The Ballad of Jonah and Norman, Act One

[cyberghostface.insanejournal.com]

 

Here's something that I thought would be interesting...

In Amazing Spider-Man #595, this scene between Spider-Man's two worst enemies occurred...



Jonah's just being Jonah, right? What you may not know, however, is prior to the reboot the two shared quite an interesting relationship, one that seems to be have forgotten now (or is it...? I'll gladly eat crow if I'm wrong).

Let's turn back the clock, all the way to the Lee/Ditko run of Amazing. Norman's first two appearances before he was even properly introduced were with Jolly Jonah himself.

In #23...



...and in #25.



In #37, when he was first identified as being Norman...





I don't see this stuff as being that important in the grand scheme of things when discussing the two's conflict, but when looking through the "archives" (my ASM DVD-ROM) I did find it kind've neat that how the two were connected way back when.

The next scene comes from Peter Parker: Spider-Man #75. This takes place quite a bit later, of course: by this point, Osborn had been assumed dead and had finally returned to be revealed as the mastermind of the Clone Saga.











Now, to get to the good stuff...

In Spectacular Spider-Man #246...





This doesn't look too good.





Next issue...













Later, during a fight with Mad Jack...





In #248, Jonah survives the attempt on his life and John has no recollection of anything happening. Needless to say, the police and the press are hounding the Jameson family.











Later, after Marla's done with a shower...











Dun...dun...DUN. Bet you didn't see that coming, did you?

Finally, in #249...





At the Bugle...









NEXT: Stormin' Norman proceeds to make Jonah his bitch. How long will Jolly Jonah take it?

Comments

[tavella.insanejournal.com]

Wow, Jonah's being awfully kiss-ass to a cop murderer in that AMS page. Whatever happened to his hate-on for people who kill NYC cops? And his general contraryism?

Though I guess the older stuff suggests he's been pretty kiss-ass before. Still, I think JJJ is a hell of a lot more interesting when he's a good newspaperman and a strong person than the just-rotten-person version.

[arilou_skiff.insanejournal.com]

Jonah has always been kind of easily taken in by hobnobs. He is then inevitably disappointed.

[xandertarbert.insanejournal.com]

Yeah, it's really weird. Norman's a known killer, has tried to destroy the Bugle and own it, and is the kid of rich scum JJJ usually hates.

[mullon.insanejournal.com]

"I got caught in my zipper! This is all Spiderman's fault!"

[rab62.insanejournal.com]

On a side note:

This post brings home that over the years, Spider-Man has featured some awesomely good art and some...not so awesomely good art. That may be setting the bar way too high, comparing anyone to Ditko at his peak, but some of that drawing above is awfully dodgy by any standard.

[thehefner.insanejournal.com]

So okay, I haven't been following Spidey post-BND, but does Jonah still have the shaky (to say the least) history with his father that he had in that TANGLED WEB issue "Behind the Mustache"?

Because if I recall correctly, I don't think THAT Mr. Jameson (senior) is an ideal romantic candidate for May.

[thanekos.insanejournal.com]

" Later issues of Amazing Spider-Man clarified that David Jameson was in fact Jonah's stepfather, and the brother of J. Jonah Jameson Sr., Jonah's biological father, who had to leave his son behind for undisclosed reasons. "

So Yeah.

[stig.insanejournal.com]

And thus began the story which Dark Reign is essentially ripping off.

Characteristic of Mackie that we never find out the connection between Mad Jack & Marla. Sure, we know that Jack was sometimes a remote-controlled robot, sometimes the original Mysterio's long-lost sister, and sometimes the fake Mysterio who Jonah had once hired and then not released from jail. That's definitely who we see hovering over the hospital bed - but apart from that, we get nothing.

[heat16.insanejournal.com]

Go to Hades?

Wha?

[jlroberson.insanejournal.com]

In the old days they had to say that instead of "hell." Also such gems as "blasted" for "damned." I can't remember others offhand.

[jlroberson.insanejournal.com]

My, I never thought Jonah was as short as that.

[xandertarbert.insanejournal.com]

Wow, I didn't notice that. He's like a hate filled cigar smoking hobbit.

[angelophile.insanejournal.com]

Ohh, I had the issues of The Pulse all lined up to post tonight, but given this much more in depth retrospective I'll hold off.

This just goes to highlight that all the talk about "everything happened but the marriage" around Brand New Day is nonsensical. It's essentially been a soft reboot of not just trying to take Peter back to his status quo pre-marriage, but wiping away practically every development for the supporting characters too - Flash back in the army without explanation, Harry alive, Jonah Spidey-obsessed and uncaring of Osborn killing one of his employees and trying to murder others and all this. The BND stories only work if you essentially forget any development for any of those characters that's happened in 20 years or so.

[cyberghostface.insanejournal.com]

The next Norman/Jonah post doesn't go any farther than the end of Vol. 1 before the titles were rebooted, so The Pulse is still open for posting if you still wanted to.

[angelophile.insanejournal.com]

I'll wait for you to post the next one before I chip in then. Let's keep continuity!

[lonewolf23k.insanejournal.com]

So... They ever explain who Mad Jack was?

[hybrid2.insanejournal.com]

Mad Jack was Maguire Beck,Cousin of the original Mysterio.
I'm preaty sure her and the secound Mysterio where switching identitys,betteen Mad jack and mysterio.

The Mine serie Mysterio Manifesto was suposed to make everything clear. but it was to confusing for a lot of peoples.