{"id":19667,"date":"2024-01-10T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-10T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/?p=19667"},"modified":"2022-07-13T11:49:12","modified_gmt":"2022-07-13T15:49:12","slug":"asm-023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/2024\/01\/10\/asm-023\/","title":{"rendered":"ASM 023"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I somehow ended up with a Marvel Tales reprint of this as a youth. It was way out of my range, it was published in 1984. How\u2019d I get it? I don\u2019t know. Had it, tho, which mostly means this cover is one of the ones that \u201cpops\u201d for me. \u201cHey, I know that one!\u201d No one knows for sure when Lee & DItko quit talking, and thus, when Steve started doing the whole book with no input from Stan. A note in ASM 17 said 18 would be a plot solely by Ditko (In Stan\u2019s usual mode of saying \u201cIf you don\u2019t like it, I had nothing to do with it\u201d rather than being complementary to Steve), and Ditko begins getting a plotting credit in 25. It stands to reason that he may have done it alone from 18 forward, but still been pestered by Stan to include characters from other books. Ditko would later write (At length) about his distaste for crossovers, which is why Spidey and The Human Torch only get in each other\u2019s way when they cross paths. He had final say in what went on the page, and his hero didn\u2019t need anybody\u2019s help. But one assumes he really liked Green Goblin since he got so much repeat business. I recently read an anecdote from Ditko wherein he said Stan Lee\u2019s original plot direction for ASM 14<\/a> was, the film crew finds and opens some kind of Egyptian-style sarcophagus and out springs a demonic character called The Green Goblin. Steve said he changed it to a guy in a suit on his own. I feel like that\u2019s all you need to know about each man\u2019s sensibilities. At any rate, here we are. I always liked the splash in this one:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ditko\u2019s Goblin has a real madcap energy. Everyone else takes him so seriously that you never really get that again. I also love how the wings of his glider are instantly recognizable as a steering mechanism, which is also abandoned. A shame. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Like he can just stand with his feet on the ground without getting off. That\u2019s cool. Gobby flies off telling himself how cool it\u2019s gonna be to be in charge of the underworld, while the cops who spotted him run into Lobo\u2019s place to ask what\u2019s going on. But they haven\u2019t got anything to pin on him, so they leave. The next day, it\u2019s Saturday, and Peter Parker\u2019s just enjoyed sleeping in, and goes to get his Spidey suit, which he washed while May was asleep and hung up to dry in the attic. But it\u2019s still wet, so he just leaves it and goes into the city. He tells may he needs to study up to make sure he gets a scholarship to \u201cState U,\u201d and she tells him he better check in if he\u2019s going to be late after what happened in ASM 22<\/a>. He heads to The Bugle, where he notices a letter from Ned Leeds on Betty\u2019s desk, and then he sees JJJ telling someone he\u2019s re-hired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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At least Peter didn\u2019t storm out sobbing and assuming it\u2019s over! Betty! Take a note! JJJ rehiring Foswell seems kind of crazy, but we\u2019ve seen how that turns out. Peter thinks he should follow Foswell, but he realizes he doesn\u2019t have his costume and nixes that idea. Meanwhile, one of Lucky Lobo\u2019s goons gives The Goblin some incriminating info on his boss, and Goblin decides it has to go public. Then we cut to JJJ basking in everyone thinking he\u2019s cool for re-hiring Foswell at \u201cThe Midtown Business Executives Club\u201d (Not yet The Century Club), and to my great surprise, Norman Osborn is there. He\u2019s not named and has no lines, but he\u2019s standing in the background of 2 panels. I never noticed that before. It\u2019s Foswell, of course, who\u2019s had the info about Lobo given to him by \u201ca stoolie.\u201d Is he tied to the Goblin? I don\u2019t actually remember, but I don\u2019t think so. JJJ is delighted, and immediately takes it (And credit for it) to the cops. They set out to raid all of Lobo\u2019s gambling dens, and JJJ is already preparing to get a special citation from the mayor for his good deed. Meanwhile, Peter\u2019s back home, and putting on his finally dry suit. Now he\u2019s ready to go get into trouble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Goblin notices he\u2019s being followed, and decides to dupe Spider-Man into fighting Lobo\u2019s goons. He flies to Lobo\u2019s office and right in, dropping smoke grenades and leaving. Spider-Man, thinking GG might really have turned hero and not seeing him leave, dives in to help. He catches on quick, but too late, and has to beat up a bunch of goons. After a couple of pages of Ditko action, Spidey realizes this is pointless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The most classic of Aunt May exchanges. The formula\u2019s pretty much in place there. Spider-Man\u2019s just finished a big net of webbing, which falls from the ceiling when the goons rush in, trapping everyone but Lobo. Caught, Lobo tells Spider-Man GG is only trying to take over his business, which I think Spidey probably should\u2019ve been able to guess, but he knows now. The cops show downstairs, so he webs Lobo and heads out. He soon spots the fleeing Goblin, and lands on his back, causing his glider to fall\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I think this is the first time it\u2019s explicitly stated that Spider-Man\u2019s constant babbling actually distracts his foes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The energy of him webbing the bomb and slinging it behind him is great. As Goblin throws more of his tricks and misses, Spidey says whoever he really is, he\u2019s not an ex-big league pitcher. Gobby replies \u201cNo one will EVER know my true identity until I choose to reveal it!\u201d So who\u2019s under that mask becomes a plot point for the first time. In the same issue where we first see Osborn, even. I have a lot of thoughts on that, but we\u2019ll save \u2018em for later. Goblin suddenly realizes he\u2019s emptied his bag of tricks, so now he\u2019s focused on escaping. Lucky for him, Spider-Man has run out of webfluid. What a pair! She Goblin flies off, and Spidey leaps after, but Goblin dodges in mid-air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I must say, that seems like the most obvious outcome here, buddy. Why would the cops only arrest the boss? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Peter\u2019s 20 years early for Miami Vice! This issue\u2019s letters include the rare female reader writing in to say, among other things, that Betty needs to chill and that her portrayal isn\u2019t very realistic. I\u2019m with you, Sandee! And then there\u2019s a missive from one James Shooter, future editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics! Jim says Spider-Man is the best of Marvel\u2019s heroes, but cautions Stan & Steve not to let him be too well-liked by the public and to make him lose more fights. Already editing at his young age! Then the announcements section says people have been guessing who Green Goblin is, and the only hint they can have is, they would never make it easy to guess. Now that\u2019s interesting, because they haven\u2019t run any letters with people guessing. Is that a lie to gin up interest? Is this the issue where they decided to make his identity a thing? Really seems like it. And Steve planting Osborn in this issue really casts doubt on Stan Lee\u2019s much later version of why he quit. But that\u2019s for later\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I somehow ended up with a Marvel Tales reprint of this as a youth. It was way out of my range, it was published in 1984. How\u2019d I get it? I don\u2019t…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19653,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[9,35,11,12,56,40,13,172,1622,39,2,6,8],"class_list":["post-19667","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-frederick-foswell","tag-green-goblin","tag-j-jonah-jameson","tag-liz-allen","tag-lucky-lobo","tag-norman-osborn","tag-spider-man","tag-stan-lee","tag-steve-ditko"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19667","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=19667"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19668,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19667\/revisions\/19668"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}