{"id":8,"date":"2019-03-28T00:00:26","date_gmt":"2019-03-28T05:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deweybass.com\/spiderman\/?p=8"},"modified":"2019-03-04T20:52:11","modified_gmt":"2019-03-05T01:52:11","slug":"asm-103","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/2019\/03\/28\/asm-103\/","title":{"rendered":"ASM 103"},"content":{"rendered":"

So, to answer the question from last post about when Marvel Comics would go back to 32 pages from 52, the answer is \u201cimmediately.\u201d Like, this issue. That\u2019s weird. Chaos in the accounting department. Anyway, look at that wild cover. This is going to be a weird one. Our story begins as they often do, with Spider-Man stopping a robbery. He\u2019s distracted, though, because he has no idea how to talk to Gwen after having to ditch her the last few days. He swings away critiquing his own banter.<\/p>\n

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I feel like Spidey\u2019s really overselling how often people used to say \u201cpardon my palm,\u201d but I dunno, I wasn\u2019t there. The late night meeting at The Bugle, featuring JJJ, Robbie and a roomful of allegedly important people we have never seen and may never see again, has to do with the paper being in trouble. There are a lot of causes, but JJJ says the biggest is television. He says they can\u2019t compete with TV, even as he has the TV on during a meeting, and then immediately gets engrossed in said TV. Kinda proves his point, I guess. A dude is on the Dick Cavett show is saying he encountered a monster in Antarctica. He\u2019s drawn a sketch\u2026<\/p>\n

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JJJ has his mind made up in an instant. The Bugle is going to The Savage Land. Ka-Zar, a transparent Tarzan knockoff who lives in a secret prehistoric jungle, has appeared in ASM a couple times, so JJJ knows all about it. Specifically, JJJ is going to go himself, and he wants Peter Parker to take the pictures. Robbie doesn\u2019t think it\u2019s right to send \u201csomeone Peter\u2019s age\u201d to such a dangerous place (As opposed to\u2026?), but Jonah isn\u2019t hearing it. The next day, Peter is doing a terrible job of patching things up with Gwen (\u201cI wish I could tell you where I was, but I just can\u2019t.\u201d Airtight. Bulletproof. Great work), when Robbie calls.<\/p>\n

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As Peter drags Gwen off down the hall, we look back in on JJJ, who is brooding about the trip. He says something is missing, something he can\u2019t put his finger on. Then Pete & Gwen show up. Pete says he has something to say, but JJJ cuts him off. He\u2019s found the missing ingredient:<\/p>\n

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I know this story, and I don\u2019t know why. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve read this issue. Certainly didn\u2019t own it until just recently. Maybe it was referenced in a later comic. Maybe it\u2019ll come to me. Anyway, I\u2019m not sure Roy Thomas has much of a handle on what \u201cmale chauvinist pig\u201d means, but Gwen eventually says she\u2019ll go. There\u2019s a montage of everyone getting ready and traveling over the next 48 hours while Robbie worries that this thing is so expensive that it will either save The Bugle or kill it, and then our gang lands in Antarctica. JJJ, Pete, Gwen & Calkin, the guy from TV (I don\u2019t think he\u2019s gotten a first name yet) stop at an army base, then head out to find the way into The Savage Land\u2026<\/p>\n

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Intense! I remember now: Spider-Man Saga. Marvel did a miniseries in the 90s recapping Spidey\u2019s life to that point, prose with lots of panels from the original comics. That\u2019s where I saw (some) of this, and a lot of other classic Spidey moments for the first time. Anyway, the gang land their helicopter in the jungle, seemingly with no particular destination in mind, and disembark. JJJ is raring to go, and tells Gwen to \u201cget into her outfit.\u201d Peter has no idea what this means, and that\u2019s creepy enough, but then\u2026<\/p>\n

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The printing error on JJJ\u2019s face only makes that more uncomfortable. On the next page, they\u2019ve found a big statue of a monster with a gong at the base. Calkin\u2019s here to prove he\u2019s not crazy. He just wants pictures of the monster. JJJ\u2019s here for the whole spectacle. He decides Ka-Zar must\u2019ve made this gong, and rings it before anyone can stop him. Someone should have stopped him.<\/p>\n

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The, uh, locals advance on our heroes, but are afraid of the statue. And with good reason, it turns out, because they\u2019re not the only ones it summoned\u2026<\/p>\n

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That is\u2026 a very weird design. GOG reaches down and picks up Gwen, because of course he does, and Peter Parker pulls a pistol on him and starts shooting! Whaaaaat? He can\u2019t hurt the thing, it\u2019s too tough, but whaaaaaat? Pete grabs the expedition\u2019s \u201cgas bombs\u201d and chases off after the escaping Gog. But Gog slaps the crap out of him. Slaps him what looks like a distance of miles, over Calkin & JJJ\u2019s head, and then off a cliff and down a waterfall. Sheesh.<\/p>\n

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J. Jonah Jameson: Avenger! Pete\u2019s fine somehow. He wore his Spidey suit just in case, and even though he thinks Spider-Man showing up here will blow his secret, he doesn\u2019t care with Gwen\u2019s life on the line. So why change at all, I ask you? If he\u2019s willing to come clean, just swing up there as Peter Parker. Ah, well, I don\u2019t write \u2018em. At any rate, in the meantime, Gog has taken Gwen to his new friend\u2026 Kraven the Hunter. What? Yes. He just happens to be here, too. Gwen recognizes Kraven from past Spidey adventures, and he seems to know her, too. She wants to know why Gog took here and not the others\u2026<\/p>\n

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Oy. While this is happening, JJJ and Calkin stomp through the jungle until they\u2019re face-to-face with Zabu, Ka-Zar\u2019s sabretooth tiger companion. JJJ panics and runs, but of course, he\u2019s in no danger, and then Ka-Zar appears. JJJ explains his situation, and Ka-Zar takes off to save Gwen.<\/p>\n

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He\u2019s not the only one, though, as we find Spider-Man leaping through the trees following Gog\u2019s huge footprints. He winds up in a fight with a giant snake that I guess he just straight up murders\u2026<\/p>\n

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\u2026and then finally sees Gog off in the distance. But Gog just crossed a river, and Spidey is afraid of what might be living in said river, so he bends back a tree and uses it to slingshot himself over the river\u2026<\/p>\n

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Trying to get in all the cliches we can, I guess. Come back next time, for the conclusion of this especially wacky adventure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So, to answer the question from last post about when Marvel Comics would go back to 32 pages from 52, the answer is \u201cimmediately.\u201d Like, this issue. That\u2019s weird. Chaos in the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3016,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[9,41,5,16,13,46,45,44,47,2],"class_list":["post-8","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1970s","tag-amazing-spider-man","tag-frank-giacoia","tag-gil-kane","tag-gwen-stacy","tag-j-jonah-jameson","tag-ka-zar","tag-kraven-the-hunter","tag-roy-thomas","tag-savage-land","tag-spider-man"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8","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=8"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3041,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8\/revisions\/3041"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}