{"id":19802,"date":"2024-01-23T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-23T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/?p=19802"},"modified":"2022-07-06T21:01:22","modified_gmt":"2022-07-07T01:01:22","slug":"asm-029","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/2024\/01\/23\/asm-029\/","title":{"rendered":"ASM 029"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Good advice, but I don\u2019t think it would\u2019ve helped Spider-Man avoid getting to this point. My copy of this book is in pretty bad shape, but that\u2019s how I like \u2018em, cuz that makes \u2018em cheap. For example, I got this Silver Age classic, the 2nd appearance of Scorpion, for $15.74, including shipping, on eBay. Is it perfect? No. Could I easily afford it? Yup! That attitude might not get me a lot of valuable issues, but it does let me build an impressive collection without winning the lottery first. I guess that stamp on the cover makes this a library comic? Maybe? Did libraries have comics back then? Given that publication date is roughly 3 months earlier than cover date, I guess this was stamped as soon as it was received, wherever that was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Every page of this book (Except the front cover somehow) has a pretty severe crease in the top and bottom outer corners. Look at Peter all of a sudden! People say this book got more glamorous when John Romita came onboard, and it surely did, but Ditko\u2019s still making our man look a little more dashing here. No more 3-piece suit everywhere he goes. That explanation of why Scorpy was in costume in jail is hilarious, but it\u2019s more than they usually give.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Interesting to see issue 30 seeded in the dialogue there. Issue 30 was, of course, my very first post, years and years ago, when it was the oldest issue I had. Given the breakdown in communications between Lee & Ditko, it\u2019s surprising that Stan knows about it in advance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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That\u2019s some pretty funny business with JJJ. I wonder if Ditko already knew he was going to introduce Gwen and presumably MJ soon and was closing the book on Betty to make room. JJJ continues to fret about the situation, and decides maybe he can trick Spidey into helping him. He tells Betty to call the press room and inform them they\u2019re putting out an extra. Meanwhile, Spider-Man is swinging around town, hoping to make a target of himself for Scorpion. And Scorpion does see him, but rightly decides that this is a great way to make sure Spider-Man won\u2019t interfere with him getting JJJ, an sneaks off to do so. The Bugle\u2019s extra edition comes out, claiming Spider-Man and Scorpion are partners, I guess to try to upset Spidey into coming to see JJJ. And Spidey doesn\u2019t even see it, but he does finally (Finally!) realize he\u2019s leaving JJJ unprotected and rush off to The Bugle, anyway. Scorpion is already there, and bursts into JJJ\u2019s office. Jonah goes running out into the bullpen, begging anyone to save him, but someone yells that\u2019s not in their contract. Scorpion quickly corners his prey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Solid bit! It\u2019s so strange to think of that gag being produced by 2 people not actually working together. Stan could\u2019ve written anything over those panels. Did Ditko even intend it to be a joke? I know Jack Kirby used to fill his margins with notes and instructions for Stan, but I\u2019m not as familiar with Steve\u2019s practices. The two superguys brawl through the office, leaving a trail of destruction as JJJ cheers Spider-Man on, but he\u2019s mostly on the backfoot. Then some cops show up, and JJJ immediately starts yelling for them to shoot both guys. But Scorpion\u2019s so intent on not going back to jail that the arrival of the cops makes him bolt. Spidey gives chase, and once they\u2019re safely climbing away from the window, JJJ is blustering after them like he chased them off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Classic Jonah. Meanwhile, his foes are battling across rooftops and water towers, Spider-Man doing his usual bit and Scorpion getting frustrated by it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A particularly good bit of choreography from Ditko. A really great sequence with a ton of speed to it despite the fact that it can\u2019t move. The combatants plunge into the river, quickly winding up in the situation on the cover. Spider-Man is faster and able to keep dodging Scorpion even underwater, all while refilling his webshooters. Then he starts blanketing his foe in layers of web while goading him into attacking again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Another adventure down. Another health problem for Aunt May. Even this early, it\u2019s a little much. Next issue, as I said, was covered way back in 2019<\/a>. I thought about redoing the post\u2026 I\u2019d certainly have a different perspective now\u2026 but I think I\u2019d rather leave it where it was. It features the definitive end of Peter & Betty\u2019s bizarre, usually terrible relationship. But next issue, I suspect he won\u2019t be too broken up about it for long\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Good advice, but I don\u2019t think it would\u2019ve helped Spider-Man avoid getting to this point. My copy of this book is in pretty bad shape, but that\u2019s how I like \u2018em, cuz…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19800,"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-19802","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\/19802","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=19802"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19842,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19802\/revisions\/19842"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}