{"id":16923,"date":"2023-05-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-03T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/?p=16923"},"modified":"2022-01-09T20:11:13","modified_gmt":"2022-01-10T00:11:13","slug":"tac-122","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/2023\/05\/03\/tac-122\/","title":{"rendered":"TAC 122"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This looks to be a weird one. Let\u2019s start with the Arrested Development reference:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Remember that show? Life was simpler then. This issue is awesome because they\u2019ve finally, finally stopped doing the pretentious thing of putting the credits in a panel on the last page. Peter David writes, Rich Buckler and Malcolm Davis draw, Mike Esposito, Bob McLeod and Art Nichols ink, Nel Yomtov colors. We open on Peter Parker in an introspective mood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Really high accent count in recent issues. Peter is already gone up a wall, and switching to Spider-Man, webs the infant to his back and swings off. This leads me to something I\u2019ve been meaning to comment on. I\u2019ve mentioned Mike Zeck drawing the \u201cMcFarlane eyes\u201d in the past, particularly when discussing Kraven\u2019s Last Hunt. But this issue clinches something: McLeod was doing that. I\u2019ve now seen those eyes on 3 different pencilers\u2019 Spider-Men, and the thing they have in common is Bob McLeod inks. That\u2019s very interesting. Observe the eyes as Spider-Man brings his precious cargo to a hospital\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Solid jokes in panels 1, 3 and 4. We\u2019re told days pass, and now Peter is at The Bugle, thinking he\u2019s not found anything good to photograph in a week, when he runs into Joy Mercado, on her way to work the story of Spider-Man\u2019s baby, Danny Blaire. A mother, Sharon, has come forward and is trying to claim the child. JJJ sends Peter with her to get photos. Joy sez the mom has a record, and the city isn\u2019t too eager to give her a child found in a dumpster. Joy calls a taxi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Why\u2026 on Earth\u2026 is this cab driver a running gag? This is absurd. At the hospital, Joy is trying to get a meeting with the baby\u2019s doctor when the Scottish guy appears, being escorted out of the hospital. Peter steers Joy toward him, and he tells them he didn\u2019t know Sharon had his child, found out third hand, and when he confronted her about it, she threw the kid out. He says this while angrily throwing a soda can through a window and somehow isn\u2019t swarmed by security. The 80s? Seems weird even for the 80s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Do we think David felt the need to fill this one with goofy gags since the abandoned child subject matter is heavy? It\u2019s a weird experience, tonally. Anyway, that evening, Spidey\u2019s homing in on his tracer and discovers Brendan Doyle is The Mauler, last seen around here in MTU 136<\/a>. I had completely forgotten him, didn\u2019t recognize him on the cover here. Spidey confronts him as he\u2019s flying around in his Mauler suit, and they land on a roof to talk. Mauler even thanks Spider-Man for saving his child. Then he takes off to go kidnap the boy, and so they have to fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ol\u2019 Mauly didn\u2019t really have that mess of cables all over him in his last appearance, that seems like a real pain to draw. Cops show up and one of them immediately wants to arrest Spider-Man for \u201cthreatening people with those rocks,\u201d but the other is less silly. Spidey tells them to call Keating and get men sent to that hospital, and then goes himself, not there in time to stop Mauler from trossing various hospital staff around, including the guys who began to kick him out earlier (Not sure why they stopped?). Spider-Man comes crashing through the boarded up window Mauler broke earlier, and they tussle a bit. Spidey tries to lure him outside, away from people, but he doesn\u2019t take the bait. A nurse lied and told him his son was in the basement, so he\u2019s off that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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That was an autopsy, so don\u2019t worry. The living flee as Mauler comes plowing in. Mauler soon accidentally knocks out power to the whole hospital with his aimless shooting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Spider-Man catches back up with Mauler as he\u2019s plowing through the floor or another part of the hospital, and finally forces the battle outside. But Mauler doubles back and goes right back through yet another wall. He smashes into a baby delivery, and figures he must be getting closer to where his son is. Spider-Man comes through the hole and punches Mauler hard enough to crack his faceplate, which makes him stop destroying everything in sight and just run away. Spidey webs the hole in the wall and leaves his Spider Signal light for them to try to deliver the child by.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This was an odd one. I don\u2019t have much else to say about it, really. The letter col is full of negative reactions to Black Cat\u2019s terrible new costume.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This looks to be a weird one. Let\u2019s start with the Arrested Development reference: Remember that show? Life was simpler then. This issue is awesome because they\u2019ve finally, finally stopped doing the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16924,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[112],"tags":[1497,191,403,1564,1055,52,872,333,852,121,2],"class_list":["post-16923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1980s","tag-art-nichols","tag-bob-mcleod","tag-joy-mercado","tag-malcolm-davis","tag-mauler","tag-mike-esposito","tag-nel-yomtov","tag-peter-david","tag-rich-buckler","tag-spectacular-spider-man","tag-spider-man"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16923","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=16923"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16923\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16938,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16923\/revisions\/16938"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}