{"id":23622,"date":"2024-11-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-15T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/?p=23622"},"modified":"2024-02-21T16:41:25","modified_gmt":"2024-02-21T20:41:25","slug":"asm-v2-34","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/2024\/11\/15\/asm-v2-34\/","title":{"rendered":"ASM V2 34"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jumping right into it, Ezekiel explains that the elaborate room he built for Peter was only to keep Morlun from finding him. Now that Morlun\u2019s touched him, it\u2019s too late, and there\u2019s no way out. Spidey says if Ezekiel was so keen to help him, he should help now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As always in situations like this, I can\u2019t help but wonder: Why not go to the FF? The Avengers? You think Thor couldn\u2019t beat down Morlun? Think Sue Richards couldn\u2019t trap him in a force field, and\/or put one around his head until he passes out? Dr. Strange? A lil\u2019 Crimson Bands of Cyttorak action? I mean, for the purposes of this story, I\u2019m sure they\u2019d be \u201cout of town\u201d as they always are, but not even thinking to try? Makes Spider-Man seem dumb and even weirdly self-centered, like he\u2019s the only one who can do this when he knows there are smarter and more powerful superheroes just blocks away, potentially. This issue pauses for a house ad for MAX Comics. This was to be Marvel\u2019s line of mature books set in the Marvel U, something no one had attempted before. The first book in the line was Alias, Jessica Jones\u2019 debut. That, obviously, worked out pretty well. Most of the other MAX material is pretty forgettable to me, tho Garth Ennis\u2019 Punisher has its fans. Well, anyway, Spider-Man arrives at the scene of Morlun\u2019s destruction, and finds him holding a child by the leg. He throws the kid and says \u201cfetch,\u201d and this provides Spider-Man the rage he needs for a second wind. He catches the kid, and even though he knows he can\u2019t win, he\u2019s now too angry to care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Solid gag. He uses that quarter not to call the FF or the Avengers or, like the Pentagon, but to call in sick to work, which is\u2026 so in character. As he waits for Morlun to come get him, he wonders if he could just let this one be someone else\u2019s problem, just once, and decides he can\u2019t. How\u2026 could he? He\u2019s already established he can\u2019t escape. Ah, well, doesn\u2019t matter. Morlun;s back and once again has a hostage, holding a woman by the throat. That gets him smashed in the back with a lamppost. Spidey thinks maybe this is how he wins, keep beating on him without getting too close, but then Morlun grabs the pole and slams Spidey into a wall. And that\u2019s about it for him. He\u2019s broken, and Morlun is looming over him, saying he regrets having to do this. Spidey manages to web the bumper of a passing car and drag himself down the street, painfully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For all that so many people have tried to write grim, dark, \u201cmature\u201d Spider-Man stories over the preceding decades, Peter knowing this is it and trying to get right with the people he loves before he dies is so much more powerful. Spider-Man leaps onto Morlun, grabbing him by the head, trying to get some kind of leverage, but Morlun takes him by the throat, and it\u2019s about over when Morlun gets whacked in the back of the head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ezekiel falls into the water. Morlun says that was not filling, but nice, and that he thinks he\u2019ll go have a cappuccino. He just walks off. Spidey dives in after Ezekiel, finding nothing. But he remembers Big E actually drawing blood in the fight. Spidey pulls up the wood plank with Morlun\u2019s blood on it and swings home to look at it under a microscope. He finds Morlun\u2019s cells are an amalgam of every kind of animal. He guesses Morlun\u2019s cells break down and need periodic recharging, hence the \u201cfeeding.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Building to an intense finale! By now, I think pretty much all of us were all the way in on this new era of ASM. It\u2019s still thrilling all these years later. It\u2019s kinda like Superman\u2019s Doomsday story, the hero set against a villain he can\u2019t possibly beat. Or can he?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jumping right into it, Ezekiel explains that the elaborate room he built for Peter was only to keep Morlun from finding him. Now that Morlun\u2019s touched him, it\u2019s too late, and there\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23593,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1864,1],"tags":[1863,35,1982,1985,1983,1981,118,1984,417,2],"class_list":["post-23622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2000s","category-uncategorized","tag-amazing-spider-man-vol-2","tag-aunt-may","tag-dan-kemp","tag-dex","tag-ezekiel","tag-j-michael-straczynski","tag-john-romita-jr","tag-morlun","tag-scott-hanna","tag-spider-man"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23622","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=23622"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23623,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23622\/revisions\/23623"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}