{"id":493,"date":"2019-04-26T00:00:51","date_gmt":"2019-04-26T04:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deweybass.com\/spiderman\/?p=493"},"modified":"2019-10-16T20:18:34","modified_gmt":"2019-10-17T00:18:34","slug":"asm-119","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/2019\/04\/26\/asm-119\/","title":{"rendered":"ASM 119"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The original version of this post explained that I had to read ASM 119 & 120 out of a reprint in ASM Annual 12 because these issues were too pricey for me. That was a long time ago. But then, just a few months ago, I found 120 for a surprisingly low price on ebay, and went to mycomicshop.com to find a surprisingly affordable 119. I have no idea why the stars aligned like this, but these books I routinely see for $50+ were mine for under $20 each, so we can look at the real thing! Someone has written “30\u00a2” in pencil on the top right corner of page one.
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The reason for these issues’ usual expense is, of course, The Hulk, making only his 2nd appearance in the main title (The first being ASM 14) and 3rd overall if you count Annual 3. For being two of Marvel’s most popular character, they didn’t see each other too often. Peter’s come to Doc Ock’s place to deliver an urgent telegram to Aunt May, but as he sneaks into the compound…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Aunt May says she’s doing well, so after they chat awhile, Peter takes off. I note he doesn’t have a webpack to carry his clothes. He swung in as Spidey, switched to Pete, and now is Spidey again, carrying the telegram in his waist band, no normal clothes on him. Ah, well. When he gets home, he reads the telegram, and it turns out to be an urgent summons to discuss something in person with a Canadian lawyer named Jean-Pierre Rimbaud. Peter\u2019s still mulling this over as he heads outside, just in time to see Harry Osborn talking to his dad on the street. Suddenly, Harry doubles over, clearly very sick, falling into Peter’s arms, but Norman furiously tells him to unhand his son. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Peter walks off, worrying that Norman might have another Goblin episode. He decides he wants to go see this Rimbaud in Aunt May’s place but doesn’t know how he could afford it.
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JJJ buys in, but I\u2019d love to know how Peter could promise Spider-Man would randomly show up in Canada. With that settled, Pete heads right to the airport and heads to Montreal.
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Miss Delon says she\u2019ll look through Rimbaud\u2019s files on Aunt May and he can come back later for the info… and dinner. This is perhaps the beginning of the 70s \u201cLadies can\u2019t get enough of Peter Parker\u201d phase. For a guy who\u2019s supposed to be a loser and\/or \u201can everyman,\u201d it begins to seem like every female human being on Earth is trying to get some of that in a few years. Pete leaves kind of oblivious to her advances, though, because he\u2019s just seen General Thunderbolt Ross entering a building across the street. Using his press pass, he\u2019s able to get into a briefing where, and I know you won\u2019t believe this, Ross wants the Canadian people to know that The Hulk is here, and they have to kill him.
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General Ross is not the deepest character. Peter tries to join the press accompanying the joint US\/Canadian military offensive to fight the Hulk, but he\u2019s not a regular correspondent, so they don\u2019t want to take him. So he just leaps in the back of a truck full of reporters. They\u2019re so impressed by his jump, they even take him in. Hey, why not? A caravan of military and the press travel an hour out into the wilderness, only for The Hulk to announce his appearance by casually picking up the press truck and dumping all the reporters out the back and down a small cliff. This gives Peter a chance to get away from them, and thus\u2026
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Hulk is so caught off guard that he lets the kick knock him down a hill, but Spidey knows he just got lucky. He sets up his camera and hopes he\u2019s not about to get killed, but his intervention has given the military a chance to get there and set up for battle. There is typical Hulk vs. the military business\u2026
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I confess I have never been the biggest Hulk fan. While there are definite exceptions (Most assuredly including Al Ewing & Joe Bennett\u2019s current run), I find the Hulk to be the most repetitive and shallow of the major superhero concepts. I mean, how many times has he had this same fight with various doomed military units? How many times has Ross thought this time would be different for no obvious reason? You could argue all heroes fight their villains over and over, but there’s just not as much variety or nuance to this relationship. It\u2019s just not terribly exciting stuff to me. I guess that’s why this isn’t a Hulk blog. Anyway, the big rock he threw would\u2019ve surely killed about a dozen soldiers if Spidey didn\u2019t web it up and send it slamming back into the Hulk, which only makes him madder. He gets so mad he just leaves, unfortunately for everyone, hopping off in the direction of the Maskattawan Dam.
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I know I say this a lot, but look at those perfect John Romita Spider-Men. This is exactly what Spidey looks like when I picture him in my mind. The Hulk has now made it to the dam, and is just wailing on it. As the military convoy arrives, Spider-Man hitching a ride on top, a horrified Spidey realizes he\u2019s in way over his head here. He makes for the control room of the dam, hoping to lower the water level to decrease the mess Hulk can make. For his part, when he sees Spidey, the Hulk starts swinging a giant girder at him, doing a lot more damage in the process. Spidey manages to lower the water level, but as water begins to pour out of the dam, Hulk is not happy at all.
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As the area begins to flood, Spidey hear\u2019s Hulk bellowing about how he just wanted the water to stop and why won\u2019t anything ever listen to Hulk, and thinks maybe he understands now that the Hulk doesn\u2019t want to hurt anyone, he just doesn\u2019t know how to deal with the world around him…
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I sure hope Spider-Man doesn’t drown! Come back next time for the rest of this story. Man, this original copy looks better than the reprint! I can’t believe I got away with this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The original version of this post explained that I had to read ASM 119 & 120 out of a reprint in ASM Annual 12 because these issues were too pricey for me….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3197,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[9,35,73,22,59,17,39,2,90],"class_list":["post-493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1970s","tag-amazing-spider-man","tag-aunt-may","tag-gerry-conway","tag-harry-osborn","tag-hulk","tag-john-romita","tag-norman-osborn","tag-spider-man","tag-thunderbolt-ross"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493","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=493"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3223,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493\/revisions\/3223"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}