{"id":19899,"date":"2024-01-30T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-30T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/?p=19899"},"modified":"2022-07-06T21:49:38","modified_gmt":"2022-07-07T01:49:38","slug":"asm-035","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/2024\/01\/30\/asm-035\/","title":{"rendered":"ASM 035"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A pretty quick turnaround for Molten Man. I think only Vulture has come back so soon after his first appearance so far. I guess Ditko really liked him. Stan originates this \u201cMolten Man Regrets\u2026\u201d thing that DeFalco referenced on the cover of ASM 429<\/a>. I assume it is, itself, a reference to something, but I sure don\u2019t know it. Uh, well, here\u2019s a weird thing right off the bat:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At some point, someone cut out a picture of MM\u2019s first cover and tucked it into this book. Based on the size and the ads on the back, I\u2019m assuming it\u2019s from one of the ubiquitous \u201cOn sale now!\u201d ads that ran in Marvel comics in the period, highlighting comics you should buy that month. Like this one, from page 5 of this issue:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

One assumes from the X\u2019s that the original owner either had or maybe didn\u2019t want these issues. These ads more often only showed 2 books, and I presume there was one showing ASM 28. But that would make the clipping itself 7 months older than the comic. How strange! The weird little things that I find reading these. Well, anyway, after a splash of Spidey and MM fighting, it\u2019s time to see Raxton get out of jail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m genuinely impressed by how artists can communicate \u201cthis guy is shiny and gold\u201d with some black noodling and yellow color. How and why does he have all this stuff to beat up testing his powers? And dare we ask about the belt & undies? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In a truly shocking turn of events, Spider-Man happens to be swinging by, hears the gunshot, and is in the vault getting punched by the disguised Molten Man in just 4 panels. This feels kinda lazy. With Ditko so close to quitting, I think his interest was waning. ASM 33 may be his masterpiece, but it\u2019s also about the time he seemed to give up. MM batters Spidey to bits since he was caught off guard, then runs for it. The salesman passes out on Spider-Man has he tries to follow, which is a funny bit of business. Even kinda phoning it in, Ditko is still Ditko. Much like Jack Kirby in the last few years before he bolted for DC, when he\u2019d sworn not to give Marvel any new characters and was just coasting, a genius can\u2019t stop being a genius just because they\u2019re mad. Raxton gets back to his place, swearing to end Spider-Man for good if he gets in his way again. And soon, Peter Parker is reading about the robbery in The Bugle, thinking that guy seemed familiar, and that he punched like iron, and then miraculously guessing it was Molten Man. So he does what anyone would do: He goes to Raxton\u2019s old address, sees him in there, waits for hi mto go to bed, and puts a tracer in his coat. Creepy! Also, the kid who owned this has scribbled dark crayon on the Spider-Men on this page & the next. What\u2019re you doing, kid? I have a wild, unsubstantiated theory about the next page:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Panel 5 was swiped by Art Adams in Web Annual 2<\/a>, but it\u2019s also one Steve more or less used himself in ASM 27<\/a>. And Panel 6 really feels familiar, too, but I can\u2019t place it. The Spider-Man in the last panel looks like it was hastily added by production or something. Weird. Well, our hero keeps following MM until he\u2019s surprised to find the villain hitting the same jewelry store as last time. He takes pictures as MM destroys the burglar alarm and smashes his way in. Molten Man says his metal skin makes him \u201csensitive to the sound of other metal within the lock tumblers,\u201d so he can easily open the safe (Bananas), and that\u2019s when Spidey finally intervenes. Raxton shreds his disguise, and it\u2019s fightin\u2019 time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The sound effect gag is pretty funny. Spidy does a flip on his webs, getting free, and then comes back at his foe. Molten Man accidentally kicks a sign through a window, shattering it, and then starts throwing furniture at Spider-Man to cover his escape out the broken window. Ditko recycles another Spidey drawing as he goes after him, the one Ron Frenz stole from ASM 27.\u00a0 Every Spider-Man artist has stock poses, and Ditko surely set the tone for that. But I wonder if he was just looking at his own stuff as he got less and less interested in this book. Spidey catches up to Molty, but gets too cocky and gets beat up as a reward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Spider-Man proceeds to tie Molten Man up pretty much the same way as last time. Ditko is really checked out. He\u2019s soon left in a web for the cops. Raxton says it\u2019s an outrage and they can\u2019t pin anything on him, and then Spidey shows up at the precinct and tosses in his photos of Raxton breaking into the store. That\u2019s an odd choice. But that cinches it for Molten Man, who will not be seen again until ASM 132<\/a>. But this issue isn\u2019t over yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At this point, Ditko has ended their relationship like 6 times. You can really feel the wheels spinning. The blurb for next issue in the letter page is amusing:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Funny that Marvel later did go with Meteor Man. Seems better than \u201cThe Looter,\u201d but of course, he eventually went back to that one. Before we see his debut, tho, we have a special detour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A pretty quick turnaround for Molten Man. I think only Vulture has come back so soon after his first appearance so far. I guess Ditko really liked him. Stan originates this \u201cMolten…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19893,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[9,35,11,12,16,22,13,544,2,6,8],"class_list":["post-19899","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-gwen-stacy","tag-harry-osborn","tag-j-jonah-jameson","tag-molten-man","tag-spider-man","tag-stan-lee","tag-steve-ditko"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19899","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=19899"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19906,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19899\/revisions\/19906"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}