{"id":200,"date":"2023-03-13T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-13T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deweybass.com\/spiderman\/?p=200"},"modified":"2021-12-26T00:24:06","modified_gmt":"2021-12-26T04:24:06","slug":"asm-203","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/2023\/03\/13\/asm-203\/","title":{"rendered":"ASM 203"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Once upon a time, this was some of the first material I was covering. I started around ASM 176 and went forward. Obviously, plans changed a lot. Then, when I finally got back to the previous Marv block something like 3 years after the first time I looked at it, I cut it in half, leaving this stuff for later, because I was desperately trying to break up the Michelinie era more. I wrote a lot of this post in September 2018, and am now revising it in December 2021 to post in March 2023. Complex! So, once again, it\u2019s back to the very beginning of 1980. Marv Wolfman, Keith Pollard, “Mike Esposito and friends,” and Bob Sharen man the controls. Page one is Spider-Man happening by a mysterious ball of light chasing The Disco Dazzler down the street. Dazzler is a strange character. Created to be Marvel\u2019s first movie star in a movie that didn\u2019t get made, integrated into the comic line in awkward ways. Like this one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Spider-Man narrating himself getting zapped is so funny. He’s now falling to his death, as he so often is, wondering why his Spider Sense didn’t warn him (A fair question, Marv, shouldn’t you have tried to answer it?). He saves himself with his web, of course, but when he gets back to the rooftop, Dazzler\u2019s gone, so he heads home and eats a TV dinner just before Harry Osborn & Flash Thompson show up. Turns out, they\u2019d all agreed to go see Star Trek: The Motion Picture tonight, but Peter forgot. So they go do that. Meanwhile…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It’s no one’s favorite villain, Lightmaster! Recently seen here seemingly killed in TAC 20<\/a>, this his is first appearance since. He intends to use Dazzler as a human battery to power him as he gets his revenge. Dazz isn\u2019t into that, so a fight breaks out\u2026 behind the movie theater, as it turns out, causing the Star Trek movie to literally explode on its unsuspecting audience. Peter switches to Spider-Man in the confusion and heads out to see what\u2019s going on, spotting Lighty and kicking him in the face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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How could Spider-Man defend against a Slammo AND a Skatch? Impossible. Lightmaster takes Dazzler back to his lab at ESU, and Spider-Man shows up immediately, like 7 panels later, rightly guessing exactly where this predictable jobber would go. Spider-Man used to tell anyone who\u2019d listen about his Spider Sense. Then some writers started having him keep it a secret, which is much smarter, while others didn\u2019t. This is the first time Wolfman has switched from camp \u201ckeep it a secret\u201d to camp \u201cbabble about it all the time.\u201d Anyway…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In the ensuing battle, Spider-Man somehow doesn\u2019t figure out that Lightmaster has possessed Dazzler’s body. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This isn’t the best issue, but I’m always glad to see Keith Pollard doing his thing. Lightdazzler presses the attack, talking as much like a cartoon supervillain as possible, and Spidey just steadfastly refuses to catch on to what’s happening. Then, in literally one of the most bizarre moves in the history of this comic, Spidey decides he’s tired of fighting, webs Dazzler’s face, switches back to Peter Parker and just… goes home. Just leaves! While thinking “something is gnawing at me…” about the encounter, and STILL not getting it. And then, just to make things weirder…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Peter Parker lives an entire day of his life in 4 panels! A whole half a regular issue just sped by in 4 panels! What?? Also, that Spidey in panel 6 looks like a Gil Kane swipe to me. Ah yes, had to look it up, but my stupid Spider-Man memory never fails, it’s from the cover of ASM 131.<\/a> Shameless, Keith! Anyway, ol’ Spidey has fffffinally figured out Dazzler\u2019s being controlled by Lightmaster, so he webs her up and takes her back to the lab.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Pete, the lady\u2019s just been tortured and possessed for 2 days, man, calm down. Dazzler\u2019s just kind of a prop in this one. She has no character or storyline. It\u2019s gross. But now she\u2019s free, so I guess she can run off to join the X-Men soon. Not the best issue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Once upon a time, this was some of the first material I was covering. I started around ASM 176 and went forward. Obviously, plans changed a lot. Then, when I finally got…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16403,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[112],"tags":[9,253,816,179,687,132,52,2],"class_list":["post-200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1980s","tag-amazing-spider-man","tag-bob-sharen","tag-dazzler","tag-keith-pollard","tag-lightmaster","tag-marv-wolfman","tag-mike-esposito","tag-spider-man"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200","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=200"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16413,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200\/revisions\/16413"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}