{"id":14335,"date":"2022-08-31T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-08-31T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/?p=14335"},"modified":"2021-06-16T23:42:27","modified_gmt":"2021-06-17T03:42:27","slug":"tac-248","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/2022\/08\/31\/tac-248\/","title":{"rendered":"TAC 248"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

At least I paid a fair price for it! If I understand the cover dates correctly, this issue actually published in June of 1997. The month after I finished high school. We\u2019ve now seen comics I had since before I could read and comics I\u2019ve had since I was headed to college. Kind of wild, when you think about it, having a life-long hobby. I was still buying comics in \u201897, of course. Had, in fact, worked at a comic shop for awhile. But I was only routinely getting Spider-Man and ASM, in that order, picking up the other 2 only when forced to, as I recall it (Though the last couple TACs sure looked like I\u2019ve had them the whole time). So this is news to me. I have no idea what this thing on the cover is. But I assume we\u2019re soon to find out. If the winner of this fight ain\u2019t who I think\u2026 Well, I would think it would be the title character. But reading that makes me think it would be whatever this is. But if I think that, then it must be Spider-Man. Right? Mark Bernardo scripts over a DeMatteis plot this time. The opening bage is a giant shot of John Jameson\u2019s faux-J. Scott Campbell face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ugh, this rendition of Marla is only getting worse! What the hell, Luke, can you not go find a picture of a middle aged woman somewhere? Do you have a mom? Ugh. Also her picking up JJJ\u2019s delusional Spider-Man line is a surprise. I\u2019m only running the next page because it has an unusually good Spider-Man on it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Pretty solid panel there. Back at the hospital, cops wanna know what went down with JJJ and John, but Joanh is being crazy on purpose because he won\u2019t admit to them or himself that his son tried to kill him. He kicks them out of his room and goes to sleep. But soon Jack O\u2019Lantern is in the room, having hypnotized the guards outside, being cryptic and whatnot as usual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Really diggin\u2019 a hole here, JM. He\u2019s some kinda mystical, possibly supernatural being with past beef with Jameson? This is feeling like a great reason to decide who\u2019s in this suit before proceeding. Jack vanishes and the cops run in, but JJJ tells them he just had a bad dream. Meanwhile, Flash Thompson is standing in the rain outside his childhood home, trying to work up the guts to go inside. He says he wants a drink, but he\u2019s stopped doing that. He finally rings the bell. His mom is delighted to see him very Aunt May, offering him a snack, worrying he\u2019ll get a cold from the rain, and saying his dad will be happy to see him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I feel like old pros Dan Green & Al Milgrom are finding a groove with Luke Ross\u2019s pencils. Everything in this issue has had a more solid, finished feel. That big shot of Flash\u2019s dad is pretty good, actually. Flash storms out of the house past his upset mother, thinking nothing ever changes. They really need to pick a hair color for Flash. Red, brown, blonde, who knows, just pick one. Meanwhile, at the Jameson home, Marla is ranting about how she\u2019s gonna nail Spider-Man to the wall until John tells her she knows she\u2019s talking nonsense, and if Spider-Man says he did it, he did it. But that doesn\u2019t mean he has any idea why, and he\u2019s a wreck over it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Spider-Man is attacked by a creature that sort of looks like a gorilla. More so than the thing on the cover, at least. It\u2019s for sure supposed to be a gorilla, but\u2026 Then a lion joins in. You know what that means.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Yaaaaaay. Spider-Man reassures himself Kraven is dead as we switch to a gratuitous shower scene for Marla (Probably wouldn\u2019t have happened if he was drawing her her actual age, I bet), as she internally chastises herself for her Spider-Man ranting. As she points out (to herself) she has always given JJJ a hard time for his Spider-Man obsession, and how her fear is making her fall into it. Also, Jack O\u2019Lantern is floating outside her shower looking sad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So was he gonna be, like Marla\u2019s ex-husband or something? Who knows? Meanwhile, Dr. Kafka\u2019s got John under hypnosis, which means it\u2019s time for Ye Olde JM DeMatteis Journey Into The Subconscious. He sees a big image of a jack o\u2019lantern, confirming Kafka\u2019s suspicion that Jack somehow put a post-hypnotic suggestion in his head. Then John sees himself being attacked by bats, but she talks him through it, saying he can do anything in his own mind, even blow up the wall the jack o\u2019lantern is painted on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Guess all parties have decided Spider-Man\u2019s clear now. But what about our mysterious villain?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Boy, this issue has it all. A \u201cmystery villain\u201d who makes no sense and is a bad fit for the book. Hints of Kraven the Hunter coming back, which would be terrible. And Norman Osborn, whose return already is terrible. 90 cents, indeed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At least I paid a fair price for it! If I understand the cover dates correctly, this issue actually published in June of 1997. The month after I finished high school. We\u2019ve…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14336,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[410],"tags":[153,427,11,120,12,13,331,125,27,442,629,116,21,39,121,2],"class_list":["post-14335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1990s","tag-al-milgrom","tag-ashley-kafka","tag-betty-brant","tag-dan-green","tag-flash-thompson","tag-j-jonah-jameson","tag-jack-olantern","tag-jm-dematteis","tag-john-jameson","tag-john-kalisz","tag-luke-ross","tag-marla-madison","tag-mary-jane-watson","tag-norman-osborn","tag-spectacular-spider-man","tag-spider-man"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14335","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=14335"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14683,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14335\/revisions\/14683"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}