{"id":19172,"date":"2023-11-29T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-29T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/?p=19172"},"modified":"2022-06-13T19:46:19","modified_gmt":"2022-06-13T23:46:19","slug":"asm-428","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/2023\/11\/29\/asm-428\/","title":{"rendered":"ASM 428"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Skroce\u2019s Spider-Man improved dramatically during this story. He got more sleek and less lumpy looking. The other characters did, too, to varying degrees. Simplifying was a good idea. We seem to have jumped ahead a bit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This is followed by a 2-page layout where Spidey saves the girl and she complains the whole time because he didn\u2019t get her bike, telling him her lawyer daddy will sue him, all while Ock, back in traditional form, scolds him for bothering to save her. Tom DeFalco\u2019s penchant for writing every villain in a heightened, mwu-ha-ha way is often way off base, but it\u2019s totally correct for Doc Ock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I\u2019m with Spidey there. So funny that all the ninjas just happened to die. Skroce is getting real Geoff Darrow-y here. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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That car gag is legit great. It\u2019s funny, when Skroce came onboard, I found his art extremely off-putting, but as he hits his stride, it\u2019s getting enjoyable\u2026 just in time for him to leave. Meanwhile, at ESU, Jill Stacy and MJ\u2019s new buddy Shantal are trying to convince her to go to a toga party on campus. She says she doesn\u2019t think she could convince Peter to go. Hey, who cares? It\u2019s been YEARS since Mj had a life of her own, she could use this. Back at the fight, Spidey finds that the key is still in the car he\u2019s hiding in and hilariously decides to just drive it into Ock\u2019s legs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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While they fight it up, JJJ and Robbie discuss Norman being the new boss. This is actually taking place before Robbie quit, but that\u2019s DeMatteis\u2019 fault for chain comboing like 14 issues without room for the other titles to take place. JJJ tells Robbie he has to do what his conscience tells him. Then, back to the fight, where Spider-Man is beginning to wonder why Ock isn\u2019t talking about knowing his secret identity. The answer should be obvious to the reader, but Spidey doesn\u2019t know that Trainer\u2019s backup of Ock\u2019s brain isn\u2019t up to date. He soon learns Trainer has also put some kind of \u201cpersonal force field\u201d on Ock to give him an advantage. And he uses that advantage to wrap Spidey up in his arms as Trainer makes it to the fight, telling Otto to hurry up and kill Spider-Man so they can get out before the cops show. Spidey manages to grab a chunk of concrete with his feet and fling into Ock\u2019s stomach, breaking loose. Trainer comes at him with a bar (Why isn\u2019t she wearing her arms?), distracting him long enough for Ock to get back into it. Trainer finally convinces Ock to run, but he\u2019s a classic villain, so..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sure is lucky that building was deserted!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Big hero move. Hours later, Peter\u2019s home soaking in a bath and having a pointless argument with MJ about the party, but eventually realizes he\u2019s being a jerk and apologizes. Elsewhere, Madam Qwa is understandably upset by news of her brother\u2019s death, and Black Tarantula says he\u2019ll personally \u201cstrike in Zei\u2019s name\u201d before sending the lil\u2019 guy, Chesboro, on a mission in a jetpack. As for what Ock\u2019s been up to since fleeing the battle\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I still don\u2019t understand how the process that called for Spider-Man\u2019s soul somehow worked on computer graphics, but I guess that\u2019s why I\u2019m not an evil ninja. And of course he blames Spider-Man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A rare goof by Bob Sharen swapping Jill & Shantal\u2019s colors. Tom DeFalco should be legally prohibited from writing black people. While that\u2019s going on, Delilah is in a jacuzzi, recovering, when The Black Tarantula sneaks in and grabs her by the head. Seems weird for him to go after her instead of The Rose, but I guess you have to beat the goons before you can fight the boss. But we cut away to The Bugle, where Robbie finds out Norman Osborn has told Jacob Conover he can have his job back. That seems odd. Meanwhile, Delilah\u2019s not having a great time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So, Black Tarantula is a criminal mastermind feared the world over, seeming super strong AND has healing powers. Working overtime trying to put this guy over. We end on some weird pages:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Man, Bob is painting all kinds of women black whether that\u2019s correct or not. But look at the weird empty space on the first page, and the unusually high number of panels on the last one. I feel like this got reworked in editing. Skroce probably had to add at least one of the tiers on the last page. Weird. That \u201cour song\u201d gag calling all the way back to ASM 153<\/a> is quite the deep pull. Well, that\u2019s it for Steve Skroce. Tom DeFalco said he campaigned heavily to get this book, and then was really hard to keep on it. But by this point, I assume he\u2019s about to start storyboarding The Matrix, and probably making more for doing so than he would doing comics, so that\u2019s that. I believe he didn\u2019t return to comics until the late 2010s. Curiously, in the letter page, they don\u2019t seem to know Joe Bennett is back next issue. Skroce\u2019s exit must\u2019ve been abrupt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Skroce\u2019s Spider-Man improved dramatically during this story. He got more sleek and less lumpy looking. The other characters did, too, to varying degrees. Simplifying was a good idea. We seem to have…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19170,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[410],"tags":[9,965,253,964,496,618,25,13,976,26,1244,21,1242,1693,2,963,594,325,124],"class_list":["post-19172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1990s","tag-amazing-spider-man","tag-black-tarantula","tag-bob-sharen","tag-bud-la-rosa","tag-carolyn-trainer","tag-delilah","tag-doctor-octopus","tag-j-jonah-jameson","tag-jill-stacy","tag-joe-robertson","tag-madam-qwa","tag-mary-jane-watson","tag-paul-stacy","tag-shantal-wilsk","tag-spider-man","tag-steve-skroce","tag-stunner","tag-the-rose","tag-tom-defalco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19172","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=19172"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19185,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19172\/revisions\/19185"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}