{"id":2586,"date":"2019-12-19T00:00:24","date_gmt":"2019-12-19T04:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deweybass.com\/spiderman\/?p=2586"},"modified":"2019-06-02T17:16:03","modified_gmt":"2019-06-02T21:16:03","slug":"asm-407","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/2019\/12\/19\/asm-407\/","title":{"rendered":"ASM 407"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is the last time jump. The creative teams on the books will continue to shift to varying degrees, but the writer taking over ASM with 407 sees it to the end of Vol. 1. Who might that be? Wouldja believe… Tom DeFalco again? He\u2019s not E-i-C anymore (That title belongs to Bob Harras at this time, having formerly made The X-Office into Marvel\u2019s sales juggernaut, pun very much intended), so he\u2019s got time, and he clearly loves writing Spider-Man. As much as Mark Bagley clearly loves drawing Spider-Man, as he\u2019s been on for 55 issues, at this point (Plus the two dumb Amazing Scarlet Spider books that immediately preceded this issue). Larry Mahlstedt and Bob Sharen, another guy with a long, long list of Spidey credits, are still here from last block, too, ASM\u2019s art team is still solid. Mark designed this new suit, but I have forgiven him for that.
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DeFalco opens this with a not-at-all-subtle callback to ASM 252, beginning his second first issue of ASM with Spidey in a new suit with JJJ and Robbie discussing the day\u2019s Bugle headline.
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(We\u2019ll see that issue of SMU eventually) Yeah, uh, MJ was pregnant when they rode off into the sunset. I wasn\u2019t gonna mention that if I didn\u2019t have to, but there it is. Check out all the lingo on Torch! Did his \u201chomeboy\u201d try a new look, or has some one \u201ccopped\u201d his gig? That wouldn\u2019t be very fresh of them! Meanwhile, at The Daily Grind, Ben Reilly\u2019s at his first day of work, and it is REALLY rooted in 1995:
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HOOTIE! Ben recaps how he used to be Peter Parker but now he\u2019s Ben Reilly (I feel like you\u2019re only making the audience ask more questions if they don\u2019t know what happened rather than answering them), then Desiree Winthrop blows in saying The Torch\u2019s message to Spider-Man is \u201cto die–!\u201d She\u2019s gonna be fun, huh? She and some others discuss the ins and outs of superhero fashion as Ben comes to take their order. She recognizes him, and tells him he cleans up real good and his hair is \u201ctotally fly!\u201d I mean\u2026 He has dyed his hair so no one will recognize him as Peter Parker, and yet this lady who doesn\u2019t know him and saw him for a minute yesterday looking like a hobo instantly recognizes him. Clark Kent\u2019s glasses, this dye job is not. Anyway, he\u2019s smitten with her, but he\u2019s also interested in this Torch thing. Should he go see him? What was his relationship with Peter? Tough questions. From there, we jump to the US embassy of the awkwardly named fictional country Symkaria, home to the mercenary and frequent Spider-Man guest character Silver Sable (Introduced by one Tom DeFalco back in the 80s). She took up leadership of her dad\u2019s gang of Nazi hunters, The Wild Pack, and has expanded their purview to hunting all sorts of people. Their activities are a major source of income for her tiny nation, if you can believe that. And these days, her most prized employee is The Sandman, if you can believe that, also.
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Why is this happening in New York other than it has to? That dialogue suggests these guys are all Symkarian nationals. Am I overthinking this? Sandman takes them all out in 15 seconds, saying they show potential. Silver wants to know what he makes of the Bugle\u2019s Spider-Man headline. Silver decides they should see if this is a new Spider-Man since the old one has been useful to her in the past. Alright, then. The stage is set. Torch flies to meet Spidey\u2026
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Torch burns Spider-Man to a crisp, the end. No, really.
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So are we to assume Mysterio\u2019s simulation included the Symkarian spy, or can we just go ahead and call that some extremely crappy storytelling? Of course, old timey Spidey fans know \u201cthe usual place\u201d is The Statue of Liberty (Which is weird, since it isn\u2019t the easiest place for Spider-Man to reach), so that was a clue. Ugh. So cheap. Anyway, guess Mysterio is planning to start a TV network? Aaaaalright. I don\u2019t remember this at all, I confess. Ben visits a friend in the hospital, and I don\u2019t even feel like getting into that, honestly. I don\u2019t think it will be relevant. Then he goes for a walk.
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\u201cHow\u2019d he stumble on our meeting site?\u201d Well, Ben, if you\u2019d read Spectacular Spider-Man 42 during your exile, you\u2019d know he\u2019s known about it for a long time. Anyway, in a few moments, Spider-Man is on the scene. He bumbles through trying to be intimidating and not intimidating, just in case, but he messes up saying Sandman and \u201cthe blonde cutie\u201d need to back away from the ferry.
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Elsewhere, that Jessica girl from SSM 0 develops her photos of Spidey, and a friend suggest she try to sell them to The Bugle. Back at the fight\u2026
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He\u2019s more LIGHTHEARTED, GUYS. Did you notice? Did you notice how we spent years making the real Spider-Man an unlikable mess so you might embrace this Great Value Spider-Man as a return to form??? Is it working???
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Torchie zooms in and frees Spider-Man from Sandman\u2019s grip. Sandy gets so riled up he\u2019s ready to fight both of them, reformed or not, then Silver shoots in the air to stop the fight.
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This constant need to remind you that he\u2019s the real Spider-Man, as if to say, \u201cSee? We\u2019re FIXING this, not breaking it!\u201d is already wearing thin after 2 comics. And it\u2019s all gonna seem pretty silly when they\u2019re forced to reveal he\u2019s actually NOT the real Spider-Man. But that\u2019s for later.
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Well, then. Again, you know this is fine. With the burning hatred for this entire notion drained out of me by time, these things are just\u2026 fine. Not really remembering them from the old days, it mostly feels new to me. I recall some of the big moments and twists, but I doubt I\u2019ve opened any of these since the day I got them. It\u2019s sad that I own them at all. I hated every second of this, and yet I spent so much money on it. I was 17, at this point. What a fool I was.
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This is the last time jump. The creative teams on the books will continue to shift to varying degrees, but the writer taking over ASM with 407 sees it to the end…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2617,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[410],"tags":[9,455,253,480,476,72,13,479,26,461,339,234,101,477,276,2,124],"class_list":["post-2586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1990s","tag-amazing-spider-man","tag-ben-reilly","tag-bob-sharen","tag-buzz","tag-desiree-winthrop","tag-human-torch","tag-j-jonah-jameson","tag-jessica-carradine","tag-joe-robertson","tag-larry-mahlstedt","tag-mark-bagley","tag-mysterio","tag-sandman","tag-shirley-washington","tag-silver-sable","tag-spider-man","tag-tom-defalco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2586","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=2586"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4612,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2586\/revisions\/4612"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}