{"id":12660,"date":"2022-04-13T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-13T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/?p=12660"},"modified":"2021-02-15T14:26:02","modified_gmt":"2021-02-15T18:26:02","slug":"asm-251","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/2022\/04\/13\/asm-251\/","title":{"rendered":"ASM 251"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

$12??? Outrageous! I sure hope I didn\u2019t pay that for it, especially in the 90s. And suddenly, the dream team is gone. This issue features a plot by Roger Stern, but a script by Tom DeFalco. Ron Frenz steps into the penciler role. Klaus Janson hangs around for a month on inks, and Christie Scheele on colors. The fact that 4 whole issues after he left still credit Stern with the plot sure shows that he left in a hurry. But, why? I don\u2019t really know. The dispute over Hobgoblin\u2019s identity seems like a possibility, but if that\u2019s it, I\u2019ve seen neither him nor DeFalco say so. No idea. At any rate, we pick up where we left off last time, with firefighters arriving to the blaze caused by last issue\u2019s explosion. In his lair, Hobgoblin is furious that Osborn\u2019s journals have been turned to ash, and decides to take out his frustration on Spider-Man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And I feel like it\u2019s obvious Hobby is different even from just this page. His battle van comes crashing out the side of the building, scattering firefighters. The cops chase him, but he thinks they\u2019ll never catch him, and also notes Norman built the van, just for the record. What he doesn\u2019t know is Spider-Man has hitched a ride on the undercarriage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hobby drives the van right through a nearby bar, thinking he\u2019s smashes Spidey to bits, but our hero has once again moved to safety, this time on top of the van. He\u2019s still out of it from the explosion, but finds the strength to rip the hatch off the roof and drop in. Hobby puts the van on autopilot and proceeds to really start beating the crap out of our weakened hero. So far this issue, Frenz hasn\u2019t really done his Ditko homage thing, but that all changes with this page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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That top row of panels is shameless, and yet the 5th panel might as well be Buscema. Why not try to be original, I ask?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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While they\u2019re fighting it out inside, the van drives right off a pier into The Hudson River. Pretty smart autopilot! As it begins taking on water, Spider-Man says they have to get out of there, but Hobgoblin\u2019s so intent on killing him he doesn\u2019t even care that they\u2019re going to drown. Spidey finally gets the better of his foe, but then the controls begin to short circuit, and the van\u2019s self-destruct arms, ready to explode before they can drown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Cops see the explosion from a police boat on the surface. Soon, Spider-Man emerges to climb into it. Once he gets his breath, he dives back in in search of his foe, but only finds a shredded mask.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Quite a big development! It\u2019s funny, JJJ owning up to The Scorpion, but not a half dozen Spider-Slayers, The Fly, and so on. He\u2019s caused a lot of chaos in this city. Anyway, hours later, Peter Parker meets Harry Osborn for dinner, choosing an outdoor venue and wearing sunglasses to hide injuries to his face. He tells Har that his father\u2019s journals were destroyed, so if The Hobgoblin is alive, he no longer has a hold on him. But Harry is still reeling from re-learning his father was a brutal killer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This time, he knows where the big Spider Sense zap is coming from, and so do we, because this is the 3rd time this scene has appeared on the blog. But this time, it\u2019s a 2-page spread.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And that\u2019s that for that. Roger Stern has said he wanted The Hobgoblin mystery to run about as long as the original Green Goblin one did. That\u2019s 36 issues, for those counting at home. And this issue, comically called ENDINGS, is only 12 issues since Hobby\u2019s debut. Stern was introducing all manner of potential suspects, with George Vandergill only really introduced last month. He clearly had a lot more story to tell. There\u2019s no telling where all this would\u2019ve gone if he\u2019d been able to stay on and see it through. But, he\u2019s gone. And before the dust settles, Tom DeFalco won\u2019t get to see it through, either. It\u2019s funny how history repeats. Gerry Conway, Marv Wolfman and now Roger Stern all abandoned the book abruptly. The Hobgoblin mystery starting out as an exciting new story only to devolve into a mess is not unlike what happened with the 90s Clone Saga. Cycles repeat. Editor Danny Fingroth gives a weird non-explanation for Stern & Romita\u2019s sudden departure before welcoming DeFalco & Frenz onboard in the letter page. Also in the letter page, Hobgoblin guesses of JJJ, Ben Urich, \u201cBlack Cat\u2019s ex-boyfriend,\u201d \u201cHarry Osborn or a brand-new character,\u201d and one vote for Danny himself. All incorrect. I\u2019ve really looked forward to revisiting these issues as these blocks have come up, and I\u2019m going to miss them. I guess this is my 3rd or 4th time reading through these issues of ASM, but the first with all the TACs and MTUs to go with them. It\u2019s really interesting to get that fuller picture of what was going on at the time. Next post, we\u2019ll check in with the latter days of the DeFalco\/Frenz era, near the end of 1986. Only 2 blocks left of their run. I\u2019m running out of eras!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

$12??? Outrageous! I sure hope I didn\u2019t pay that for it, especially in the 90s. And suddenly, the dream team is gone. This issue features a plot by Roger Stern, but a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12661,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[112],"tags":[9,332,22,163,13,26,321,2,124],"class_list":["post-12660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1980s","tag-amazing-spider-man","tag-christie-scheele","tag-harry-osborn","tag-hobgoblin","tag-j-jonah-jameson","tag-joe-robertson","tag-ron-frenz","tag-spider-man","tag-tom-defalco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12660","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=12660"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12671,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12660\/revisions\/12671"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}