{"id":910,"date":"2019-03-04T00:00:47","date_gmt":"2019-03-04T05:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deweybass.com\/spiderman\/?p=910"},"modified":"2024-10-28T00:19:06","modified_gmt":"2024-10-28T04:19:06","slug":"asm-030","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/2019\/03\/04\/asm-030\/","title":{"rendered":"ASM 030"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I thought I might as well kick things off with the oldest Spider-Man comic I have. This one\u2019s also sort of the reason for this blog, as picking it up much cheaper than I ever imagined possible at Heroes Con is what got me thinking about trying to fill in my Spider-Man collection, and that ballooned out of control a bit, and here we are. So, yeah, oldest book in the collection, quasi-reason for the blog, good place to start. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of this writing, this is the only original Steve Ditko comic I own. I\u2019ve got quite a few of the Lee\/Romita era, but just the one Ditko. My relationship with the Ditko era of the book began when I was still in elementary school. I was reading the early 300s as they came out, but I was eager to learn as much as I could about Spidey, comics and the whole thing. I don’t recall where, but I got paperback-sized collections of early ASM, Captain America & Hulk somewhere. The ASM one looks like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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These books are from 1979. Like I said, no idea where they came from, but I suspect a garage sale. Whatever their origin, they were my first exposure to the early days of Marvel Comics, and this volume was obviously invaluable to the young Spidey fan, with the introductions of The Green Goblin & Kraven, an early encounter with The Human Torch, and other crucial bits of Spidey history. Being a young kid coming up on Todd McFarlane, the art seemed really strange to me, but the longer I looked at it, the more I liked it. It all seemed like it came from another world, it was so different. I certainly never thought I’d actually own an original Ditko issue. But I do! Not the most famous or important issue, but then, that\u2019s why I have it, because it\u2019s also not the most valuable. And, as you can see, mine\u2019s pretty banged up, so I don\u2019t feel too bad opening it up to read. Let\u2019s take a look!
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At this point, Peter has recently finished high school. He\u2019s still working at The Daily Bugle and still dating Betty Brant, though he\u2019s got some competition in the form of Ned Leeds and it’s not looking too solid between them. This is near the end of Ditko\u2019s first tenure at Marvel. By this point, he refused to even speak to Stan Lee, and would draw out a whole issue with no collaboration, leaving Lee to just add the dialogue. The fact that Lee continued to give himself a \u201cwritten by\u201d credit even under these circumstances soon proved too much, and Ditko quit. The same sad situation would later play out with Jack Kirby. It\u2019s a weird way to make a comic, two people collaborating but also not collaborating at all. As it gets going, Ditko checks in with various ongoing subplots before getting Spider-Man ready for action\u2026
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Good luck for that guy. As Spidey swings away, The Cat, or The Cat Burglar, they’re used kind of interchangeably, muses that a guy like him is beneath Spider-Man\u2019s notice, and that\u2019s good for him, as he proceeds to break into and rob an apartment. But not just any apartment! Our villain has robbed J. Jonah Jameson! A furious JJJ puts out a thousand dollar reward for info leading to the capture of the man who robbed him. But while he\u2019s blustering at the cops, a team of goons working for The Cat attempt to steal a load of uranium from a moving truck, and run afoul of our hero\u2026
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That unmistakable Ditko action. One of the fun things about reading a book from this period, where the artists are doing most if not all the plotting, and then Stan has to figure out what people should be saying, is moments like that magnetic shoes line. Is that what Ditko intended? Or did Stan just not see how these guys could fight on top of a moving truck and try to explain it? We’ll never know. Anyway, they manage to lose Spidey, but it turns out they knocked him off the truck next to an open window, where a TV bulletin lets him know about the reward. So he immediately decides to swing over and harass JJJ instead of trying to catch those goons stealing nuclear materials. Good choice!
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He’s losin’ it! JJJ\u2019s so worried about having to pay Spider-Man that he calls up Frederick Foswell, a complicated figure. He\u2019s a Bugle reporter, and used to be \u201cThe Big Man,\u201d a masked mob boss. He served time and reformed, and now uses experience to infiltrate the underworld (And try to uncover Spider-Man\u2019s identity one time). So JJJ figures if anyone can catch The Cat before Spidey, it\u2019s Foswell. Meanwhile, Spidey gives up for the night and heads home. The next day, he rushes out of the house to see Betty, and literally runs into his high school classmate, Liz Allan\u2026
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Flash Thompson: Bully, stalker, general low life (for now). Liz & Flash were a thing once, but not anymore, and one of them can\u2019t let it go. Peter steps into the alley to harass Flash, but sees The Cat up on a roof, as luck would have it, so he goads Flash into trying to fight him and knocks him out. Then he rushes off after The Cat as Spider-Man, but it turns out, it wasn\u2019t him, just some other dude on a roof with a gun and bad intentions, believe it or not, who Spidey quickly takes out.
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Strangely, the person on the phone is Peter. Even though he was going to see her, he\u2019s stopped somewhere to call ahead. Hey, why not? Betty tells him to come over immediately, and he does, where he\u2019s informed that Ned has asked Betty to marry him. Peter has the crazy thought to tell her he\u2019s Spider-Man and then propose himself (A counter-proposal!), but Betty tells him she wants a regular guy with a steady job and no adventures in his life, so his plan is foiled before he can start. He doesn\u2019t take it too well.
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Ouch. Kind of a confusing break up. But a historic one. We then check in on JJJ\u2019s situation, with Foswell reporting he still has no leads on The Cat, and Jonah really stressing about having to pay Spider-Man, then we get back to Peter, sullenly walking down the street thinking his life is ruined, when he hears a gunshot. Switching to Spider-Man, he\u2019s just in time to stop a bank robbery\u2026
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Not sure why The Cat hired a 2nd gang, but he\u2019s getting tired of Spider-Man\u2019s interference. Meanwhile, Peter heads home\u2026
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The Cat rushes out for one last score. Foswell finally gets a tip that might lead him to said Cat. And Betty Brant keeps calling the Parker house, and Peter heads out as Spider-Man to keep himself from answering, so the stage is set for a showdown. The Cat attempts his break in, but a neighbor happens to look out the window and see him, sending him fleeing into bigger trouble\u2026
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With the TV crew there, JJJ is able to watch at home as Spider-Man swings in to try to catch his foe. The Cat surprises Spidey with a bright flash of light, and then uses some explosives to try to drop a water tower on him:
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The Cat finally pulls a gun on Spidey, not that that accomplishes anything, but then the cops get up on the roof, too, and with bullets flying everywhere, our man decides to duck out of the conflict for a bit. The Cat tries to escape by setting off a smoke bomb\u2026
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Spidey snaps some pictures for The Bugle, hoping the adventure won\u2019t be a total loss, and JJJ breathes a sigh of relief at not having to pay the reward. Thus, the next day…
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So, that\u2019s it. Betty Brant, Peter Parker\u2019s first love, is abruptly out of his life. Buuuut, he\u2019s going to start college and meet a certain Gwen Stacy just next issue, so his life will be on a new course very soon. I don\u2019t have that one, though. My early collection is pretty spotty, which would make for less enjoyable posts, I think, so next post, we\u2019re going to jump ahead pretty far.
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I thought I might as well kick things off with the oldest Spider-Man comic I have. This one\u2019s also sort of the reason for this blog, as picking it up much cheaper…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":909,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[9,35,11,12,56,13,172,10,2,6,8],"class_list":["post-910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1960s","tag-amazing-spider-man","tag-aunt-may","tag-betty-brant","tag-flash-thompson","tag-frederick-foswell","tag-j-jonah-jameson","tag-liz-allen","tag-peter-parker","tag-spider-man","tag-stan-lee","tag-steve-ditko"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910","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=910"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33077,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910\/revisions\/33077"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}