{"id":4112,"date":"2020-04-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-03T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/?p=4112"},"modified":"2019-08-12T20:59:51","modified_gmt":"2019-08-13T00:59:51","slug":"asm-301","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/2020\/04\/03\/asm-301\/","title":{"rendered":"ASM 301"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Until recently, my only copy of this issue was a reprint. It came with an action figure decades ago. But I’ve procured the real thing now, so we’ll take a look at that. We are back with the primo Spidey team of my youth in writer David Michelinie, penciler\/inker Todd McFarlane & colorist Gregory Wright, and so is Silver Sable. McFarlane is becoming the premiere Spidey artist of his era, but as you can see on the cover here, hes committing an unforgivable sin: He’s messed up the face web pattern. No line down the middle on the bottom. It’s wrong, sorry. It’s a minor detail, sure, but it’s also our hero’s face. The most recognizable superhero in the world. McFarlane is changing the rules, but he’s gone too far with that one. I’m sure no one cares about this but me. Anyway. We open on members of Silver Sable\u2019s Wild Pack doing their thing.
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Turns out, they\u2019re testing security in a new Manhattan skyscraper. Silver is there with the owner and his head of security. Bossman Mr. Pruett thinks this means his claim that The Pruett Building will be the most secure in New York are valid, since the Wild Pack could\u2019ve died there. His security guy isn\u2019t so sure. Silver is in fine fashion form as the security guy tries to get her to test the defenses herself.
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A look. Elswhere, Peter & Mary Jane are decorating their new living room, which is easier when one of them can carry the furniture around in one hand. MJ has a photoshoot and Peter wants to go run an errand, so they depart.
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I dispute that assessment, Doorman Whose Name I Forgot! Man, Todd McFarlane\u2019s art was so inconsistent. Neither of MJ\u2019s feet are touching the ground, and what is the deal with that hair??  Anyway, at the Symkarian Embassy, Spidey drops by to ask Silver why she sicced The Wild Pack on him in a recent issue of TAC, and gets an answer he probably could\u2019ve guessed: someone paid her to (We\u2019ll see it one day). While he\u2019s there, the dudes from The Pruett Building show up to finalize their contract, and give Spidey a mild hit on his Spider Sense, but since Silver\u2019s being typically mean to him, he doesn\u2019t warn her as he leaves. Meanwhile, someone very British shows up to The Bedford Towers looking for Peter, but he\u2019s not home. He\u2019s at good ol\u2019 ESU, absent from the books for sometime by now.
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That seems preposterous, but too late to consider it, as we very quickly check out MJ at her modeling gig before returning to Peter, who decides the nagging feeling that something was wrong with the Pruett guys is worth looking into since MJ is working late. That British guy shows up at ESU looking for him since the doorman told him that\u2019s where Peter was headed, but he\u2019s gone already. Soon, Silver Sable begins testing the security at Pruett, while Spidey decides to do some investigation.
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Intrigue! Boy, that tripwire sure is hard to spot. Back at the Pruett Building, Silver is climbing an elevator shaft. The fact that she watched her guys do this earlier feels like a distinct advantage. Some guns activate, shooting what she assumes will be the paintballs from before, so she disables them all with her own gun, moving on too fast to notice that the projectiles melted anything they touched. Uh-oh! Back in that guy Cruz\u2019s place, Spidey investigates the light and finds a secret room, as you might expect. What\u2019s in it, though\u2026
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Look at that insane gun. I don\u2019t know much about guns, but how do you even reach that trigger? So, yeah, famed Nazi hunter Silver Sable has gone and walked into a trap. She\u2019s still doing pretty good, though, dodging and flipping her way through a hallway full of lasers, not noticing one of them singed her duffle bag, still not in on the bit. Meanwhile, Spidey\u2019s found some paperwork showing \u201cFrank Cruz\u201d is really Franz Kraus, son of a Nazi Silver & The Wild Pack caught years ago. Pruett has no idea \u201cCruz\u201d is using his building to try to kill Silver. Spidey swings off as quicky as he can.
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Every single page Silver has appeared on in this sequence has ended with her oblivously walking away from something melting. I mean\u2026 I get it. Now Spider-Man has reached the building, and while he encounters some security of his own, it\u2019s no problem for him to smash in through a window. He catches Silver just about ot press the button that will end the test\/most likely kill her and webs her hand. She assumes he\u2019s been hired as part of the test and fights back.
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Spidey finally just starts yelling Kraus\u2019 background information over the fight, and Silver finally stops. Spidey rips open the console the button was on to reveal it was rigged to blow.
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Silver has lost and gained like a foot of hair between panels this whole book. But wait, there\u2019s one more page!
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How could that possibly go? Come back next time to find out. I still have the reprint copy, of course. And would you believe I still have the toy? I mean, on this blog, I guess that\u2019s not a shocking revelation. Here’s the toy on top of the reprint:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It was in a box at the bottom of a closet, though. I wasn\u2019t 100% sure I had it. But there he is. A pretty decent action figure for his vintage. It was always weird that his middle fingers were the only ones that closed. Spidey can’t punch Dr. Doom on your shelf with those hands. He just sorta has to shove him.
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Until recently, my only copy of this issue was a reprint. It came with an action figure decades ago. But I’ve procured the real thing now, so we’ll take a look at…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5231,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[112],"tags":[9,259,277,275,21,276,2,274],"class_list":["post-4112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1980s","tag-amazing-spider-man","tag-david-michelinie","tag-dr-sloan","tag-gregory-wright","tag-mary-jane-watson","tag-silver-sable","tag-spider-man","tag-todd-mcfarlane"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4112","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=4112"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5818,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4112\/revisions\/5818"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}