Comics Corner

• Last night Shelby and I broke our Netflix embargo -- our three discs have been sitting on the shelf, untouched, for months, for no good reason -- by watching Spiderman 2. We both agreed that it was pretty disappointing, despite the presence of a screenwriting credit for Michael Chabon. If this is the kind of thing that's keeping Chabon from finishing his next novel, then he needs to drop the extra-curricular activities and sequester himself. The world needs The Yiddish Policeman's Union now!

  And was it just me, or did Doc Ock have the lamest origin story ever? "I need to attach these menacing robot arms directly to my central nervous system, despite the fact that they may well take over my body and use me as a puppet to achieve their own nefarious ends, because I'm the only one brilliant enough to poke at my fusion experiment for fifteen seconds before it goes horribly awry!" Dr. Octavius should have looked into purchasing some laboratory process-control machinery -- and then invested the time and money he'd have saved by not building evil robot arms into getting his fusion reaction to work right. Worst justification for a movie's existence since the whole "they're keeping humans as batteries!" revelation from The Matrix.

• castlezzt.net. What is this? My eyes burn -- yet I cannot look away!
• Another blog: Comics Curmudgeon, filling the void left by the dearly-departed Funny Paper.