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

Where Demons Feat To Dwell!

Another disappointing Dazzler issue. This one consisted almost entirely of a fight between about a million heroes and a bunch of demons called forth by the Enchantress. It was really boring and, even though the winning blow went to the Dazzler, it again seemed like a way to distract the readers from the title character.

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So Bright This Star

Well, my enchantment with the Dazzler is over. This issue was pretty terrible. I hate when debuts (or any issue really) is just filled to the brim with lame guest cameos, as a thinly-veiled attempt to draw in new readers. I guess it works — Spider-Man’s appearance is, afterall, why I’m reading this trash — but that doesn’t excuse it.

The issue fails on so many levels. First, Dazzler’s power seems to have gotten lamer since her appearance in Amazing Spider-Man. Instead of creating some kind of powerful light beams, she now creates silly light patterns in the air that simply befuddle her opponents. She also doesn’t seem to use her magic disco ball anymore, which is a total shame.

The structure of the issue is also a complete mess. The issue hops around from Dazzler to Spidey to the X-Men to a lame origin flashback to Asgard to the Avengers and back. It’s all a bunch of roundabout nonsense that leaves the reader as disoriented as the Dazzler’s victims.

Finally, the character herself is just completely uninteresting and unsympathetic. It’s fairly clear DeFalco doesn’t have any idea what to do with her, and it’s pretty telling that she only appears on of 15 out of 23 pages in her own debut title. The issue should be jam-packed full of Dazzler awesomeness, giving us an exiting taste of the character and the direction of the book. Instead we get weak filler.

(Also: Spider-Man makes a comment about getting photos for the Bugle. Potential problem in placement?)

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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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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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“Listen–Stop Me if You’ve Heard it–But This One Will Kill You!”

Timing on this one is weird — the narration says that it’s spring, and Spidey mentions paying his income taxes the day before. According to everything else, though, it’s fall, so these are going to just have to be “topical references” — it’s probably just nice weather, and Pete maybe paid his taxes late.

Even though we don’t see her here, we get the first mention of Cissy Ironwood.

John Byrne drew Storm’s nipples. Some of the comics seem to be getting more “adult” recently. I’m all for adult themes and realism, but I don’t think those are equivalent with over-sexed drawings.

In this issue, Arcade is back and after the X-Men. Spidey finds out about it and tries to warn them, but he’s too late. Then I guess he just gives up, because we don’t seem him again for the rest of the issue.

This story was really not much different than the last Arcade issue, and didn’t really offer anything new.

Cool ad for Star Wars toys featuring Swedish rogue, Hans Solo:

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Nightmare in New Mexico!

Spider in the Middle!
Writer: Bill Mantlo
Artist: John Byrne
Inker: Mike Esposito
Letterer: Joe Rosen
Colorist: G. Roussos
Originally published: February 1977

Still in New Mexico, Spidey hooks up with the Hulk and some goat-man named Woodgod to fight some corrupt (or possibly fraudulent?) government agents. These may or may not have killed an entire town with nerve gas, and may or may not be trying to cover it up. Nothing really gets resolved here, and nothing really gets explained. A lot happened without anything really happening, you know?

At the end, Spidey ends up unconscious in a rocket that gets blasted into outer space!

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The Lords of Light and Darkness
Plot: Bill Mantlo, Chris Claremont, Bonnie Wilford

Well, I was really digging this book for almost the whole thing. The idea of scientists becoming Hindu gods was fairly original and cool. Unfortunately the end was crazy lame. Everybody links powers (and hands!) to come up with some crazy ass mutant Rube Goldberg device to send the gods up to heaven. Barf town. If it hadn’t been for that, I probably would have given this a 4. As it stands, it gets a 3.

One cool fact is that all the X-Men now seem to know Spidey’s secret identity.

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…And the Nightcrawler Came Prowling, Prowling

Holy Hannah! Somebody mailed JJJ photos of Spidey dumping the clone’s body into the incinerator chimney! And they show Ben’s face!

This was a decent issue that introduced a bunch of the new X-Men – it featured Nightcrawler, but we also got appearances by Colossus and Wolverine (yeah!). Also present was the Punisher. It felt more like an issue of Team-Up than Amazing, except that it was pretty good.

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Firestar #2
The Players and the Pawn
Writer: Tom DeFalco
Penciler: Mary Wilshire
Finished Art: Bob Wiacek
Colorist: D. Graziunus
Letterers: Orzechowski & Buhalis
Originally published: April 1986

Firestar #3
This Lady Kills!
Writer: Tom DeFalco
Penciler: Mary Wilshire
Inker: Steve Leialoha
Letterers: Buhalis & Orzechowski
Colorist: Daina Graziunus
Originally published: May 1986

Firestar #4
Now Strikes the Assassin!
Writer: Tom DeFalco
Penciler: Mary Wilshire
Inker: Steve Leialoha
Letterers: Orzechowski & Buhalis
Colorist: Daina Graziunus
Originally published: June 1986

Well, I have no idea why I read this or how it got on the list. From what I can surmise, Firestar was actually created for one of the animated Spider-Man tv shows, but Spider-Man does not appear at all in any of these four issues. I doubt this series would have interested me enough in and of itself to include, so I’m really confused about how it got on there. But, I’ve gone and read it now in any case!

I’m on a pretty tight timeline here, so this isn’t going to get much of a review. It was pretty good, I recommend it.

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Well, this is my first official screw-up in the chronology. I definitely should have read this after Marvels 1 and before any of the Petey cartoons, as in this story Peter hasn’t even been born yet. I didn’t even have it in the chronology, I only noticed when I picked it up to read the Petey backup story. Oh well! I’ve added it into the list now (new total = 3427).

This story was pretty sweet, especially after reading all those Petey adventures. Richard and Mary Parker, Peter’s parents, are agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Since they’re secret agents, the story is somewhat Bond-esque and has a 70s sorta feel to it. Romita’s art is perfect; he (along with Milgrom and Mattson) does a great job capturing the feel of the story. I’m a sucker for spy stories, especially well-written ones like this, and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing.

Some extra cool bonuses: an appearance by Logan (who doesn’t use/have claws, unfortunately…), Nick Fury, and Hydra’s Baron Wolfgang von Strucker; cool spy gadget, including a camera that explodes sleeping gas; and, possibly the most awesome of all, Mary Parker delivering an open-fisted-Worf-punch to the Baron. Yeah!

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