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.

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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.

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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:

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Dark Phoenix

Child of Light and Darkness!
Writer: Chris Claremont
Plotters: Chris Claremont, John Byrne
Penciler: John Byrne
Inker: Terry Austin
Letterer: Tom Orzechowski
Colorist: Bob Sharen
Originally published: August 1980

The Fate of the Phoenix
Writer: Chris Claremont
Plotters: Chris Claremont, John Byrne
Penciler: John Byrne
Inker: Terry Austin
Letterer: Tom Orzechowski
Colorist: Glynis Wein
Originally published: September 1980

Elegy
Writer: Chris Claremont
Plotters: Chris Claremont, John Byrne
Penciler: John Byrne
Inker: Terry Austin
Letterer: Tom Orzechowski
Colorist: Glynis Wein
Originally published: October 1980

The Dark Phoenix Saga, plus one. Spidey appears very briefly in X-Men 135 and as a kind of out-of-context floating-person kinda thing in 138 (which should probably be excluded).

This was quite good, I’m glad I read it.

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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.

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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?

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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.

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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…

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Not All Thy Powers Can Save Thee!

I’ve been away for awhile, busy with things, but now I’m back. Whoopity doo.

Spidey and the Torch team up against the Super Skrull. This goes along well with the Secret Invasion shizz I’m reading. By the end of the issue, the Torch is out of commission.

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‘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.

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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.

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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!

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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.
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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.

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Auto Motives

This is pretty silly and fun. It sees the return of one of the most ridiculous characters, Stilt-Man, and has Johnny and Spidey chasing after him in the adorable Spider-Mobile. Woohoo! Then they install this weirdo gizmo that Reed built, and start driving the Spider-Mobile up walls. How awesome is that?! Pretty awesome. Then, the Spider-Mobile gets stolen by a bunch of monkeys, courtesy of the Red Ghost.

There were a lot of great laughs in here, and some real touching moments too, which was a really nice surprise.

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On the Brink of Madness!

Two Worlds…and Dark Destiny
Writer: Steve Gerber
Artist: George Tuska
Inker: Vince Colletta
Letterer: C. Jetter
Colorist: G. Wein
Originally published: March 1974

Peter Parker just shows up briefly in issue 68 – in fact, only in the last panel – and his appearance in issue 69 is fairly brief too. This is a pretty boring story about Namor’s quest to get a forcefield projector to protect Atlantis. The art kinda stank, too, especially in 69.

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Chaos at the Earth’s Core

What’s up with the “everybody!” credit for the inkers? That’s just weird.

Spider-Man and Mr. Fantastic versus the Mole Man. When I was a kid watching the old 60s Spider-Man show, the Mole Man was always one of my favourite villains. I found the idea of people living under the surface of the earth — undetected — completely fascinating. I also have always loved the character design on him for some reason, especially his bitchin glasses. Because of this history with the character, I was pretty stoked to read this issue, the first in my project featuring the Mole Man. (Note: he’s shown up twice before, but never as a main character.)

First of all, I loved Gil Kane’s art in this. Regular readers know that I flip flop on Kane all the time, but this is one of his better issues, in my opinion. Check out the expression on Mole Man’s face here:

…or this amazing laser cannon page:

Good stuff. The story moves along at a nice clip, but the dialogue feels unpolished. My biggest complain is that my high hopes for the Mole Man were let down here. He’s not bad, but he doesn’t have much characterization beyond simple mad-scientist clichés. This was still an entertaining story, though, and the art pushes it up past average calibre.

Note that once again, Spider-Man is completely unaffected by the death of “an almost-infinite number of” subterraneans, the Basilisk and (evidently) the Mole Man. He doesn’t even bat an eye. It’s weird.

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To The Death!

I’m back to my correct chronology, and it’s the Avengers and the Defenders vs. Dormammu. I’m not a fan of these super-hero orgy issues, where every damn last Marvel character is thrown in. This issue manages to overcome this a little, but is still a little on the weak side.

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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.

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Thundra at Dawn!

What, is Gerry Conway taking over Marvel? Jeez man.

It’s New Year’s Eve, almost 1973. Reed Richards, Johnny Storm and Medusa, the Thing and Alicia are at Times Square being miserable. Apparently, Susan Storm has left Reed and taken Franklin with her. Crystal and Johnny are no longer together, either. So yeah, sad time.

Spidey appears when he hears about the fight between Thing and Thundra and bets on Thundra.

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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.

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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.

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