{"id":1189,"date":"2019-08-06T00:00:22","date_gmt":"2019-08-06T04:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deweybass.com\/spiderman\/?p=1189"},"modified":"2020-07-04T00:19:09","modified_gmt":"2020-07-04T04:19:09","slug":"tac-068","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/2019\/08\/06\/tac-068\/","title":{"rendered":"TAC 068"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

So, here\u2019s how this one starts\u2026
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I was like \u201cIs this Ben Urich?… So, no then.\u201d I believe this is the first comic on the blog\u2026 and the first comic of its vintage I\u2019ve ever seen, for that matter\u2026 with a cold open. How \u2018bout that? Bill Mantlo, Luke McDonnell, Jim Mooney & Bob Sharen on the beat, as we move from that to Peter Parker & Aunt May visiting Uncle Ben\u2019s grave on the anniversary of his death. This is Mantlo\u2019s 2nd time (at least?) documenting this annual tradition. This year, Nathan Lubensky is in the background, keeping a \u201crespectful distance.” The team decides they better retell Spidey\u2019s origin real quick (Just like last time!), then Peter worries again about how he\u2019s being pulled in too many directions lately. And then Aunt May wants to ask him something\u2026
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The danger turns out to be a trio of people attacking an old man at a mausoleum\u2026 with the name \u201cStromm\u201d on it. This will prove relevant. Peter dives in, literally, no time to change suits, bowling over a guy with a gun, and proceeds to trounce two of them as one of the assailants is identified as \u201cRayder\u201d from the phone call earlier. And then things get weird and silly all at once\u2026
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My shoes. Are slipping. On the wet ground. This is one of those times where you have to wonder if McDonnell drew that squirrely panel and Mantlo was like “Well… gotta come up with something…” or if they were simpatico about the whole slippery shoe thing. After everyone\u2019s gone, Peter is still checking out the scene (What about May & Nathan?), and finds a dropped wallet with an FBI badge in it. And then he finally notices the name on the crypt. Mendell Stromm, The Robotmaster. One-time partner to Norman Osborn, mad robotics genius, and theoretical dead guy since way back in ASM 37. Pete\u2019s still recapping all this for us as he gets to school, where BIFF RIFKIN is waiting for him. He saw Deb shortly after Peter smashing a locker upset her in TAC 67<\/a>, and he wants to fight Peter for upsetting his girl. Pete\u2026 doesn\u2019t make the smartest decision\u2026
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A lot of important info on this page. Peter\u2019s teacher\u2019s assistant gig was the closest he\u2019s ever gotten to his dream of a career in science, and dropping it is a step backward. And Deb\u2026 nothing good can come of this. But Peter\u2019s already back in Spidey mode, headed to the address he found in that wallet, where a battle is already in progress.
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Spidey manages to knock a gun off the robot, which the FBI lady uses to zap it into submission. That agent, only identified as \u201cRachel,\u201d says Mendel Stromm\u2019s robots have been deployed by nefarious entities all over the world, to the degree that they believe he\u2019s not dead. When they went to his tomb to prove it, well, Peter ran them off. So, duly shamed, Spidey joins them on their 2nd raid on the tomb, and this time, they\u2019re in SHIELD-esque outfits.
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McDonnell\u2019s Spidey is getting rather Romita, Jr.-y there. Spidey rips the door off the crypt, and they find it completely empty. And made of metal instead of stone. And setting off Spidey\u2019s danger sense. They find a barely concealed panel in the floor, and one of the FBI guys puts an explosive down to get past it, but then the doors slam shut, and everyone\u2019s gonna die.
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The muffled explosion knocks out everyone but Spidey, and leaves him in pretty bad shape, but the way is open now, so he drops on in, down a long metal tube, until he drops into a room full of crazy machinery with a Mendel Stromm in a plastic tube in it. And then\u2026
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The Robotmaster has become the robot! Might\u2019ve helped this issue not to spoil a resurrection almost 200 issues after the fact on the cover. As for his deal, pretty standard stuff. Stromm died, his memories & consciousness transferred into a robot, the robot began building more robots. It\u2019s comics, man, we do this all the time. With his explanation out of the way, Stromm begins his attack, unleashing an army of robots and traps around the room.
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Spidey manages to deal with all the robots, but not with the Stromm robot, who has a laser eye and extending limbs and comes for him next. In the heat of the battle, Spidey activates the machines that will raise the real Stromm\u2019s weird glass coffin up into the crypt with the robot Stromm on top of it, smashing him into the ceiling.
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Spider-Man writing with his web is weird. This whole thing is weird. Odd ending. I\u2019m suuuuure we\u2019ve seen the last of The Robotmaster, too.
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One way I read old Spidey comics is watching things that were status quo when I started reading start falling into place. May & Nathan deciding to move back to her old house is definitely one of those things, so that\u2019s fun for me.
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So, here\u2019s how this one starts\u2026 I was like \u201cIs this Ben Urich?… So, no then.\u201d I believe this is the first comic on the blog\u2026 and the first comic of its…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1337,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[35,157,107,253,154,18,311,312,164,121,2],"class_list":["post-1189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-aunt-may","tag-biff-riffkin","tag-bill-mantlo","tag-bob-sharen","tag-deb-whitman","tag-jim-mooney","tag-luke-mcdonnell","tag-mendel-stromm","tag-nathan-lubensky","tag-spectacular-spider-man","tag-spider-man"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1189"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10047,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1189\/revisions\/10047"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}