DocTachyon

Absolute Comics - Season Two: The Monster Within

Before I give my awards, I just want to take the time to say thanks to everyone for this game. I’ve said previously that my first game of this type was back in UOU, making this my second, but I do really think we have something special here. It’s cool seeing all these stories spring fresh from the minds of people who’ve been inspired by these characters, and even greater seeing new kids on the block like me trying to learn a thing or two from people like Retired and Byrd (when he deigns to appear). It really does bring me a lot of joy reading through the IC, and just chatting you guys up in the Discord. Excelsior, true believers!

As far as GM feedback goes, I also wanna give it up for the GM team. You guys have built us the little game that could. Somehow, you guys keep it up and we keep on attracting great new talent, thanks in no small part to your efforts. We’ve got this big crisis coming up, and we’ve got at least a dozen-odd characters turning up for the melle, and I’m excited as hell! You’ve done great, boys. If I had to request any one thing, I’ve been really fond of @Lord Wraith’s post reviews, and @Retired’s, for that matter. Not that anyone has to, but it could be neat if we all made an effort as a community to start doing that for each other, if people are so inclined to accept. I know I want to start reviewing myself, time allowing, and I hope more people follow Wraith and Retired’s lead.

◼ BEST CHARACTER CONCEPT

@Hillan as Eobard Thawne. To be fair, I loved this character once Hillan suggested it one day in the Discord. It’s completely turning a Flash story on it’s head, taking a story about a noble scientist just trying to get by, and turning it into a window into the machinations of a mad man. Hillan’s writing sells Eobard’s evil forced into this heroic archetype, and it’s a lot of fun to watch. I absolutely wouldn’t have expected it, but I guess that’s what you get when Dinoman comes to town. This is the character I bring up when I try to sell friends on joining this game; these are some of the lengths you can go to in your reimaginings, this is a great example of all the kinds of fun, interesting stuff you can do with your character -- and that’s a Flash fact!

Runners up include @Hexaflexagon as Zatanna, and @Byrd Man as The Shadow.

◼ BEST CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

@Hexaflexagon as Zatanna. We haven’t seen nearly as much of her as I might’ve liked, but I’ve been hooked on Zatanna since the sample post. The clash between her magical and normal sides is great, and her conflicted feelings over her father are palpable in the prose. All that emotional turmoil, a kickass world, plus a plot about trying to figure out old Giovanni’s cryptic warnings? Sign me the hell up!

Runners up include @Lord Wraith as Batman and @ComradeMaxx as Doctor Fate.

◼ BEST SEASON

Best Season is about something very different than the best arc category to me, although they can often end up one in the same. A great season isn’t necessarily as tightly plotted as the best arc of a similar length, but it’s got a consistent posting schedule and a hell of a lot of cool stuff to see along the way, and the promise of more down the road. For this reason, I gotta choose @webboysurf as Captain America. This season has taken Cap all around the world, fighting all manner of Nazis and mooks and even werewolves for chrissakes. Cap and the team are a bundle of fun, and I can’t wait to see what bombastic things are in store for them next season.

Runners up include @HenryJonesJr as The Asgardians of The Galaxy and @Bounce as Captain Marvel.

◼ BEST STORY ARC

@Roman as Daredevil. Back in the time before I was caught up, somewhere in the middle of the season, Roman messaged me and (SPOILERS) said something along the lines of, “Say, would I be stepping on your toes if I killed Kingpin?” At the time I said “uh, sure, go ahead?” and then settled back to see if he’d actually pull it off. Pushing a hero to their breaking point can be very hard to do convincingly, but Roman pulls it off here, with Matt hunted by forces he can’t possibly surmount, with danger lurking around every corner. It’s a great Daredevil story that feels fresh yet classic. Great stuff.

Runners up include @ComradeMaxx as the X-Men for the Bayville High arc, and @Dblade26 as Green Arrow for the Brick arc.

◼ BEST POST

@Morden Man for this post. Morden’s stuff has been impressing me since UOU, but this post ended up striking me as something special. It’s got a lot of characters, but juggles them expertly, complete with action that cracks like a whip and boiling tension. Just what do Flag and Sabretooth want? Will Hudson survive? Great character, action, plot, and it left me wanting more. What else can you ask for?

Runners up are @Hound55 for this and @Bounce for this.

◼ BEST ANTAGONIST

@Inkarnate with his display of Lex Luthor. The dude isn’t even a proper villain yet and I’m chomping at the bit for more. Lex’s interview was a great flourish of style, confidence, and some kind of underlying menace that got me hooked, and I can’t wait to see him clash with Kara. Hell, I can’t wait to see him clash with other business heads. Blue Beetle x Luthor crossover, anyone?

◼ BEST SUPPORTING CAST

@Hound55 as Blue Beetle. I wish I could do characters like this man. Punchy, often hilarious dialogue sells and endears us to a wide cast of characters, and instantly gets us hooked on their relationships. From Takamoto to Abner Jenkins, plus the new additions of the Pyms, the Blue Beetle corner is shaping up to be one of the liveliest in the game. Hound’s writing has a way of making me fall in love with these people, even without ever having touched a Blue Beetle comic. Kudos!

Runners up include @Simple Unicycle as Blade and @Lord Wraith as Batman.

◼ BEST WORLD BUILDING

Though the magic corner is killing it this season, I wanted to take this opportunity to shout out @HenryJonesJr as The Asgardians of the Galaxy. I’ve never really been a particular fan of Thor or the GOTG, but HJJ is really weaving them together spectacularly. It’s cool as hell to see space tech and the magic of Asgard smash together, and the laws and strengths of each world colliding as Thor and Quill try to find their way. At this point, I just need more War World -- and I need Thor to kick Draaga’s ass.

Runners up include everyone in the magic corner (@Hexaflexagon, @Natty, and @ComradeMaxx) and @Ceta de Cloyes as Valor.

◼ BEST CROSSOVER

Wonder Woman and Captain America by @Star Lord and @webboysurf respectively. It’s short but very sweet. I liked the insight into Cap and Diana’s character, and their relationships with one another. I honestly really liked that it was slower and more introspective, not filled with bombastic action, just two friends trying to help eachother out. It was an insight and a slowdown that I think helped to elevate both characters, just excited to see where their relationship goes next.

◼ THE ABSOLUTE BREAKOUT CHARACTER

@Bounce as Old Man Grayson & The Toy Wonder. To be honest, I wasn’t a tremendous fan of this concept. It seemed like it was maybe reaching and bending over too much to try and fit a Robin-shaped story in a world with Wraith’s Batman, but then Bounce started posting and all his posts so far have slapped me in the face for my insolence. Dick is a lot of fun, and even though we’re just getting started with him, I’m liking his relationship with Toyboy, and the more calculating nature of Toyboy himself. I’m interested to see where Bounce takes the pair of them into next season. Great stuff.

Runners up include @Dblade26 as Green Arrow and @The Bork Lazer as Static.

◼ THE ABSOLUTE MVP

Personally, I gotta give this one to @ComradeMaxx. I’ve been talking to him here and there since UOU, but he’s consistently been a super cool dude and totally willing to let me bounce even my stupidest ideas off him. On top of that he’s been handling his GM responsibilities like a champion, and was totally cool about my chronic lateness in our crossover. Mad respect, you da MVP in my heart.

Runners up include @Retired and @Lord Wraith for their post reviews. Also Dinoman for, well, being Dinoman, praise be his name.

Also, new Spidey post up tonight! Features a small crossover with another character. Well, maybe more of a cameo, but I enjoyed it.

Doc's Chop Shop

Spidey Post 9.2

SPIDER-MAN: THE DISTANCE

Issue 9.2

---

New York City, NY --- Manhattan

---

Peter had heard of the Blue Beetle before, but he had always seemed like more of a hobbyist than anything -- a few stories here and there, nothing major. Not that it was much more than a hobby for Peter, anyway, but that the man decided to stick around for Supervillain Happy Hour said something about his character. Whether it said he was suicidal or heroic Peter wasn’t entirely sure, but it was better riding high in space-age tech than it was swinging through grungy streets and fighting the worst kind of flash mob this side of Star City.

The Bug’s interior was like the Jetsons had met the modern age -- futuristic technology called down to Earth by curved plates of blue metal and screens embedded in every surface. It was mad science and careful precision all in one; tremendous shining scanners and stealth shielding controllers paired with exposed sores overflowing with wires of every color, giving insight into the guts of the machine. Lightning in a bottle.

It was everything every tech company on the planet wanted: next gen stealth tech, unbelievable speed, and Peter had a feeling that the onboard systems would give anything Luthor or Wayne/Sionis was putting out a run for their money. He knew that Norman would burn down the city for it if he had the chance, Lord knows OsCorp couldn’t put it together themselves. That left Kord, but Ted probably had better things to do than cramming his dad-bod into a Blue Beetle suit.

Pfft, Ted, first name basis. I’ll just invite him down for some Smash Bros and pizza. On the other hand, he was more familiar with Kord than the clown in the blue jumpsuit. He was a whirlwind through the cockpit, pressing at buttons and pulling levers as the giant bug whirred over Manhattan, bound for Herald Square. His gun jingled at his hip, rustling against the fabric of his jumpsuit. It was all smooth, a hard metal chassis over some mechanism Peter could not describe. Something about it made his skin crawl, he felt the suit bunching up at the back of his neck.

He rubbed at it and went to the port window and gazed out over the city through the yellowed glass. More fires and pillars of smoke reached out from the city like black tentacles dragging at the sky. He put a hand against the glass. He felt the steady hum of the engine as The Bug swooped low. Quiet screams reverberated through the metal, from somewhere in the lost city below. Peter looked back to the Blue Beetle, tapping away at his machines.

Some average joe in a beetle costume, here against all odds to fly the Bug-mobile into battle with gods and monsters whirling around like a metahuman themed edition of celebrity jeopardy. Maybe he was after fame, glory. Perhaps it was the adrenaline. Maybe this whole thing was to make one hell of a sales pitch for his wonder car. Could be personal tragedy, too, that always motivated the heroic types. The question nagged at Peter, a gnat swirling over his vision and blazing past his ears. They burned underneath his mask.

He thought about May and Ben and everyone back in Queens. They would be rejoicing in a bug free section of the city while Peter was playing mop up with the insect squad. He wondered if May had wound her way up to his room yet and discovered he wasn’t there, window ajar during the worst crisis the city had seen in decades.

He imagined her nagging and screaming over the phone, dropping Anna Watson’s name twelve times as she was given to do when she got stressed -- but the sound would be lost to the hordes roaming the streets like packs of hyenas, and the fleshy thud of fists into stomachs and bones cracking like firecrackers.

Like tenderizing meat. The thought welled up in Peter and laid back down on him like a weight on his chest. He stepped out of the Blue Beetle’s view and rolled his mask up over his nose; it was hard to breathe. Maybe some smoke was getting through the Bug’s filters.

Ben would be sitting at home now, watching that same smoke rise into the air through the same tube TV he’d had for years and had refused to get rid of. He’d be scratching at the little round scar and lines of stitches on his abdomen as Peter had seen him do when he did his crossword puzzles. The same scar from the tiny little brass bullet, now in a plastic evidence bag webbed inside the fireplace for safekeeping. The same bullet from one of Tombstone’s people.

Whoever he was, he probably didn’t have anything to do with this. At the moment he was likely ducking under alleyways and sewers and all the places people like him tried to hide from hell like this. He was almost certainly at his most vulnerable now, stretched thin trying to protect criminal assets when half his goons suddenly decided they liked murder more than dope.

Who am I kidding? I couldn’t find him even if I wanted to. He could be anyone. Peter’s mask began to leak down his face, sealing and binding itself back together into black silk as it passed his exposed lips. Until he hit the Thompson Memorial and looked for answers, all he could do was sit on his hands and wait. There was always the chance he wouldn’t find anything there, anyway -- it was already public that he’d hit the Police Station, and Tomby would’ve deduced what files he’d stolen and gotten his man out. Just like that, to the wind.

Spider-Man.. He was more like an insect, skittering around in a glass jar he couldn’t see. He turned on his heel and stalked back towards the window. He pressed his fingers against the glass. It vibrated in time with the engine, silent, but thrumming with power.

He imagined Flash Thompson, running scared through the streets and holding his red letterman tight to his body, with a hand clamped over his neck. Like it’d protect him from the bugs. He thought about all the times Flash had tripped him, taken his lunch money, thrown him down the halls and pumped his muscles like he was a goddamn god. Peter saw a slobbering group of muscle heads, bounding through the streets towards something he couldn’t see. He felt the liquid and sinew reinforcing his muscles, laced between the myofibril, his biceps were taut, bulging with impossible strength.

The Bug surged forward and Spider-Man spotted him, someone blue-and-yellow bounding over pavement and flinging himself over cars, with what looked like a little girl wrapped in his arms and the squadron of civilians snapping at his heels. A spiked tail trailed behind him, snapping in the wind. There was Peter’s X-Man.

And there’s something I can do about it.

“Pop the hatch B.B., I’m seeing bold and brash, twelve o’ clock!”

"Back moondoor," the Blue Beetle gestured to a closed trapdoor at the rear of the vehicle, "Opening in 3, 2, 1..." He hit a button on the console which briefly opened the door, and then quickly closed it again behind Spider-Man.

Spider-Man launched out of the hatch and twisted in the air. His first webline tagged The Bug’s bottom and his momentum carried him up The Bug’s bow and over again to the aft. The webline bounced against the stealth plating and it fizzled, adjusting to the change in scenery. He tapped his opposite wrist and a glob of webbing crumpled a car’s canopy a dozen yards in front of the X-Man with a resounding “THWANG”.

“Yo! Blue Man Group! Now or never!” He shot a long, trailing line down to the other hero and pulled himself up, wrapping the other line tightly around his fist.

If I dislocate another shoulder, I’m gonna kill somebody.

Absolute Comics - Season Two: The Monster Within

Hey everybody! Doc's back!

@Roman

GIF doesn't work but uhhhhhhh imagine a butler telling Jack Nicholson that I've always been here

Absolute Comics - Season Two: The Monster Within

SPIDER-MAN: THE DISTANCE

Issue 7.5

---

New York City, NY --- Queens Neighborhood

---

Pete hadn’t seen Amber Memorial Park before, but the thick trees stood vigil around the property, lonely oaks joined together into something of a bastion against the whining noise of the police cars belting through the borough. Their noses were to the ground like hunting dogs, searching for tiny spiders. What equipment there was in the park had rusted over from a decade odd of rain, all cracked and fissured from children pushing the equipment through the rust, leaving flakes of corroded metal to seed the earth.

The girl found her place on the monkey bars, standing watch over the boys as they came to a stop. Her eyes were like jade daggers. He could feel them in the folds of his costume, probing him beneath, something other, a second thing closed around him in a black coffin -- with off-white eyes staring back at him from the dark.

Peter nearly ran into the boy in front of him as he stopped, puffing his chest out like half the goobers trying to make their names back at the wrestling tournament. “I’m gonna need you to start talking. Who’re you, and why’d you break into a police precinct?”

“Same reasons anyone does it, I guess. Fame, glory, legions of adoring fans in blue.” Peter rocked backwards as he spoke. Every time the cold red of the boy’s visor passed him, he found himself moving to either side, trying to stay out of his direct gaze. He looked past him and the girl had stopped kicking her legs, staring right at and past him. Like she was looking at something that wasn’t there, beyond him, but on top of him at the same time. Maybe she didn’t like my answer.

“Look, you guys do the whole ‘superhero’ thing too, yeah? X-Men, right? You get it -- I’m Spider-Man, man.” Peter went for the strap of his bag. “I just wanted some information that our blue boy scouts weren’t moving on.” He pulled it over his shoulder and dumped it at his feet. He nudged it forward with his foot.

“I was gonna grab the files, swing on out, and have a holly jolly Christmas with Donut Patrol none the wiser. But then some glorified traffic cop spotted me and...” He shrugged. He should have been in and out of there in a flash, even once that glorified traffic cop spotted him. But then… Haze. “Then they, uh, whammied me with something awful back there. Still not sure what, come to think of it.”

Absolute Comics - Season Two: The Monster Within

So, in the interest of spurring OOC discussion (so we can get to the 2000th post and it can be used for something that isn't a GIF of Thanos dabbing), what is, all time, your favorite single piece of superhero media? It can be a movie, TV show, comic run, anything of your choosing. For me, it's sort of a tie between two things:

For one, Into The Spider-Verse. If you can't tell by my character choice for this game, I fucking love Spider-Man. Spider-Man 2 is the shit, but I was hurting for another capital G great Spider-Man flick after the Amazing films sucked so bad that I briefly deluded myself into thinking that Homecoming was the one, even though it kind of super wasn't. But then along comes Spiderverse. I've always been a sucker for great animation, but it's got at all, great acting, worldbuilding, writing, and a plot about what it means to be Spider-Man. Something about it really struck me, and I think it's going to stick with me for a very, very long time.

The more I think of it, I do think it's ultimately more of a runner-up to Spiderverse, but, honestly? UOU is my other pick. This will probably read as a very silly answer to some/most of you, and honestly, it super is. But I think UOU, for its run, hit a lot of the notes of all the greatest comics stories. We had a huge procession of spectacular writers slinging some of the best characters in the medium, and it all came together into a beautiful, climactic ending. It doesn't have the polish or necessarily style of a lot of the other possible candidates for a 'favorite', but I think UOU got started for me at a point in my life where I really needed something like it. I'd never done a Comic game before, and I figured I'd hate writing canons. But at the time, I was in something of a creative slump, and UOU was just what I needed to get the juices flowing again, and to remind me just why I like writing and superheroes so much.

Absolute Comics - Season Two: The Monster Within

SPIDER-MAN: THE DISTANCE

Issue 7.4

---

New York City, NY --- Queens Neighborhood

---

“He is not my- shit, that's a lot of spiders-"

Peter was up on his toes, watching every revolution of the pickets as they circled him, points like daggers stared back at him. The turf was shredded where the girl had plucked them from the ground with her mind, plumes of dirt and destroyed greenery lay in a heap around what Peter imagined was once a respectable hedgeline. The wreckage of the convertible smoldered quietly, little fires starting as the engine gave a sicky whine, still trying to operate despite the crushing pressure forcing its pistons back down into the ground. The more ways he looked, the less opportunity there was for escape -- there seemed to be a picket every foot, and she’d eventually put together that there were no actual spiders.

Honestly, I’m surprised it worked at all. He scanned the line of projectiles. Maybe I can web them together, or something? Screw up her… Throwing arc? God knows if that’s how it works, anyway. Still, even if he could get past that, there was the matter of the other kid. Even with his eyes firmly pressed shut, every time his head so much as turned in Peter’s direction, the surface of the suit crawled and he felt pins and needles on his neck, like his Spider-Sense itself didn’t want any part of the kid’s mojo. Still, he had to try something soon, or…

"Wait! Jean, can you get me my- Thanks." The kid on the ground sputtered, as ruby red sunglasses suddenly rose and skipped across the pavement towards him. The girl’s expression softened as he collected his glasses, but the perimeter of fence posts stayed tight, bearing down like the needles of an iron maiden.

As soon as the glasses found their way onto his face he was moving again, pushing himself up to his feet. A regular Velma Dinkley, useless without his glasses. Peter turned to get a better look at him and pain stabbed down through his shoulder, fire down into the bone and deep into the socket. He bit his tongue and braced himself, squeezing the muscles in his opposite arm and willing the pain away. The sirens had already started in the distance -- evidently playing catch with a Convertible wasn’t a great way to stay incognito.

"Alright, listen,” the boy started, “you don't know us. We don't know you. I figure you've got some issues if you're attacking police stations in the dead of night. But so far as I know you didn't kill anybody in there, so...you're not fully gone. But you hear that, right?" He jerked his thumb back, and Peter saw the police lights in the distance, huge blue and red streaks marking the sky like banners of arms.

"That's the sound of a lot of really angry cops coming this way. Guys with guns who probably won't stop to talk, if you catch my drift. But we can help you. We're the X-Men. Helping mutants out of tough spots is sort of our thing."

This was one of those times when Ben would give a platitude about rocks and hard places… Did he say X-Men? Peter remembered Ben, back at the Hospital; ”I can’t believe they let them print this rag, huh Pete? Going after those poor kids in Bayville. The nerve.” Either way, he still wasn’t sure he was much up to running away, especially with his shoulder socket feeling like an especially painful game of Operation. And if Ben can put a little faith in them… Peter swallowed.

“Well, I only came for the Disney tickets, but you’ve convinced me, I’ll buy the timeshare.” Peter rocked back onto the balls of his feet and stood, inch by inch, pushing both of his hands into the air. The ring of posts held fast, and the girl rocked on her heels. "I don't know about this. This guy, I don't think he's-"

The boy cut her off; "I'd rather not have to knock you out to save your life. Don't make this harder than it already is." He held out a hand. The sirens were closer now, the sound echoing between the plaster and paint of houses and the slick concrete of the road.

“Yeah, I’m partial to consciousness, myself.” Peter made sure to show his hands as he pointed one to the nearest treeline, preparing to sling a web. “I’m thinking we hop a few fences, since your car, uh… Probably needs to go to the shop.” He tapped the center of his palm and the web flew from his wrist, snapping onto the bark of a nearby tree -- he hoped the girl wouldn’t spike him for it.

Absolute Comics - Season Two: The Monster Within

Absolute Comics - Season Two: The Monster Within

SPIDER-MAN: THE DISTANCE

Issue 7.3

---

New York City, NY --- Queens Neighborhood

---

The engine sputtered and the frame of the convertible groaned as the webs slammed into the wheel silos. The webs forced gears to a halt and glued sheets of fine rubber to the pavement as the tires spun furiously. The brake pads howled like banshees, scraping on organic webbing and rubber, trying to slow the car as it swung on the road. The driver looked like he was about ready to rip the wheel off the frame as he jerked it, trying to control the momentum.

“Yes!” Peter scrambled backwards and found his footing, setting into a low crouch on his haunches. Gotta swing away before Thing One and Thing Two… Oh, crap. There was a horrible crunch of aluminum and steel twisting together and grinding past one another, as the smell of burnt rubber streaked the air as the convertible started a reverse wheelie that was definitely not intended by the manufacturer. Spider-Sense flared like ice up and down his neck -- better move, or Tweedledee and Tweedledum are gonna be Tweedle-dead.

He threw himself forward, face first, and by the time his chest hit the pavement his hands were up, squeezing what was left of his web fluid through little pores at the base of his wrists, knotting together into a massive spider web between two sickly oak trees on some guy’s lawn. The car flew with the grace and style of a lead brick as it slashed through the air, dropping what looked like a hazy bubble with the kids from the car crouched inside it. The car plowed through the web with the crackle of shattering bark as the connection points gave way and the vehicle headed straight for the house’s picture window.

Peter was already back on his knees, two weblines lanced from his wrists and snapped to the car’s undercarriage. The lines went taut instantly and Peter yanked backward. His muscles screamed at the pressure, like every individual fiber was supporting a hundred pounds of force, wrenching the car down to earth, it felt like trying to topple a skyscraper. Peter felt the webline in one hand snap and he felt something go pop in his opposite shoulder when the car finally bit into the earth and splintered every surviving pane of the convertible’s glass while the car flattened against the lawn, inches from destroying a residential living room.

Peter’s breath came out shaky and the weblines fell from his hands. His muscles felt like pulled taffy, and as he looked down he became aware of the kid’s on either side of him, the passengers, both dressed in garish blue and yellow costumes. He also became aware of the round, bony joint of his shoulder, hanging at an odd angle from the rest of his torso.

Fucking OWWWWWW! Peter grabbed the arm with his opposite hand and considered it. The black costume was still perfectly free of any rips or blemishes, but the arm sat there, free in the bag of his skin. He shuddered, and tried to remember what Mr. Osborn did when the same thing happened to Harry, when they were kids. Well, I guess circumstances were a little different then. Just gotta get it back in before the shock wears off... He took a firm grip around his arm as the girl from the wreck began to get her bearings.

“You...asshole!” She spat. “I swear to God your face is gonna be a hamburger after I'm done with you!”

“Whoa, Strawberry Shortcake, you the were the one…” Peter’s breath caught as he put his shoulder back into its socket in one move, forcing bone past muscle and jamming it in, “chasing me.” His eyes came up to meet hers, narrow slits of white peering out of a sea of darkness, and he realized the floating mass around himself. It was like magic wicked pickets revolving in a circle, dozens of them, held aloft by some kind of ethereal string Peter couldn’t see. His Spider-Sense reached and miss for something, some mechanism to it, and came back with nothing but the cool breeze of the New York air. He’d run afoul of honest-to-God Mutants.

"Y'got one chance to give it up, pal. Or you're in for a world of hurt."

Really screwed the pooch on this one, Parker. He retreated into himself, lower to the ground, a tiny spider against the makeshift artillery before him. Almost outta webs. Could dodge a couple of pickets… Maybe... He glanced behind him, to a boy with his eyes firmly shut, patting about the patch of concrete he’d landed on. And who knows what kinda power that guy’s packing. He tightened the strap on his duffle and then raised his hands slowly into the air, palms out. It’s the hail mary, then.

Peter arched his fingers and wicked angles, and slouched forward like an animal baring its claws. “You better take your boyfriend and leave, lady, because I’m Spider-Man, and you just made me mad. I’m summoning the spiders. Thousands of them, hundreds of thousands of them! Because I’m Spider-Man!”

Absolute Comics - Season Two: The Monster Within

So, one thing I did want to put out there is that there are now multiple Power Rings floating around Earth whilst Hal and Sinestro try to hunt them down. If anyone maybe wants to interact with the rings, I'm more than happy for that to happen.

Examples:
*The Venom Symbiote gets chosen by the Star Sapphire for how much it, deep down, is absolutely madly in love with Peter.
*Lex Luthor's ambition to rule the world gets him chosen by the Orange Ring.
*Magneto's Hope's for a future where Mutants rule gets him chosen by the Blue Ring.

Now, I'm not asking for a Crossover or anything, just saying that, if you think a character in your story getting to weild a Lantern Ring would benefit the story, I'm more than happy to discuss that. It just adds to the size of Hal and Sinestro's search as they track the path of destruction that the Rings leave as they frantically search for a soul to bond with. "Hal, I just got a report that the Sapphire Ring was spotted in New York, attached to a weird, alien slime monster. It has let go and is on the move, but it's going fast and we need to get out there now if we want any hope of catching the damn thing!"

I dont want to spoil too much, but let's just say that, due to some fuckery on the bad-guys part, the Rings are trapped on Earth, unable to leave until they find a suitable host and so, are going crazy from their inability to leave and find the one true being in the universe that they should be bonding to.

@mattmanganon

Absolute Comics - Season Two: The Monster Within

SPIDER-MAN: THE DISTANCE

Issue 7.2

---

New York City, NY --- Queens Neighborhood

---

The sound had faded into the background, pulsing in the night air but much too far for Peter to hear anything but the barest thump of the beat. Instead, he had to think about the bleating wails of the sirens and arcs of blue and red light that seemed to shoot up from behind every house on the block. The road was shaded from the moonlight by rows of trees, black branches stood out like strangling fingers squeezing the starlight.

He pounded down the road, focusing on every footstep as it came and the shock of each footfall jumping up his thighs. The sky had finally settled in color to black glass, twinkling with whatever gasps of light that weren’t choked in smog or tree cover. Every step was getting a little longer, less like a hobble and more like a leap as he settled forward into the neighborhood. He eyed a sturdy-looking branch and bounced forward off both of his feet, launching a webline forward. It was a clean miss, arcing past the branch and snagging onto the next. No no no--

Peter swung, kicking his legs to try and readjust as he careened into a backyard sliced apart by spotty mower work. The line gave and he fell, crashing into a plastic playhouse and scattering shards of plastic across the green.

“Okay… Maybe no swinging yet…” He groaned as he kicked aside the green plastic door and tumbled out of the playhouse’s blown out remains. His feet smacked against the grass and he was going again, jogging for the road. He hopped up and pulled himself over a wooden fence, sucking in his belly and keeping it from the sharp tops of every spiked bar of the fence.

The new neighborhood was quieter, with nubby trees shrunk into themselves and little brick houses with scrappy lawns lain out before them. The police lights weren’t as strong here, now just blue and red suggestions from neighborhoods far away, sirens pinging off into nothing. Maybe I’m actually getting away! There was something else though, on the edge of his perception. It didn’t sound like a cop car, an engine roaring like a beast with no accompanying siren, the sound tearing through neighborhoods and rebounding off of drywall, spiraling around him, drawing closer. Then were was --? Something in our head.

Peter shuddered and hit his hand against his head, trying to shake the nagging feeling, like a gnat buzzing around his ears. Like for the briefest moment, there was something else there with him, another skin slinking over him, feeling him, controlling him. It was gone just as soon as it arrived, awareness washed over and gone again. But there was still the engine bearing down on him, with renewed focus. He bolted for the other side of the street. Whoever they were, they probably wouldn’t run a rut through some random jobber’s neighborhood. He jumped forward and stumbled across the concrete, nearly tumbling over. He righted himself and set back into a jog, vying for the safety of a random backyard. Any other time, this would be a piece of cake, but now…?

It was too late for the backyard, the car careened around a corner and seemed to lock onto him, a red convertible with a gurgling engine and two indistinct passengers inside. It wasn’t like any undercover car Peter had ever seen, it was all flash and muscle. Coming to think of it, Flash Thompson drove one just like it. The car surged forward and Peter stumbled backwards. He kicked against the concrete and ran as the car wrought huge, ugly skidmarks into the pavement. Something shifted and his Spider Sense went off like firecrackers in his head.

“Hey, pal, you got mail!” A woman’s voice echoed through the neighborhood as he chanced a glance behind him. Trash bins were sailing through the air right for his head, filled to burst with banana peels and discard k-cups dropping as they rocketed towards him. Peter was moving to dodge them the instant they registered; he shot himself into the air and seemed to hang for a moment as the first bin shot beneath him. He kicked off of it and it exploded against the ground while he launched further, backflipping up and over the second bin. Ha! Nice moves, Spider-M--

White plastic and reams of paper slammed into his back like an oversized fist as the mailbox hit and Peter hit the ground, bouncing across the road like a rock across a pond in a flurry of envelopes.

“Every time…” Peter pulled someone’s credit score report from his face and turned to the car bearing down on him. He could see the drivers now, a girl with flowing red hair, and a boy with ruby red sunglasses. They were… Kids? Either way, they were about to make him roadkill. Peter flopped onto his back, facing the car gunning for him. Think Parker, think…

He aimed as best as he could for the wheel bays and unloaded with all the webbing he could muster. His fingers hit his palms over and over again as globs of web shot out to strike the front wheels.