Karma!

The 100th issue of Marvel Team-Up! Spidey and the Fantastic Four! Surely it must be amazing? I hope… This issue was apparently inspired by Ithacon ’79. Given the quality level the last time a story was inspired by a con, I’m not optimistic.

…and I was right to feel that way. The issue was bad enough that it took me almost a month to get through it and review it. Suck. The formula was exactly the same as usual for Team-Up: misunderstanding leads to heroes fighting, they make up, team-up, and triumph. I doze off.

Update: a lot of people really seem to like this issue. Maybe I’m crazy? I still think it’s bad.

Rating:

buy on amazon.com: single issue or trade paperback

When a Spider-Man Comes Calling!

The Frightful Four, with Spider-Man held captive, attack the Fantastic Four.

Surprisingly, this continuation of the story in Spectacular 42 was even worse than the first part. Once again it was almost entirely one big fight scene; no character development, no plot, no surprises. And, frankly, the fight itself even kinda sucked.

Rating:

Homecoming!

This story sucked kinda. It was about one of the Guardians of the Galaxy, Vance Astro, trying to convince his younger self to not take the same path he did. While I generally like time-travel stuff, this was just boring. The Thing’s part was useless, too, which is kind of annoying since this is his book. Also, Spidey just showed up in one panel, saving a construction worker.

This guy looks like Dr. Manhattan from Watchmen:

Rating:

The story of Hank McCoy in high school, right before being approached by Professor X. Kinda lame. Spidey appears in a flashback, fighting the Sandman.

Rating:

Fun story in which Iceman and the Human Torch team-up as a hip, young super-team. Along the way they borrow some bad guys for Spidey, allowing Peter Parker to hit up a pool party at Gwen Stacey’s house.

Rating:

A Star is Born!
Writer: David Lapham
Penciler: Tony Harris
Inker: Jim Clark
Colorist: JD Mettler
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Originally published: April 2008

The Big, Wide World!
Writer: David Lapham
Penciler: Tony Harris
Inker: Jim Clark
Colorist: JD Mettler, Paul Mounts
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Originally published: May 2008

Smoke and Mirrors!
Writer: David Lapham
Penciler: Tony Harris
Inker: Jim Clark
Colorist: Matt Milla
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Originally published: August 2008

With Great Power…
Writer: David Lapham
Penciler: Tony Harris
Inker: Jim Clark
Colorist: Matt Milla
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Originally published: September 2008

This series is about Spider-Man’s brief stint as a wrestling star, as he grabbed the world’s attention before Uncle Ben’s murder. It’s set entirely within Amazing Fantasy 15, which is kinda cool.

It’s pretty good, but gets kinda clichéy at times. Overall I enjoyed it.

Rating:

Cat’s-Paw!

This was a mostly uninteresting magic story that was mostly about Agatha Harkness and Franklin Richards. Agatha’s evil monster son tries to take over the world, and Franklin somehow stops him.

Peter Parker appears in one panel, getting shoved aside by some force waves, along with the rest of humanity.

Rating:

Murder in Cathedral Canyon!

Well…this thing says it’s the Fourth of July, but once again I think it’ll have to be ignored. I will assume that’s a metaphor, since Pete is kissing Cissy and Fireworks are metaphorically going off (though they are shown on-panel).

Pretty good epic anti-bomb, anti-armament story. I quite liked it.

So Cissy Ironwood’s dad gets killed here, and Spider-Man is powerless to stop it. What the hell’s with Peter’s girlfriends’ dads getting killed?

Rating:

A Child is Waiting

This was a mildly entertaining kidnapping caper, in which little Franklin Richards gets abducted and held for ransom. Spidey and the Invisible Girl team up to get him back, and everything ends up wonderful.

Rating:

There’s One Iron Man Too Many!

…And a Child Shall Slay Them!
Writer: Marv Wolfman
Illustrators: Keith Pollard, Joe Sinnott
Letters: Costanza
Colors: G. Wein
Originally published: February 1979

The Andromeda Attack!
Writer: Marv Wolfman
Illustrators: Keith Pollard, Joe Sinnott
Letterer: Jim Novak
Colorist: Francoise M.
Originally published: March 1979

Spidey’s unconscious from the Man-Wolf attack, so we’ll have a brief stopover with the Fantastic Four before rejoining him. First, the Fantastic Four battle Quasimodo and an evil duplicate of Iron Man. Next, the Fantastic Four fight evil duplicates of themselves. Finally, in 204, The FF deal with some Skrull stuff and Johnny Storm gets bamboozled by a fake university.

Spidey appears in a flashback in FF 202 and has a real appearance in FF 204, as a cut-away to a fight with the Man-Wolf in ASM 190. I’m reading 203 because it comes in between those! FF 202 and 203 should come before ASM 187, by the way.

Rating:

And Lo, A Child Shall Lead Them

I’ve been looking forward to this issue for a long time. Godzilla and Spider-Man are just too awesome a combination.

In the issue Godzilla attacks NYC and squares off against the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and S.H.I.E.L.D. The story is fairly evenly split between the heroes fighting Godzilla, and some little kid asking Godzilla nicely to leave. The kid succeeds where the heroes’ violence failed. Spidey appears briefly photographing the big ol’ lizard.

This book wasn’t bad, really, but there wasn’t any depth to it either. Perhaps if I had read some of the other issues there would be more, but it all seemed really superficial. This is a pretty big disappointment, especially considering this is the last Godzilla issue — I would have expected a little more bang for my 40¢. Also, Spidey was barely in it! Dang, man.

JJJ looks like a crazy person and Robbie Robertson has a crazy-weird ‘fro. Oddly, Robbie says that he left “a message for parker with his girlfriend”, but at this point Parker doesn’t really have a girlfriend. Maybe I have this in the wrong spot, or maybe Robbie doesn’t realize Pete and MJ are on the splits. I guess they’re still kinda seeing each other, so it probably makes sense…

Rating:

And Only the Invisible Girl Can Save Us Now!

This issue opens with a really dirty-hot ass-shot of Spider-Woman. It’s fairly pornographic. Ron Wilson: tsk tsk.

Alicia is really cool spider-monster. Not only does she have eight actual huge spider legs in addition to her own human limbs, she also spits webs. That’s bad-ass. Unfortunately, at the end of this issue she gets cured and is back to normal.

Rating:

‘Tis the Season

My Treasury Edition 13 showed up! I’m finally back on track with my reading order.

It’s Christmas time, and the Marvel superheroes are playing in the snow! This is kind of a wrapper story around some reprints of past issues. Nothing much happens, but it’s nice and cute, and fun to see everyone relaxing and having a good time.

Rating:

Excerpted material originally appeared in: Fantastic Four 44-47; Fantastic Four Annual 3; Strange Tales 161
Excerpted material by: Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Jim Steranko, Vince Colletta, Joe Sinnott, Frank Giacoia

This issue is about Reed and Sue’s wedding and the Fantastic Four’s first meeting with the Inhumans. Spider-Man appears in one panel that I believe is new, during the big wedding fight. This was read out of order.

There are two characters that I didn’t recognize and couldn’t tag.

I like this Marvel Saga stuff, it’s really making me understand stuff more.

Rating:

KISS / Precisely as Hot as Hell! / The Andromedia Hustle! / See Latveria and Die!

“Forty pages of full-color comics. Plus never-before-published photos and features. Printed in real KISS blood.“

Everything about this is badass!

Platform shoes? Check.
Blind old man in a fur loincloth? Check.
Gene Simmons breathing fire? Check.
Teleportation? Check.
Moon-shaped spaceship? Check.
Sexy robot ladies with machine guns and robot monks with laser eyes? Check.
Outerspace alien disco? Check.

This is literally the best comic I’ve ever read.

Here are some amazing panels and things. Check out the fucking awesome fake ad for Air Latveria!

Rating:

Day of the Demolisher! / War in Washington! / Battle with the Bionic Berserker!

This City–Afire!
Writer: Bill Mantlo
Artists: Sal Buscema, Mike Esposito
Letters: Jean Hipp
Colors: Don Warfield
Originally published: July 1976

I Have to Fight the Basilisk!
Writer: Bill Mantlo
Artist: Ron WIlson
Inker: Dan Adkins
Letters: I. Watanabe
Colors: D. Warfield
Originally published: July 1976

I was skeptical about how Two-in-One 27 comes before 17, but and it turned out it shouldn’t.

(Two-in-One #27 – Wrong order as I suspected. It contains a flashback of Spidey’s re-arrival in the “present”, which is in the right spot I guess, but the main story isn’t.)

Two-in-One #17 – Spidey is back in his own time, FORGETS EVERYTHING and, with the Thing, fights the Basilisk.

MJ is so frazzled she forgets how to speak!

Marvel Team-Up #47 – Still fighting the Basilisk. The Basilisk survived his earlier lava bath with protection from the Omega Stone. This issue is pretty much half flashback, it’s lame.

These issues were a bitter disappointment after all the time-traveling fun in the last couple.
Rating:

Claws!

Um this was a really insane action-packed issue. The Avengers are always good for excitement, that’s for sure. As usual when I read some random book like this, I had not idea what was going on really. This time, though, I didn’t especially care. It was a pretty enjoyable book, considering.

Spidey appears in a flashback with the Cat, one of my favourite characters.

Rating:

Electrical Problems!

Right off the bat – this is in the totally wrong spot. It should have come after Untold Tales 16, but I totally missed the boat.

I loved the art. It was a great style for me. The lettering, too, really stood out – there was really great lowercase lettering, which is completely underused in my opinion.

Really cute “misunderstood Spidey” story that was exactly two pages too long.

Rating:

But Who Will Judge the Hulk? / …Defender of the Doomed!

The World, My Jury!
Writer: Gary Friedrich
Pencillers: Dick Ayers, Herb Trimpe
Inker: John Severin
Letterer: Jean Izzo
Extra dialogue: Roy Thomas
Originally published: July 1972

Story about the hulk getting captured and subsequently tried. In issue 152 Peter appears in a non-speaking cameo to photograph the Hulk’s arrival in NYC. In 153, he runs off to become Spidey and helps capture the Hulk.

Rating:

The Power to Purge!

This story starts where Amazing 102 left off, with Morbius apparently drowning and Spidey taking off (though there’s a bit of a flub, as Spider-Man is pictured here with only two arms). Morbius lives, though, and is pulled from the river by a doomed youth.

The issue then fast-forwards to sometime in the middle of Amazing 105, probably right after Harry’s party. Spider-Man is swinging around the city and is overcome by dizziness and ineptitude. He passes out on a roof. Meanwhile Morbius’s GF Martine shows up at the Baxter Building and Johnny (having apparently heard about Spidey’s previous run-in with the vampire) heads out to find ESU professor Hans Jorgenson, whom Morbius had been in communication with. In Long Island, we learn that Morbius didn’t kill the kid that pulled him out of the water, but instead turned Jefferson Bolt into another vampire. Morbius, with Jefferson close behind, also heads for the campus to look for that professor. Finally, Spidey heads off to the same damned place in search of the same guy – his bio professor, Jorgenson – to look for help with his illness. Everyone’s heading to the same spot.

The Torch arrives at Jorgenson’s class first, followed by Spidey. Shortly afterwards, Morbius shows up and kills a drunk. Spider-Man goes apeshit on him, and the Torch has to pull Spidey off (which is dumb). The Torch tries to stop Morbius, but Spidey seems to be completely losing it. He’s effed up. Then all hell breaks loose, spurned by Jefferson Bolt and his still-human brother. Basically a bunch of students freak out and start attacking the super-heroes. Morbius then bites Jeff’s brother Jacob and kills Jefferson.

The issue ends with Morbius taking off and absolutely no resolution of any kind, and without an interesting cliffhanger or story thread to pick up on later. I’m sure Spidey’s illness was caused by the Morbius enzyme he injected himself with, but I don’t care. I’m sure Jorgenson will help solve the problem, but I don’t care. I was interested in having Jefferson, a second vampire, around but that got kiboshed.

This issue was an insane muddled mess – as I’m sure my recap above was. It was really bad. Also, Gerry Conway’s narration style really started to get on my nerves.

Rating:

The Thing– Amok!

The Thing, now able to change back and forth to normal human form, is losing his mind and running amok in the city. The Human Torch goes after him. At the end, the Hulk shows up.

Peter Parker appears in a cameo at the Bugle.

Rating:

The Baxter Building Besieged!

The Sinister Secret of the Sentry!
Co-plotters: Erik Larsen, Eric Stephenson
Layouts: Erik Larsen
Script: Chuck Dixon
Pencils and inks: Ron Frenz, Joe Sinnott, Keith Giffen, Al Gordon, Paul Ryan, Al Milgrom, Frank Fosco, Bruce Timm
Colors: Eric Stephenson
Lettering: Richard Starkings, Wes Abbott
Cover: Michael Golden
Originally published: March 2001

When Strike These Sentinels!
Co-plotters: Erik Larsen, Eric Stephenson
Layouts: Erik Larsen
Script: Tom DeFalco
Pencils and inks: Eric Shanower, Ron Frenz, Paul Ryan, Tom Scioli, Bruce Timm, Keith Giffen, Al Gordon
Colors: Eric Stephenson
Lettering: Richard Starkings
Cover: Jae Lee, Bruce Timm
Originally published: April 2001

The Merciless Menace of Modok!
Co-plotters: Erik Larsen, Eric Stephenson
Layouts: Erik Larsen
Script: Jeph Loeb
Pencils and inks: Erik Larsen, Bruce Timm, Ron Frenz, Joe Sinnott, Keith Giffen, Al Gordon, Shannon Denton, Al Milgrom
Colors: Eric Stephenson
Lettering: Richard Starkings
Cover: Bruce Timm
Originally published: May 2001

New York Knockdown!
Co-plotters: Erik Larsen, Eric Stephenson
Layouts: Erik Larsen
Script: Kurt Busiek
Pencils and inks: Keith Giffen, Al Gordon, Joe Bennett, Al Milgrom, Ron Frenz, Joe Sinnott, Gordon Purcell, Bruce Timm
Colors: Eric Stephenson
Lettering: Richard Starkings
Cover: Erik Larsen, Joe Sinnott
Originally published: June 2001

Mayhem on the Moon!
Co-plotters: Erik Larsen, Eric Stephenson
Script: Eric Stephenson
Layouts: Keith Giffen
Pencils and inks: Ron Frenz, Joe Sinnott, Frank Fosco, Bruce Timm, Keith Giffen, Al Gordon, Jorge Pereira Lucas, Al Milgrom
Colors: Eric Stephenson
Lettering: Richard Starkings
Cover: Michael Golden
Originally published: July 2001

…Touched by the Hand of Havoc!
Co-plotters: Eric Stephenson, Erik Larsen
Script: Tom DeFalco
Layouts: Erik Larsen
Cover: Keith Giffen, Bruce Timm
Pencils and inks: Rick Veitch, Al Williamson, Ron Frenz, Al Gordon, Mike Manley, Bruce Timm, Graham Nolan, Al Milgrom
Colors: Eric Stephenson
Originally published: August 2001

…To Aid the Avengers!
Co-plotters: Eric Stephenson, Erik Larsen
Script: Kurt Busiek
Layouts: Erik Larsen
Pencils and inks: Ron Frenz, Bruce Timm, Jorge Pereira Lucas, Al Milgrom, Bill Wray, Rick Vietch, Terry Beatty
Colors: Eric Stephenson
Cover: Rick Vietch, Bruce Timm
Originally published: September 2001

Nightmare in the Negative Zone!
Co-plotters: Erik Larsen, Eric Stephenson
Script: Tom DeFalco
Layouts: Erik Larsen
Pencils and inks: Ron Frenz, Joe Sinnott, Frank Fosco, Bruce Timm, Bill Wray, John Beatty, Paul Ryan, Al Gordon
Colors: Eric Stephenson
Lettering: Richard Starkings
Cover: Erik Larsen, Bruce Timm
Originally published: October 2001

On…To Asgard!
Co-plotters: Erik Larsen, Eric Stephenson
Script: Bruce Timm
Layouts: Erik Larsen
Pencils and inks: Ron Frenz, Mike Royer, Dave Ross, Greg Adams, Joe Sinnott, Erik Larsen
Colors: Eric Stephenson
Lettering: Richard Starkings
Cover: Bruce Timm, Joe Sinnott
Originally published: November 2001

Doom Triumphant!
Co-plotters: Erik Larsen, Eric Stephenson
Script: Erik Larsen
Layouts: Erik Larsen
Pencils and inks: Ron Frenz, Bruce Timm, Frank Fosco, Mike Royer, Al Milgrom, Paul Ryan, Joe Sinnott
Colors: Eric Stephenson
Lettering: Richard Starkings
Cover: Ron Frenz, Joe Sinnott
Originally published: December 2001

Victor von Doom, Emperor of Earth!
Co-plotters: Erik Larsen, Eric Stephenson
Script: Stan Lee
Layouts: Erik Larsen
Pencils and inks: Ron Frenz, Joe Sinnott, John Romita, Tom Palmer, Dan Jurgens, Al Milgrom, Steve Rude, Jorge Lucas, Bruce Timm, Scott Hanna
Colors: Eric Stephenson
Lettering: Richard Starkings
Cover: Erik Larsen, Joe Sinnott
Originally published: January 2002

Most of these are probably out of order, but I didn’t really care. I just figured I was kind of interested in reading them, and most of the FF’s chronology didn’t matter to me than much. Spider-Man appears in issue 3 in a brief cameo and as a floating head in the last issue.

It took me forever to get through these, which is why I haven’t updated in awhile. I don’t have a ton to say about them, but generally I thought they were pretty good. Lots of times these modern books that try to emulate the silver age style end up sucking really bad and failing miserable; these don’t. They somehow managed to stay pretty true to the style of the art and writing from the 60s and 70s, so kudos to everyone involved.

My biggest complain with this series is that it was too long. The story was pretty cool, but I think it could have been told better in eight or six issues instead of twelve. By the end, the whole thing was wearing a bit thin. Even the endless cameos, which I thought worked really well for the first while, started to get extremely tiresome by around issue 8 or 9. Even so, these problems didn’t actually detract from the books on an individual basis, as they were fairly uniformly entertaining.

Rating:

Out of the Blue (Into the Fire)

Broken!
Writer: Eric Stephenson
Penciler: Keith Giffen
Inks: Andy Smith, Jimmy Palmiotti, Scott Elmer, Rodney Ramos
Originally published: May 1999

With Everything to Lose
Writer: Eric Stephenson
Artist: Andy Smith
Originally published: June 1999

The notes on the first issue say that this occurs right after Silver Surfer Vol. 1 #18, which I didn’t read. The issues makes reference to the fight with the Silver Surfer in issue 14, too, and Spidey says it happened “a few weeks back”. I’m going to have to rethink this ordering a bit.

The art in this is pretty dark and sort of weird looking. It reminds me of Batman a little, at least at the beginning. I dunno, it’s not bad, but it’s not my thing.

The first issue concerns the Silver Surfer going ballistic and attacking the city. It turns out he’s under the control of some weirdo named the Psycho Man “from the microverse of Sub-Atomica”. I was going to review/summarize all these, but they’re just bad. Really bad. I can’t bring myself to do it.

Rating:

The Surfer and the Spider!

The Flame and the Fury!
Story: Stan Lee
Illustration: John Buscema
Embellishment: Dan Adkins
Lettering: Sam Rosen
Originally published: April 1970

Love the artwork. The Silver Surfer usually looks pretty badass.

After a collision with a meteor, the Silver Surfer is injured and putting about New York City when he has a run-in with none other than Spider-Man. They get off on the wrong foot, as is wont to happen, and start to fight on a roof. The Surfer is basically just trying to recover, but Spider-Man keeps it up. This always seems to happen to Spidey when he’s around other heroes.

Eventually the military gets called in to deal with the situation. In the confusion, a little kid gets stuck on the Surfer’s board as it flies around the city. When the Surfer risks his own life to save the kid, everybody learns an important lesson.

In the next issue the Surfer realizes that humans hate all that is different from them, and decides to clothe himself like the natives so as to blend in and avoid their attacks. The plan doesn’t entirely work though, since he’s still silver and carrying / flying on a huge silver surfboard.

The Surfer goes to visit his friends the Fantastic Four and, through another misunderstanding, they end up fighting. Spidey just appears in a flashback in this issue.

The theme of these issues is mankind’s rashness and penchant for violence over reason (and the Surfer falling into the same trap). They really hammer it in, but I didn’t really get tired of it or anything. It’s a true enough point that I don’t usually mind when people make it. This issue really read like an old 50s sci-fi to me, like some of the Asimov shorts or radio shows like X Minus One and Dimension X. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

There’s a great line in here (italics mine):

They long for peace, yet gird for war! They search for love, yet harbor hate! If man is sane…then the universe itself is steeped in madness!

How awesome is that?

Rating:

Catch You on the Flipside

Wrong order: should have come before ASM #83 I think. Spidey and the Human Torch switch places for a day. Unfunny gags and a lame plot ensue. Overall story and characterization do not advance. Dave gets bored.

The end.

Rating: