{"id":2414,"date":"2019-11-29T00:00:43","date_gmt":"2019-11-29T04:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deweybass.com\/spiderman\/?p=2414"},"modified":"2019-05-31T14:07:34","modified_gmt":"2019-05-31T18:07:34","slug":"tac-215","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/2019\/11\/29\/tac-215\/","title":{"rendered":"TAC 215"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Our 3rd issue of TAC in this era is our first by its new regular-esque creative team. Sal Buscema is still doing all the line art, joined by colorist Glynis Oliver, previously credited on this blog as Glynis Wein, but, well, sometimes things don\u2019t work out. And the plot is by none other than Tom DeFalco. He just can\u2019t stay away. But he\u2019s also Editor-in-Chief of Marvel Comics during their most insanely busy period in history, so he often just supplies plots, and the script is done by someone else. Usually Todd DeZago, but this issue, it\u2019s Mike Lackey. Tom & Sal are here for a year or so. And, look, Spidey\u2019s gonna cross a line. Aren\u2019t you excited? As we get going, The Scorpion is in the sewer, and he\u2019s mad about it.
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Land sakes, the East Coast\u2019s ultimate magnate in fine China! Who is this mischievous gnome? It\u2019s hilarious how evil he looks. Does he hang out in sewers, too? He doesn\u2019t look like it. He also doesn\u2019t seem to have come here specifically looking for Scorpy. Speaking of whom, since we last saw him, Todd McFarlane added a big blade to his tail, but otherwise, pretty much the same thing. So, I guess he\u2019s gonna pal around with the plate man. Next page, we learn plate man has had \u201ca breakdown\u201d and disappeared. His son has come to The Daily Bugle hoping they can help him find him. JJJ says he\u2019s known the guy for a long time, and they\u2019ll have The Bugle\u2019s full support. Robbie asks Kate Cushing to put Peter Parker on it, but she hasn\u2019t been able to get ahold of him in a week. Teed right up, we go see Peter, moping in his apartment alone. Kate tries him again. He actually answers! But he says he\u2019s not interested.
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Not sure why that caught his ear, but it\u2019s nice that something did. Cussler and Scorpion have broken into one of his stores (I assume he as more than one. Right?). Scorpion lets us know he HATES computers as Cussler sits down to one. He says his son forced him out of the business, so now he\u2019s destroying their financial records to get him in trouble with the IRS. Scorpy thinks this guy could help him get revenge on Spider-Man as they move on to cracking the safe.
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Ladies & Gentlemen, it\u2019s Angela Yin, the 2nd new photographer on The Bugle staff introduced in the last couple months. Unlike Cole Cooper, she\u2019ll actually hang around for awhile. JJJ looks deranged at the bottom there. Meanwhile, Spider-Man is swinging around looking for Scorpion when he spies one of his informants. But also meanwhile, the mystery man is on the streets of New York, thinking May Parker needs him, that she\u2019s the only person he\u2019d risk coming back to New York for, when he sees a child running out in front of a speeding truck, and thinks he can\u2019t let the kid be harmed.
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You have to have this by now, right? I feel like Sal Buscema\u2019s kind of giving the game away. Spidey\u2019s informant didn\u2019t get him anywhere, though, and he swings around for hours not knowing where Scorpion will strike next. Nowhere, as it turns out, he\u2019s having a candlelit dinner with his new best friend\u2026 in the sewer still\u2026
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Alright. Cussler\u2019s son, JJJ & Angela have used a computer at one of the stores to figure out which one they\u2019ll hit next, and Spider-Man\u2019s figured it out, too,  so everyone\u2019s converging on one of the locations, including a bunch of good, old fashioned goons. Been awhile since we saw any goons. Spidey trounces them instantly. Inside, Cussler gives Scorpion some fighting advice, and then Scorpy lets Spider-Man see him climb down into the sewer.
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That dialogue is\u2026 insane. That footnote is hilarious. Spidey sure doesn\u2019t seem like The Spider in this book, but don\u2019t let the end of SM 50 fool you. This issue was published the month before. It\u2019s just wildly inconsistent writing from series to series. From here, it\u2019s a straight brawl, the likes of which we\u2019ve not really seen before.
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It\u2019s watching! What is it? Maybe we\u2019ll find out. Up top, peering into a manhole, Cussler assumes Spider-Man\u2019s beaten all the goons since it\u2019s suddenly gotten quiet. Then his kid, JJJ and Angela spot him. He brandishes a wrench and tells them to stay back. In the sewer, Spidey is finally attacked by Scorpion.
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Back where they came from, some of the goons are waking up, and they\u2019re attacked by the thing in the sewer. Their screams distract Spider-Man, who nearly gets got as a result. Nearly. Instead, he puts a beating on Scorpion, who finally goes down. Spidey then goes to see what\u2019s up with the goons. He finds a slime trail, like a giant slug had been through the tunnel, but otherwise, nothing. He hears the goons up ahead, running and screaming, but he can\u2019t figure out why, and leaves.
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The line has been crossed. Spidey punched an old guy. I mean\u2026 I dunno, right? An old guy attacking him? The villain of this story? Yeah, a real power mismatch, but it\u2019s not like he kicked a baby or something. But since everyone, including Spider-Man, thinks Cussler was kidnapped by Scorpion\u2026 rough times. I\u2019ve had this issue since it came out, but I don\u2019t remember it. I remember the big Line Crossing, but I didn\u2019t even remember who Spidey hit. It\u2019s funny, I could see that panel in my mind, but I woulda told you he hit someone else, in particular. But I\u2019m not going to say who. I was conflating it with something that comes later.
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Our 3rd issue of TAC in this era is our first by its new regular-esque creative team. Sal Buscema is still doing all the line art, joined by colorist Glynis Oliver, previously…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2417,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[410],"tags":[438,250,13,26,286,436,437,37,160,121,2,124],"class_list":["post-2414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1990s","tag-angela-yin","tag-glynis-wein","tag-j-jonah-jameson","tag-joe-robertson","tag-kate-cushing","tag-mike-lackey","tag-phillip-cussler","tag-sal-buscema","tag-scorpion","tag-spectacular-spider-man","tag-spider-man","tag-tom-defalco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2414","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=2414"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4595,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2414\/revisions\/4595"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}