{"id":10438,"date":"2021-09-15T00:00:07","date_gmt":"2021-09-15T04:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/?p=10438"},"modified":"2020-08-01T14:10:03","modified_gmt":"2020-08-01T18:10:03","slug":"tac-171","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/2021\/09\/15\/tac-171\/","title":{"rendered":"TAC 171"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

They say \u201cThe ordeal begins!\u201d like we would know what that means. Time to finally wrap up this long-suffering subplot about Puma\u2019s debt to Spider-Man. I assume Puma will kill Spider-Man. As we begin, Peter Parker and Thomas Fireheart are in New Mexico, among Fireheart\u2019s tribe, in a sweat lodge, with their animal totems painted on their faces. Uh-oh. This can\u2019t possibly proceed as an accurate approximation of the real thing. I mean, I\u2019m not an expert on the traditions of the indiginous people of the Americas, but I am pretty well trained on old comics, and you know\u2026 not a good history. Has any character from the Native Peoples ever not been racist? I\u2019m trying to think of one. Wyatt Wingfoot is relatively ok, I guess (Shout out to Jack Kirby for generally doing better by characters who aren\u2019t white than almost anyone of his era). Wikipedia says of the practice of sweat lodges, \u201cIn all cases, the sweat is intended as a religious ceremony \u2013 it is for prayer and healing, and the ceremony is only to be led by elders who know the associated language, songs, traditions, and safety protocols.\u201d Strap in, gang, this is certainly not gonna be that. An elder gives Peter something to drink and he has a vision of how he got here. That\u2019s hilarious. \u201cMy \u2018spirit journey\u2019 or whatever is a flashback for the benefit of the reader.\u201d Spider-Man went to see Fireheart at The Bugle\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Why must that man\u2019s name keep coming up? And why does Spidey have 2 left hands as he grabs Thomas\u2019 shoulder?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So Fireheart drinks the stuff and flashes back to\u2026 meeting with J. Jonah Jameson, recapping how he bought a controlling share in The Bugle, and saying he has an offer JJJ couldn\u2019t refuse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s going on here? How does this satisfy their \u201cdebt of honor?\u201d Somebody\u2019s gotta die? Peter hallucinates MJ in the smoke, and then flashes back to talking to her last night, as she acted very worried about his trip. But she wasn\u2019t worried about him, She was worried about this stupid infidelity subplot, and what might happen when he\u2019s not around. Blah. Back in the sweat lodge, Fireheart transforms into The Puma as Peter\u2019s narration recaps his whole deal for us before flashing back to their arrival in New Mexico\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Alright, I guess. Back in the present, Peter begins to hallucinate that he\u2019s turned into a giant spider with his head, in the middle of a web with his entire supporting cast in it, struggling with whether or not he\u2019s a monster. Then Fireheart\u2019s uncle tells him every man has a monster inside him, and must decide which he wants to be, before the 2 superdudes\u2019 animal avatars rise out of the smoke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

They each physically battle the other\u2019s animal and defeat it, but then they reform and fight each other, slowly merging into a black mass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Aaaalright. If honor demands blood, what exactly have you been doing for the last few years of comics? Why constantly help Spider-Man if honor demands blood? Maybe we\u2019ll find out next issue. I guess you could do a lot worse for Native representation than this issue. At least they didn\u2019t fight in the actual sweat lodge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They say \u201cThe ordeal begins!\u201d like we would know what that means. Time to finally wrap up this long-suffering subplot about Puma\u2019s debt to Spider-Man. I assume Puma will kill Spider-Man. As…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10437,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[410],"tags":[253,73,13,21,364,37,121,2],"class_list":["post-10438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1990s","tag-bob-sharen","tag-gerry-conway","tag-j-jonah-jameson","tag-mary-jane-watson","tag-puma","tag-sal-buscema","tag-spectacular-spider-man","tag-spider-man"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10438"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10446,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10438\/revisions\/10446"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}