And, as noted, the characters on the receiving end of these punches in the
comics are not supposed to be "faking" -- which rather raises the question
of what your point could possibly be?

Not absolutely sure if this was directed to me or Knut, but since I brought it up, Knut can't really know what my point is, which is, that nobody is faking it more than a woman who gets to hear about a family member's death and her knees get weak. A soocer player feels punched, he has been into training all season, then the ball rolls into the net. He could just tear his hair, but at least tries to show off what a bad guy the opponent really is. It's just that we, as obsorvers, don't see the same thing. When we read a comic, our experiences are the same as Spider-Man, whom we identify with.

Added for clarification: Spider-Man does of course not fake anything. When Spider-Man gets hit it's real, that's more than a rule, it's an immutable axiom to me. But the reader can be the soccer player and doesn't have to go filming on the field or worse in real life, when he sees his pain manifested in the comic, that's my point.

Happens to the best of us. And don't make the mistake of thinking those shots are to be read as frames in a strip of film. In addition to having to explain how the Kingpin's punch can send him flying as he does in the last panel, assuming the previous one is the precise moment before it would mean we'd also have to explain why Spider-Man's legs are in different positions. Take them as I am sure Keith intended -- snapshots of a series of actions, not the same continuous action.

This thread has gotten REALLY weird.

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I've seen weirder stuff going on around here...