Re-elect Senator Palpatine! Progress is his middle name!

Large Anti-Trump ‘86 47’ Graffiti Found on Bottom of Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool
May 2, 2026

Ditko's last several issues of Spider-Man are less-interesting.  There's some interesting things going on but it just seems more tedious than before.  Since Ditko never explained anything, all we can do is guess and there are a number of possibilities.  For one thing, the super villain fights take up most of each issue.  #34 is the return of Kraven, he's impersonating Spider-Man and that's the cleverest trick he has.  There's a bit more in this issue but it seems to be going downhill.  #35 is literally all about dealing with the return of the Molten Man, with only the last two issues being a stop by the Daily Bugle.  The villains in the remaining three issues mostly irrelevant.  #37 is the only issue that is clearly including important details that will be relevant later.

Early in #34, Betty dreams that Peter is Spider-Man.  Chicks are so crazy, ain't they?  She wakes up and decides that she must do something now.  This is her last appearance in Ditko's run, her decision is to quit her job and disappear.  The reader is told she's gone in #35, Peter learns in those last two pages of #36.  There's amusing bits about JJJ's inability to keep a secretary but the only other relevant scene is Ned Leeds confronting Peter and revealing he doesn't know where she went either.  They argue and JJJ gets involved but other than Peter continuing to feel sorry for himself, that really is the end of Betty's role here.

In #34, Peter tries to be a normal college student and doesn't realize that everybody hates him already.  Gwen is surrounded by guys attracted to her so of course she's interested in a guy who isn't.  Harry is still there, his last name was giving during his first appearance in #31.  His father has started appearing regularly but I'm not sure his name is given until #37 and you'd have to be extremely focused on every detail to notice any connection.  Ok, I'm talking about Marvel fans so the percentage is probably higher than I expect, but it's still not obvious.

Gwen and Peter are at a museum in #36.  The villain shows up and Peter runs away like a sissy.  She thinks there's more to him than that.  Has she not heard that he's a photographer for a big newspaper and is known to taking lot of dangerous pictures?  It's tough to imagine him being a complete unknown, even by the professors.  But it's also worth noting that at no point in Ditko's run does Gwen have any interaction with Spider-Man, not even an acknowledgement that he exists.  Peter has one thought balloon about Spidey when Gwen is around, that's as close as she gets.

Aunt May is doing better.  Peter has become more outgoing at school, not that it works well.  He's also willing to stand up to Flash, a believable sense of maturity.  They aren't in high school, he isn't going to be bullied.  Of course there's no clue why a football player is always seen around a science major but they're both in the cast of characters.  Can't break them up now.

The villain in #37 is Professor Stromm, he builds robots and was sent to jail, that's how Frederick Foswell knows him.  But now he's out of jail and is going to kill his boss, Norman Osborn.  We finally get a name and even see him with his son and JJJ.  This is a really good set-up that Norman is the Green Goblin but it's done very well with no clues.  In theory, Ditko could have changed his mind or just made up a new villain and said that was Osborn.  Or the Goblin could have just been an employee.  This is one of those neat situations where the reader doesn't get any of the clues until after the mystery is revealed, then you go back and realize how much foreshadowing there was.

#38 wasn't that relevant.  Norman is clearly involved in criminal activities, even paying goons to attack Spider-Man.  The villain, a guy named "Joe," seems to be a reference to Stan Lee and Marvel although it's very subtle, to the point where there's no real evidence.  Joe is a lousy boxer who magically gets turned to evil and is super-strong.  He's no good at being a villain either but after his defeat, Hollywood is rushing to give him a huge deal.  That just seems so out of left-field that it's easy to see this as some sort of commentary on what had happened to Marvel in the last few years.

And that was it.  Betty's gone, Peter is now at college, getting some vague social interaction skills, Aunt May is doing all right.  She made very few appearances in the last several issues and it's possible that the point was that Peter had outgrown the need for a mother-figure.  It's not a great ending but considering how slowly and subtly Ditko had been developing all these storylines, it really is amazing how he'd gotten this far.  Then there's all the potential he had laid down for future issues.  I don't know if he had worked out a detailed plan but he could have easily been aiming towards #100 with everything he'd put down.  Certainly the Spider-Man franchise was able to make a lot of use from his work for a long time.

But we never knew why he left.  He said Stan Lee knew why, Stan said he had no clue why.  They can't both be right.  It's easy to blame Stan but it's entirely possible Ditko was offended by something Stan knew nothing about.  Stan was busy, running the whole company and was very good at smoothing things out with employees.  For some reason, that didn't work with Ditko.

I suspect Ditko stopped talking to Stan because of argument over the credits.  One thing that doesn't get mentioned in such discussions is that laying out the page in basic pencil is certainly co-writing the story.  That's almost always done by the penciller, especially when done 'Marvel method.'  But even though they're fleshing out the story and how it's told, they're not given any credit for writing.  Because Marvel owned the property, the only argument Ditko could make was to tell the story first, then bring it in for Stan to see.

There also may be a problem with Dr. Strange.  I have read Ditko's run but only once all-the-way through and do not remember most of it.  He spent the last couple years telling one long story and left as soon as he reached the end, cover-dated the same month as Spider-Man #38.  So maybe the real problem was happening over there and we never think about it because SPIDER-MAN!!!

Because Ditko never explained anything, it's not clear what decisions he had made or when.  Surely he didn't finish these last issues, then wake up the next morning and spontaneously he was done.  Most of the last several issues are rather simple, was that because he was just putting in the minimum work?  Maybe he was trying to adjust to what the company wanted, Stan was getting tired of the romance subplot and wanted more superhero action.  Was this a creative choice, reflecting the stage Peter was at here, where everything seems repetitive and is being set up for a major change?  There's no answer to any of that.

My only guess for the future storylines was that the Green Goblin would have been resolved by #50.  He might not be in jail but he would have at least been exposed to Spidey and the reader.  By the end, Norman Osborn was clearly a businessman who was comfortable operating with criminals and murdering Professor Stromm without hesitation.  This was the organized crime/big business storyline being built.  It's not a coincidence that after Ditko left and Lee had to straighten the ship, one of the early decisions was to create someone who could fill that role, the Kingpin.

The Betty Brant storyline is trickier to figure out, just because of the number of characters involved.  This is a superhero comic book for children so it's very iffy if he would have actually gone through with marrying Ned Leeds if she was still yearning for Peter.  Either way, I think Ned was intended to become a supervillain.  Either he would learn to hate Spidey for causing his wife so much distress or she would ditch him and he'd want revenge.  This is effectively what happened to him decades later and I would love to know how much of that came from conversations with Ditko, which Marvel did have over the years.

There's no way to know if Liz Allen would have returned.  Perhaps someday but it's unknown if that would be meaningful.  Her father was rich so that would be a valid option.  Otherwise, she was the only storyline in Ditko's run which he brought to a decent conclusion.  She was Betty's rival for Peter, she eventually lost.  And then she was replaced by Gwen Stacy.

Gwen was more experienced, as a college student and former beauty-queen.  Since she never had anything to do with Spider-Man, it's impossible to guess what would have happened with her.  If and when Betty returned to win Peter over, she'd need some validation to compete against Gwen.  But Gwen would be far more willing to compete against Mary Jane.

MJ is possibly the greatest evidence that Ditko really did have a long-range story planned.  At the start of the Betty/Liz rivalry, Aunt May starts pestering Peter to meet her.  At the end of their rivalry, they get a look at MJ and realize they can't fight back.  MJ gets mentioned a few more times and then is entirely out of the story.

My guess is that she might turn to be a villain, or at least working for one.  More to the point, she would be Betty's final rival.  Just speculation but I think MJ would disappear for a few years and when she returns, Ditko intended her to be the equivalent of a super-model, similar to the Mary Jane we see thanks to John Romita.  There's no other explanation, it's not like she'd sit around for years waiting for a chance to meet Peter.  As with Norman Osborn and Aunt May's illness, Ditko clearly had this planned for years in advance.

With Aunt May, there's really no clue what his intentions were.  Maybe she'd die dramatically in the near-future, maybe she'd stick around for years, just getting older and sicker.  Similar to Flash Thompson who had a few moments but never really got past the one-dimensional bully he started out as.  Ditko, with or without Lee, didn't have all this planned right from the start so it's not clear how many of these characters he came up with specific storylines for, when he developed them or how they would end.

This is especially the case with J. Jonah Jameson, possibly the best character in superhero comics at that point.  He was just so versatile, he could moan about business or superheroes.  He could support villains or be attacked by them.  He might just be passing on plot-relevant information or be the butt of a joke.  We know he has a son, we eventually learn he's part of a club for rich people, but other than that all we know is about the Daily Bugle, which is its own relevance as a media business.  There's no way to know if JJJ had an active storyline or if he was just convenient any time he was used.

This series was definitely a high-point for the comics medium and superhero genre at its peak.  There's a reason so many people have been so focused on it for so long.  I've obviously given it a lot of thought for a while now and haven't had a problem with it.  I'm mostly out of superheroes but even as I flip through the fight scenes, there's more than a little affection for how exciting this can get.  I still think Spidey was always intended to be the center of the Marvel Universe and cannot figure out how, but just looking at these comics, they had a lot to work with.

DOJ Targets Blue State for Giving Illegals Financial Assistance While Neglecting U.S. Citizens
May 2, 2026

□ [“New Mexico Police Question Epstein’s Zorro Ranch Staff About Former Prince Andrew’s Visits"]

We're getting close to seven years since Epstein's last arrest and death and they're just now getting around to questioning the staff?  Why would the staff still be around?  For that matter, if any of them have died, what secret information are you going to get out of them then?  There's just no way to take any of this seriously, meaning there's really no chance anything will be done about this.  Or anyone involved.

That said, I have noticed a slight change in the commentary.  Coverage has gone down, even on the left, just because there's nothing to obsess about.  It's strange that they're not paying attention to the documents that were released, but neither is the right.  No clue what's going on there but that may be why this change is relevant.

The New Mexico ranch is getting attention when it would be easily ignored, just as it's been all these years.  There's also the fact that Charles came to the US to talk to Trump, it's quite possible that this was about what his brother and other celebrities were up to.  The EU is still being hit by elites who are suddenly in trouble for their Epstein connections, it's possible that another step has been made towards progress.  Which means only a zillion or two steps to go before anything relevant is released to the public.  Noam Chomsky and Woody Allen enjoyed themselves at this ranch, how come nobody asks them?

Pope Leo Appoints Former Illegal Alien and Rabid Progressive as West Virginia Bishop
May 2, 2026

□ [“AOC is Asked 'Are We Going to Have a Female President First or a Gay President?'”]

As the article describes it, she answers that we might have already had a gay POTUS and snickers like she knows a secret she's hiding from the rest of us.  How mature.  There's been a number of recent suggestions that Obama is actually gay, which is totally believable.  Maybe Bill Clinton but he just comes off more like someone who would have sex with anything regardless of age, gender or species.

This might be related to the notion that Michelle is actually trans.  I still don't believe that but the rumors would at least line up with a marriage of convenience, not because either one of them wants sex with the other.  What comes to mind for me is more about Obama's Muslim past.

Muslims are allowed to do bad things with the infidel.  I'm not certain it specifically includes gay sex - haven't looked into that for some reason - but that would also be believable.  It's also said that males in Muslim tribes are just more inclined to behave like that, which children or because they just don't know any better.  If he was ever trying to show that he was down with Muslims, he might be expected to prove it and that might have been caught on camera.

I think the most relevant point is that Obama is the first one everybody thinks of.  Would anybody really care if suddenly records come out saying Grover Cleveland was actually gay and just got married to hide it?  With Obama, there's suddenly a reasonable explanation of why black celebrity males are suddenly so willing to be gay.  It might even be worth looking into which Muslim groups have made use of this with elites in the US or Europe.

Southwest Airlines Flight Attendant Calls for Trump’s Assassination on Social Media Posts
May 2, 2026

□ [“Seattle Mayor Abruptly Pull Her From Live Interview Before She Can Answer a Simple Question"]

The question is specifically about if more surveillance cameras would help stop crime.  The reporter says she has spoken out about this before and asking if she's changed her mind.  I don't know what she's ever said or how this is relevant but her handler did and pulled her away as she began to answer.

I wonder if more people are getting the impression that Democrat leaders (or the uniparty as a whole) really are just installed and manipulated by someone else for things like this.  They say what they're told to say and nothing else.  This is especially relevant in blue cities and states as more comes out about how much voter fraud they have.  People are already starting to realize that they might not be winning so many elections if the votes were counted fairly, which is why the left always opposes that.

□ [“'May Day' Agitator Cannot Answer Why Exactly He's Protesting"]

There were protests yesterday.  The left is saying they were huge, totally popular, whatever.  Haven't heard anything else about them, nobody was on strike at my workplace yesterday.  I'm sure teachers brought their students, giving them an excuse to skip school but how many were really into it?  This agitator shows that they don't really know what they're doing.

There have been some hints that even some higher-level Democrats are getting sick of the *woke* nonsense, especially from people who skip work and their absence isn't noticed.  This made me think of another potential problem Democrats are facing.  How many of their own party is tired of this, to the point that they'll vote Republican this fall or just won't vote at all.  Add that to getting rid of voter fraud and redistricting fraud, it looks like Republicans are digging some deep trenches for the chance to hold off lunatic Democrats screaming about Trump the nazi who deserves to be assassinated.

WHCD Shooter Cole Allen Placed on Suicide Precautions in DC Jail
May 2, 2026