{"id":9662,"date":"2021-07-09T00:00:43","date_gmt":"2021-07-09T04:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/?p=9662"},"modified":"2020-06-17T20:44:08","modified_gmt":"2020-06-18T00:44:08","slug":"asm-super-special","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/2021\/07\/09\/asm-super-special\/","title":{"rendered":"ASM Super Special"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

So this doesn\u2019t seem to fit anywhere in the timeline. It began publication during the previous block and ended 3 months ago, where we are now. It all clearly takes place after Aunt May died, but Peter isn\u2019t in jail, or an emo sycophant for The Jackal. Who knows? I just put it here, I give up. This comic, and the 5-part story it kicks off, are all new to me. I\u2019d heard of these Super Specials, but didn\u2019t get them. This was to be David Michelinie returning to explain where symbiotes come from (100 issues on ASM and he just never found the time, I guess), so it was on my radar, at least. I haven\u2019t read it, but I have read the 2010s Guardians of the Galaxy story that flatly refutes it. Let\u2019s see what was retconned. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michelinie is joined by Dave Hoover, Ralph Cabrera & Tom Smith, and they being their story with Spider-Man being shot at by \u201cneo-ludites who want to eliminate technology,\u201d but as he points out, they\u2019re trying to accomplish their goals with stolen laser rifles. They were trying to destroy some fancy science machine. In the fight, Spidey kicks it through the whole roof of the warehouse they\u2019re in. And wouldn\u2019t you know it, Venom is brooding just a few blocks away and sees it. Specifically, Eddie was brooding about whether Venom\u2019s homicidal tendencies are a group decision or just the alien\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hoover is really hewing to Bagley\u2019s Spider-Man here. As the fighting continues, Venom webs a guy up and does the tired old threats to eat his brain, but then\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Somehow, everyone but Spidey and that guy have fled the building by the very next panel (???), so he webs up the goon and leaves. He thinks about seeing Venom hesitate, and as he goes, Venom watches him, and he thinks about it, too, worrying his ability to protect the innocent is being compromised. After a visit with MJ, Spidey goes to 4 Freedoms Plaza to research the symbiote on Reed Richards\u2019 computer (Reed is currently \u201cdead,\u201d so Ben lets him in). Which just entails him reading his own personal history with it just in case you don\u2019t know it, it\u2019s very silly. But then he sees a \u201cSperzel\u201d in the computer, and finds out it\u2019s Anton Sperzel, a \u201ccybernetics genius\u201d he\u2019d previously heard of in physics class. And guess what, he\u2019s going to be demonstrating a new device today. What luck!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Time for some exposition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Spidey & Thing arrive and get into it, but of course of the technology-hating villains easily figures out how ot use the cybernetic helmet and control the big machine. Spidey keeps fighting the goons while Ben takes on the big robot. Even still, one guy almost kills Sperzel, but Venom shows up and saves him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ben destroys the robot as Spidey beats the last goon, but Venom flees in the chaos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We\u2019re a long way from ASM 317<\/a>, when they were physically incapable of separating. The angry and rejected symbiote slithers away and then lets out a \u201cpsychic wail\u201d into space. That\u2019s probably bad news. It sends people all over the area into a depression somehow, and makes the currently comatose Cletus Kasady (Alliteration!) smile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Seems like trouble! You know, I guess the \u201cSuper Specials\u201d replaced annuals this year. There are no 1995 annuals, and Marvel\u2019s approach to annuals in 1996 is different. Maybe they were just trying something new. There follows a story of The Steel Spider. Have we seen him yet? It\u2019s Ollie Osnick, the former \u201cSpider-Kid,\u201d having grown up, lost weight, and become a very 90s character. This story picks up threads of the as-yet-unread Spider-Man Unlimited 5, and features a villain from another not-yet-posted story, and has no Spider-Man in it, so I\u2019m not gonna talk about it, but he looks like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mm hm. But these Super Specials are also flipbooks, and here\u2019s the cover to the other side:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kinda funny\u00a0 to see a sad rip off of McFarlane\u2019s Spider-Man #1 cover on this blog before the real thing. The Scarlet Spider is brought to us by Terry Kavanagh, Mike Lackey, Phil Goser, Greg Adams, Tom Christopher & Chia Chi Wang. A lot of personnel on this. Ben has gone to visit Aunt May\u2019s grave, spending 4 pages recapping his whole deal as he swings to his apartment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Meanwhile, a team of 7 generic super-mercenary-types called \u201cShadowforce Alpha\u201d (hilarious), show off their various weapons and powers and I am so bored with them already after 2 pages. Surely Ben won\u2019t fight these lames for all 5 specials. Ben gets cleaned up and goes to see neighbor and potential love interest Gabrielle Greer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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At Empire State Hospital, a very ill foreign leader in the US as a refugee named \u201cCol. Broga\u201d is not responding to treatment, and then his doctor goes to interview Ben for a job. But his Spider Sense goes crazy as a waiting room explodes. The Feds make sure Broga is ok, but little do they know they have an ally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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More of the Shadowlames get to Broga and inject something into his IV. Ben just webs the bald lady up so she can\u2019t flip her switch. Still more Shadowlames smash through the window to Broga\u2019s room, setting his main guard on fire and shooting him out a window (The 90s!). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Shadowwhatevers flee as their 2 heavies shoot a missile into the room from across the street, killing Ben Reilly forever, probably. And what of the big guy who got set on fire? You\u2019d think he was dead, but\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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W.. what? How could The Lizard possibly be related to whatever was happening there? I am honestly not sure when these take place. It\u2019s clearly after ASM 400, but\u2026 I\u2019m not sure when or how. The Spider-Man story could be before ASM 400, but the Scarlet Spider one is clearly after. Continuity is so bad right now. An ad in this book for these books says they will be illustrated by \u201ctop talent.\u201d No truth in advertising…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So this doesn\u2019t seem to fit anywhere in the timeline. It began publication during the previous block and ended 3 months ago, where we are now. It all clearly takes place after…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9674,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[410],"tags":[9,455,413,259,592,930,21,436,597,928,2,929,423,663,931,706,409],"class_list":["post-9662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1990s","tag-amazing-spider-man","tag-ben-reilly","tag-chia-chi-wang","tag-david-michelinie","tag-gabrielle-greer","tag-greg-adams","tag-mary-jane-watson","tag-mike-lackey","tag-phil-gosier","tag-ralph-cabrera","tag-spider-man","tag-steel-spider","tag-terry-kavanagh","tag-the-thing","tag-tom-christopher","tag-tom-smith","tag-venom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9662","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=9662"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9678,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9662\/revisions\/9678"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}