL: Red Cameraman.
Today's Lesson: If left to themselves, super-villains will begin monologuing.

8/25:
In this day and age, it'd probably be impossible to get exclusive photos of that creep. What with camera phones and digital cameras and all those nifty gadgets, the entire robbery was probably on YouTube seconds after it happened.

TIL: Jameson's stutter in panel three.
Today's Lesson: Los Angeles has questionable masonry.

8/26:
There needs to be more continuity between the daily and Sunday strips. The wall we saw falling yesterday was maybe crumbling just a little, not enough to do more than maybe bruise or bump an unfortunate pedestrian. Then, today, it suddenly erupts into the entire building collapsing. What's more is that it's a sentient explosion, as it's clearly aiming for Maria Lopez.

TIL: The falling masonry aiming right for Maria Lopez in the first panel in the third row.
Today's Lesson: Some cameraman have the ability to change the color of their clothes when faced with danger. This is a defense mechanism, and rarely works.

08/27:
You certainly did, Jonah. Thanks a lot.

TIL: Jonah's look of bemusement and the return of his stutter, both in panel three.
Today's Lesson: If you save Maria Lopez's life, she will crush the life out of you.

8/28:
It looks like Jonah is a kindly old grandfather having a tender moment with his granddaughter or something. Also, I think we realize that's where Maria would be if not for Jonah. She had no need to point it out.

TIL: Not Jameson and Maria's budding romance.
Today's Lesson: The quickest way to a girl's heart is to save her life.

8/29:
Gasp! Do my eyes deceive me? Is that our favorite vigilante, the Land Captain? Perhaps in the face of an evil like the Shocker, he has chosen to wield a revolver. Or, perhaps, it's just a gimmicked flare gun. My breath, as they say, is held.

TIL: Maybe Land Captain! Also, the cheesy dialog.
Today's Lesson: Super-villains choose getaway cars that have convenient features, unless they can fly or something.

8/30:
It's not Land Captain, after all. It's a cop. I am disappointed.

TIL: The structure of the second two panels. Or maybe just second panel? It could be either!
Today's Lesson: People who can make vibro-gauntlets may not know anything about guns.

8/31:
That poor cop looks so sad that his gun fell apart. I hope someone helps him pick up the pieces. Perhaps he'll be inspired by this escapade to build a gun that is immune to being vibrated apart, or perhaps learn some martial arts and become a costumed vigilante. I kind of hope he does both.

TIL: That poor cop.
Today's Lesson: A super-villain will break any law he can, from robbing banks to speeding.

The rest of this big catch-up tomorrow! I hope.

Introducing "Today's Lesson"

Listening to music while on the computer may help me stay awake, which would mean more updates! So I'm going to totally start doing that. Also, I'm trying out a new feature: "Today's Lesson". This stems from me doing half the post and forgetting that "TIL" stood for "Thing I Liked" and not "Thing I Learned". That is how bad things have gotten, which will hopefully be rectified soon.

08/15:
Not to pick nits or anything, but if it had something had enough force to shake apart an armored car, wouldn't the guards inside (being not made of metal and all) be turned to jelly? I may be wrong, but in my mind that's how it works.

TIL: The road design in the first panel is kind of weird and neat, since the bottom corner looks like something from an MC Escher painting.
Today's Lesson: Average men have a greater fortitude than armored trucks.

08/16:
I take this to mean that the Shocker either hasn't been in the strip before, or hasn't been in the strip for a great while. If it's the first option, then why exactly is he in one of the Sunday title panels?

TIL: The security guards work for Galahad something or others. That's kind of neat.
Today's Lesson: An armored car being shaken apart by a man in a flamboyant quilted costume in Los Angeles will attract a total of zero curious bystanders.

08/17:Ah, so I guess the Shocker has had a past career in the comics. I'm still confused about Shocker's gauntlets, but assume they're there so that Spider-Man can snatch them away when he eventually returns and end the criminal's wave of crime in an efficient manner. We can only hope that the Shocker has the gauntlets on a lower setting for the guards than he did on the truck, because a direct hit like that would kill them messily. If the gauntlets even have settings.

TIL: The stab at relevancy in the first panel is pretty keen.
Today's Lesson: Super-villains become pouty when people do not recognize them.

8/18:
This adds further credence to Shocker's status as a returning villain. Interestingly enough, he seems to be stealing a smallish bag of money and another empty money bag, both of which are just modernized versions of the classic money sacks used by villains such as the Beagle Boys of "DuckTales". One can only hope he busts out those sacks next.

TIL: The money bags, of course.
Today's Lesson: Beliefs of great responsibility coming with great power mean nothing when on vacation with one's wife and there is a price on one's secret identity.

08/19:
Is Jameson making a pun in the second row's first panel, or is that just a poor choice of adjective on Stan Lee's part? Well, not so much poor as redundant. You would think someone like Jonah would realize this and get out a thesaurus to avoid it. Also, would it be so hard to make sure the Shocker's gauntlets and victims looked remotely the same on Sundays? I see the second row's third panel and imagine him attacking some hospital orderlies.

Jonah's comments make it seem as if the Shocker is a newcomer to the strip, which confuses an issue I thought was over with. Not to mention the fact that the footage was shot with a phone camera. There are many things wrong with that, mainly that the person with the camera would have to be standing less than twenty feet away to get footage that good. Wait, is that footage in the bottom row's first panel taken from inside the armored truck?!

TIL: Jameson's drunken stare in the bottom row's middle panel.
Today's Lesson: The Shocker will pose for video cameras, and even allow them to follow him around while he collects his loot.

8/20:
Earlier today, I was reading the second "Marvel Masterworks: Amazing Spider-Man", which collected issues #11-19, and the first annual. The final few stories involved Spider-Man disappearing from the public eye after his Aunt May had a heart attack and needed someone to stay with her until she became well. I bring this up because the situation in those issues is pretty much the exact same thing happening here, save for a few minor differences. The two main ones are that Maria Lopez has taken Flash Thompson's role as "Spider-Man Fan" and Peter's reasons for giving up his identity for a bit and vanishing from the public eye are far less noble. Comic strip Peter is kind of a whiny jerk, isn't he?

TIL: Peter and Mary Jane's hotel room either has multiple fireplaces, or their couch transformed into some sort of legless chair. Also, it looks like Peter has lost his bottom half.
Today's Lesson: Even in Death Valley, one of the hottest places in America, the hotel rooms have fireplaces.

Mary Jane's Harrowing Accident!!!

08/10:My imagination inserts a thought balloon into the first panel. It is the guide's thought balloon, and it reads, "Don't those two know I can hear their whispers?" This is why he is whispering in response. The rest of the guide's appearances will consist of him acting as if he doesn't know who his charges really are.

TIL: The third panel is kind of nifty.

08/11:
Looks to me like the burro gained a moment of super-strength and was either unaware or unable to stop his foot from plowing into ground. This caused him to lose his balance, and his super-strength. Either that, or he slipped on some rocks. You could pick either one.

TIL: The middle panel. Action Burros are GO! Even if that action is somewhat ambiguous.

08/12:
It's nice that the guide is going out of his way to pretend that he doesn't know that Peter Parker is Spider-Man. Meanwhile, the last panel boggles my mind. They obviously know the Shocker's power lies in vibrations, hence the "NEXT" box. Why, then, does the villain say that he'll electrify Hollywood? He's not Electro, after all. Sadly, I think we can expect more of this inappropriate quipping until the end of the storyline.

TIL: The Shocker's patience. Poor guy must be itching to do something by now.

08/13:
Yes, that perfectly even path sure is steep. They could have at least made an effort to have the art match the narrative. A month ago, I made the prediction that this storyline would have no excitement to it. What with those crazy burros and the Shocker, I think we can safely assume it was a shoddy prediction.

TIL: That guide sure does stick to his act.

08/14:
I can see where Mary Jane is coming from. I almost slipped and fell in the parking lot at work today (it's not paved, but covered in gravel) and wanted nothing more than to sit down for an hour or so. So our near-accidents were pretty much the same. Except she had a burro, which I suppose makes all the difference.

TIL: Shocker has been saying that for a few weeks now, and I have to admire his perseverance. Hopefully it'll pay off soon.

Amazingly Huge Colossal Update Spectacular!

When the unintended hiatus started, things were moving at a snail's pace. Jonah had a reward out for Spider-Man's identity, Maria Lopez was crushing on Spider-Man, and Peter Parker had put the identity into semi-retirement. Also, he was being whiny because his wife is launching a film career. However, I was still reading and saving the comics every day (I had time enough to do that) and watched as the Parkers watched Jonah rant and rave. Then, suddenly, I didn't even have time to do that. I came back, expecting the strip to have moved forward ever so slightly. Well... you'll see what happens when we get there. For now, it's catch-up time!

---

07/27/2007:
Peter looks honestly crestfallen that he is not considered one of his wife's "people". In fact, he looks sort of glum throughout the strip. The sign on Maria's van brings me happiness, however, because it looks as if it's used for Maria's show and a watch shop.

TIL: The sign, of course.

07/28:
The curse of remarking on a daily strip like this is that sometimes there's absolutely nothing to remark upon. I realize they're trying to set up a "will he or won't he" thing concerning Peter and his Spider-Man identity, but we all know he'll jump back into right when a super-villain or some other madman raises their ugly head.

TIL: Peter's casual remark that Maria Lopez has turned into a stalker.

07/29:
This would have been a prime time for the Land Captain to return, if he was recognized by Stan Lee and whatnot. On another note, it took me a minute to put the second police officer's line and the "NEXT" box together. Also, Peter looks really stupid today.

TIL: The punk in the last panel warms my heart.

07/30:
The first panel makes it sound like Peter and Mary Jane are on Tatooine (from Star Wars). The second panel makes it sound like Peter is a polygamist. The third panel doesn't make it sound like Peter and Mary Jane are anything but Peter and Mary Jane. I'll leave it up to you to decide if any of these are a good thing.

TIL: The way the Stan Lee/Larry Lieber thing is floating above panel two and casting a shadow in the gutter.

07/31:
I don't know why Peter is acting so smug, as that's pretty much exactly why he's lying low for a few days.

TIL: Mary Jane's look of pure horror in panel three.

08/01:
I thought this one was actually kind of funny. Which isn't a bad thing, and much better than the monotony every other day, but I would rather have some fast-paced Spider-Action than Peter mocking Jonah Jameson.

TIL: Peter's mockery of Jameson.

08/02:
Here, Spider-Man expresses a little known ability: Jameson Jealousy-Sense. A part of his spider-sense, it allows him to know when Jameson is about to prove that he's jealous due to someone's crush on Spider-Man. It is a very obscure power, and this is probably only the second time it's been used ever. The first time was in the mid-eighties.

TIL: Peter's mischievous look in panel three.

---

Here we are, a week into things, and all that Spider-Man has done is not fight crime and make fun of his boss. Will our fortunes look up? DOUBTFUL. We now continue.

---

08/03:
We all know Jameson does have a crush on Maria Lopez, but Mary Jane could have just dismissed Peter as crazy and jealous of Jonah. You know, for the sake of argument.

TIL: The magic floating television set.

08/04:
Actually, if it was a square, Spider-Man would have to love Jonah. It'd actually be a weird diagram or something, like this:
Land Captain is there because everyone loves Land Captain, in some way or another.

TIL: It looks like Jonah is trying to smash his way out of the television in panel one.

08/05:
...

Holy crap, it's the Shocker.

Wait, why is he wearing armor?

TIL: The whole strip is actually sort of pleasing today, actually.

08/06:
First off, some stuff about the Shocker. He's basically a small-time thug who has become fairly infamous because of how lame he is. The man wears something that looks like a quilt and his power lies not in shocks but in vibrations. Luckily, someone realized that they should not use the name "Vibrator". What's more important is that he has no delusions of grandeur, so if this whole scheme of his consists of anything more than robbing banks I'll be fairly disappointed with his characterization. However, I'll also be pleased that the Shocker is running around doing stuff, as I like him, and am glad to see he lost the armor.

Second, when did the whole "Going to Death Valley!" thing pop up? I need a plot-change sense so these things can't come at me out of left field.

TIL: It's the Shocker!

08/07:
This is what I want to see more of: Peter Parker being randomly reminded of villains he's fought, along with pictures. Maybe Sandman will show up and we'll have him and Shocker running around! I doubt it.

TIL: Sandman looks so cheery.

08/08:
Oh ho ho, hilarity. They want to remain incognito, but Mary Jane's fame makes that impossible! Where's the Shocker?

TIL: The check-in guy's outfit.

08/09:
They're wearing long sleeves and pants in Death Valley? Death Valley, which is characteristically very hot? The donkey sees the foolishness of that.

TIL: Donkeys!

Also, "Barney Google" or "Snuffy Smith" or whatever it is mentioned Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus on 7/30:
Well, now we're up to date. Hopefully this state of affairs will continue for a while.