{"id":18865,"date":"2023-11-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-03T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/?p=18865"},"modified":"2022-05-05T20:57:42","modified_gmt":"2022-05-06T00:57:42","slug":"sm-38","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/2023\/11\/03\/sm-38\/","title":{"rendered":"SM 38"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Who\u2019s rolled the dice and wound up writing Spider-Man this month? Who\u2019s ready for a sad and mopey Electro story? That\u2019s right, it\u2019s ya boy, JM. Which is pretty interesting to me. So he may or may not have been the mastermind behind Maximum Carnage. And as soon as it ends, he\u2019s off TAC, giving way to new \u201cregular writer\u201d Steven Grant, who isn\u2019t there very long, as it turns out. And now here he is on SM, and in a few months, he takes over ASM. One assumes his move to ASM was decided long in advance, but 3 months on a 3rd title followed by 6 months off in between seems unusual. Not how comics usually works, anyway. But if he took a vacation or something, good for him, \u2018cuz no one in comics seems to do that, either. He\u2019s joined for this one by penciler\/inker Klaus Janson and colorist Kevin Tinsley. I think Janson is something of a polarizing figure. As an inker, he\u2019s legendary. Long collaborations with Frank Miller and John Romita, Jr., as well as stints with all sorts of other people, assure him a well-deserved place in comics history. As a penciler, tho\u2026. Well, his art often looks really weird, there\u2019s no getting around it. I think a lot of people hate him outright as a penciler. In particular, I remember when the mega-hype of the McFarlane\/Miller Spawn\/Batman crossover from Image was everywhere, people ragging on the much less hyped Batman\/Spawn from DC for Janson\u2019s art (I think the story was much more a problem, myself, given that Spawn was so new even Todd McFarlane didn\u2019t know his deal, and here were other people trying desperately to figure out what to do with him). But I think he really works to come at his page layouts from a unique perspective. His comics move differently, and I think that\u2019s cool. Anyway, we open on someone being killed in an electric chair. Or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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An interesting angle on Electro trying to go straight. If he wanted to stop being a crook, you\u2019d think he could do a lot of interesting things. Be a human generator at emergencies or something. But this also seems like something he\u2019d do, as he\u2019s never been portrayed as much of an intellect. Meanwhile, another unique bit is taking place, as a salesman is being robbed by a guy he met in the hotel bar at Top of New York, who conned him into thinking he could help him with his mutual funds. They\u2019re back in the salesman\u2019s hotel room now, and the robber is upset to find he doesn\u2019t have much money. But who should swing by and peep in the window but Spider-Man? It turns out the hood doesn\u2019t even have a gun, and the sight of Spidey alone is enough to end the encounter, but then a big crash below gets our hero\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So, like, look at this action page. Janson\u2019s just full of ideas. It\u2019s interesting to see him do his thing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sure, his Spider-Man kind of looks like the Macy\u2019s parade balloon of Spider-Man, but the layouts are interesting. It\u2019s a tradeoff. DeMatteis seems to be writing this differently. Like he thinks it might be your first exposure to Spider-Man rather than part of his usual deal. I guess that was kind of this series\u2019 approach, but it feels odd. Like he\u2019s keeping it a little more surface level than usual. Even his Spider-Man voice feels different. Well, anyway, Spidey swings off, thinking he never forgets a face, but can\u2019t find that guy. Then it\u2019s off to The Bugle for a meeting where he\u2019s late, and some comedy business with JJJ. Then, about that guy who got away\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Love how Klaus did an extremely Ditko fight panel for the one early in Spider-Man\u2019s career. Well. Seems like Spidey\u2019s memory isn\u2019t as good as he thinks. Meanwhile, Electro is walking into a bar. He\u2019s thinking about how his mom was overprotective when he was a kid, probably because his dad left, details DeFalco would pick up and run with much later in ASM 422<\/a>. The bartender and a customer are so busy gossiping he can\u2019t even get any service, and goes back out onto the street complaining to himself that he\u2019s a nobody. He rages at the storm outside, creating his own lighting, thinking how he was lonely and unseen as a kid and as an adult, recapping his origin, thinking when he got to be Electro, people finally noticed him, and he was a big man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Well, that can\u2019t be good. Hey, here\u2019s some exposition:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So, Spider-Man swings off thinking \u201cI\u2019m not a nerd!\u201d over and over, and this is gonna be about Electro and Spider-Man both wrestling with insecurity. Now it\u2019s feeling DeMatteis-y. At least it\u2019s not all grim and sad. As Spidey tries to convince himself he\u2019s a cool adult, he sees a purse snatching, and drops down to help, and you\u2019ll never guess who\u2019s doing the snatching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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That\u2019s pretty funny. Next morning, Peter is wakened by Aunt May calling way early, and she also manages to make him feel like a kid worrying, and he gets a little cranky before apologizing and promising to come to dinner. Meanwhile, Electro arrives in town via bus, nervous and excited about his plan. I think the small-time hood from the rest of this issue tries to con him, be he is ignored. Shouldn\u2019t he be in jail or something? Maybe it\u2019s someone dressed the same, I dunno.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I think Ann Nocenti and JM DeMatteis have always tried to explore superheroes with a more psychological angle, but with very different approaches. And if you told me this was an Ann Nocenti story, I would 100% believe it. All the principle characters grappling with their insecurities, all the action converging on Top Of New York. This feels like something she\u2019d do for sure. This is very interesting to me. We\u2019ll see where it goes next time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Who\u2019s rolled the dice and wound up writing Spider-Man this month? Who\u2019s ready for a sad and mopey Electro story? That\u2019s right, it\u2019s ya boy, JM. Which is pretty interesting to me….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18859,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[410],"tags":[192,13,125,418,435,2],"class_list":["post-18865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1990s","tag-electro","tag-j-jonah-jameson","tag-jm-dematteis","tag-kevin-tinsley","tag-klaus-janson","tag-spider-man"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18865","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=18865"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18873,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18865\/revisions\/18873"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}