{"id":2083,"date":"2019-10-21T00:00:27","date_gmt":"2019-10-21T04:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deweybass.com\/spiderman\/?p=2083"},"modified":"2019-09-02T00:54:56","modified_gmt":"2019-09-02T04:54:56","slug":"tac-133","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/2019\/10\/21\/tac-133\/","title":{"rendered":"TAC 133"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Usually that \u201cafter\u201d credit on a comics cover means it\u2019s a direct homage to another image. I\u2019m not a super expert, but I don\u2019t think Sienkiewicz means this is a direct lift from the famous artist Egon Schiele. I\u2019ve seen a reasonable amount of Schiele in my day (Went to college with a dude who was obsessed), and I don\u2019t recognize it, and I\u2019ve looked online some, too. I think he\u2019s just implying he\u2019s drawing like him. This has been your Art Minute.
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This one\u2019s inked by Joe Rubenstein, just in case you wanted to see a 3rd inker\u2019s take on Cynthia Martin\u2019s line in as many issues. Rubenstein\u2019s a lot more utilitarian than Baker or Leialoha, so this is pretty different (Again). Anyway, our man\u2019s still trapped in The Mad Dog Ward, in art therapy, where he yells \u201cI am spider!\u201d and everyone laughs. He\u2019s not doing too well with all the drugs.
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As Zero is dragged off to a probable lobotomy, Peter convinces Mary now\u2019s the time to get everyone off their meds. She agrees to switch their drugs with \u201ca vitamin solution.\u201d Then we check in with the kids as their dad comes home. Jacob ridicules him for being a mobster, and he prepares to beat him, when Tanya pulls a gun on her dad.
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That seems to have gone surprisingly well. We cut to The Arranger telling Kingpin how things have been getting out of control at The Mad Dog Ward since the patient alleged to be Spider-Man was admitted, and Kingpin tells him to take care of it. Arranger gives the doctor permission to experiment on Spider-Man, but first he\u2019s got to finish brainwashing MD 2020. Then, the next day, we\u2019re told everyone\u2019s been off their meds for 20 hours, and people are getting feisty. For his part, Peter says his strength is back, and he could snap his restraints any time he wants. Peter thinks everyone is better now that they\u2019re off the drugs, but Mary isn\u2019t so sure, and we see some people handling reality better than others. And then things get really, really weird.
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What the hell is THAT? And, like, that\u2019s not even a thing, that\u2019s just a distraction. What? That\u2019s crazy. Peter and Mary use this distraction to try to free Zero & Vicky, Mary gives Peter his Spidey suit, says she\u2019s been saving it for him, but he thinks he can\u2019t find a place to change and just ties it around his neck like a kid using a towel as a cape. Maybe not as normal as he thinks he is. Then the goons, the doctor, and MD2020, aka Brainstorm, show up.
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The bad guys lock the door behind Peter & Brainstorm, so they have a big fight in a small space. As the riot continues, we see one of the inmates decide she doesn\u2019t actually want to get out. Back at the cell fight\u2026
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Brainstorm is down. The mad doctor (We never got his name) is freaking out, thinks Peter is killing him, and they open the door. And then\u2026
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How about that? Frank leads the doc out at gunpoint, Peter running behind helping Vicky. They pass several patients losing it in the hallways, with the doc saying that heroes just ruin everything. We see Mary helping people.
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Strange parting. Frank piles everyone into his car, and Peter says as soon as they isolate the doc somewhere, they\u2019re calling the cops. Captain Zero stands on the roof watching them go, saying \u201cI love it when the good guys win!\u201d And then, it\u2019s the next day.
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The Kingpin has exposed the crimes himself so he can control the narrative. The crazy doctor will take the fall and that\u2019s that. Mary walks by on her way out. Peter can\u2019t risk his identity to talk to as himself, but he still says something in character as\u2026 mustache dude. Mary has quit her job in disgust, but leaves on a hopeful note. Then Peter & Ben get out of there, too. And Vicky and her family?
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Feel like the dad got off prrrrretty light considering all he\u2019s done in this story. But, he did finally do the right thing. I guess it\u2019s a happy ending for them. We can hope, I guess.
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So, like, here\u2019s another story dealing with \u201cmature\u201d themes, and another story with a surreal quality to it. But (And I could be biased, I\u2019m not discounting that) it doesn\u2019t feel as empty, as much like it\u2019s reveling in misery, as Kraven\u2019s Last Hunt. It leans more toward surrealism than sadness. Even though, in a lot of ways, it dealt with even more horrible subject matter, it never really seemed to be wallowing in it. It\u2019s just really weird. I am so much more ok with this brand of \u201cdark\u201d Spider-Man story than with the desperate literary pretensions of the preceding story. Also, no ludicrous rework of a William Blake poem, which is nice. Your mileage may vary, of course.
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It\u2019s a shame Cynthia Martin didn\u2019t do more comics. The clean lines and clarity in her work are so striking. Her bibliography is a scattershot listing of short, often single-issue appearances for a wide variety of publishers. She\u2019s maybe best known for a year or so run on Marvel\u2019s Star Wars. I\u2019d have loved to see her on more Spider-Man. And we\u2019re right on the cusp of Todd McFarlane, Jim Lee, Rob Liefeld and Co. blowing up the idea of house styles. Her stuff might\u2019ve seemed weird in a world where almost everyone was doing a John Romita, Sr. impression, but those future Image founders were about to shift the paradigm so people with different styles had a fighting chance in the market. Ah, well. Ann Nocenti has at least 2 more Spidey stories I\u2019m aware of that we\u2019ll see one day, and Martin will be back at least once. In the meantime, our next post begins yet another dark Spidey story better than Kraven’s Last Hunt! I know! Come back to see if you agree with me.
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Usually that \u201cafter\u201d credit on a comics cover means it\u2019s a direct homage to another image. I\u2019m not a super expert, but I don\u2019t think Sienkiewicz means this is a direct lift…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2107,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[112],"tags":[399,113,400,278,100,121,2,282,398],"class_list":["post-2083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1980s","tag-ann-nocenti","tag-ben-urich","tag-cynthia-martin","tag-joe-rubenstein","tag-kingpin","tag-spectacular-spider-man","tag-spider-man","tag-the-arranger","tag-the-mad-dog-ward"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2083","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=2083"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4563,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2083\/revisions\/4563"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}