{"id":5849,"date":"2020-08-13T00:00:14","date_gmt":"2020-08-13T04:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/?p=5849"},"modified":"2019-08-16T20:47:10","modified_gmt":"2019-08-17T00:47:10","slug":"web-054","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/2020\/08\/13\/web-054\/","title":{"rendered":"WEB 054"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I feel certain I read this one as a kid. I didn\u2019t have it, obviously (Tho I really thought I did, even). I was reading comics out of the library still, I had discovered a couple of schoolmates collected comics, and I had my cousin\u2019s books to flip through once every year or two when visiting, I saw it somewhere. That cover\u2019s really ingrained in my memory. And Alex Saviuk has definitely gotten with the program this month. Todd McFarlane\u2019s makeover of Spider-Man is complete. For good or ill, redefining the \u201ccorrect\u201d way to draw Spider-Man for the first time in almost 25 years is no small feat. Of course, he also (Perhaps inadvertently) shattered the idea that there\u2019s a \u201ccorrect\u201d way, and in his wake, comic artists continue to draw these characters with no regard for any house style even today. I have mixed feelings about that, but this post isn\u2019t about that, it\u2019s about werewolves, mobsters, and a putty-faced Russian weirdo manipulating them all. And Kristy going to the hospital. And Spider-Man, theoretically. Lotta business! Amid a hail of their goons\u2019 bullets, The Lobo Brothers leap out of their helicopter onto the roof of Kingpin\u2019s building and get to work on his goons.
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Ya know, Conway has done this pretty well, in truth. The Lobos set off for Fisk\u2019s tower at the end of Web 53, and he found a way to keep the story moving in Spectacular 153 while still letting the Lobos reach the tower here. You\u2019d probably have a lot of questions if you only read Web, but you wouldn\u2019t be lost, by any means. Just don\u2019t think about ASM\u2026 The Lobos fight their way into Arranger\u2019s office, but he has a fancy escape elevator \u201cfor just such an emergency\u201d and gets away. They don\u2019t really care.
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Gasp! Is this the end of Wilson Fisk? I dunno, we switch to Spider-Man, still reeling from the extremely specific virus Chameleon hit him with last issue, which he dutifully explains to us as he tries to swing to the Kingpin’s building as best he can. Already there surveying the grisly (Especially for 1980s standards) scene are the cops, Joy Mercado and Nick Katzenberg. Nick is loving this, being as gross as possible, and Joy is not into it. Then they all reach Kingpin\u2019s office.
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Huh indeed, everyone. What\u2026 purpose did that serve? I do not understand. Also, I guess The Lobos had to go back out in the hallway to get osme blood for their sign. Less spooky if you imagine them doing so. Anyway, Spidey swings away, thinking he\u2019s too sick to be a part of this anymore tonight. But he doesn\u2019t get away before Katzenberg gets a photo he can use to tie Spidey to the massacre, naturally. Peter barely makes it to Aunt May\u2019s house before passing out. Then there\u2019s a very Gil Kane inspired page\u2026
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…and then Peter wakes up. MJ informs him he\u2019s been sick for 2 days. He seems better now, though. Until he sees the Bugle headline linking him to the gang war, just as Katzenberg planned, and he gets furious for a sec. Then he remembers they told him Aunt May was at the hospital before he passed out, and learns about Kristy. He & MJ go to see her in the hospital, and her doctor explains her condition to them since her parents are \u201ctraveling in Europe.\u201d Mostly to Peter, actually. Once the audience understands bulimia a little, Peter asks MJ what she thinks. And probably doesn\u2019t get an answer he expected.
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Now, I\u2019m not one to put intentions in a creator\u2019s head. I loathe when critics and culture writers decide what an artist was thinking and then tell you about it. But, in the oft-reference Comic Book Creators On Spider-Man, Gerry Conway said he was going through a messy divorce at this time, and had trouble writing a happily married Peter & MJ. One has to wonder if this rather random bit of marital strife stems from that state of mind. Purely conjecture on my part, your honor. Anyway, Nick Katzenberg is on cloud 9 at The Daily Bugle, to the disgust of his coworkers, when\u2026
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Well, then. Time for a showdown!
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Ol\u2019 Dimitri has just fired \u201ca compressed gas pellet holding a fatal quantity of cyanide gas\u201d at a stunned Spider-Man (Oh, NOW it’s lethal toxins!), who barely avoids it. He\u2019s holding his breath, tho, so he follows \u201cJonah\u201d out of the room to safety.
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This doesn\u2019t really jibe with the plan Chameleon was laying out as Spidey arrived, but ok. He causes the ceiling to collapse and flees, saying his plan is on schedule and Spider-Man can\u2019t stop it. Spidey is about to chase after him when he hears some noise from the closet.
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It\u2019s all coming to a head! But not in ASM, of course. This month saw 2 issues of ASM, 319 wrapping one story and 320 starting a new one, as if none of this was going on. But we\u2019ll keep following this story in Spectacular next post.
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I feel certain I read this one as a kid. I didn\u2019t have it, obviously (Tho I really thought I did, even). I was reading comics out of the library still, I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5850,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[112],"tags":[268,35,253,177,73,308,13,403,269,100,571,21,454,2,282,568,265],"class_list":["post-5849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1980s","tag-alex-saviuk","tag-aunt-may","tag-bob-sharen","tag-chameleon","tag-gerry-conway","tag-glory-grant","tag-j-jonah-jameson","tag-joy-mercado","tag-keith-williams","tag-kingpin","tag-kristy-watson","tag-mary-jane-watson","tag-nick-katzenberg","tag-spider-man","tag-the-arranger","tag-the-lobo-brothers","tag-web-of-spider-man"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5849","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=5849"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5860,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5849\/revisions\/5860"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}