{"id":18500,"date":"2023-09-27T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-27T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/?p=18500"},"modified":"2022-05-31T18:57:03","modified_gmt":"2022-05-31T22:57:03","slug":"asm-020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/2023\/09\/27\/asm-020\/","title":{"rendered":"ASM 020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Good cover! That first iteration of Scorpion\u2019s tail just seems so underwhelming in light of later ones. I mean, I came in with Todd McFarlane putting a blade on it. He\u2019s the Scorpion, why on Earth can\u2019t he sting? Maybe that seemed too violent in 1964. This one\u2019s in pretty good shape, too! Much nicer than most of my older ones. Off-white pages, even. The credits offer an interesting bit to think about\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I believe the generally accepted story is Ditko began doing the strip 100% by himself and refusing to speak to Stan around ASM 27. We\u2019re pretty close to that, so the tensions that led to it are probably well underway, and one assumes this business about credit is a manifestation of far less playful goings on behind the scenes. Like Kirby, Ditko was bristling at the idea that he was coming up with the lion\u2019s share of the story only to see Stan credited as \u201cwriter.\u201d Unlike Kirby, Ditko was by all accounts a prickly and idiosyncratic guy, so while Jack didn\u2019t get fed up enough to start looking for an exit strategy until the late 60s, Ditko\u2019s already mad. In fact, as early as 1963, he\u2019s doing work for rival publisher Charlton, kind of on the low, where he can have more control over his work. He would create many famous characters there that would eventually be bought by DC, most famously the characters who would later serve as the basis for Watchmen, like Captain Atom, Blue Beetle and The Question. And he was doing Captain Atom in 1964, at the same time as Spider-Man, Dr. Strange, Hulk, and so on at Marvel. So we can assume things are already sour between him and Stan, but they\u2019re at least still speaking, at this point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The next day, Peter heads out to go do see Betty at The Bugle (Working on a Saturday), and of course, that guy\u2019s still following him. At Peter\u2019s destination, JJJ sees an article about a Dr. Farley Stillwell, who can cause \u201cartificial mutations in animals,\u201d and has an idea. Downstairs, the guy following Peter sees him go into The Bugle and decides he can go report to his boss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ned sure went to Europe a lot over the years, even before it got him killed. Well, JJJ & Gargan go see Stillwell. One thread I don\u2019t think anyone\u2019s ever pulled is Gargan seems to have been in JJJ\u2019s employ much longer than this one job. He\u2019s later always referred to as a private eye JJJ hired, but what else could they have been up to in the past? Anyway, Stillwell shows off his crazy experiments, like a fish that breathes air and a rat that breathes water, and then JJJ tells him he wants to try his experiments on Gargan. Stillwell says it could be dangerous, but Gargan is weirdly ok with being turned into a monster. JJJ says he wants to turn Gargan into someone who could beat Spider-Man, and Stillwell suggests a Scorpion. But he wonders what his process might do to a human\u2019s mind. But JJJ has promised both Stillwell and Gargan a whopping $10,000 to create and become this unholy abomination, and they\u2019re way into it. $10,000! So we see Gargan being blasted by some unidentified energy. Then\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Gargan doesn\u2019t seem particularly scorpion-ish without the suit. What about a scorpion just means getting really strong? Well, anyway, Ned\u2019s plane has just taken off, and Betty says he\u2019ll be gone 6 months. Peter drops her off at home, and then, becoming Spider-Man, rushes back to The Bugle to see what JJJ was up to. JJJ is waiting for him, and being weirdly nice, which is obviously a trap, so Spider-Man leaves immediately. However\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Spidey just instantly knowing that guy\u2019s supposed to be a scorpion despite a lack of pincers or anything is funny to me. But speaking of\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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That is absurd. Thankfully, Scorpion\u2019s powerful cutting fingers is not something that hangs around. We cut away to Stillwell doing some more research on the process he put Gargan through, and discovering that his strength will only increase, but that he will also be driven crazy. He regrets what he\u2019s done (Duh!) and scrambles off with an antidote, then it\u2019s back to the fight. Trapped in his own web, Spider-Man is being badly beaten, and is then thrown through a water tower, landing in a heap amid the debris. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The consequences of mad science come around pretty quickly in these comics. Scorpy steals the loot and takes off. JJJ wants Betty to call Stillwell for him, but he\u2019s not answering. Spider-Man wakes up and vows to stop Scorpion. And Stillwell finds Scorpy on the street, and tries to get him to take the antidote. Instead, Scorpy slaps him in the face with his tail and starts scaling a building. Stillwell says he can\u2019t live with the knowledge that he\u2019s responsible for The Scorpion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As they punch it up, we\u2019re told Scorpion\u2019s transformation is complete. He\u2019s reached his maximum strength, and is also \u201cthe embodiment of all that is evil!\u201d Back at his office, JJJ\u2019s informed of Stillwell\u2019s death and Scorpion\u2019s crime, and begins to realize he\u2019s unleashed a menace far greater than Spider-Man. But\u2026 no one knows. Stillwell is dead and Scorpion\u2019s too dangerous to get close to. So for now, his guilt is just that. Back at the fight, Spider-Man is once again losing, and realizes he\u2019ll have to change strategy as, as he tends to do lately, Ditko includes a panel recreating the splash. Soon, Spider-man\u2019s down for the count again, and Scorpion thinks he needs to go kill JJJ so no one will ever know his secret identity. Which\u2026 doesn\u2019t seem all that pressing, really but it lets Spider-Man live. He\u2019s awakened by Betty yelling for help in JJJ\u2019s office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Spider-Man employs the classic \u201cweb up the eyes\u201d bit, then gloops a bunch of his liquid webbing on his foe\u2019s feet, and while Scorpion is totally out of it, Spidey rips the tail right off his back. With his primary advantage gone and his feet still stuck to the floor, he finds himself getting really worked over by Spider-Man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It appears someone called Michael Lee wrote their name on this page. I got your comic, Michael! And so, The Scorpion is set loose on the world, but mostly just on JJJ. It\u2019s funny how Scorpion actually increases JJJ\u2019s resolve to destroy Spider-Man. No lesson learned! We\u2019ll end this post as we began, with idle speculation about the deteriorating Lee\/Ditko partnership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Stan\u2019s need to mention Ditko arguing with him doesn\u2019t read like the gentle ribbing he hopes it will with hindsight. And things will not get better with next issue. But we won\u2019t see that this block.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Good cover! That first iteration of Scorpion\u2019s tail just seems so underwhelming in light of later ones. I mean, I came in with Todd McFarlane putting a blade on it. He\u2019s the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18497,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[9,35,11,12,13,172,55,160,2,6,8],"class_list":["post-18500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1960s","tag-amazing-spider-man","tag-aunt-may","tag-betty-brant","tag-flash-thompson","tag-j-jonah-jameson","tag-liz-allen","tag-ned-leeds","tag-scorpion","tag-spider-man","tag-stan-lee","tag-steve-ditko"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18500","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=18500"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18500\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18992,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18500\/revisions\/18992"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}