You'll Find Out Sooner or Later

Crystal is concerned about the pregnant Chica Invisible.

"You shouldn't be here Miss...but in the end...I suppose you will find out about it sooner or later." "Find out?  About what?"

"If only we could…answer…that question!"
"She has always been a healthy woman without sickness!  Tell me what's happening!"

Notes:
saber has an irregular future tense: sabré, sabrás, sabrá, etc…
poder is also irregular poder→ pudiéramos

I Know This Face!

From the first issue of La Masa:

"This face! I...know this face!"
"You can't hate him!"

"Don't you understand?  The man in the photo...before the transformation...was you!"

Notes:
Foto, despite ending in ~o is feminine because it is an abbreviation of fotografía, so in No puedes odiarlo.  It seems that the lo refers to the (masculine) person in the photo.  If it were the case that the Hulk hated the photo, it would be no puedes odiarla.

An Asgardian Goddess!

Hulka and La Encantadora face off:

"Hey, you're strong!"
"I am an Asgardian Goddess!  I could squash you like a worm!  But physical contact with such creatures disgusts me!"

"Why should a mistress of witchcraft sully her hands?"

Notes:
aplastar is a common verb in the Spanish Marvel Universe.  (eg "¡Hulk aplasta!")

!El contacto físico con tales triantures, me repugna! is an example of the subject of a gustar-like verb (in this case, repugnar) preceding the verb.  This sort of topicalization is possible.

mano, despite ending in -o, is feminine (because it was feminine in Latin (!))

Look Into My Eyes

Not even a Skrull can resist Ghost Rider's Gaze of Penitence:

"Contemplate your past en the gaze of penitence of the Ghost Rider!  Speak!" 
 "Uhh...No..I...I..."  

"The mission was simple.  Among the few discontented Skrulls there is a small rebel group dedicated to assassinate the emperor."

Secret Wars

A variety of simple future and subjunctive tenses from Secret Wars, an excuse for all of Marvel's characters to fight at one time:

"Bulldozer! Stabilize this thing or I won't be able to shoot!"  "It's not my fault idiot! It's...Oh, no!" 

"That's it Hulky!  Knock 'em down!"

"When you can bend metal with your bare hands, you can give me orders Torch!  Until then, I'll obey our boss, Captain America, and no one else.  Understood?"

Notes:
poder has the irregular stem podr in the future: poder→podré, podrás, podrá,...

The Hulk is sometimes translated as La Masa (the Mass, the Chunk), or, diminutively Masita.  

Since the Hulk is referring to an event which may or may not happen (the Torch being able to bend metal with his hands) the cuando here triggers the subjunctive.

We're Like Ants...Like Ants...

Johnny Storm, la Antorcha Humana, returns from a visit to deep, deep space to retrieve a weapon for the Watcher:

"And so, upon truly becoming conscious of what he has done...the delayed reaction of what he seen...of where he has been...begins to take its toll on the youth."

"What's wrong with you?  Answer me, boy!"

"I have seen worlds so large...so large...that...that they weren't even worlds..."

"He's in shock!"

"Calm down Johnny...try not to remember it.  This must be what you went to find."

"We're like ants...like ants..."

Notes:
Indirect object pronouns always precede direct object pronouns, and both follow the imperative verb.  Note that lo it is required in such constructions more often than in English.
¡Contestamelo!  Tell me (it)!
¡Damelo! Give it to me!
¡Diselo! Tell (it to) him!

intentar to try

I'm Sick of This...

I'm back from spring break.


harto is an adjective to describe being sick of or fed up with something or someone.

From the Japanese comic adaptation of Star Wars:

"I'm sick of you getting me into your shady and inexplicable messes.  Listen well to this: don't follow me asking for help, because I'm not going to give it to you."

"Pi, Booop."

"I'm sick of adventures!"

Notes: liar is a verb meaning to complicate or to mess up

prestar is often used as a verb for to lend, but can also be used for to provide or to give (as in help here).

ya literally means already, but is often used - sometimes even by itself - as an adverb of emphasis

Aww...

She Hulk is know as Hulka in Spain, and she's in need of some cheering up:

"Life is not always fair, Jennifer.  The best we can do is take what it gives us and make use of it.  The tragedy in the life of Bruce Banner has no equal, but at least the world gained something from it:  you."

"Without a Hulk, there would be no She Hulk."
"And without a She Hulk, there would be no us.  Thank you, honey.  You always say what I need to hear.

Notes:
The verb soler is used more often in Spain than in other parts of the spanish speaking world to express habitual actions or states:
Suelo ir al parque los dominos  - I have the habit of going to the park on Sundays.

It is also used as the equivalent of the English used to.
Antes solíamos comer juntos. - We used to eat together.

Nunca habría habido - there never would have been.

I Need to Know

haber is an interesting verb with many different auxiliary uses.

One is the haber de + infinitive construction:*

*Used in speech almost exclusively in Spain.

"Get out of my house." 

"You're not well, Nick.  I know you.  I need to know why you're trying to destroy Matt Murdock."  He stops upon hearing the name.  I smell his guilty sweat.  

I notice the heat in his cheeks…an attack of rage.  He prepares to strike...

Notes:

sal (from salir) is an irregular imperative (cf. haz, ten, pon, etc.)

Haber de conjugates normally and functions in a similar way to tener que and haber que, although the sense of obligation may seem a little weaker:

Ha de estar aqui.  He should be here.
He de estudiar. I should study.

al + inifitive is used to express "as soon as" or "upon"

I Thought I Saw...

James Rhodes is infuriated by something on television, and has the luxury of a rich boss who will pay to replace the TV if he smashes it with his boot:

"Sorry about the TV.  I thought I saw a cockroach on the screen." "Eek!"

Notes:

the pronoun lo is useful when apologizing for specific actions:
Siento lo de anoche. I'm sorry about last night.
Siento lo de tu tía. I'm sorry (to hear about) your aunt.

The structure of creí ver I thought I saw - with the infinitive - is interesting to me.

He Almost Killed Me…

In English, when something almost happens, we tend to use the past tense, even though the action was not technically completed:

1.  He almost cried.

2.  I almost fell down.

A similar construction exists in Spanish, using the word casi, but strangely (to my ears anyway) often using the present tense.  The above sentences become:

1.  Él casi llora.
2.  Casi me caigo.

After a tough battle with someone with magic rings, Iron Man ponders:

"He almost killed me with only 5 rings.
What would have happened if he had possessed all of them?

Notes:

the conditional perfect tense:

ha ocurrido→habría ocurrido

redundant object pronoun:
de tenerlos todos
the de here is an abbreviation of en caso de 

Delusions of Grandeur

Typical rantings of a deposed despot:

"I've won!  I've won!  Now nothing will separate me from my people!  We will be together forever.  And the crown will be mine once again.  At last I have triumphed over the Black Bolt!"

Notes:

A couple of past participles:
ganar - to win → he ganado
vencer - to defeat, to vanquish → he vencido

…and two verbs in the simple future:
seperar → seperará
estar → estaremos
note that the 1st person plural future does not need an accent

And of course, by corona, he's not talking about a beer.

Some Cosmic Punching

From the early 90s Thanos Quest  - an extremely important event for me in 7th grade.

"Conceited madman!  Did you really think that I would betray Lady Death for someone like you?  In reality, I only came for this."

Notes:

The imperfect tense to describe a line in the past:
pensar → pensabas you were thinking

The conditional:
traicionar → traicionaría I would betray

The irregular preterite for venir:
vine, viniste, vino, vinimos, vinisteis, vinieron

Haber + Participio Pasado

Haber is an auxiliary verb combined with the past participle to express actions that have happened in the past but have relevance to the present:

"Tintin! Tintin! Wake up!" "Ah!  He heard me!"

"Good evening Captain.  Did you have a good day?"  "Excellent, my little landlubber*...And you?  You must be very tired..."

* grumetillo - literally, cabinboy.  One of Haddock's nautical terms of endearment.

"Here it goes!"  "Did you see?  I think I've discovered something interesting...Go find the rope.  Attach a rock to it and throw it to where I am.'   "Right away."

Ir + infinitivo

This is an auxiliary verb construction to express events that will happen in the near future.  Although future actions are often expressed with the present tense in Spanish, this construction is also common when discussing what someone is going to do.

"We're going to descend little by little."  "Be careful, I feel so dizzy...Poor me..."

"Good...he went past...I'm going to concern myself with the other two before he comes back..."

"Well, there's more...The wire continues..." "Listen, you! Are you going to continue with this for a while?"

As usual, direct and indirect object pronouns come before the conjugated verb, which in this case is ir:

"I'm going to say something to this genius!"  "You're going to pay me for a new suit!"  "That?  It's for brushing suits."

About this blog

In September of 2012, my daughter enrolled in a Spanish/English Dual Language program at a public school in Brooklyn, NY.  This blog is a record of my daily re-familiarization with the Spanish language through comics.  Each day, I hope to post a few panels to illustrate the usage of key words or phrases in the Spanish language.  I am a firm believer in the power of extensive reading, and I hope this site gives students at the lower intermediate level short chunks of comprehensible input.

I will also be linking to good Spanish language learning resources online, especially the excellent SpanishPod lessons released under the Creative Commons License that have been compiled on Wikibooks's Spanish by Choice site.