{"id":14319,"date":"2022-08-30T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-08-30T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/?p=14319"},"modified":"2021-05-31T00:44:30","modified_gmt":"2021-05-31T04:44:30","slug":"tac-247","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/2022\/08\/30\/tac-247\/","title":{"rendered":"TAC 247"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Last issue\u2019s letter column said this Jack O\u2019Lantern was created in Mark Gruenwald\u2019s seminal Captain America run. That\u2019s untrue, tho editorial may not have known it at the time. That was a 2nd Jack O\u2019Lantern, a minor mercenary who worked for The Red Skull as part of his Skeleton Crew of goons, but this is a 3rd. According to Brian Cronin\u2019s long-running, super fun Comic Book Legends Revealed column, JM didn\u2019t actually have a plan for who was in this suit, and decided to just wing it til he came up with a good idea. Risky. Especially given the sometimes fickle nature of comics. Can\u2019t be sure you\u2019ll be around to reveal the truth if you let it ride too long. Spoilers: He let it ride too long. Anyway, DeMatteis is back to scripting this month as we find Jonah in the hospital with his suddenly child bride\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Marla looks younger than John, for cryin\u2019 out loud. Come on, dude. Spider-Man hops up on the roof, but then almost falls off, this time having a dizzy spell. With 4 titles a month having to drag this out until the guys who spun it up decide to finish it, this is getting old fast. As he recovers, his Spider Sense goes crazy, because Jack O\u2019Lantern is near. But Jack doesn\u2019t see Spidey as he\u2019s peering in Jonah\u2019s window, so Spider-Man webs him off his Pogoball before he knows what\u2019s happening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As with Judas Traveller, DeMatteis is setting up a character way too mystical and metaphysical to work in Spider-Man. As with Judas Traveller, someone else will try to correct that. The same someone. Everything goes in circles around here. No idea what MJ\u2019s wearing. Looks to have pajama pants on on the next page. MJ is so wrapped up in her thoughts that she misses the teacher calling on her to answer questions. Later, walking with her new best pal, walking mistake Jill Stacy, she\u2019s very embarrassed, but Jill tells her it\u2019ll be ok. Peter dashes by, later for his tutoring session, and MJ is miffed he doesn\u2019t stop to talk. We cut to The Bugle, where Betty is late on a story and Flash stops by to be way too attached and say thank you for her help last issue. She runs him off and he\u2019s very sad, and Robbie walks over and doesn\u2019t recognize Flash even though they were almost blown up together recently in SM 75<\/a>. Seems like you\u2019d remember that, at least. Cut to John Jameson, Dr. Kafka & Marla at lunch. Marla\u2019s trying to put on a brave face, but she\u2019s understandably a wreck. I mean, not only did someone beat her husband half to death, but she\u2019s suddenly like 30 years younger, life comes at you fast. And so does this cat, apparently:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At least, it\u2019s allegedly a cat. \u201cA much younger woman!\u201d Something of an understatement right now! What is going on with Flash? Dare I even guess? No idea, we skip to this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I feel like this is a much more 60s approach to their relationship than is normal for 1997. Spidey takes his leave, and JJJ feels invigorated. Spider-Man hopes to catch Jack floating around the hospital again, and he only has to wait 2 panels. Jack chucks a big fireball at him, which our man easily dodges. Jack says a bunch of boilerplate \u201cYou don\u2019t know what I really am\u201d mystery man nonsense that will all come to naught as Spidey leaps onto his glider thingy and they go shooting up into the sky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

DeMatteis really only has like, 3 moves, doesn\u2019t he? Good grief. I can only read so many \u201cSpider-Man falls into a nightmare illusion\u201d bits by the same person. He did it TWICE in Block 35 alone between Harry Osborn and Kraven\u2019s ghost and here we are doing it again. Write some new material, buddy!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

JJJ\u2019s dead THIS time for sure! Flashback! Flashback was a really weird and unsatisfying stunt that interrupted several comics in mid-storyline that I\u2019ll be handling here in a bit. We\u2019ll proceed with TAC 248 next time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last issue\u2019s letter column said this Jack O\u2019Lantern was created in Mark Gruenwald\u2019s seminal Captain America run. That\u2019s untrue, tho editorial may not have known it at the time. That was a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14320,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[410],"tags":[153,427,11,120,12,13,331,125,27,442,629,116,21,121,2],"class_list":["post-14319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1990s","tag-al-milgrom","tag-ashley-kafka","tag-betty-brant","tag-dan-green","tag-flash-thompson","tag-j-jonah-jameson","tag-jack-olantern","tag-jm-dematteis","tag-john-jameson","tag-john-kalisz","tag-luke-ross","tag-marla-madison","tag-mary-jane-watson","tag-spectacular-spider-man","tag-spider-man"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14319","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=14319"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14334,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14319\/revisions\/14334"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}