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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Apr 24, 2020 23:49:45 GMT -5
Marvel Team Up #44"Death in the Year Before Yesterday!"Cover Date: April, 1976 Writer: Bill Mantlo Artist: Sal Buscema Featured Character/s: Spider-Man & Moondragon Villain/s: Cotton Mather & The Dark Rider Guest Stars: The Scarlet Witch, The Vision, Doctor Doom, Iron Man, John Proctor (Dies) Official Plot:In the present day, Moondragon has been plagued by dreams of Spider-Man, Vision, and the Scarlet Witch's situation in the year 1692, and soon finds herself pulled into that era by the Scarlet Witch's magic. There she finds that the Dark Rider has created a device that will drain the energies from Spider-Man, Vision, Scarlet Witch and Dr. Doom. Giving Cotton Mather a dagger which will help the process flow faster by killing each victim, Moondragon intervenes and blasts Dark Rider with a mental bolt. When Dark Rider tries to absorb Moondragon's power, she mind links with him and she learns his origins. The other heroes revive and arouse Dr. Doom, who counter-attacks Dark Rider. Taking a cue from Doom, the other heroes pile in and attack Dark Rider all at once. With the added power of Moondragon, Dark Rider is destroyed, and Cotton Mather is driven mad. With the threat over, Dr. Doom leaves allowing the heroes to use his time machine to return home. When Moondragon, Vision, and Scarlet Witch are about to travel back to the present, Spider-Man decides to stay a moment longer to try and stop the hanging of John Boroughs and the others to be put on trial for witchery. However, Spider-Man arrives too late to prevent their fated hanging. Brodie's View:The main part of this Multi-Part time travel story ends here, as the Avenger Moondragon enters the fray to try and save the other heroes (and Doctor Doom) that were dropped by a demonic creature (although, we find out here that the Dark Rider actually started out as a wizard that was slowly transformed into a demon) called The Dark Rider at the end of the last issue. When Moondragon is sucked into one of the Scarlet Witch's hex/time portals, she arrives just in time to see the Rider trying to steal the power from Doom and the various heroes (including our Web Slinging star) he defeated, and just that quickly the battle is joined, as Moondragon hits the Rider with a psychic blast. The two beings engage in a psychic duel (that shows Moondragon the origins of the Rider) that allows the heroes to recover and prepare for another all out attack. And attack they do, as they all basically gang up on the Rider, overwhelming him until he is destroyed. Doom and the three Avengers (sounds like a bad Motown group...lol) depart for the Present, leaving Spidey and a remaining portal. He tries, being the hero that he is, to go save the life of John Proctor and the others (time stream be damned), only to find them already dead, as the hanging had happened during the conflicts with the Dark Rider. Once again, the main part of this story ends with this issue, and a heck of a story it was. Bill Mantlo tried for a very ambitious story arc, linking real life events with the various trappings of a comic book super hero story, and I would say for the most part, he nailed it pretty well. The Dark Rider was a heck of a threat, so much so that it basically took an entire team of super powered characters to defeat, and not easily. As for Cotton Mather, as we'll find at the beginning of the next issue, this whole deal caused what little cheese was still on his cracker to slide the f*** off, leaving him almost completely insane. It's hard to feel too badly for Mather, though, whether we're talking about the comic character or the real life person that inspired the comic character. Anyways, as I said a few times in this review, this was the end of the main part of the story, but two issues that will follow that will show that Spider-Man's path back to the Present isn't going to be an easy one. In the next issue, Spider-Man will go Back....to the Future, but is it His future? That's the real question. Then again, with as many dystopian futures as the Marvel Universe has, who's to say it wouldn't be "the future" for his particular timeline. GRADE: A-
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,456
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Apr 25, 2020 1:56:40 GMT -5
Married with Children Lotto Fever issue 1 of 3 NOW comics Cover date Dece 1994 Yea by the end of 94 NOW had a bad habit of solicting lots of mini series.And lots of these mini series would publish 1 issue and that was it. So you never got the entire story. Also around this time instead of keeping the "monthly" Married with Children comic series going,I hear that the second volume was one of NOW's best sellers in this time period,they cancelled that series and brought MWC back as a series of mini series and one shots. Some of these stay in the continuity of the 2 volumes of the main comic. That would be stuff like Bud Bundy Fanboy in Paradise(a one shot where Bud goes to a thinly disguised San Diego Comic Con and meets lots of parodies of popular comic artists from the 90s boom) or Kelly goes to College 3 issue mini series(Another of the many MWC comics that would come with posters of Christina Applegate as Kelly).But you also had series that were obviously not in continuity with the other MWC comics. Series like Married with Children 2099(NOWS parody of Marvels 2099 line) or my favorite MWC comic Quantum Quartet(A solicted as 4 issue mini series in which the Bundy family gets the Fantastic Four's Powers). Now the Lotto Fever mini series,well you can't tell if it is in continuity with the main series. All because only the first issue got published.Or at least I have found no proof that the other 2 issues got published. But you never know. For close to 15 years people were not sure if the 3rd and 4th issues of the Quantu Quartet mini series got published. I know they got published,cause I dug the flip book that contains both issues out of a cheap bin at Coast Con back in 2010. Same bin and timeframe that I got my copy of Lotto Fever. Ok enough backstory and history of this forgotten and never competed comic mini series. What happens in the one issue that did get published? There is Al sitting on what I guess is the Bundys couch. Surrounded by money. Most NOW comics in this timeframe came with a poster in the center. I guess that was part of their way to justify charging $2.50 for a color comic when Marvel and DC were charging maybe $1.50 at the time. The poster in this issue is the front cover but minus all the dropped in logos,masthead and writing. Ok time to see who worked on this comic. Geoffrey White is the writer,Tom Richmond handles the pencils,Barry Daniel Petersen/TOdd S Tuttle/Patrick Williams are the THREE Inkers,Holly Sanfelippo was the colorist,Andrea Albert is listed as type stylist(I guess that is fancy talk for letterer),Joan Weis is the editor,Julian Berkin is the publisher and Richmond(I assume Tom Richmond)/Mowry( )&Albert(assuming Andrea Albert) are listed as cover artists. We open on a splash page. Al is at work at Gary's Shoes. And the place is packed with customers. Quite a few episodes of the Married with Children TV show started off this way. After the hellish day at work Al goes home to his horrble family. They give Al hell and he goes out to get a six pack of beer. The above 4 pages don't make much sense once you think about them. The Bundys live either in Chicago or in a tiny suburb right outside Chicago. So why would Al be so worried about getting the last 6 pack of beer in what has to be one of a few thousand places that sell beer in Al's area. But the first time you read those pages they are fairly funny. And it helps set up the premise of this mini series. Also wanted to point out how the artist is pretty good at getting the main cast to look like they should in this comic. And anyone that has seen MWC knows that Al will rarely win. Which makes that last panel of him holding the lottery ticket stand out. WTF they let Al win!!!! One thing about NOW Comics that made them stand out to me ,is like Continuity Comics,the colors in stuff published by NOW had a brighter look and feel to them than anything Marvel or DC was doing. Might have been because NOW didn't use plain newsprint. The rest of the issue is just set up for the next 2 issues. Al tries to go home and pack without his family knowing. Another place where it makes no sense if you think about it. Al just won millions,wtf does he have at his house that is so valuable and he couldn't replace now that he is a millionaire. Sure I would understand it if they showed Al packing up his Bigg'ums nudie mag collection. But I guess if Al didn't go home this story could end in one issue. WHich might have been a good idea. AL gets home the family knows something is up. Then the next morning when all the print and tv news is on the front lawn the other members of the Bundy family learn that they are filthy rich. And to end this post here is a house ad for the never published issue 2 of MWC Lotto Fever. I do hope that say the scripts for the two unpublished issues get out into the fandom. Sure the NOW Comics Married With Children comic wasn't an amazing comic. But it is a neat curioisty piece for fans of the show.And it shows that with the right art and scripts anything that become a comic. TO see this with some images goto here
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Apr 26, 2020 0:10:32 GMT -5
Marvel Team Up #45"Future-Shock!"Cover Date: May, 1976 Writer: Bill Mantlo Artist: Sal Buscema Featured Character/s: Spider-Man & Killraven Villain/s: The Martian Masters Guest Stars: Cotton Mather, Serpent Steed, Abraham Lincoln, The Freemen (all in Recap form only---M'Shulla, Old Skull, Mint Julep, Carmilla Frost, & Volcana Ash), The Green Goblin, & Mary Jane Watson(---the last two appear in Dream Form only) Official Plot:Still in the past, Spider-Man laments over the hanging of innocent people during the Salem Witch trials, however, his opponent in this time: Cotton Mather has been reduced to a catatonic state. Finding nothing left to keep him in the past, Spider-Man takes Dr. Doom's Time Machine and attempts to travel back to his own time. However, a malfunction in the device sends Spider-Man to the year 2019 and right smack in the middle of another conflict between Killraven, and minions of the Martian Masters who have taken over Earth in this era. Initially believing that Spider-Man is another agent of the Martians, he soon changes his opinion when the wall-crawler changes when Spider-Man helps Killraven take down a number of the Martian tripod crafts. However, when ground forces manage to get the drop on the two fast-allies, they are doused with a hallucinogenic gas which causes them to be haunted by visions. While Killraven is haunted by a vision of Volcana Ash, who chides him over his quest for freedom taking away from his capacity of love, Spider-Man is haunted by visions of the Green Goblin and his guilt for having feelings towards Mary Jane so soon after Gwen Stacy's death. The two manage to fight off their hallucinations and realize that they also manage to fight off their attackers as well. With their foes defeated, Killraven invites Spider-Man to join his Freemen, an offer which Spider-Man declines explaining that he has too many loose ends in his own time to deal with, and jumps back aboard Dr. Doom's time machine hoping that it will bring him back to his own time. Brodie's View:So, with his adventure in the Past being complete, Spider-Man heads into the Future (or at least Possible Futures) for the next two issues, as the Web Slinger tries to find his way back to the Present using Dr. Doom's time machine. This is after his basically giving Cotton Mather a big F*** You on his way out, which I imagine was Bill Mantlo thumbing his nose as people like Mather; many of whom still very much exist today. While journeying his way through the time stream, Spidey is distracted by the image of New York being attacked by Tripod looking machines. This causes him to fall into that future, which is the WAR OF THE WORLDS inspired world of Killraven, who is also Spider-Man's Guest Star in this issue, and he doesn't have to wait too long to meet this future warrior, as he basically saves Killraven from being killed by one of the Martian Tripods. This convinces Killraven that Spider-Man is on the level, and he tells the Wall Crawler of how the Martians invaded Earth in 2001. He also tells Spidey about his coming of age as a gladiator, fighting other humans for the amusement of the Martians, but also that he would eventually lead a revolt against his former masters. This horrifies Spider-Man, who can't believe that things would go to crap so badly after the turn of the century, and that everything he fought for would eventually be nothing but ash. This distracts him so much, that both he and Killraven are caught unaware by a group of Martian soldiers, who blast the two heroes with a hallucinatory gas that causes both characters to enter their own private Hells. With Killraven, he's confronted with a woman he's come to love that turns against him. With Spidey, it's the Green Goblin, who is unmasked to reveal Mary Jane Watson. Eventually, both heroes are able to fight off the effects of the gas, and as they come out of it, they realize that they ended up taking out the Martian platoon while tripping off of the gas. Impressed with Spider-Man's courage and skill, Killraven offers Spider-Man the chance to stay and fight with him, but Spidey refuses, wanting to head back to his now past. The Web Slinger departs, leaving Killraven to wonder whether or not Spider-Man's future would be the world he knows as his own. Pretty cool story; very different from what we've been dealing with the last few issues, but very cool in it's own right. I really didn't know a lot about Killraven coming into this, but this story made me perhaps want to go check out that run. Perhaps a future run of reviews? ( ) Who knows? Anyways, Spider-Man won't get back to his past in the next issue. Instead, he'll be visiting another alternate future; this one the domain of a character that popped up a few times in MARVEL TWO IN ONE, but always being controlled by sinister forces. It'll be interesting to see Spidey deal with the character being in total control of himself. Of course, whether that ends up being a good or bad thing remains to be seen. GRADE: A-
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,456
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Apr 26, 2020 13:29:34 GMT -5
Marvel Team Up #45"Future-Shock!"Cover Date: May, 1976 Writer: Bill Mantlo Artist: Sal Buscema Featured Character/s: Spider-Man & Killraven Villain/s: The Martian Masters Guest Stars: Cotton Mather, Serpent Steed, Abraham Lincoln, The Freemen (all in Recap form only---M'Shulla, Old Skull, Mint Julep, Carmilla Frost, & Volcana Ash), The Green Goblin, & Mary Jane Watson(---the last two appear in Dream Form only) Official Plot:Still in the past, Spider-Man laments over the hanging of innocent people during the Salem Witch trials, however, his opponent in this time: Cotton Mather has been reduced to a catatonic state. Finding nothing left to keep him in the past, Spider-Man takes Dr. Doom's Time Machine and attempts to travel back to his own time. However, a malfunction in the device sends Spider-Man to the year 2019 and right smack in the middle of another conflict between Killraven, and minions of the Martian Masters who have taken over Earth in this era. Initially believing that Spider-Man is another agent of the Martians, he soon changes his opinion when the wall-crawler changes when Spider-Man helps Killraven take down a number of the Martian tripod crafts. However, when ground forces manage to get the drop on the two fast-allies, they are doused with a hallucinogenic gas which causes them to be haunted by visions. While Killraven is haunted by a vision of Volcana Ash, who chides him over his quest for freedom taking away from his capacity of love, Spider-Man is haunted by visions of the Green Goblin and his guilt for having feelings towards Mary Jane so soon after Gwen Stacy's death. The two manage to fight off their hallucinations and realize that they also manage to fight off their attackers as well. With their foes defeated, Killraven invites Spider-Man to join his Freemen, an offer which Spider-Man declines explaining that he has too many loose ends in his own time to deal with, and jumps back aboard Dr. Doom's time machine hoping that it will bring him back to his own time. Brodie's View:So, with his adventure in the Past being complete, Spider-Man heads into the Future (or at least Possible Futures) for the next two issues, as the Web Slinger tries to find his way back to the Present using Dr. Doom's time machine. This is after his basically giving Cotton Mather a big F*** You on his way out, which I imagine was Bill Mantlo thumbing his nose as people like Mather; many of whom still very much exist today. While journeying his way through the time stream, Spidey is distracted by the image of New York being attacked by Tripod looking machines. This causes him to fall into that future, which is the WAR OF THE WORLDS inspired world of Killraven, who is also Spider-Man's Guest Star in this issue, and he doesn't have to wait too long to meet this future warrior, as he basically saves Killraven from being killed by one of the Martian Tripods. This convinces Killraven that Spider-Man is on the level, and he tells the Wall Crawler of how the Martians invaded Earth in 2001. He also tells Spidey about his coming of age as a gladiator, fighting other humans for the amusement of the Martians, but also that he would eventually lead a revolt against his former masters. This horrifies Spider-Man, who can't believe that things would go to crap so badly after the turn of the century, and that everything he fought for would eventually be nothing but ash. This distracts him so much, that both he and Killraven are caught unaware by a group of Martian soldiers, who blast the two heroes with a hallucinatory gas that causes both characters to enter their own private Hells. With Killraven, he's confronted with a woman he's come to love that turns against him. With Spidey, it's the Green Goblin, who is unmasked to reveal Mary Jane Watson. Eventually, both heroes are able to fight off the effects of the gas, and as they come out of it, they realize that they ended up taking out the Martian platoon while tripping off of the gas. Impressed with Spider-Man's courage and skill, Killraven offers Spider-Man the chance to stay and fight with him, but Spidey refuses, wanting to head back to his now past. The Web Slinger departs, leaving Killraven to wonder whether or not Spider-Man's future would be the world he knows as his own. Pretty cool story; very different from what we've been dealing with the last few issues, but very cool in it's own right. I really didn't know a lot about Killraven coming into this, but this story made me perhaps want to go check out that run. Perhaps a future run of reviews? ( ) Who knows? Anyways, Spider-Man won't get back to his past in the next issue. Instead, he'll be visiting another alternate future; this one the domain of a character that popped up a few times in MARVEL TWO IN ONE, but always being controlled by sinister forces. It'll be interesting to see Spidey deal with the character being in total control of himself. Of course, whether that ends up being a good or bad thing remains to be seen. GRADE: A- If you can find it for cheap the Killraven Marvel Essential is a great trade. Only drawback is the reprinting of the Killraven OGN in b/w makes some of the art hard to make out.
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Apr 28, 2020 0:18:17 GMT -5
Marvel Team Up #46"Future Shock: Part II ...Am I Now or Have I Ever Been?"Cover Date: June, 1976 Writer: Bill Mantlo Artist: Sal Buscema Featured Character/s: Spider-Man & Deathlok Villain/s: Cubists, Strake, and Grisson (Only Appearances of all) Guest Stars: None Official Plot:Still traveling through time and trying to get home, Spider-Man finds that he has traveled to another point in the future, but doesn't know when. He is shocked to discover Times Square in ruins and wonders what year it is. His thoughts are interrupted when he spots the cyborg known as Deathlok running past him. Seeking answers to his current situation, Spider-Man decides to follow after Deathlok to see what he can learn. Along the way, he spots Deathlok taking aim at a group of kids who are all carrying glowing cubes. He doesn't understand that these are cannibalistic thralls, and when Deathlok takes aim at them leaps in to stop him. The cyborgs shot goes wild, alerting the Cubists to their position. Spider-Man tries to fight Deathlok until the Cubists gather around them and try to blast the pair. Realizing that the youths are a threat, Spider-Man helps Deathlok to send them fleeing. Asking Deathlok what is going on, he learns that he is some 15 years in the future from his own time. This revelation comes as a shock to the wall-crawler who wonders what has become of himself and his loved ones in this era. His attempts to get answers out of Deathlok yields nothing, as the cyborg tells him that he spent five years in Ryker's Body Bank where his memories were tampered with, the ones deemed useless being purged. He then explains that the Cubists are a band of mutant cannibals that were hunting him as he was hunting them. Deathlok tells Spider-Man to help him carry the lone Cubist that was left behind as he believes it can help them find the rest of his group. As they continue down Times Square, Spider-Man continues to consider the implications of this future and hopes this might be an alternate reality as opposed to the true future of his world. As the pair continue their trek, they are unaware that they are being watched from above by two mercenaries named Strake and Grisson. The pair were sent here on orders from the Omni-Computer to eliminate Deathlok. Unsure what to make of Spider-Man, they suspect that he has also been targeted for destruction. Strake takes aim with his sniper rifle, but before he can squeeze off a shot, Spider-Man alerts Deathlok of the danger thanks to his Spider-Sense. Although the pair is able to avoid getting shot, the unconscious member of the Cubists is riddled with bullets. Furious at the senseless death, Spider-Man swings up and smashes through the billboard the two assassins are stationed from. He attacks Strake, demanding to know why he would senselessly slaughter a youth. His rage gets the better of him, as he doesn't know that Grisson is attempting to shoot him. However, Deathlok arrives and blasts the assassin with his laser. It's by this time that the Cubists have tracked down the pair and attack with their cubes. Spider-Man and Deathlok make quick work of the Cubists, sending most of their numbers fleeing, leaving their costumed leader behind. Spider-Man is horrified when he unmasks the Cubists' leader to discover that it is a youth younger than he is. Hearing Deathlok's dismissive attitude toward the Cubists and his own obsession with getting revenge against Stryker sicken the wall-crawler. He decides that he has had enough and hopes that this horrible future is not his own. He returns to the Time-Platform in the hopes that he will finally return home. This story is continued in Marvel Two-In-One #17... Brodie's View:Wow! In the last part of the whole "Time Travel" storyline is probably one of the most effective ones yet, as Spider-Man ends up in a dystopian future that makes even the Killraven one look somewhat hopeful. This is the world of Deathlok, who is the Guest Star for this issue, and it is a future where a man named Stryker has turned the world into a nightmare dominated by power cube holding zombies (although, one very reminiscent of the ones Stephen King depicted in his CELL novel years later, as they all seem to be interconnected by a hive mind intelligence) and cyborgs like Deathlok. Spidey ends up right at the point where the two sides are about to do battle, and being that these cube zombies appear to be normal teenagers, the Web Slinger instantly goes after Deathlok, only to realize that the gun toting cyborg is definitely the lesser of two evils here. Eventually, the two join forces, and dispatch of the cube zombies. It's here where Deathlok tells Spider-Man exactly when and where he is, and what's been going on, which terrifies Spidey more than even finding out the details about Killraven's world, as this is a mere 15 years past the time he left (1990). The two try to keep moving, but are targeted by two human looking snipers, and the battle is back on again. However, despite the advantage the snipers had, the two heroes (well, one hero and one Anti hero) make short work of the snipers, with Deathlok straight killing one of them, much to the disgust of Spider-Man. This leads us to the second confrontation with the cube zombies, although, due to their collective nature, they end up attacking one at a time, which, once again, allows the heroes to make short work of the cannibalistic former teenagers. Finally fed up with all of this, Spider-Man takes Doctor Doom's time machine, hoping to finally get back to HIS reality, while Deathlok heads off to have his big confrontation with the mysterious Stryker in his own book (well, ASTONISHING TALES). This was a pretty simple, yet damn effective, view of Deathlok's reality, made even more jarring through the eyes of a true blue hero like Spider-Man. I've loved this little series of stories by Bill Mantlo, as this has kind of been the highlight of the series so far, and this issue was the best yet. Once again, it makes me kind of want to go check out those 70's Deathlok stories, as we never got a full view of his world during his MARVEL TWO IN ONE appearances. Speaking of MTIO, the next two reviews, which I'll drop all at once tomorrow night, will be a crossover between MARVEL TEAM UP and MARVEL TWO IN ONE, which I reviewed before when I was doing the MTIO run. However, I will add a bit on at the end to comment on things from more of a MTU perspective. After that, we'll be heading into....Another Multi-Part story to bring us up to issue #50. GRADE: A
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Apr 29, 2020 0:36:24 GMT -5
Marvel Two In One #17"This City-Afire!"Cover Date: July, 1976 Writer: Bill Mantlo Artist: Sal Buscema Feature Characters: The Thing & Spider-Man Villain: The Basilisk Special Guests: Mary Jane Watson, Ka-Zar (and Sabu) Official Plot: Arriving back to the present following an adventure through time Spider-Man cannot clearly recall whatever he experienced in the future, as Dr. Doom's time machine disappears, Spider-Man decides to return home to try and get his life back in order. Meanwhile, in the Savage Land, the Thing continues to travel through a cavern after parting company with Ka-Zar and Zabu. There he runs into the cause of the seismic activity in the Savage Land: Basilisk. The two battle each other. While in New York, Peter Parker tries to get caught up on his homework when he gets a call from Mary Jane, checking up to see if he's safe, because of a volcano sprouting in the middle of the harbor outside New York. When Peter realizes that this is real, he changes to Spider-Man to see what he can do. Arriving at the top of the volcano, he is confronted by Basilisk who is carrying a defeated and unconscious Thing over his head. This story is continued in Marvel Team-Up #47. Brodie's View:So, we come into this, the first Actual Crossover of the series, and the first chapter of that Two Part story, coming off of a multi part story in what will cover the second half of this story, MARVEL TEAM UP. Spider-Man is coming back from a bit of time hopping in his own book, and after his attempt at catching up on things on the Peter Parker end of things, gets alerted of a volcano sprouting up in New York Harbor. Meanwhile, on the Thing side of things, Ben is coming off of an OK Team Up with (ugh) Ka-Zar, as they wound up handling the always memorable VOLCANUS(!!!), who ended up falling into a volcano at the end of last issue. Anyways, Ben leaves stand in Tarzan behind, and goes to investigates further into the cavern. It is there that his confronted by the seemingly reborn MTU reoccurring villain, The Basilisk, who is trying to take over where Volcanus failed, and cause the Earth's volcanoes to erupt. Supercharged by his environment, he actually ends up taking out the star of this particular book, and when our two stories intersect, Spider-Man goes to investigate, and finds The Basilisk with an unconscious Thing at his mercy. Obviously, this sets off a big showdown, and a continuation with the rest appearing in MARVEL TEAM UP, which will be in the next review (with the creative team being the actual MTIO team of Mantlo and Wilson). To be fair to Marvel, they do a good job in this Two Parter, with the first actually being a bit better, but it ends well. Then we will return to this book in two days, with kind of an interesting team up, as....well, I'll get to it in that review. For now, let's enjoy Spider-Man and The Thing fighting a villain that will never be presented as strongly as he's presented in this Two Parter, the Basilisk. GRADE: A-
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Apr 29, 2020 0:45:19 GMT -5
Marvel Team Up #47"I Have to Fight the Basilisk!"Cover Date: July, 1976 Writer: Bill Mantlo Artist: Ron Wilson Feature Characters: Spider-Man & The Thing Villain: The Basilisk Special Guests: J. Jonah Jameson & Robbie Robertson Official Plot: Continued from Marvel Two-In-One #17... Basilisk has raised a volcano in the middle of New York harbor, and has defeated the Thing. With only Spider-Man to face him, Basilisk throws the unconscious Thing at Spider-Man. Explaining to Spider-Man that he survived their last encounter when he was absorbed by the Omega Stone and saved by the Moloids, Basilisk blasts Spider-Man away. Spider-Man then revives the Thing and the two team up to try and stop Basilisk. As J. Jonah Jameson loses his temper because Peter Parker is unavailable, the two heroes battle Basilisk across town. After a lengthy battle across New York City, the Thing and Spider-Man knock Basilisk into the volcano he erected, causing an explosion that destroys the volcano. Brodie's View:No, I haven't decided to jump Team Up books suddenly, although, a future series of MARVEL TEAM UP reviews in the future isn't out of the question . This is the continuation of this Two Part Crossover that started in the last issue of MTIO, in which we saw Spider-Man investigate a volcano that has suddenly sprung up in New York harbor, only to find The Thing at the mercy of THE BASILISK!!! Anyways, the whole lead up in this issue is Spidey and Ben taking turns fighting the Basilisk, until they finally realize that Teaming Up (Nah Hah!!!) is the key to beating him back into villain Jobberhood. We get some fun banter between the two heroes, and The Thing gets a "Clobberin' Time!" in. It's pretty light and fun, with the added bonus of being set up, in some ways, almost as careful as their Crossover with DC (Superman/Spider-Man) would be constructed in the way of putting both characters and books over as much as they can, in both parts. But, yeah, Spidey and The Thing end up thumping Basilisk, ending with, of course, the villain being knocked into a volcano. The next time this character shows up, he gets instantly killed by the masked Vigilante, Scourge (in the pages of FANTASTIC FOUR, bringing things full circle). Although, he served his purpose, if for nothing more than being built up as a potential reoccurring villain for MTU, at least for long enough to get this little nifty Crossover with MTIO out of him. In the next issue, we get back on track, with another (hopefully) interesting Team Up between Ben and a supernaturally based character. Yay? GRADE: B+ 2020 VIEW: It's interesting to view this Crossover from the perspective of a MARVEL TEAM UP reader vs. a MARVEL TWO IN ONE reader, as I was the first time I reviewed these issues. It's cool to see that Spidey really doesn't show any ill effects, mentally/emotionally from some of the terrible things he saw during the Time Travel Multi-Parter, as he's very much matching The Thing, banter-wise, in these two issues. Not saying I don't want any emotional complexity in my superhero characters, but Spidey and The Thing, especially by this point in time, are kind of loveable, reliable superheroes that never collapse under the weight of some of the horrible things they respectively see in their adventures. Granted, this would somewhat change as we entered the more cynical 80's and beyond, but it's very cool to see heroes being heroes here. Moving on from all of this, though, we move into another Multi-Part story that will lead us into mystical territory once again....as well as leading us up to #50 and the end of the 2nd MARVEL ESSENTIALS of MTU. I have one more ME to get through, but we will end this particular run VERY well.
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Apr 30, 2020 0:44:10 GMT -5
Marvel Team Up #48"A Fine Night for Dying!"Cover Date: Aug, 1976 Writer: Bill Mantlo Artist: Sal Buscema Feature Characters: Spider-Man & Iron Man Villain: The Wraith (1st Appearance of) Special Guests: Jean DeWolff, Philip DeWolff, & Grady (from the NYPD)---1st Appearances of all; only Appearance for Grady Official Plot:Spider-Man is web swinging over Long Island near a Stark International Fuel depot. He suddenly spots a model airplane with a bomb attached it heading toward the depot. The power of the blast sends Spider-Man flying backward. Although he is thrown clear of the heat and flames, he is left in free fall and would have fatally struck the ground if it was not for the timely arrival of Iron Man, who saves him. On the ground, Spider-Man is worried about the innocent people that might be endangered by the blast. However, Iron Man explains that he had the area evacuated and the fire department is at the ready as this attack as Tony Stark received a warning this was going to happen. Iron Man demands to know why Spider-Man was in the area. This infuriates the wall-crawler who doesn't like being accused of a crime he didn't commit. Iron Man admits that while Spider-Man has helped the Avengers in the past, they don't know much about them. Spider-Man points out that his motives are questionable, to ask the Vision, Scarlet Witch, and Moondragon about who he is. Their argument is interrupted by Captain Jean DeWolff, who has been investigating a series of threats that have been made to wealthy businesses, this being the fifth. While DeWolff and Iron Man compare notes, Spider-Man attempts to examine the remains of the model airplane used in the attack. Before he can, his spider-sense begins to tingle. Realizing it was booby-trapped, Spider-Man leaps away and pulls Jean to safety. This fits the pattern of the other attacks. Jean asks the two heroes if they can put aside their differences long enough to help out with the case. As the three continue to discuss matters, they neglect to notice a strange figure enter one the mausoleums in order to return to his secret lair. Meanwhile, Jean DeWolff rushes Spider-Man and Iron Man to her precinct. The pair witness as one of her officers makes light of the fact that Jean's father was the ex-commissioner of police and that they have to look out for her. Unimpressed, Jean bumps the desk Sargent back down to a patrolman. In her office, DeWolff explains to her allies that she needs to run a tight ship to keep out of being under her father's shadow. Activating some video equipment loaned to her department by SHIELD to review the five previous attacks. The first was on the Westchester Mansion of Max Vorster, a wealthy New York City slum lord. Volster was killed in the explosion and all evidence was destroyed. The only clue to the identity of their bomber is from a shadowy figure wearing a hood that was captured on video by the local news crew. The next bomb attack was at the Cosmopolitan Bank and Trust, an explosion that killed fifteen people and injured another twenty-two. This time their mystery attacker was caught on security cameras. After they have finished reviewing the footage, they examine the warning letters and discover that they are written on police letterhead, and the letters that form the messages are clipped out of the Gazette, a police newspaper. Suddenly, the masked figure they have been investigating hurls a model plane bomb from the building across the street. Spider-Man's spider-sense tips them off, and while Iron Man deals with the bomb, Spider-Man goes after the bomber. Much to the wall-crawler's surprise, their foe, a masked being calling himself the Wraith, is able to grab Spider-Man's wrists and crush them under great strength. Brodie's View:We're finally back from the Crossovers and Spidey's Time Hopping Adventures, and we prepare to enter into....another Multi-Part story, this one dealing with the introduction of Jean DeWolff (and her brother) and the mysterious new villain known only as The Wraith. I must admit to being surprised that Jean DeWolff was a Bill Mantlo creation, as I always figured that Chris Claremont (who will eventually take over as the writer for MTU, and will pretty much dominate the last third of this run) was the one that created her, as she would show up quite a bit during his run on the book (plus, Claremont and strong female characters kind of go together like Peanut Butter and Jelly). However, she makes her first appearance shortly before Claremont joins the book, as does her "supporting cast," which we'll get into as this storyline develops. I will say that Mantlo does a great job of getting her over as a no nonsense, hard as nails (at least until her life is threatened, but then again, that could all be an act....only time will tell on that one) Police Captain that somehow has connections to Nick Fury (as we find out that Fury supplied her with some Stark/S.H.I.E.L.D. tech, which the real Tony Stark, within the Iron Man armor, isn't thrilled to hear). She also has some sort of connection to a mad bomber that is targeting different buildings in New York City. This is how Spider-Man is initially drawn into this story, as he is too late to stop one of the bombs going off. This brings him into (verbal) conflict with Iron Man, which I have to stop and say that I don't know how he was depicted in his own comic, but in the world of MARVEL TEAM UP, Iron Man is kind of a dick, and not even just being a smart ass like the MCU's version of the character....just a flat out dick head at times. Anyways, the argument is interrupted by Jean DeWolff, who brings the two heroes to her office (after demoting an smart assed Desk Sargent back to a street patrolman....Damn!) to show footage of the various bombings. The reason she shows this is that there seems to be a dark, cloaked figure hiding in the shadows at the site of each bombing. However, Web/Shell Head have little time to process all of this before they are attacked by another flying bomb, which is the point where Jean freaks out. The two heroes try to investigate, only to be instantly taken out by the Wraith, who snatches Spider-Man up by his wrists, and tries to break them. Another interesting thing to note is that Jean seems to have some sort of history with the Wraith, which I'm sure we'll get into as this story progresses. All in all, though, this is a pretty solid start that is worth reading for, if nothing else, the introduction of Jean DeWolff, who will be a regular supporting character throughout the rest of the 70's/early 80's. That is, until Peter David (and/or Marvel editorial) decided to kill her off in the late 80's in a very dramatic story, but we won't dwell too long on that. For now, we'll move on to the next issue, where Spidey will once again team with Iron Man to try and uncover the truth about the Wraith....if they can survive long enough to uncover ANYthing. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on May 1, 2020 23:57:50 GMT -5
Marvel Team Up #49"Madness Is All in the Mind!"Cover Date: Sept, 1976 Writer: Bill Mantlo Artist: Sal Buscema Feature Characters: Spider-Man & Iron Man Villain: The Wraith Special Guests: Jean DeWolff, Philip DeWolff, The NYPD, & Charlie Hacker (Only Appearance of the last) Official Plot:While investigating a series of bombings, Spider-Man and Iron Man find themselves working with Captain Jean DeWolff. When the bomber tried to attack the police precinct, the two heroes attempted to stop the bomber. While Iron Man was incapacitated by the bomb, Spider-Man finds himself powerless against the Wraith, who is now crushing the wall-crawler's wrists while holding him over the edge of a building. While by-standards on the scene try to help Iron Man, Spider-Man is shocked to discover that the Wraith is able to read his mind. Next, the villain makes the building they stand on disappear before dropping Spider-Man to his death. As the wall-crawler tries to fire a web to break his fall, but all reality warps around him. Although Iron Man tries to catch him, Spider-Man fatally strikes the ground... or did he? Suddenly, reality snaps back to normal, and Spider-Man discovers that he is still in the grips of the Wraith and that he experienced a powerful illusion. Before the Wraith can torment Spider-Man anymore, Jean DeWolff threatens to shoot from across the street. The distraction causes the Wraith to loosen his control over Spider-Man's mind, allowing the hero to break free. Still, the villain manages to evade capture, then uses his mental powers to try and force Jean to shoot Spider-Man. By this point, Iron Man has recovered from the bomb blast and flies up to the roof of the building just in time to deflect the bullets fired at Spider-Man. When the pair attempt to capture the Wraith, he obscures their vision with a gas pellet, covering his escape. It's then that DeWolff's officers burst into her office, having been delayed by a firebomb that was planted on the front door. She is also visited by her father Phillip DeWolff, who is unimpressed with the way his daughter has been running the precinct. However, he has come on other matters, showing her a letter that was apparently written by her brother, who is deceased. Jean can't believe it and thinks that it is some kind of fraud. Phillip had it checked and it is authentic, confirming his belief that his son never died. He then leaves, letting Jean process the hate letter that was supposedly sent by her brother. Showing it to Spider-Man and Iron Man, she explains her family life. She explains that she and Brian had a loving relationship, it was her father who disapproved of her police work. Phillip had high hopes for Brian, until one day he was shot during a police chase and died. With no answers at hand, Iron Man suggests that this is possibly a supernatural situation and recommends that they get in contact with Doctor Strange. Brodie's View:
The Wraith has his big moment as a villain, in this, the Second part of a Four part story. When last we left things, the Wraith sent one of his flying bombs into the office of Jean DeWolff, hoping to kill her, Spider-Man, and Iron Man, or at the very least to send the heroes out, so, he could show what he can do. Another flying bomb exploding messed up Iron Man, sending him crashing down to the ground (and he spends most of the first half of this issue unconscious from that crash), while the Wraith snatched Spidey up by his wrists, and seemed ready to break them. We start this issue with our heroes in the same position, however, it's shown that the Wraith really isn't crushing Spider-Man's wrists. See, the Wraith has the ability to mess with people's minds, making them see and feel things that aren't really there. I love villains like that; Mysterio, Mastermind, The Scarecrow....I've always dug villains that can mess with the minds of the heroes they face, often forcing them to confront their greatest weaknesses/re-open old traumas. I ended up creating my own villain like that in the comic bookish movies I do in my spare time, and it's a blast to write a villain like that. Back to the story, though. Once Spidey realizes he's being mentally messed with, he uses the distraction of Jean DeWolff shooting at the Wraith to break free. The Wraith then turns his attention to Jean, manipulating her into trying to shoot Spider-Man, but the suddenly awake Iron Man flies up to deflect the shots, and the Wraith gets away in the confusion. This leads to the second part of this issue, where Jean is confronted by her father, who is a sexist pig and a douche bag on the level that even Carol Danvers dad seems like a GREAT guy in comparison. Plus, to add to things, Jean's father makes her hidden insecurity about taking a position her late brother was slated for even worse, and then makes THAT even worse by showing her supposed proof that her brother never died. Spider-Man happens to witness this confrontation, and after conferring with Iron Man, decide that they might be dealing with some sort of supernatural threat. Once again, a solid second part to this story by Mantlo and crew, making one wonder where they could possibly be going with all of this in the last two parts. And also once again, I will say that the Wraith impressed me as a villain. His only flaw, so far, was arrogantly pointing out that he was messing with Spider-Man's mind, which allowed Spidey to be able to somewhat deflect his control, as he's used to dealing with villains with illusionary powers (he even name drops Mysterio and Mirage). Once again, though, the Wraith might have some tricks up his sleeve that our heroes aren't ready for, but only time (and the other two issues) will tell on that one. In the next issue, Spider-Man and Iron Man decide to seek out someone who would be able to give them an answer, one way or another, on whether or not the Wraith is a supernaturally based villain, and we will find out once and for all the fate of Jean DeWolff's brother. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on May 3, 2020 0:38:27 GMT -5
Marvel Team Up #50"The Mystery of the Wraith!"Cover Date: Oct, 1976 Writer: Bill Mantlo Artist: Sal Buscema Feature Characters: Spider-Man & Doctor Strange Villain: The Wraith & Philip DeWolff Special Guests: Jean DeWolff, Iron Man, Max Vorster, & Karl Bonn (the last two are in Flashback form only) Official Plot:Spider-Man, Jean DeWolff, and Iron Man recruit Dr. Strange to help them solve the mystery of the identity of the Wraith, believing there to be a supernatural element when evidence suggests that the Wraith is possibly Jean's deceased brother Brian. As Spider-Man and Dr. Strange go back to the scene of Brian's death, Iron Man reviews the forensic evidence and Jean DeWolff goes to investigate her brother's tomb. As Spider-Man and Dr. Strange learn that Brian wasn't killed on the scene, Iron Man finds that the fingerprints on the Wraith's notes match that of Phillip DeWolff, and Jean is shocked to find her father and the Wraith hiding out in a secret laboratory where she is captured. When Dr. Strange and Spider-Man arrive they too are incapacitated and taken over. Phillip then explains how he pulled his son off the scene of the crime and invested money on inventions that might restore him to life, and save him from the bullet wound to his head. The last experiment instead linked their minds, so that Brian, in his trance-like state, was able to be controlled by Phillip. Phillip created the Wraith identity to take revenge on criminals using lethal force. When the heroes break free, Iron Man also arrives with a specially prepared helmet. Iron Man puts the helmet on Phillip, incapacitating both he and the Wraith. Although they defeated their foes, Brian's health is still affected by the bullet. Brodie's View:Issue #50! Whoo-Hoo!!! And we spend our 50th issue in the Third part of a Four part story involving Jean DeWolff and the mysterious villain known as The Wraith. In the last issue, we got to see a bit of the Wraith's power, as well as being introduced to Jean's sexist douche of a father, who revealed that her brother, long thought dead, was really alive. We continue in this issue with our three hero characters (Spider-Man, Iron Man, and Jean) splitting off to try and solve the mystery of the Wraith. Iron Man heads off to try and scientifically figure out whether the "late" Brian DeWolff could have sent the warning notes the Wraith sends before he blows up one of his flying bombs, while Spider-Man heads to to find our Guest Star for this issue, Doctor Strange, to explore whether or not the Wraith could somehow be the ghost of Brian DeWolff, seeking vengeance from beyond the grave. Meanwhile, Jean heads straight to the source, to confront her father, and while the other two heroes play their part in the resolvement of this whole deal, Jean is the one that makes the discovery that her father has been behind the Wraith all along, and that the Wraith is her brother Brian, who is being mentally controlled by her half insane father. See, Brian had been fatally wounded by the bullet he received in a shootout with a group of criminals. His father happened to see it happen, and whisked his son away before the car explosion that most figured claimed Brian's life. He used a couple of crooked scientists to revive his son, but their process backfired, causing father and son to be mentally bonded. Brian is basically a vegetable with powers, that is fully being used as a puppet by his father to gain revenge on first the crooked scientists that caused them to be bonded in the first place, and then criminals as a whole, although, his lack of sanity causes him not to consider the innocents that would be killed as a result of his revenge trip. Jean confronts her father, only to have Phillip command Brian to use his powers against her, and then when the just arriving Spider-Man and Doctor Strange try to stop them, they get mind blasted into unconsciousness as well. It's around this time that Tony Stark figures out that Phillip is behind this as well, and flies off to confront them. While Phillip tells the backstory of how all this happened to Jean, a now conscious Spider-Man and Doctor Strange try to escape the tables they are bound to. They end up escaping, but before Phillip can command Brian to attack them again, Iron Man flies in and slaps a neural scambler on Phillip, ending this whole thing entirely....well, almost. I will say, before I do the tease for the next issue's review, that this was the best issue so far of this story, as while the twist of Phillip being behind this was kind of predictable, the how it happened, and what was actually happening were pretty cool, and I liked the tease of Doctor Strange being involved, even though the story never took a true supernatural twist like I figured would happen at some point. Nice swerve by Bill Mantlo....Bro. (/Russo) In the next issue, we get the end of this Four part story, as we experience The Trial of the Wraith, and I will say that it doesn't quite end like one would expect. And then, we get the last few issues of the Bill Mantlo run before the superstar team of another popular book take over for most of the rest of this run (or at least what I can cover of it). (Double ) GRADE: A-
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on May 4, 2020 0:09:51 GMT -5
Marvel Team Up #51"The Trial of the Wraith!"Cover Date: Nov, 1976 Writer: Bill Mantlo Artist: Sal Buscema Feature Characters: Spider-Man & Iron Man Villain: The Wraith & Philip DeWolff Special Guests: Jean DeWolff, Doctor Strange, J. Jonah Jameson, Professor X, Moondragon, The Hulk, Emerson Bale, The NYPD, Judge Martin and the Jury, Nick Fury, and Matt Murdock (the last two on television screens, as observers, only) Official Plot:Spider-Man, Dr. Strange, Iron Man, and Jean DeWolff all take part in the trial of the Wraith, where Phillip and Brian DeWolff are put on trial for their vigilante justice as the Wraith. Originally arriving as Peter Parker on assignment for J. Jonah Jameson, Peter -- disgusted by Jameson's trivializing the trial as a way to sell newspapers -- leaves, disgusted, and leaves Jameson to take pictures himself. Peter then changes into Spider-Man to attend the trial. The trial is interrupted when Phillip manages to use his powers to make Brian attack the court. However, with the aid of Spider-Man and Iron Man, Dr. Strange is able to subdue the Wraith and use his magical powers to mystically remove the bullet from Brian's brain, releasing him from Phillip's control. After some deliberation, and key witnesses being brought in, the court finds that Brian is innocent of the crimes, while Phillip is found guilty. After the case, as Phillip is taken away, we find out that the jury is secretly telepaths themselves. Meanwhile, not far away the Hulk bounding towards the city. Brodie's View:We end off the saga of the Wraith (and the end of the 2nd MARVEL ESSENTIALS for MTU) with a good old fashioned trial. Although, the whole case does seem like a dilemma for both judge and jury, as how can one prove that one's villainous acts were the result of being mentally controlled, especially when the villain in question, Brian DeWolff, is essentially brain dead? Iron Man, Doctor Strange, and Jean DeWolff sit in to both support and try and clear Brian, while also proving this insane father, Phillip DeWolff, who is also the father of Jean, is the one behind all of this, as he, due to a freak accident, is mentally linked to the powerful, yet helpless, Brian. The star of our book, Spider-Man, is also there, but in secret as Peter Parker, photographer, who is accompanying everyone's favorite lovable jackass, J. Jonah Jameson. He will eventually get fed up with Jameson's douche baggery, "split," and come back in his Spidey duds. This is good, because Phillip secretly uses his power to take over a random S.H.I.E.L.D. agent that is monitoring the neural scrambler that Iron Man put on him at the end of last issue, and the mind controlled agent disconnects the scrambler, leaving Phillip free to act again, and act he does. During the initial burst of mental power, Brian steps on a live wire, and a zap goes through father and son, giving Phillip similar abilities as his son. Finally, however, the heroes are able to take down Phillip, but he remains in control of Brian, although, Iron Man is able to fight through Brian's power, and knocks the young man out. It's here that Doctor Strange comes in to play, as he manages to both remove the bond between Phillip and Brian DeWolff, while also curing Brian of the damage the bullet that wounded him caused him, bringing him back to his normal self. After a lengthy trial, where experts of psychic abilities, Professor X and Moondragon, attempt to prove that one's mind can be taken over and controlled, the judge and jury eventually find Brian innocent and Phillip guilty. We later find out that even though the judge and jury played dumb where it came to accepting the idea of psychic abilities, they, themselves were really mutants all along, which is an interesting twist. We also get the tease that The Hulk will soon be involved in things, where it concerns MARVEL TEAM UP (but not in the next issue). A very good end to, once again, a very solid Multi-Part story by Bill Mantlo. Not as good as the time travel series, as this story took a couple of issues to REALLY get going, but it ended well, especially as the truth behind the Wraith was revealed. As I said in the first issue, Jean DeWolff would remain a supporting character for various Spider-Man books until her death at the hands of the Sin Eater in the mid 80's. Sadly, her brother Brian would also suffer a tragic fate, as attempting to take out the Sin Eater for killing his sister, Brian, as the Wraith, ends up being taken out by Scourge before he can even get his revenge.....ouch. The Sin Eater would eventually get his, though, as he would basically commit suicide by letting himself be gunned down by cops. As for Phillip DeWolff, we can only assume he died in prison, as we never end up seeing him again. No great loss. Anyways, in the next issue, we'll have a fill in issue by an Ex MTU writer while Bill Mantlo gears up for his final run of stories, teaming Spidey up with someone he's teamed with before in this book....and another Avenger to boot. GRADE: A-
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on May 6, 2020 0:17:51 GMT -5
Marvel Team Up #52"Danger: Demon on a Rampage!"Cover Date: Dec, 1976 Writer: Gerry Conway Artist: Sal Buscema Feature Characters: Spider-Man & Captain America Villain: Batroc the Leaper & an Unnamed Monster from another dimension Special Guests: The Falcon, Aunt May, Mary Jane Watson, Leila Taylor, The Night People (Brother Inquisitor & Brother Wonderful), "Texas" Jack, J. Jonah Jameson, Joe Robertson, Various S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and NYPD Official Plot:Spider-Man is swinging through the city at dusk when suddenly on the street below him a strange portal opens and a demonic creature passes through it to Earth. Hearing the commotion, Spider-Man turns around to investigate and tries to stop the creature, but it swats him away with its superior strength. Coming through the portal next are the Falcon, Leila Davis, Texas Jack, a number of the insane Night People of Zero Street and lastly Captain America, before the portal finally closes. With the Night People and Falcon going on a rampage, Captain America quickly knocks out his partner and has the police round up the Night People. Captain America carries away the unconscious Falcon and promises to explain what happened to Spider-Man some other time. When the police attempt to arrest Spider-Man, the wall-crawler makes his escape. Elsewhere in the city, in his private penthouse, Batroc the Leaper is having issues with Caspar, his hired butler. When the nervous new hire drops his priceless dishes stolen from a rich family in France, Batroc knocks him out with a single kick. Hearing a commotion on the street, Batroc notices the creature loosed on New York earlier walking down the street. Seeing this creature as a perfect opportunity for himself, Batroc seeks out the monster, hoping to make it his slave. He corners it in an alleyway and offers it his friendship. Spider-Man meanwhile has arrived at the Daily Bugle to see if his camera has been repaired[1] and notices that J. Jonah Jameson is still acting strangely. Later that night on the docks, a S.H.I.E.L.D. hovercraft is landing to deliver a shipment of trans-uranium worth ten million dollars. The shipment is then attacked by Batroc and the creature from Zero Street, who give the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents a good pounding until Captain America arrives to lend a hand. When Cap finds himself outmatched, he is saved in the nick of time by Spider-Man, who has come to lend a hand after hearing of the battle on the television. As the two fight their foes, they duck in such a way so that Batroc and the creature strike each other. Batroc is knocked out, and the creature begins to give off a radioactive glow and flees the scene. When they establish that Batroc knows nothing about the creature's glowing, the heroes leave him in the custody of S.H.I.E.L.D. to stop the creature. They track it to a yacht that is heading out to sea, and while Spider-Man fights off the creature, Captain America goes below decks to rig the ship to explode. When Cap returns to the deck he finds that Spider-Man is caught in a death grip, but uses all of his strength to break free. The two heroes manage to jump ship just before the ship explodes, killing the creature on board. Afterward, the two heroes part company. Later, in his civilian guise of Peter Parker, Spider-Man has Mary Jane help him pick up his Aunt May from the hospital, and finds that Mary Jane is still angry at him. Watching Captain America walk by, Peter thinks to himself how lucky Captain America must be and figures the hero has it all, completely missing the fact that Star-Spangled Avenger walks slumped over, consumed with thoughts on how his partner Falcon might be cured of his insanity. Brodie's View:We enter the final (Unless I can get that pricey fourth volume before I'm done doing the MTU reviews) MARVEL ESSENTIAL I'll be covering for MARVEL TEAM UP with the continuation of events that happened in the book of our Guest Star for this issue, Captain America, which spills into the world of Spider-Man and MTU. This is from the era of CAPTAIN AMERICA where Marvel had brought Jack "King" Kirby back as the writer/artist for Cap and other books, and what he brought to those books was a lot of the insanity, both in a good and bad sense, that he brought to the DC books he was writer/artist on from the late 60's to the early/mid 70's. Gerry Conway, who has done a couple of runs on this book, comes back for this issue, as he kind of settles things out from a multi part story Kirby had been doing on CAPTAIN AMERICA (AND THE FALCON,) where the two characters I just named end up going into a crazy dimension full of all kind of weirdos....and various monsters. One of those monsters end up coming through the portal that Cap and the other human characters went through at the end of Kirby's story, and starts to wreck a path of destruction through New York. However, Spidey has little time to take all that in, when Cap and the others come through the portal. Some of the people, including Cap, seem okay, but some of the human characters (including The Falcon) have been driven insane from their time in that alternate dimension, and Cap and Spidey must first take these people down. Meanwhile, the rampaging monster happens to cross the path of longtime Captain America C List villain, Batroc the Leaper, who decides to use the monster to get the revenge on the hero/es that kept him from being on the level that he felt he should be on. The rest of the story involves our two heroes fighting and taking out first Batroc, who isn't that much of a challenge at all, but then again, is he ever? Then, they follow the monster, who winds up eventually climbing aboard a barge that Cap and Spidey end up blowing up, which, I guess it's due to Conway trying to follow the crazy path Kirby probably had the Star Spangled Avenger on, but I have to imagine the legit Captain America wouldn't have been as blase' about just snuffing out a life like that, even that of a rampaging monster. I mean, wouldn't there have perhaps been space for this monster in other areas of the Marvel Universe? The Savage Land, perhaps? And I found it kind of weird that Spider-Man was just AOK with all of this as well. Kind of a ugh moment that sullied an otherwise decent story. We then end things off later, as Peter Parker (who is being flanked by Aunt May and a very salty Mary Jane Watson) spots Captain America coming out of the hospital that the Falcon is trying to get treatment for his time in the alternate dimension, and imagines that Cap would never be down in the dumps, or go through the rough life that he has. However, Cap's posture tells a different story, as he obviously blames himself for what happened to Sam Wilson. I suppose the Cap part of this gets followed up in his own book, because we get no further update on it in the pages of this one. No, instead we move on to the final run of issues of the Bill Mantlo run, and he starts this run is a VERY big way with our first Annual for MTU. This annual will team Spider-Man up with a team of heroes that was very much on the slow rise during this period. When we get back to the regular MTU issues, though, we will get some of the early works of an artist that would speed up the rise of that team of heroes in a way that could almost be called....Uncanny. GRADE: B
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on May 6, 2020 23:32:47 GMT -5
Marvel Team Up Annual #1"The Lords of Light and Darkness!"Cover Date: Dec, 1976 Writer: Bill Mantlo (Plot Assist by Chris Claremont) Artist: Sal Buscema Feature Characters: Spider-Man & The X-Men (Cyclops, Storm, Wolverine, Phoenix, Nightcrawler, Colossus, & Banshee)(w/ Professor X) Villain: Lords of Light and Darkness (Agni, Lord of Fire, Brahma the Creator, Kali, the Black Madness, Mara the Dreamer, Ratri, the Night, Shiva the Destroyer, Vishnu the Preserver, & Yama Dharma, the Death-Lord---Only Appearance of All) Special Guests: Senator "Stoneface" Turner, Stephen Marchesi (Only Appearance; Dies), Brad, Mark, Sandy, Sir. Lionel, Fermizi, Mishkin, & Boris (Plane crew and Passengers; Only Appearance of All) Official Plot:Government agent Stephen Marchesi has come to the Nest, a secret government nuclear testing facility located in the Pahute Mesa region of Nevada, where a team of scientists is working hard to try and find a solution to the world's dwindling energy resources by finding alternative energy sources. Among the scientists are Brian Mann, the nuclear physicist in charge; Vic Norman, a bio-physicist; Jan Maarshall, an electrical engineer; Karen Lee, a geologist and Marchei's ex-wife; Si Fan Chung, an Astronomer and Karen's new lover; Martin Aaronson a radiation expert, and Randy Tate the project overseer and former flight attendant. As they are testing out a new experimental form of radioactive energy dubbed the Nila Pile, a sudden earthquake disrupts the experiment, shattering the containment glass and causing an explosion seemingly killing everyone as the facility explodes in a massive nuclear explosion. The project was canceled by the government shortly thereafter. Months later a Boeing 474 is flying over the Arizona desert on its way to the International Conference on Man-Made Mutation. Aboard the plane are noted scientists Sir Lionel, Dr. Fermizi, Dr. Mishkin, and the outspoken Senator Turner. Turner is in a fury not only because a Soviet Dr. Miskin is aboard the plane, but because accompanying Professor Charles Xavier are his students, who managed to get a free flight on Reed Richards' say-so. Professor Xavier defends his students' presence aboard the plane to all gathered there, including Peter Parker, who has been selected by Sir Lionel to cover the story for the Daily Bugle due to Parker's background as a physics student. Things become heated when Wolverine begins to pick a fight with the Senator. However, thing gets hairy when they fly through a dark cloud and suddenly they are attacked by the robots that once defended the Nest. As the X-Men rush to fight off these robots, the Professor orders Cyclops and Colossus to try to control the plane after the pilots are incapacitated. Recognizing some of Xavier's students as the X-Men, Peter slips away to change into Spider-Man and lend a helping hand. He almost has his identity blown when he forgets to lock the bathroom door and Senator Turner bursts in to be airsick. Spider-Man aids in fighting off the robots, and creates a web-parachute to slow down the plane so that Scott can land it. In trying to make sense of the situation Dr. Mishkin pulls out a radiation detector and identifies that there is a lethal amount of radiation coming out of the blast crater where the robots appeared from. Spraying Spider-Man and the X-Men with anti-radiation spray to make them immune to the effects of the radiation, the Wall-Crawler and the X-Men go in for a closer look. As they approach the crater, Professor X attempts to warn them of a danger, but he is too weak following recent ordeals[1] to warn them fully of the danger. When Storm and Banshee fly in first, Spider-Man is concerned about whether they can face whatever might be waiting for them in the crater, which angers Wolverine enough to almost start a fight between the two. Before a fight breaks out they are disrupted by an earthquake, and down below Banshee and Storm are felled by some unseen hands. The X-Men on the surface are attacked by a being calling himself Yama Dharma. During the fight, Wolverine slashes Yama's chest open and is shocked to find a strange cosmos spinning around inside. Soon after, the X-Men and Spider-Man are all knocked out by Yama and his colleague Kali. With the X-Men and Spider-Man knocked out, they isolate the one they sensed, Jean Grey. The X-Men and Spider-Man, except Jean, are all bound in a strange energy prison while Jean is interrogated by the surviving members of the Nest. The radioactive explosion having mutated them into higher beings, they have all taken on names of Hindu Gods. The X-Men and Spider-Man manage to free themselves when Nightcrawler teleports out of the field that is holding him, creating a rift in the next one, allowing each prisoner to escape. They learn of the Nest survivors' origins and that they need a massive amount of energy to continue their evolution into higher beings. This would come at the cost of the planet Earth. They have sought out the Phoenix because they need nine individuals and she is the only being they have found powerful enough to withstand the transformation. Jean refuses an ascension to godhood at the expense of every living being on Earth, and a battle between Spider-Man, the X-Men and the Nest survivors begins. However, the battle carries on too long and the Nest survivors begin their impending deaths and stop the battle. Spider-Man comes up with the solution that ultimately saves them by suggesting they send the Nest survivors into space, where they would have unrestricted access to the energies they need without affecting the Earth. The X-Men, Spider-Man, and the Nest survivors link hands and the Nest Survivors and X-Men combine their powers to create a living dynamo that transmits the Nest survivors into space through Cyclops' optic blast. The end result transforms the Nest survivors into a new star and removes the lethal radiation from the blast crater, ending the threat in the process. With the battle over, Professor X contacts Spider-Man and the X-Men to congratulate them on a job well done. When Spider-Man expresses his concern that a planeload of people may have figured out his secret identity, the X-Men reassure him that the Professor will alter their memories so this encounter is forgotten. Brodie's View:Bill Mantlo is back, and he's writing (with a bit of an assist, plot wise, by the writer of the characters who are the Guest Stars for this story, The (All New, All Different) X-Men, Chris Claremont) our first Annual for MARVEL TEAM UP, which will team Spider-Man up with an entire Team of heroes, in this case, as I mentioned above, The X-Men. Of course, this is the new X-Men team that had debuted the year previous, so, other than Professor X, Cyclops, Phoenix (Jean Grey), and Nightcrawler (who Spidey had teamed with in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN), the rest of the team are all unknowns to our Web Slinging star of this book. I would say, continuity wise for the X-Men, this story seems to be happening some time after Jean became Phoenix (UXM #101) and the arrival of Lilandra and the whole M'Krann Crystal storyline from UXM #107-108. However, publishing wise, this book is coming out right around the time of UXM #102/103, as the newer characters were still kind of undefined, as far as character depth goes. Bill Mantlo does do a decent job of depicting these characters as they were at this point, although, I imagine Claremont was probably a big help in that regard. Anyways, this story concerns a group of scientists at a top secret facility known as The Nest, which is blown up (killing everyone inside) at the beginning of the story due to a freak accident involving radiation. We jump ahead to see Peter Parker flying on a plane filled with scientists from other countries, and since they're all heading to a seminar dealing with mutation, Charles Xaiver and his "students," which only Peter knows are really the X-Men. The plane is attacked by guard robots, and the heroes are forced to crash land the plane as safely as they can. As the heroes explore the source of the robots (with Spider-Man nearly coming to blows with Wolverine, who was very much the team Asshole at this point, and little more), they are attacked by a group of godlike beings (the former scientists) known as The Lords of Light and Darkness, who overwhelm the X-Men and Spidey, dropping them all into unconsciousness. They awaken to find that Jean Grey has been left out of the statis field the rest of the team (and Spidey) has been put in, and she is now in her Phoenix outfit. We get the origin story of the LoLaD, while Nightcrawler starts the ball of the heroes secretly freeing themselves. Finally, they are all able to strike at the Lords as a team, and end up completely causing the Godlike beings to disincorporate, which they take as a win until it's revealed that the Lords will end up feeding on the Earth's energy to satisfy their Godlike hunger (I'm sure Phoenix felt a goose walk over her "grave" on that one ). Phoenix, however, comes up with a better idea, and uses both her power and the energies of the various heroes to shoot the Lords (now in an energy form) into space, where they end up forming a new star. Pretty one and done, and I will say that the story isn't really the selling point for this story. It's Spider-Man, and how he interacts with this new X-Men team. Granted, most of the interaction we get is Spidey and Wolverine sniping at each other, and nearly coming to blows, but, hey, at least it's something, and as a fan of both Spider-Man and the X-Men, I'm happy to see them interact. Anyways, we'll get the fall out of this story in the next review, where we will return to the regular numbering of the book, but somewhat continue the story started here. Given the teaser both I and the issue (#51) gave, it's pretty easy to guess who the Guest Star will be (Pssst, it's The Hulk), but the new artist that will draw this two part story is one that will go on to become THE artist of the 1980's (well, one of the top three at least), and he would pretty much make his name drawing the X-Men (who he draws for the first time in the next issue). That's right....it's time to Byrne it all down in MTU land. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on May 10, 2020 23:50:34 GMT -5
Marvel Team Up #53"Nightmare in New Mexico!"Cover Date: Jan, 1977 Writer: Bill Mantlo Artist: John Byrne Feature Characters: Spider-Man & The Hulk Villain: Major Del Tremens Special Guests: Woodgod, The X-Men (Cyclops, Storm, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Banshee, Phoenix, & Professor X), David Pace, & Ellen Pace (the Last Two are in Flashback form only; both die) Official Plot:Finding a deserted town in New Mexico, the Hulk decides that is an ideal place to stop and rest for the night. The Hulk wonders why he doesn't see any humans around and why the place smells so bad. He is unaware he is being watched by the Woodgod. In his searches, the Hulk rips open the door of a truck and a dead body falls out. The Hulk, not realizing he's talking to a corpse, attempts to talk to it to no avail. When Woodgod makes his presence known, originally mistaking the Hulk for his father, the Hulk attacks him. While not far away, the X-Men are giving Spider-Man a lift back to New York following their encounter with the Nest. Along the way, the X-Plane's radar detects some unconventional aircraft heading their way. When the Professor sends Storm and Banshee to investigate they are attacked by the crafts, prompting the X-Men to fight back, destroying the attacking ships. The resulting explosions knock Spider-Man off the X-Plane. However, he is rescued by Banshee. They then pick up a video feed from Major Tremen, who is warning of a breach of the "Quarantine Zone" in Liberty, New Mexico, and see a video feed of the Hulk and Woodgod battling it out. Seeing the potential for a great story for the Bugle, Spider-Man is taken down nearby by the Banshee and the X-Men bid Spider-Man farewell. As Spider-Man and Banshee travel to Liberty, the Hulk and Woodgod duke it out. In the course of the fight, the Hulk lifts a car in the air, connecting it to a live power line. The resulting electrical jolt causes the Hulk to revert back into Bruce Banner and pass out. The Woodgod is confused by this transformation but gets no information from Banner, and flees when more Dragonfly fighters arrive. Meanwhile, Banshee takes Spider-Man as close to Liberty as possible before he cannot carry him any farther. With his powers failing, the two drop into some trees and avoid a nasty fall thanks to Spider-Man's quick thinking. Carrying on on his own, Spider-Man arrives just in time to see Woodgod smack away a number of dragonfly fighters, and save the pilots from a crash. They are surprised to see Spider-Man still standing as the area was recently decimated by a powerful nerve gas that should have killed him. When Spider-Man demands to know what's going on, the two soldiers are not forthcoming, and he is then suddenly attacked by Woodgod. Spider-Man attempts to bind Woodgod with his webbing. However, it proves to be no match for Woodgod's superior strength. To make matters worse, Bruce Banner has awakened and transformed into the Hulk once more. Hulk, remembering Spider-Man from a previous battle decides to stop fighting Woodgod and turn his attention to the Wall-Crawler. Brodie's View:Aw yeah! This actually was, and might still be, one of the higher priced back issues of MTU to get, as not only did it have some early work by one of THE artists of the 1980's, John Byrne, but also the first work he did on characters that would kind of end up making his career, The X-Men. However, the X-Men only show up in the first half of the issue as a continuation of the story from the Annual I just reviewed. Yes, this is another Multi-Part story by Bill Mantlo (the last of this run for him) that ends up taking Spider-Man on a few crazy twists and turns that only began with he and the mutant team battling the The Lords of Light and Darkness. This main chunk of the story finally picks back up with what was teased in #51, which is The Incredible Hulk becoming involved in MTU events, and really most of this story is split between his exploits and that of Spider-Man and the X-Men. However, the X-Men soon split, leading Spidey on a direct path of the green giant and another character that this middle part of Mantlo's story revolves around, Woodgod. Woodgod is a genetically created human/animal hybrid, who, like the Hulk, is possessed with great strength, but also a child like mentality. However, unlike the Hulk, his child like mentality is not caused by psychological safeguards, as is the case with the Classic Savage Hulk. That all being said, they are both drawn to a mostly abandoned town called Liberty, which has been quarantined by some sort of military force, led by what appears to be the General Ross to Woodgod's Hulk, Major Del Tremens. The town has also been bathed in nerve gas, which somewhat affects the two monsters, but doesn't end up affecting Spider-Man at all due to his (and the X-Men) being dosed with an anti-radiation spray before they went off to fight the highly radioactive Lords of Light and Darkness. So, basically, the Hulk ends up arriving at Liberty, and seeing it abandoned, claims it for his own. However, he is soon interrupted by Woodgod, who believes, due to his child like intelect, that the Hulk is responsible for the pain he is going through (due to the nerve gas), and the two begin fighting. However, during the fight, the nerve gas starts to affect the Hulk, causing him to revert back to Bruce Banner, and then passing out. Meanwhile, Spidey is hitching a ride back to New York with the X-Men, when they are suddenly attacked by Tremens' robot drones, which Spidey and the X-Men quickly take care of. Seeing that the Hulk is battling Woodgod in Liberty, Spidey asks for the X-Men's help to get there, and Banshee volunteers to fly the web slinger as far as he can. He winds up getting him close, but flies off to join the rest of his team, leaving Spider-Man to investigate on his own. This leads him into a confrontation with first the soldiers, and then Woodgod, who also believes Spider-Man might be responsible for his pain. While Spider-Man is trying to put all this together, Banner transforms back into the Hulk, leaving the wall crawler in the middle of a monster sandwich....Yikes!!! This was a pretty cool story, made even better by Byrne's art. However, this is still early on in Byrne's career, so, his stuff isn't as great as it would be even a year from now (and we'll be able to see a lot of this progression, as he will soon become the regular artist for a dozen or so issues). He draws a great Spidey and Hulk, but I would say the one flaw of his depiction of the X-Men is that he tries too hard to replicate Dave Cockrum's (who was the regular artist on UNCANNY at this point, but not for very much longer) versions of the characters. Byrne would develop his own looks for them as he grew more comfortable drawing them, but it looks like he's merely copying a style here. That all being said, his stuff does look great, even in an early form, as I said, he will get even better as the issues roll on. In the next issue of this book, we see is Spidey can avoid being smashed into Spider Goo by the two giant man (or animal/man) monsters. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on May 12, 2020 0:11:57 GMT -5
Marvel Team Up #54"Spider in the Middle!"Cover Date: Feb, 1977 Writer: Bill Mantlo Artist: John Byrne Feature Characters: Spider-Man & The Hulk Villain: Major Del Tremens (Dies), Brenner, & Howes (1st Appearance of) Special Guests: Woodgod Official Plot:Spider-Man is caught in the middle between the Hulk and Woodgod, and both are spoiling for a fight with the Wall-Crawler. However, the soldiers on site have other ideas in mind, and when Spider-Man jumps out of the way they ensnare both the Hulk and Woodgod in an electrified net that contracts the more they struggle. Spider-Man demands answers from Major Tremens, who refuses to provide them and attempts to neutralize Spider-Man. Realizing that this is some sort of cover-up, Spider-Man frees the Hulk and Woodgod. The trio then attempts to fight off the soldiers. However, they are all taken down by a powerful gas that knocks all three super-humans out. When Spider-Man revives he finds himself in powerful shackles before Tremens and view screens showing Woodgod and a sedated Hulk in captivity. Tremens explains to Spider-Man that he intends to eliminate both Spider-Man and the Hulk, and shoot the Woodgod into space and then blame the whole fiasco in Liberty, New Mexico on Spidey and the Hulk. When Spider-Man tells him that he has a camera on him that took pictures of the whole thing, Tremens orders his guards to unlock the shackles and remove it from the Wall-Crawler. This plays right into Spider-Man's hands, allowing him to break free even though his hands and feet are still bound in restraints. He manages to get away and free Woodgod who smashes off his shackles. They then go and free the Hulk who goes on and they attempt to leave the complex. However, Tremens has cornered them in front of the rocket with a giant cannon. The Hulk takes a blast head-on with no effect and he claps his hands together causing a giant quake. While this destabilizes the cannon, it also compromises the platform he is on, causing him to fall down into the rocket silo. Woodgod then makes an attempt to attack Tremens, however, the cannon explodes knocking both Woodgod and Spider-Man back. Spider-Man is knocked inside the rocket, and Woodgod resumes his attack. As Tremens sets the rocket to launch, he is attacked by Woodgod. The Hulk meanwhile attempts to save Spider-Man from the rocket, however as it reaches orbit, the rockets sections break off preventing the Hulk from saving Spider-Man. As the Hulk is forced to return to Earth where he bids farewell to Spider-Man, whom he now considers a friend. Tremens attempts to kill Woodgod with the same experimental gas that killed his father, however, he strikes Tremens, killing him and then flees the scene. Spider-Man meanwhile, is orbiting the Earth and is beginning to suffer from the dwindling oxygen supply in the rocket. Brodie's View:What starts out looking like Spider-Man fighting two monsters, The Hulk and Woodgod, quickly turns into....wait for it, a Marvel Team Up, as Spidey, realizing that the military (led by the insane Major Del Tremens) has created this whole situation to try and kill Woodgod (and the Hulk, who just happened to fall into their hands), decides to team with the two monsters instead. However, this looks to be a bad move for him, as all three of the heroes are taken down with gas. When Spider-Man awakens, he finds out that Tremens intends to shoot Woodgod into space, and blame the destruction of Liberty on the Hulk and the wall crawler himself. Hearing this, Spidey breaks free of his shackles, and frees first Woodgod, and then the Hulk, and the three wreck shop on Tremens whole operation. Finally, Spider-Man ends up inside the rocket Tremens intended to shoot Woodgod into space in, and Tremens shoots the web slinger into space instead. However, Tremens doesn't get to enjoy his act of dickery, as Woodgod instantly kills him. Meanwhile, the Hulk tries fruitlessly to save Spidey, but is unable to, and Spider-Man flies off into space. Obviously, Spider-Man's story continues on, but I want to mention a few things before I get to my "next issue" blurb. For one, I will say that it was cool to see Bill Mantlo writing the Hulk a few years before he would start his 6/7 year run on that book. Obviously, he wrote the "Banner Hulk" storyline that ran from INCREDIBLE HULK #272-300, but he wrote for a good 20 some issues before that, so, it was cool to see him doing a dry run on the Hulk here. As for Woodgod, well, he would appear a handful more times, including a brief appearance in the next issue, but this storyline was probably about as good as it gets for this goat man creature. He would end up just being remembered as being one of those funky little creations to come out of the 1970's, if he's remembered at all. However, he did get a bit of payback on the crazy military man that was his main nemesis, so, good on him. I will also say that John Byrne's artwork has improved even from last issue to this one. He'll do the art for the next issue as well, but then will vanish for a few issues. However, he will be back, and will be the regular artist for a nice chunk of the rest of this run (or at least what I'm going to be able to cover of it). Speaking of the next issue, which will be the end of this last little Multi-Part story of the Bill Mantlo run, Spider-Man goes into space, and things will most definitely start to get....cosmic (plus, once again, beautiful John Byrne art). GRADE: A-
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on May 13, 2020 0:08:06 GMT -5
Marvel Team Up #55"Spider, Spider on the Moon!"Cover Date: March, 1977 Writer: Bill Mantlo Artist: John Byrne Feature Characters: Spider-Man & Adam Warlock Villain: The Stranger Special Guests: The Gardener (1st Appearance of), The Hulk, & Woodgod/(The Following are in Illusion form Only) Dr. Octopus, The Green Goblin, J. Jonah Jameson, The Kingpin, The Lizard, Mysterio, Sandman, The Vulture, Mary Jane Watson, & Aunt May Official Plot:Spider-Man is hallucinating from lack of oxygen as the rocket he is aboard speeds into space. Meanwhile, on Earth, the Hulk watches as the rocket disappears from sight, and growing weary of his interactions with humans, he bounds away. Elsewhere in the facility, Woodgod realizes that his entire family and friends have all been slain and decides that he is going to strike out against humanity. In space, Spider-Man realizes he is about to die and just as his oxygen runs out, his rocket is intercepted by Adam Warlock. Warlock uses his Soul Gem to transport himself and the rocket to the oxygen-rich Blue Area of the Moon. Pulling Spider-Man free from the craft, the Wall-Crawler is grateful for Warlock's help, when he suddenly realizes he's on the Moon. As Spider-Man attempts to figure out how he's going to get home, they are attacked by the Stranger, who has come to claim Adam's Soul Gem. He downs Warlock in one blast, prompting Spider-Man to attack the Stranger for his savior. Spider-Man is easily overpowered by the Stranger, who tosses him away into the Blue Area's teeming forest. Knocked out from impacting with a tree, Spider-Man's body is found by another being who happens to be on the moon. As the Stranger and Warlock continue to fight, the Stranger gains the upper hand and knocks out Warlock, and restrains him in order to remove his Soul Gem. Spider-Man is revived by the Gardener, who is in the Blue Area with his own Soul Gem using its power to cultivate the garden in the Blue Area. When Spider-Man learns that the Gardener is not a fighter, he leaves to go and tackle the Stranger alone. Using all his webbing Spider-Man ensnares the Stranger in a cocoon of webbing. However, this only proves to anger the Stranger, who busts out of the webbing. As the Stranger attempts to kill Spider-Man, the Gardener looks on, struggling to decide whether he should get involved or not. It's not until the Stranger destroys one of his plants that the Gardener decides to get involved and attacks the Stranger. Freeing Adam Warlock, both he and the Gardener combine their powers. Although this causes the lush forest to die off, the power is sufficient enough to force the Stranger to retreat to avoid his own destruction. In the aftermath of the battle, the Gardener realizes the folly of his ways and now that he has turned his Soul Gem into a weapon, refuses to use it again. He then teleports away to seek out a new place to create a garden. With the battle over, Adam Warlock takes Spider-Man back to Earth before heading onto his next destination - Counter-Earth. He leaves an unseen metallic egg behind, waiting for the right moment to open. Brodie's View:We get Spidey in space in the last part of the last Multi-Part story of the Bill Mantlo run (and the last John Byrne issue for a few), as in the last issue, the insane Major Tremens shot Spider-Man into space in a rocket he had intended to get rid of Woodgod in. Speaking of Woodgod, we see him briefly in this issue, as well as the Hulk, but both go on their merry way, as neither factor in to this story, which is actually kind of a great one. Spider-Man, due to his being rescued by our Guest Star for this issue, Adam Warlock, ends up on the Blue area of the moon, which in the Marvel Universe is somehow contains a pocket of oxygen, as well as the ability to support life. It seems that this area (which will eventually become the home of The Watcher, as well as later The Inhumans) is far busier than one would expect, as it contains a couple of cosmic beings (not counting Warlock); one good (the Christlike Gardener, who makes his first appearance here) and one evil, The Stranger, who is looking for the Infinity Gems. It seems the Stranger was drawn to the Blue area because he sensed one of the gems, which belonged to the Gardener. However, he comes across Warlock (and Spidey) first, who also has one of the gems, so, the Stranger does his best to take Warlock's gem from him. In this cosmic conflict, Spider-Man can do little but be a constant annoyance to the Stranger, which he does in pretty great fashion. However, even this does only so much, as the Stranger contains enough power to pretty much flat out destroy Spider-Man, and he has Warlock dead to rights. This forces the Gardener to eventually set aside his mission of peace, and join with Warlock to defeat the Stranger, or at the very least, to send him packing, as he has other plans on Earth. Those plans would be followed up on in the pages of THE CHAMPIONS, which is a run I would love to do some day, as it is a team of one of the strangest mix of heroes ever: Black Widow, Hercules, Iceman, The Angel, and Ghost Rider. Anyways, this was a pretty awesome little issue, and one can tell that John Byrne's art has improved leaps and bounds even since #53, and cosmic level stories like this one definitely seem to be his strong suit at this point, as he does a fantastic job here. It's kind of easy to forget Bill Mantlo's overall impact on the Marvel Universe, due to his being taken out of the game completely via being hit by a car in the late 1980's (which left him severely brain damaged), but he created some pretty long lasting characters through his various runs on various books. The Gardener would show up quite a bit throughout the years, in differing forms, but always with the same passive, yet powerful presence in the stories he would appear in. This story was no exception, and each character played their part perfectly within it. Great stuff. Might be the single best issue of this book so far. Sadly, the Bill Mantlo run ends next issue, as Spider-Man will team with a very similar leveled character (that he has teamed with before in this book ) to fight one of his oldest enemies. I'm not going to say who, but I will say that his presence will certainly make things electrifying for both Spidey and his co-star. GRADE: A
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on May 14, 2020 0:55:27 GMT -5
Marvel Team Up #56"Double Danger at the Daily Bugle!"Cover Date: April, 1977 Writer: Bill Mantlo Artist: Sal Buscema Feature Characters: Spider-Man & Daredevil Villain: Electro & The Blizzard & various thugs Special Guests: Daily Bugle (J. Jonah Jameson, Glory Grant, & Various Employees) & The Daily Globe (Barney Bushkin) Official Plot:While on patrol, Daredevil detects the super-villain known as the Blizzard attacking a Daily Bugle delivery truck. Daredevil attempts to stop the crook, but the Blizzard manages to make his escape. Upon investigating the scene, Daredevil "reads" the headline on the paper, which is simply a plea from Commissioner Black to end the postal strike. Meanwhile, at the Daily Bugle office, Peter Parker is going up in the elevator and has grown suspicious as to why J. Jonah Jameson had his secretary call him and tell him not to bother coming in. Upon reaching the Bugle's main office, he finds that it is filled with really shady characters who refuse to let him see Jameson and violently push him out of the way. Finding the whole situation fishy, Peter sneaks around to Jonah's back door and peers through the upper window. As it turns out, the Blizzard and Electro have teamed up and captured J. Jonah Jameson and the Daily Globe's editor Barney Bushkin in order to blackmail them into giving their companies' payrolls to the two crooks. Electro is furious about the day's headline having a hidden message reading "Help Blackmail". Just then, Daredevil smashes through the window and begins fighting the crooks. As some of the two villains' thugs make a run for it out of the back door, they are knocked out by Peter, who has changed into Spider-Man. As Electro and Blizzard flee the scene, both heroes attempt to catch them but only succeed in running into each other and allowing for them to get away. Working together Spider-Man and Daredevil rush after the crooks, leaving Jameson and Bushkin to their own devices. Jameson manages to talk Bushkin in helping him clobber the crooks. Everyone ends up in the basement, where Spider-Man, Daredevil, Electro, and Blizzard continue their fight. Jameson and Bushkin attempt to hit Electro from behind with chairs, but they bungle it and are sent running for safety. While Daredevil tackles the Blizzard, Spider-Man tangles with his old foe Electro. During the fight, Daredevil is knocked for a loop by Blizzard and is saved when Spider-Man tricks Electro into firing an electric bolt at Blizzard just as he is using his freezing powers. In striking the ice, the electricity turns it into steam, which quickly envelopes the Blizzard and freezes into solid ice, incapacitating him. Electro is then easily knocked out by Daredevil and Spider-Man, who land a powerful blow that sends Electro rebounding off a printing press and slamming into a wall knocking him out, and ending the siege of the Daily Bugle. With the battle over, Spider-Man decides to leave the crooks with Daredevil to hand over to the authorities, not wanting to be around for Jameson to blame the whole episode on him. Brodie's View:The final issue of the Bill Mantlo run is surprisingly not part of a Multi-Part storyline, or really anything too deep or profound. No, this is a rather light, silly story to end things off with before the new writer takes over in the next issue, as the threats, while somewhat dangerous, are nothing that Spider-Man and his Guest Star, Daredevil, can't handle. It's too bad this is the case, as Electro was once one of Spidey's, I would say, bigger enemies, but by this point he is strictly a C List Villain. However, even he looks like a big deal compared to his partner in crime, The Blizzard (one of Iron Man's Rogues Gallery), a D List Villain that plays Electro's sidekick for this story. The reason these two were teaming is explained in a flashback, as Blizzard just happened to be wearing his cold powers creating suit at the exact time Electro was using his powers to escape from jail. The electrical power surge caused the Blizzard's costume to be fused to his body, making him permanently cold, much like Mr. Freeze from DC. The two villains decide to extort the two top newspapers in Marvel's New York City, The Daily Bugle and The Daily Globe. It's witnessing the Blizzard destroying a Bugle newspaper truck at the beginning of the story that draws Daredevil into this story, as it seems Jameson was trying to pass a secret message to his readers about his situation as a plea for help. Spider-Man comes into the story as Peter Parker, heading in to the Bugle to get his paycheck, only to see it is being held captive by armed goons. A quick costume change later, and both heroes are ready to kick some C/D List villain booty, and that they do. I will say there is a funny running joke throughout this issue with everyone's favorite loveable douchebag, J. Jonah Jameson, and his main competitor, Barney Bushkin, who also try to team up against the two villains that are extorting them, but end up (verbally) attacking no one but each other. Their bickering and whining is one of the best parts of this issue, as, once again, Spidey and DD are never in any real danger from Electro and Blizzard at any point in this issue. The ass kicking the two heroes deliver is not quite on the scale of their last team up, where they pretty much bitchslapped the Ani-Men without even breaking a sweat, but it's pretty close. Then again, maybe that was the point of this whole issue, just a fun little superheroes kicking the crap out of bad guys story to end off one's run with, and a fine run it was. I would say the best one so far, and that's a huge compliment. However, we have one more run left to cover for MARVEL TEAM UP, and that starts next issue and other than a few fill ins, pretty much goes to the end of what I'm covering (#75, unless I can get that 4th MARVEL ESSENTIALS). I won't say who the writer will be, but I will say that it's a writer that the readers of these reviews will be VERY familiar with, and if that isn't enough of a hint, I will say that this writer's first full MTU issue will have Spidey teaming with....a strong female hero. Are those enough hints for ya? GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on May 15, 2020 0:10:22 GMT -5
Marvel Team Up #57"When Slays the Silver Samurai!"Cover Date: May, 1977 Writer: Chris Claremont Artist: Sal Buscema Feature Characters: Spider-Man & The Black Widow Villain: The Silver Samurai Special Guests: None Official Plot:Spider-Man is just about to give up on another uneventful patrol of the city and return home to his studies when he spots a bunch of costumed crooks making a getaway from a robbery. Attacking the costumed crooks, Spider-Man makes short work of them until he is attacked by the Silver Samurai, who catches the Wall-Crawler and easily defeats him in combat. Meanwhile elsewhere, the Black Widow has taken an absence from the Champions to come to New York seeking out Nick Fury. Going to the barbershop that is a secret base for SHIELD, the Black Widow enters the secret command center and is surprised to find that everyone is missing. Returning to her Champscraft, she spots the battle between Spider-Man and the Silver Samurai and prevents the Japanese warrior from killing Spider-Man. As the two old enemies tangle once more, the Silver Samurai is unprepared when Spider-Man regains his feet and gets the drop on the Samurai. Fighting at a construction site, the Samurai compromises one of the building's main utility cores, causing the foreman on the job to topple to his doom. He is saved by Spider-Man, but the danger is not over yet as the building is at risk of falling thanks to the compromised utility core. Spider-Man works quickly to create a temporary fix to prevent the building from falling on their heads while the Black Widow faces the Silver Samurai alone. By the time Spider-Man is done, the Samurai is gaining the advantage against the Black Widow. Out of web fluid, Spider-Man tosses a steel bar at the Silver Samurai disorienting him briefly, although he still manages to strike down the Black Widow. Spider-Man enters the fray and lands a number of punches while avoiding the slashing of the Samurai's sword. The Black Widow gets back up and contributes to the fight before Spider-Man lands a knockout punch that leaves the Samurai unconscious. Searching the Samurai's body, he finds the item that the warrior had come to steal: A strange clay statuette. This leaves Spider-Man and the Widow to wonder if they've been had. Brodie's View:As one would probably have guessed, the new writer that I was hinting at in the last review, and pretty much the main writer for the rest of the run I'll be covering, (other than a few fill in issues towards the end) is none other than Chris Claremont, and he starts off by re-establishing a villain that he'll be using quite a bit during his MTU run (and beyond that in UNCANNY X-MEN), The Silver Samurai. He does this in a big way in this issue, as he ends up catching Spider-Man unaware in the first few pages of the story, and whoops his ass to the point of having him dead to rights. Lucky for Spidey, the Black Widow, his Guest Star for this issue, is hot on the Samurai's trail, as she links him to the dissapearance of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents in a secret hideout only she, Nick Fury, and other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents knew about. The rest of this issue is the two heroes fighting the Samurai until the villain's sword ends up cutting through the foundation of a building, causing it to start to collapse. This plot twist works great at both establishing Spidey as a true hero, as he must bust his ass to use steel bars to re-support the building, as well as re-establishing the Widow as a bad ass fighter, as she must keep the Samurai occupied while Spider-Man does his thing. Finally, Spidey's job is finished, and he steps in to deliver the KO punch to the Samurai, defeating him for the moment (but he will be back a few times during Claremont's run, as I stated before). It's not surprising, especially with the benefit of hindsight, that Claremont chose the characters he chose for this first issue. As I repeatedly mentioned, he was setting up the Samurai as a regular foil for Spidey throughout his run, as it will be revealed that the Silver Samurai is partnered up with another villainous character that has some MAJOR bad guy ties to a certain group that's fond of Hailing each other. However, the choice of the Black Widow wasn't a toss off one either, as she will end up playing a part in the Multi-Part story that Claremont closes his regular run out with, which will also involve the Samurai, his cohort, and that group that I hinted at in the last sentence. It's a fantastic story, and this one was a nice set up for that. Sadly, I won't be able to review that story (unless I get that last MARVEL ESSENTIALS in time), but I will say it's definitely worth checking out. This was a very solid story as well, and a nice start for Mr. Claremont on this book. In the next issue, we'll see Spidey teaming up with one of my favorite characters, and I'm hoping the story will be better than the one we got the first time these two characters teamed up with each other. Then, John Byrne returns, and we're in the BEST part of this entire series, IMO. GRADE: A-
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on May 16, 2020 0:43:13 GMT -5
Marvel Team Up #58"Panic on Pier One!"Cover Date: June, 1977 Writer: Chris Claremont Artist: Sal Buscema Feature Characters: Spider-Man & Ghost Rider Villain: The Trapster (The Wizard and Sandman, both in Flashback form only) Special Guests: Mary Jane Watson, the NYPD, the U.S. Navy, & Emlyn Rhys (1st Appearance of the last) Official Plot:The cast and crew of the Stuntmaster television series has set up shooting in New York City for its latest episode. Among the crew is stuntman Johnny Blaze, who stands in for Stuntmaster during the show. They happen to be shooting on the street that Peter Parker lives on, and he and Mary Jane Watson happen upon the scene and are asked by security to remain behind the barriers as Johnny Blaze completes a new stunt. Johnny is performing the stunt until it is interfered with by the Trapster, prompting Johnny to transform into the Ghost Rider to try and save himself. As Mary Jane is injured during the stunt gone wild, Peter slips away to change into Spider-Man, when he uses his webbing to help stop Ghost Rider from crashing and hurting anyone else. With the two heroes reunited, they are then attacked by the Trapster. Snaring Spider-Man in a paste lasso, he carries the Wall-Crawler off, vowing to return to destroy the Ghost Rider once Spider-Man has been dealt with. Ghost Rider creates a motorcycle out of hellfire to chase after them. High above the city, Spider-Man asks the Trapster how get got out of prison, and the villain is more than happy to share the tale: He explains that after he and the Frightful Four's latest capture at the hands of the Fantastic Four, they managed to break out of prison thanks to the Wizard having an explosive charge hidden in one of his teeth. Escaping from captivity, the Trapster spotted a newspaper about the Stuntmaster show coming to New York and decided to leave his comrades in order to get revenge against the Ghost Rider for his previous defeat at the Spirit of Vengeance's hands. This story gives Spider-Man enough time to flip up onto the Trapster's craft and attempt to fight him. Because his arms are bound in paste, Spider-Man proves to be no match for the Trapster, who easily knocks the Wall-Crawler off his hovercraft. Spider-Man is saved by a nasty fall by the Ghost Rider who drives around in circles under Spidey to create a upward draft to lessen his fall. Blasting the Trapster's craft with hell-fire, Ghost Rider causes it to crash on an aircraft carrier out in the harbor. Spider-Man frees himself and the duo race after the Trapster, and while Spider-Man is attacked by military officials, the Trapster attempts to make an escape by staling one of the fighter jets and making it crash in the hopes of causing a giant explosion to cover his getaway. Spider-Man regains his senses long enough to prevent the plane from taking off by snaring it with a web line, causing it to crash into the water. Ghost Rider then corners the Trapster around barrels of nuclear waste, and the Trapster threatens to detonate a bomb near the pile. When Spider-Man attempts to stop him, the Ghost Rider strikes him down with hell-fire and then turns the flames on the Trapster. The flames sear the Trapsters soul to its core, causing him to crumple into a heap on the ground ending the battle. Spider-Man is appalled by how the Ghost Rider handled himself, telling Blaze that they have to be better than the scum that they fight. The Ghost Rider dismisses this and rides off, leaving Spider-Man to turn the mentally broken Trapster over to the authorities. Brodie's View:I will say, right off the bat, that I'm planning to give this issue a "B+" grade, which is also what I gave the MTU issue that these two characters (Spider-Man and Ghost Rider) Teamed Up in, but I will be honest and say that the story for that previous issue (#13) was a "B" story that I gave the plus to because I loves me some Ghost Rider. However, this "B+" story actually ends up earning that plus in the end, as to up to that point it's a pretty standard story that can be summed up in a sentence or two. The Trapster, who got the shit scared out of him by Ghost Rider in his own book, tries to get some payback on Ghost Rider, but ends up snaring Spider-Man (who he also hates) instead. Ghost Rider pursues them until they reach an aircraft carrier, where they have a big confrontation that the heroes win. That's really about it. I mean, yeah, there are flashbacks (Trapster escaping from prison due to his Frightful Four teammate, The Wizard) and cool moments (Ghost Rider flipping over something and recreating his flame cycle perfectly before he lands), but that's pretty much the story up until the end of it. However, and this is why I'm digging the Claremont run so far, we do get a pretty cool moment, which re-solidifies Spider-Man as a true blue hero much like we got in the last issue. As the confrontation comes to a close, Ghost Rider has The Trapster cornered in a room full of flammables, which Spider-Man fears could end up in a huge explosion. However, Ghost Rider has other plans, and burns the Trapster with his Hellfire, which only burns his soul, causing the C List Villain to totally break and crumple to the ground. Spider-Man's reaction to this is so true to the Spidey we all know and love, as he chastises Ghost Rider for what he did. Granted, he probably should have figured GR would do something like this, but then again, this is only the second time these two characters are teaming up with other, so, it's entirely possible he didn't. Still, it definitely shows the difference between the two heroes, as Ghost Rider is willing to use methods that Spider-Man would never even consider to stop the bad guys. This could also be the beginnings of what would eventually happen between Ghost Rider and his human host, Johnny Blaze, as the latter would start to lose control over what the former did. This would eventually come to a head in the early 80's, as the two would be separated until many years later. Regardless, I liked the fact that Spidey would take a stand against the methods Ghost Rider employed to stop the Trapster, as it's much more true to the Spider-Man I know than his being so blase' about Captain America blowing up the Dark Dimension monster in #52. I'm happy that Claremont is taking the time in the first few issues of his run to show the pure heroism of Spider-Man, and he'll need that heroism, because things are about to get turned up a notch for both him and this book. That's right, the next issue starts the Claremont/Byrne run on this book, and we start things off with the return of a villain established in an earlier issue of this book, but one that Spider-Man never fought. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on May 16, 2020 16:24:49 GMT -5
Marvel Team Up #59"Some Say Spidey Will Die by Fire... Some Say by Ice!"Cover Date: July, 1977 Writer: Chris Claremont Artist: John Byrne Feature Characters: Spider-Man & Yellowjacket Villain: Equinox Special Guests: (In Present) The Wasp & Margay Sorenson/(In Flashback) Iceman & The Human Torch Official Plot:Spider-Man is swinging past the Queensborough Bridge when he is suddenly attacked by a blast of flame, and then a chunk of ice knocking him out and sending him falling to the water below. Around that time, in the apartment of Janet van Dyne, Janet and her husband Hank Pym are having a romantic interlude when they are interrupted by a bright flash and spot Spider-Man falling toward the water. Racing on the scene as Yellowjacket, Hank manages to save the Wall-Crawler from drowning. As Spider-Man is carried away, his unknown attacker looks on. Waking up from a nightmare, Spider-Man finds himself in the Wasp's apartment and she and Hank explain what happened to him. When trying to figure out who could have attacked him, Spider-Man recalls a villain named Equinox who was defeated and seemingly destroyed in a battle against the Human Torch and Iceman, thanks to a tip that Spider-Man gave the Torch to put him on Equinox's trail. Spider-Man deduces that Equinox is probably coming after Spider-Man to settle the score. When Yellowjacket offers his help, Spider-Man refuses. However, before Spidey can be on his way, Equinox attacks, blowing open a hole through the apartment. The Wasp, Yellowjacket, and Spider-Man all jump at the criminal, however, his flame and ice powers prove to be too much for them. Meanwhile, not far away, Margay Sorenson - his mother and a leading scientist who has been trying to cure her son - happens upon the scene. At that moment Equinox is knocked out of the apartment and uses an ice slide to get to safety. Tracking him back to the Queensborough Bridge, there the heroes resume their fight, and Margay gets into the middle of the fight attempting to use a device to restore her son to normal. Having renounced his former human self and considering his mother's attempts to cure him a failure, Equinox attempts to crush her to death by throwing a car at her. Spider-Man swings by and saves her from that fate, however, the exploding car belches debris all over the bridge, one piece striking and knocking out the Wasp. Furious that his wife has been injured, Yellowjacket attacks Equinox. While Spider-Man checks on the revived Wasp, Margay approaches them and tells them that she might have the cure for her son. Rejoining the battle, Spider-Man and the Wasp arrive just as Equinox shoots a flame blast at a tanker truck full of gasoline, causing a gigantic explosion that seemingly kills Yellowjacket. Surviving the blast, Equinox gloats over his killing of Yellowjacket. Horrified that she witnessed her husband's supposed death, the Wasp vows to get even with Equinox, by killing him. Brodie's View:Woo Hoo! We're officially in the Claremont/Byrne run on MARVEL TEAM UP, and although it doesn't go on as long as their X-MEN run did, it's still very much the highlight of this series, so, I'm pretty jazzed to be covering it. I will say that unlike Bill Mantlo's massive Multi-Part stories, the Cleamont/Byrne team are more interested in Two Parters, as we see a few of them during this run. This one brings back a villain that was created and somewhat established back in #23 (although, he had a brief encounter with Spidey in GIANT SIZED SPIDER-MAN #1, which spun off of the events of the MTU issue), Equinox, who faced off with The Human Torch and Iceman in that issue. This fit particularly well, because Equinox's powers switch between the Torch's and Iceman's fire and ice powers, and he uses both against Spidey (who is swinging through the city, unaware) at the very beginning of this issue, knocking him unconscious. Lucky for him, our Guest Star for this issue, Yellowjacket, is nearby, and is in the process of trying to get it on with his wife and partner, The Wasp, who is quite ready for some Pym pounding until they see the aftermath of Spider-Man getting attacked. One rescue later, and the wall crawler is recovering in the Pym's living room, where the three try to put together what happened. We get a nice little recap of the MARVEL TEAM UP issue I referred to earlier, but before the heroes can react to this information, Equinox comes for Spider-Man, blowing a nice sized hole in the Pym's living room. The battle spills outside, as we see a woman that looks like a scientist (and carrying some sort of an energy gun), and who has been trailing Equinox, look on in horror at what the villain is doing. This is because Equinox is her son, as we'll discover later, and she's trying to stabilize his powers, which are building and getting more erratic as he grows more powerful (and insane). The battle eventually moves to the Queensborough Bridge, where Equinox knocks Yellowjacket next to a fuel truck, which he then promptly blows up, apparently killing Hank Pym. (:0) The issue ends with a furious Janet Pym threatening to KILL Equinox for killing her husband. Now, of course, since Henry Pym has continued to be a member of the Marvel Universe to this day, we know he survives this explosion, however, let's look at what is great about this issue for a minute. First off, of course, is John Byrne's art, which has only improved since #53, especially where it concerns people's faces and figures. We can see his art developing into that John Byrne style that would make him a SUPERSTAR in the next decade issue by issue, and he will pretty much hit that style by even the end of this part of MTU that I'm doing. Of course, this is not slighting Chris Claremont's writing in the least, which, like Byrne, he is still pretty early on in his career as a comic writer, but like with the last two issues, we can definitely see him developing the style and tropes that would make him a SUPERSTAR in the next decade as well. I love his writing of the Pyms, as he writes them as a loving married couple that just happen to also be superheroes. I would definitely have read a Yellowjacket (BTW, I love the fact that Pym is Yellowjacket here, as I've always loved this incarnation of Hank Pym....maybe it's that bad ass costume) and Wasp regular series written by Claremont, as he seems to get what makes those characters work better than most writers around this period. That all being said, there are moments throughout this issue that show that things aren't perfect in Pym Land; small cracks for now, but like I mentioned about Ghost Rider in the last issue, cracks that will lead to a major blow up between the two characters as we move into the next decade. Putting all that aside, we have the fallout from the end of this issue, and in the next issue, we will see the Wasp (and Spidey) attempt to stop Equinox before he completely destabilizes and "kills" more people in the process of doing so. GRADE: A-
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