Issue(s): Spectacular Spider-Man #205, Spectacular Spider-Man #206, Spectacular Spider-Man #207 (J. Jonah Jameson back-up only)
Cover Date: Oct-Dec 93
Title: "Taps" / "Despair" / "New values"
Credits:
Steven Grant - Writer
Walter McDaniel - Penciler
Sam DeLaRosa / Matt Banning / Vince Evans - Inker
Mark Powers - Editor

Review/plot:
I thought Steven Grant's main story in these issues (well, the first two) suffered from a little bit of a breakdown between comic book logic and real world logic (the contrast between trying to depict "realistic" crimelords vs. the fact that they live in a world where you're obviously going to need super-powered help). This back-up, played mostly as a comedy, has a different kind of breakdown that i'd still put broadly in the same category. The idea is that J. Jonah Jameson's obsessive rants against Spider-Man in the real world would of course make the Daily Bugle a joke, but in the Marvel universe the Daily Bugle is almost always depicted as a serious, highly credible newspaper. Ben Urich, among others, is frequently breaking important stories there, and on several occasions we've been introduced to lower quality rags and tabloids that were put in direct contrast to the Bugle. So it's jarring and feels "wrong" when JJ goes around the city learning that people think his paper is a joke.

The story pivots off of a minor event in the main story, where Lance Bannon photographed a picture of Spider-Man saving a girl from a fire. JJ has interpreted the picture to mean that Spidey caused the fire.

Bannon, to his credit, tries to correct him, but JJ won't hear it. JJ takes Bannon and the Bugle staff out to lunch to celebrate, and the waitress makes a disparaging remark about the Bugle, and her sentiment is confirmed by the restaurant patrons.

Note that the criticism extends way beyond JJ's editorials.

So JJ leaves the restaurant but finds the same sentiment throughout the city.

JJ returns to the Bugle resolved to make some changes. Not that he's seen the light regarding Spider-Man, though.

JJ's speech to his editors has the side effect of causing one guy to admit that he's been embezzling.

But JJ is really talking about raising the Bugle's standards. Joe Robertson(who, remember, is EiC; JJ stepped down to just be the publisher a while back) takes JJ's speech to be an insult to the staff and to himself. JJ says that he's not casting blame and that he's as guilty as anyone. But the gag is that JJ sees the solution to all of this for him to step in as an Executive Editor "under" Robbie.

So nothing's changed, and if anything it's going to get worse. And nothing is done to suggest that the people who were disparaging the Bugle weren't a representative sample.

One thing that this story serves to do is smooth over the fact that, while JJ technically was out of the day to day operations of the Bugle, in practice that was never really the case, especially in non-Spidey books. So now we know that JJ is active again, and when the publisher of a paper is also the executive editor, you might as well just say that he's running things.

JJ seems to be contemplating suicide at the end of issue #206, and when he returns to the Bugle at the beginning of #207 Glory Grant says they thought he could be dead! But despite those elements, this mostly reads like a comedy. That's accentuated by the art. I can't tell if this is Lance Bannon or Jimmy Olsen (also because - not pictured - he's wearing a bowtie).

It's not funny, exactly, but the goofy expressions make me take a story that i already was having trouble buying less seriously.

Quality Rating: D

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: This pivots off of an event from the main story in Spectacular Spider-Man #205. It doesn't have to follow directly (depending on how long it takes Bannon to develop the film) but it probably should happen relatively soon afterwards.

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Some of it I found amusing. Lance Bannon was colored as a redhead, but his hair's usually brown, isn't it? Yeah, they really Jimmy-Olsened him.

Also, wouldn't the guy with a degree in Journalism be able to recognize Jonah Jameson? "He's that media mogul with a Hitler moustache, you can't miss him." The guy IS talking about the Bugle, after all.