{"id":22419,"date":"2024-08-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-08-15T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/?p=22419"},"modified":"2024-02-21T16:43:08","modified_gmt":"2024-02-21T20:43:08","slug":"fast-lane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/2024\/08\/15\/fast-lane\/","title":{"rendered":"Fast Lane"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s come to this. As has been mentioned previously, Fast Lane was an anti-drug comic that ran in 4 parts through all the Marvel comics in 8-page installments, making it actually come out to more pages than a regular issue in total. We\u2019ve seen several health & safety promo comics starring our man on the blog before, but Fast Lane was jammed into your real comics, interrupting them for 8 pages. They were not well received. And I have never read them all together, so here we go. Writer Glen Herdling, penciler Gregg Schigiel, inker Richard Case and the late, great colorist Paul Mounts probably never lived this one down, but it\u2019s not their fault they got assigned this job. As Spidey dodges around the giant Mysterio\u2019s attacks, he lets us know who Mysterio is in case we don\u2019t before expositing that a critic saying the new Zane Whelan movie having the best special effects ever has caused Mysty go to on a rampage against the movie. Then he spots a projector that he webs to get rid of the giant Mysterio. That was easy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I trust you see where this is going. JJJ doesn\u2019t back down, but Sam doesn\u2019t care because he, Peter and Toni are off to go interview Zane Whelan for their feature. Peter pulls Toni aside and asks what Sam\u2019s deal is, and she helpfully lets us know he\u2019s prone to hero worship and has even started smoking GRASS to be like Zane Whelan. Grass! It is 1999!! Soon, the trio are in a Daily Bugle van ridiculously adorned with the cover of the Fast Lane supplement that isn\u2019t even out yet, driving to their interview, Sam driving, when he thinks someone\u2019s following them, and then the van shakes violently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Egads. This leads to the most hilarious, cringe-inducing splash of the series as Part 2 begins:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cMy bowl! Whoaaaaa!\u201d is burned into my brain. Between having seen this in literally every Marvel comic I bought and how hilarious it was, it made an impression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Absurd. Peter & Toni scoop up Sam and drive off as Mysterio rages above them, Sam grabbing his precious pipe before they go. Toni and Peter judge him to his face for smoking, which is always the PERFECT way to get through to someone, and he throws a little tantrum. Then they arrive at the set of\u2026 the Fast Lane music video?… where Whelan and his costar are about to do a stunt. As action is called, they play the soundtrack, and the lyrics are hilarious\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I mean, jeez. Like weed movies were having something of a resurgence in this period, but they were WEED MOVIES. Half Baked and the like. They weren\u2019t secretly trying to brainwash your children, they were straight up about smoking weed. This feels so out of touch. But, then, what anti-drug material doesn\u2019t? Toni\u2019s moralizing is similarly awkward. If showing people doing dangerous things was so bad, you probably shouldn\u2019t read Spider-Man comics. Then Whelan chews out the whole crew and storms to his trailer, Sam doesn\u2019t care, and Peter\u2019s danger sense goes off, so he makes an excuse about getting some photos and slips away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I do like Spidey\u2019s grip joke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As Spidey battles Mysterio, Sam drives around hallucinating (You know, like people on weed do), saying that even if Zane Whelan is fake, his image is still great and worth emulating. Try to lay it on a LITTLE thicker, guys. Back at the set, Spidey easily defeats Mysterio for a 2nd time in this story before learning Sam drove off in the van \u201cand he was smoking POT!\u201d Gasp. Being a complete idiot, Sam has driven out to the Brooklyn Bridge to replicate Zane\u2019s stunt, expressly without wires, to prove he\u2019s a true rebel. Like he literally says that. He does this by parking his van in the middle of the bridge! Not the sharpest tool in the shed, our Sam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The stretch on that \u201cHelllllp\u201d makes the \u201cp\u201d stop reading. \u201cHELLLLLLL!\u201d Hell was this stuff interrupting every comic you bought for 4 months. Meanwhile, Spider-Man\u2019s looking for Sam when the Human Torch just happens by and decides to help. Then they spot the fire on the bridge immediately, what luck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This is the 2nd time Sam\u2019s been falling to his death in the same story. What a life for that guy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hey, that makes no sense, but who cares, we\u2019re in the home stretch. Spidey dives down toward the van to try to get Sam out and flee, but then it stops falling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Storm was at a charity event?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Wolverine was at a charity event?? SPIDER-GIRL????? I seem to recall they were using this \u201cSpider-Girl\u201d in mass market things. Kids books and toys and such. But she doesn\u2019t exist in the Marvel U. I guess this isn\u2019t canon? What an odd choice. Why not just use the current Spider-Woman, or better yet, a non-spider-themed young woman like Firestar or Jubilee? Well, anyway, it\u2019s time to wrap this up with some very heavy handed messaging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sam really enjoys pointing. Weird that they don\u2019t show you the article at all. Well, that\u2019s that. One thing that strikes me about this is how Schigiel\u2019s work, which would have fit right into the Marvel ethos only a year before, feels so cartoony and out of place in these comics. I rambled in a previous post about how this period saw Marvel playing it safe and returning to a more classical art style, installing people like Byrne and Romita, Jr. and Perez and Alan Davis on their biggest titles, like they associated the more cartoony style they\u2019d been pushing with their bankruptcy or whatever. The change was quick and drastic and makes these supplements feel all the stranger. I\u2019m focused in on Schigiel because everyone else who worked on this was a pro to varying degrees, enjoying long careers in the business. Schigiel did a little work at Marvel in the late 90s, but this is by far the thing he\u2019s most recognizable for to most of us, and that\u2019s really not fair to him, given how annoyed readers were by these inserts. 8 pages of preachy filler aimed at people younger than the average reader of the period in all your books 4 times was really not well received. Schigiel seems to have had a good sense of humor about it, tho. In this period, the Bullpen Bulletins page ran a comic strip by Chris Giarusso called Bullpen Bits, and Gregg contributed to one he did one making fun of Fast Lane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The framing panels reference Earth X, a super-popular alternate future thing by Jim Kreuger, Alex Ross and the late, great Jean Paul Leon (My god, do I have to do Earth X? Spider-Man\u2019s in it, but not a lot), and the Fast Lane part references this (in)famous Green Lantern & Green Arrow cover from the 70s by the late, great Neal Adams:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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That very famous story was DC\u2019s answer to ASM 96-98\u2019s anti-drug message, much more heavy handed and silly while also using straight up heroin instead of Lee & Kane\u2019s nondescript \u201cpills,\u201d so the reference was really inspired. Schigiel seems to have gone on to cultivate a really nice cartooning style and done a lot of kid-themed stuff since this. Good for him! And I think this is the last educational anti-drug thing I ever have to cover, so good for me!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s come to this. As has been mentioned previously, Fast Lane was an anti-drug comic that ran in 4 parts through all the Marvel comics in 8-page installments, making it actually come…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22404,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1864,1],"tags":[60,1237,1916,72,64,13,234,1917,247,626,665,2,138,1710,663,65,300],"class_list":["post-22419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2000s","category-uncategorized","tag-captain-america","tag-glenn-herdling","tag-gregg-schigiel","tag-human-torch","tag-iron-man","tag-j-jonah-jameson","tag-mysterio","tag-paul-mounts","tag-reed-richards","tag-richard-case","tag-she-hulk","tag-spider-man","tag-storm","tag-sue-storm","tag-the-thing","tag-thor","tag-wolverine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22419","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=22419"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22425,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22419\/revisions\/22425"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}