The Chi-Town Breakdown: ASM: 61

Intro:  New Costume (that nobody really likes)!  New Job!  New Spider-Era has come into the mix!  Will we get the continuation from ASM 60 last splash page?  NOPE!  If you feel like Butters from Southpark asking David Benioff when the Dragons will appear on Game of Thrones, but Nick Spencer keeps telling us.  “Oh don’t worry, OMD resolution is coming, it’ll be here..but first…”, you are not alone.  So I highly suggest for you to sit back and enjoy the ride.  We got mob villains all hating Fred Meyers!  What more could you ask for?

                   
(Writer) Nick Spencer
(Artist) Patrick Gleason
(Colorist) Edgar Delgado
(Letterer) VC’s Joe Caramagna
(Editor) Nick Lowe
(EIC) C.B. Cebulski
Date Released 3/10/2021
Issue Number #61
Price Tag: $3.99
For a different perspective:
Alford’s Notes and Read’s Reads

Story Time:  Spider-Man is dressed up in his new digs stopping a bank robbery.  Wilson Fisk is putting the finishing touches on his first new reality tv show.  It’s basically Sopranos and The Amazing Race mixed into one.  The goal to this race is whomever brings Boomerang back alive to Fisk gets a “Get out of Jail” free card.  An immunity from being arrested as long as Wilson Fisk is the mayor.  Peter’s new suit comes straight from Norah Winter’s Company “Threat or Menaces” with J. Jonah Jameson new role “guy in the chair”.  Boomerang is using “Gog-zooky” to impress girls, unknowns to him that Bullseye is ready to sniper out the cute factor.

The Breakdown:
The New Job
Interactive Madness
Robertson Rivalry
Everybody Hates Boomerang
Nitpics
Grade

The New Job:  Peter’s job consists of one thing.  He gets paid to tell Spider-Man’s story.  If you wanna know what Spidey is feeling, what he likes to eat, why he’s a crimefighter, what movies he watches, who he looks for in a soulmate, what is his favorite band…Peter Parker is the one to go to, so basically Peter is Spidey’s PR person.  Now with the exception of Jameson, no one at the staff KNOWS that Peter is Spider-Man, so to make sure Spidey story stays exclusive to Threats and Menaces, they provide a suit that makes him stronger, faster, and let’s subscribers to T&M see things from Spidey’s POV and PAY him as well.  That’s right folks.  Peter is getting TWO paychecks!  I think we all know this will backfire on Peter, it’s in the cards.  Peter needs the cashflow though, so he takes the job.  Not everyone (the readers) like the costume and I think Spencer is aware of this!  I think he decided, let’s make a costume in order to make fun of it.  This whole gimmick is a publicity stunt for T&M.  Gotta give props to Spencer for making Peter’s job more modern, it truly is not too different than taking pictures of himself at the Daily Bugle.  Now if you remember back in ASM 40 the mastermind behind all of this is the Chameleon.  So this career path will play heavily in the current issues ahead.  I’m actually pretty excited about it.  It’s a nice break from the Kindred storyline which I think Spencer wants us to take a break from. It’ll be there when we get back.

Enhanced Strength –
Enhanced Speed –
All  wearable surveillance tech aguments Spider Sense – 
Strength in web shooters – 
Made of  unstable modules for easy changing – 
Built in microphone – 
Lenses connected to private server for interactive experience – 

Interactive Madness:  Look out TikTok and step aside Twitch, here comes “The Amazing Thwip&Stitch”!  This new job is basically another interactive streaming platform for users to see and BE Spider-Man.  More clicks Norah’s site gets, the more profit it makes.  Remember how Facebook, Twitter, Instgram, and YouTube were free?  They still are, but now you have to wait for a sponsor’s commercial to air before you can tap the “skip ad” part to enjoy the content.  Or PAY for no commercials.  The more “cool factor” it generates, the more profit it can intake.  Due understand that under Spencer’s pen, Peter isn’t too fond of this kind of spotlight, however it does generate income for him and given his current situation of unemployment, he’s not going to pass up on it.

I also like how Spencer delivers the reality of what Social Media can do.  If you have something unique that NO ONE else has and share it with the world, people will flock to it.  I can actually see Boomerang say something of the line of “Join my Patreon and you can have a ZOOM meeting with GOG himself!”  or “help GOG get up to 400K followers and he’ll give away a piece of his scales to ONE lucky fan.  It could be YOU!”.  Social media is apart of pop culture and Spider-Man comics reflect that, it’s what makes the Marvel Universe so unique, because these stories happen in REAL places and the atmosphere that surrounds them.  Social media is our reflective norm as of right now, so Spencer delightfully uses that to his advantage in story telling.  I like how he even adds that Boomerang is kind of following Screwball’s stitch.

Robertson Rivalry:  The way news and journalism on how it’s being spread now and days, there are some that refuse to accept it.  Like Robbie Robertson.  Spencer delivers the opposing side to social media and “clickbait” sites.  Newspapers aren’t dead, just print.  People now and days relay on tablets and smartphones to obtain current events and Robertson/The Daily Bugle tries the filter the REAL news from the “clickbait”.  The Bugle is going to do a story on the family business of The Beetle and Tombstone.  This too will generate into future issues.  Spencer brining it to the fold on how both fathers are going to deal that with the fact that their kids are dating each other.  Romeo and Juliet or the classic mob boss rivalry stories that I know Spencer can deliver on.

Everybody Hates Boomerang:  The finalization of terms has been placed.  With the likes of Hammerhead, Mr. Negative, Silvermane, Tombstone, Owl, ect…Fred has a lot of haters coming after him.  Fisk wants that lifeline tablet.  The others want that immunity clearance.  Of course this will lead to a Spidey/Boomerang team up and that’s something we want!  Besides getting Peter and Mary Jane right both in chemistry and characterization, Spencer SHINES when it comes to Boomerang/Spider-Man team up.  We’ve seen it done before and now we get to see it again.  I can only imagine the lengths that Fred is going to go through just to get out of this mess.  It never makes sense, it all seems to work out and it’s hysterical to read!

Nitpicks:

• Anyone else felt this “Get out of Jail” card seems appropriate?  I mean Iron Man gets away with A LOT of crap, so seeing this artistically play out, brings a smile to my face.
  
• Tombstone has been monitoring Fred Meyers for awhile and panels seem to show how dangerous close he is to putting two and two together about Peter being Spider-Man.

Grade:  Giving this one a B-.  I was going to get it a high C but reread it again and it changed my grade.  What brought it down was, although I like Gleason’s art, he didn’t seem that much on his A-Game and would’ve like a cameo from Mary Jane or Aunt May for that matter.  However this issue gets me REALLY EXCITED about what’s to come.  Let’s go through the checklist.

Spidey/Boomerang Team Up
Mob Villain Stories
Kingpin Stories
Chameleon Stories

All with a new suit that allows Jameson to scream in Peter’s ear about how he should take down the bad guys.  It’s a good rest period between Kindred and that HUGE splash page reveal in ASM 60.  Just sit back and enjoy the ride, folks.  Spencer will deliver what we’ve been waiting for soon enough.