{"id":12885,"date":"2022-05-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-05T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/?p=12885"},"modified":"2021-03-16T13:57:50","modified_gmt":"2021-03-16T17:57:50","slug":"asm-276","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/2022\/05\/05\/asm-276\/","title":{"rendered":"ASM 276"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Pretty classic kind of cover, there. \u201cNot\u2026 him!\u201d Daring you not to put down your 75 cents, open the book and find out who. Random thought I had last block that I\u2019m reminded of by this cover: I have not taken note of exactly when Spider-Man\u2019s chest emblem changes. The legs go from all pointing toward his own arms to 4 up, 4 down at some point. I think maybe John Romita, Jr. did it, but I don\u2019t actually know. Brett Breeding reappears on finishes this month, and a \u201cD. Martin\u201d colors. Not sure who that is. Hobgoblin is very proud that his basically useless computer targeting system beat Spider-Man, seeming not to notice it was his messed up shoulder that left him open to being zapped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hobby sees Spider-Man is a little crazy today, and becomes afraid. He also knows by now he can\u2019t beat Spider-Man close range, so he drops a pumpkin bomb and runs. He tries to swing around and use his dumb random finger again, but Spidey\u2019s got a big gross ball of webbing on a line and splats it right into Hobby\u2019s face. There follows one of the most over-described panels I\u2019ve ever seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Stan Lee had a bad habit of over-describing what was going on as if you couldn\u2019t see it sometimes. You  know, a character would take a huge Kirby punch and be like \u201cHe hit me!\u201d And those who followed him, in trying to maintain his \u201cvoice,\u201d often did the same, but that top panel is tough to beat. Are we SURE we know what\u2019s happening? Maybe he should\u2019ve described it a little more. Hobby isn\u2019t talking like anyone who\u2019s been made a suspect. He\u2019s talking full cheesy supervillain now. \u201cIf I should be recognized–!\u201d That sound like Flash, Ned, or Lance? No, sir. I don\u2019t think it sounds like any of the people who could\u2019ve been Hobgoblin, frankly, including any of the behind-the-scenes names that were thrown around or the one eventually unmasked. Anyway, Spider-Man spends a full page just whining, whining, whining about how he\u2019s so ready to stop being Spider-Man forever and this was supposed to be his last fight and it\u2019s just not fair. He\u2019s becoming quite insufferable. To further darken his mood, the girls next door are inexplicably putting a dresser together on the roof in the cold, all bundled up, so he can\u2019t go home. MJ is supposed to be there waiting for him, so he drops down to the street and asks a guy if he can borrow a quarter. The guy thinks he\u2019s being robbed, but Spidey really just wants a quarter to call the phone in his own apartment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Their relationship would be in a weird place right now even if Peter wasn\u2019t being a big emo baby. Meanwhile, Flash goes to see Sha Shan in the hospital, recovering from her ordeal. At first, she\u2019s extremely relieved to see him, but\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ol\u2019 Flash isn\u2019t a terribly cool guy these days, either. Sheesh. Everyone in the book is sad and\/or angry right now. Perhaps a reflection of the deteriorating relationship between creative team and editor behind the scenes? Can\u2019t say for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Interesting bunch of reactions, hm? Roderick Kingsly back in the mix after being largely absent since Stern left, and Lance Bannon back on the table. And, I mean, if people watching this are suspects, I guess Peter Parker & Betty Brant, too! Rose calls his man to ask if he\u2019s upset, but Hobby says not at all, and he\u2019s already thought of a way to exploit the situation. Hobgoblin is shown unmasked, but in shadow. Frenz decides to draw his silhouette with a particular haircut that really narrows down the suspect list, and I have to wonder if that was intentional or not. Why set up all these red herrings if you can kind of guess based on this image? Maybe they thought they were almost done. Ha. Anyway, Hobby tells himself he\u2019s got yet another new weapon, and says Spider-Man will soon taste the wrath of The Hobgoblin. It\u2019s been, like, hours since his last super-mega-weapon failed utterly, but he never lets a thing like failure get him down. We briefly cut away to see The Fly, now once again called The Human Fly (Presumably since the title of the same name starring a different character has been cancelled) escape from an insane asylum. Then\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Oh ho. Ya know, if there\u2019s anything worse than \u201cPeter wants to quit being Spider-Man,\u201d I think it\u2019s \u201cPeter wants to quit being Spider-Man, but feels obligated to keep being Spider-Man, and complains about it the entire time.\u201d You may have guessed from my comments we\u2019re entering yet another rough patch in Spider-History. It is sadly going to last more or less up to Dave Michelinie resetting the books in ASM 290. 15 more months of this emo junk. Ugh. It\u2019s hard being a Spider-Man fan. Aaaanyway:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 The Scourge of The Underworld. I think I\u2019ve mentioned him before. He\u2019s a Captain America villain, a serial killer who kills super villains. The Scourge goes to great lengths to hide his identity. He\u2019s appeared as both men and women of all shapes and sizes in his quest to kill supervillains. You never know it\u2019s him until a shot rings out and he utters his catch phrase, \u201cJustice is served!\u201d As Marvel was in pretty tight continuity at this point, The Scourge bled out into other titles to heighten the suspense, taking out various z-list villains, before finally being stopped by Captain America. Sort of. He seemingly killed himself rather than be caught, and left Cap no closer to answers about who he was. But, anyway, that\u2019s the future. For now, he\u2019s gotten rid of The Fly, and no great loss there. Spidey\u2019s about to go investigate when The Hobgoblin finds him. Hobby says their war has gone on far too long, and one way or another, it ends tonight. And so, battle is joined yet again. And yet again, Spider-Man handily dodges Hobby\u2019s much-hyped targeting system. But this time, that\u2019s just to get him into position for a new kind of gas bomb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Spidey\u2019s makeshift missile zips by Hobby\u2019s head, and Hobby thinks, \u201cN- No! If that has struck me–! What\u2019s happened to Spider-Man? I\u2019ve never seen him battle with such wild abandonment!\u201d still more dialogue that doesn\u2019t sound like anyone. Spidey just wanted to distract him with the pipe, and it worked, allowing our hero to jump on Hobby\u2019s back and steer him into an abandoned warehouse. But he can\u2019t hold on in the crash without his sticking power (This whole \u201cgas that negates certain powers\u201d thing is really well past my suspension of disbelief), and The Goblin puts distance between them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Egads! Is it true? Could Flash Thompson be The Hobgoblin??<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Well, obviously not. It\u2019s the Lefty Donovan move all over again. But, man. I don\u2019t know who\u2019s idea it was to IMMEDIATELY reveal Flash is a red herring, editorial or writer, but what a dumb move! Everyone\u2019s dying to know who Hobgoblin is for almost 4 years by this point! At least let your swerve breathe for a month! Yeesh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pretty classic kind of cover, there. \u201cNot\u2026 him!\u201d Daring you not to put down your 75 cents, open the book and find out who. Random thought I had last block that I\u2019m…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12886,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[112],"tags":[9,11,218,12,163,122,21,224,321,1069,348,2,797,325,124],"class_list":["post-12885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1980s","tag-amazing-spider-man","tag-betty-brant","tag-brett-breeding","tag-flash-thompson","tag-hobgoblin","tag-lance-bannon","tag-mary-jane-watson","tag-roderick-kingsley","tag-ron-frenz","tag-scourge","tag-sha-shan-nguyen","tag-spider-man","tag-the-human-fly","tag-the-rose","tag-tom-defalco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12885","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=12885"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12899,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12885\/revisions\/12899"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}