Here's a lucky find from a dollar bin; with the first full appearance of an old friend! An unfriendly old friend, but still. From 1974, Marvel Team-Up #23, "The Night of the Frozen Inferno" Written by Len Wein, pencils by Gil Kane, inks by Mike Esposito.

It always seems weird to me, Marvel Team-Up without Spidey; but he's only here for a minute, as he borrows a very action-figurey looking flyer, and zips up for Giant-Size Spider-Man #1. But, earlier that evening, Spidey had a run-in with a hidden weirdie trying to rob a jewelry store, and suggests to the Human Torch that maybe he could field that one. Enh, beats doing any sort of introspection, so Johnny's on-board. More astutely than usual, he notices a patch of ice by the store--but it was sixty degrees out! And somebody throws an "ice-bolt" at him--whatever that is. Looks like a two-by-four made outta ice, which conceivably could do some damage. Johnny only knows one guy that maybe could "throw snowballs in a steambath," and conveniently finds him five seconds later--literally, five seconds!--Iceman!

Johnny attacks Bobby, and recaps Spidey's story: he had tried to stop a shadowy burglar, but his webbing just slid off him, and Spidey skidded out on an ice patch himself. Bobby has no goddamn idea what he's talking about, and Johnny tries to arrest him...something I don't think we see him try to do often, even then. (It reminds me of a recent banger of a Ralph Wiggum line: "I'm gonna get Daddy's gun and under-arrest you!") He mostly just doesn't like Iceman. Bobby is just as willing to throw down; maybe especially after Johnny makes a crack about how many "eskimoes" would he need to help him. (The term is largely considered a slur now; although I'm positive anything Johnny knows about them is from Chilly Willy cartoons.) I feel like the guys were about on the same level, since I'm pretty sure they both had some training, yet paradoxically weren't very good hand-to-hand? It would rarely if ever be the first thing they'd try. So the slapping match is interrupted by the arrival of the rest of the (original) X-Men (minus Beast!) who bust up the fight, with Cyclops blasting them but Marvel Girl catching their fall.

While the X-Men confirm Iceman was with them the same time Spidey fought the burglar, Iceman still wants to find whoever's dragging his name through the mud, and tells his team he'll catch up to them later for the big secret mission Professor X needed him for. (Which was...nothing? Checking books on the rack that month, and I think X-Men was all reprints at the time!) Now teamed-up, Johnny and Bobby search...for about five more seconds, as the crook makes another run at that jewelry store! The mysterious figure has burned a hole through a wall this time, and appears to have ice and fire blasts. He makes a break with his stolen goods, but the boys blast him, damaging his metalic containment suit, and revealing...

Equinox, the Thermo-Dynamic Man! I gushed about him a gazillion years ago, since him fighting Yellowjacket is one of my earliest comic-book memories. Johnny and Bobby snipe at each other while fighting with Equinox, who both doesn't seem to want to fight them but also isn't hesitating in trying to kill them. But the fight doesn't go the distance, since the cops show up, possibly because the same jewelry store keeps getting robbed. Equinox tries to escape, while acting like Bobby and Johnny were both twelve-year-olds, which, well...They both hit him with a shot at the same time, which does something to Equinox's "internal reactions," and he blows up. Only the package he tried to steal remains--an atomic clock. A jeweled atomic clock. I...I don't think that does what anybody here thought it would do. Johnny notices, the crater leads to the sewer, which had enough current for someone to escape...

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Man, he had better not get clowned by Leap-Frog or something.

(Opens comic) Goddam--From 1982, Marvel Team-Up #121, "Look Before You Leap!" Written by J. M. DeMatteis, pencils by Kerry Gammill, inks by Mike Esposito.

Speed Demon returns, this time in the middle of a chance meeting and rekindled rivalry of Spider-Man and the Human Torch. Unfortunately, this also features the return of Leap-Frog, in the person of the original's son Eugene. After a career getting thumped by Daredevil, the old Leap-Frog had retired, served his time, and was trying to raise his son right but was seemingly haunted by his failures. Eugene has the bright idea of making his old suit "a powerful symbol for good!" but maybe should've followed up on it with, I don't know, five minutes of practice with those powered springs. After accidentally trashing a cop car, Leap-Frog does manage to beat Speed Demon, by sheer luck. By the way, this issue's cover has those weird pointing-hand caption boxes I associate with old issues of Flash, as well as a mysterious figure in silhouette that is way too slim to be Eugene. (It's not as bad as the time Marvel pulled that with Volstagg, but still.)

More interesting here is the Spidey/Torch relationship: not as acrimonius as they used to be, they're both probably closer friends than they would care to admit. To anyone. Ever. Read more!

If you ever listen to the old Captain America Power Record, Solarr gets a shout-out, as a suspect for Cap's new foe, the Phoenix. Despite having listened to that a million times, I'm not sure I'd ever read a comic with Solarr, until his recent loss in X-Men '92: House of XCII #3. (What's the reverse of a ringer?) But, I guess I had this one waiting for me: from 1982, Marvel Team-Up #123, "Rivers of Blood" Written by J. M. DeMatteis, pencils by Kerry Gammill, inks by Mike Esposito. 

 

There wasn't always a lot of continuity between issues here, but Spider-Man took a beating the previous issue against Man-Thing, which lands him in the hospital. Upon regaining consciousness, Spidey claims he heals quick, but is still in no shape for hopping about; so he's still there to see a young stab victim, then Matt Murdock, who's representing a mob hitman turning state's evidence. Unfortunately, Solarr has taken the job to silence the hitman; since he had recently escaped from a long stint as research subject at Project: Pegasus and needed to rebuild his rep. Still, getting trounced by Spidey and Daredevil? Not helping his rep any. Spidey tricks him into zapping a water tower, then beats him unconscious before he can dry off; which I'm not positive he even needed to do? He wasn't like the Human Torch! 

There is a little drama, when the hitman panics and decides to take a hostage, rather than risk being burned alive by Solarr: that's derailed when DD reminds him of something he told Matt Murdock, about the blood on his hands. Now literal, since his hostage was bleeding all over the damn place. That seems like the sort of thing where maybe, in a movie or something, the hitman might put two and two together and figure out DD's secret identity; but here the toughened, grizzled hitman appears to have a psychotic break instead, so small chance of that.  

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Oddly, I bet Claremont's written more comics with Ben Grimm than Natasha Romanoff, but I would've associated him more with the latter. But, of course we get both today! From 1975, Marvel Two-In-One #10, "Is This the Day the World Ends?" Written by Chris Claremont, pencils by Bob Brown, inks by Klaus Janson.

You could get a lot of thugs into a 70's car, as a batch are hot on the tail of the Black Widow in a car chase through Central Park. On a pleasant walk with Alicia, Ben wonders if they aren't filming another French Connection sequel in town, until Widow's car comes barrelling at him. He tosses Alicia to safety, then gets hit. Groggy from the crash, Natasha tries to get to Ben, but is stunned; and both she and Ben are captured. (Lugging Ben, which seems like a lot of work, one goon explains it's for security: they couldn't risk if Widow got information to him or not.) As they are taken by helicopter, Alicia is left alone and confused in the park.

Ben and Natasha are taken out to a drilling platform in the North Atlantic, home of the Sword of Judgement, self-proclaimed revolutionaries. What are they revolting against? Ah, probably a laundry list of grievances and grudges; nothing we need to get into. They're led by Agamemnon, kind of a terrible name for comics, since it has to be hyphenated in his introduction. Also, as is pretty typical for Black Widow stories, she had known Agamemnon back in the day. The Sword was going to drop a nuke in the hole they had drilled, to create a tsunami that would destroy the east coast of the United States. (I feel like it would destroy some other stuff as well, but that was the primary target.) In a cell together, Ben can't punch his way through a force field, so Natasha starts taking off her top...to get at the hidden S.H.I.E.L.D. weapon she was carrying!

During their escape, a grenade destroys the winch holding the nuke, and Ben has to grab it before it falls. Can he pull it up three miles? If the Widow can keep the goons off his back, sure. In bloodless fashion, she kills a lot of them: dropping somebody off the platform into the Atlantic? Oh, they're dead all right. Natasha tries to appeal to the man Agamemnon used to be, which he thinks means she won't kill him; but Ben cracks the whip with the cable, which...it's hard to tell. It might knock Agamemnon to his death, or it might have dismembered him. Whatever! Ben has a cigar to celebrate his win, a rare one that makes him grateful to be the Thing; and he shares a bottle of champagne with Natasha while waiting for S.H.I.E.L.D. to show up.

I found an old copy the other day, but on the strength of Claremont's name, this one's been reprinted a bunch of times. If your local comic shop has a rack of those True Believers reprints, you could maybe find it now!

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(Imagines dozens of pokey-wounds.) You know what, I don't think I want a Dreadnought action figure.

Let's grab a comic I don't think I've read out of the pile: from 1984, Marvel Team-Up #139, "Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime!" Written by Cary Burkett, pencils by Brian Postman, inks by Mike Esposito.

I could've sworn the Dreadnought robot had even more little spikes on it...Spidey swings past the robot on a rooftop, while he's on his way to a photo assignment for the Bugle, which of course is then stormed by the Dreadnought, who moves toward a young starlet, Julie. Changing back quickly, Spidey saves the girl in dramatic fashion, only to get his web cut and the girl abducted, but he does tag it with a spider-tracer. Which he has to follow via his detector, since his spider-sense was out, courtesy the Hobgoblin around Amazing #250. 

 Meanwhile, Nick Fury and Dum-Dum Dugan are met by their old friend and former Howling Commando Dean Martin Dino Manelli, who needs their help. The Mafia Maggia had been leaning on him, then kidnapped his girl, Julie--wait, Dino would'a been around at least his mid-sixties then; she was like a third his age! Nick says kidnapping is more up the FBI's alley, maybe he should try there; and Dino storms out. Dum-Dum knows Nick's not going to stop there; but he wanted to take that one alone, and knew Dino would have been too emotional. (And likely too old and too drunk!) He plants a fancy mike outside a known Maggia contact's window, and waits to get word.

Peter not only didn't get pictures of Julie's kidnapping, every other paper in town got pictures of Spidey getting clowned. Worse, while his spider-sense was still intermittent, he kept getting massive alarms for seemingly no reason, like something big was going to happen. 

But, when the tracer pings again, Spidey follows it; as Nick finds out Julie was being kept on a yacht. Nick not only ends up fighting the Dreadnaught, he keeps fighting it even when Spidey shows up, telling him to rescue Julie. And both fail! Nick gets shocked out, while Julie cracks a bottle over Spidey's head when his back was turned. Nick and Spidey are trussed up, in time for Julie to tell them everything before Dino is also captured: she had been paid to get close to Dino, then bankrupt him. But, with Dino there as well, the Maggia boss opts to kill her too. Dino throws himself in front of the Dreadnaught's shot and is winged, but the distraction gives Spidey the chance to break out. Nick gives Spidey the collar from his S.H.I.E.L.D. uniform, which had hidden explosives in it, and they use it to blow the robot's head up. (Nick's a cool customer, to walk around with explosives in his collar!)

Dino survives, and tells Julie he did it because he really did love her. Well, the age difference might be less by the time she gets outta jail. Meanwhile, Spidey realizes the Dreadnaught's robot...robotness, had been jamming the spider-tracer; he didn't get a signal again until it was powered down.

This would have been going into Team-Up's last year, and while I'm not sure it was very often essential reading, it's still missed, isn't it? There was a place for it, that seems empty now. 

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Just like the other day with Frankenstein, I would've sworn I had Essential Marvel Horror as well. (In fact, recently I bought another Essential X-Men I already had, and had to take that back in...) So we have the original instead of the reprint today, even if I'm still scratching my head. From 1979, Marvel Team-Up #81, "Last Rites" Written by Chris Claremont, pencils by Mike Vosburg, inks by Steve Leialoha.

In the previous issue, Doctor Strange got turned into a werewolf; so this month it's up to Spidey and Satana to save him. (With Strange's love and last month's guest-star Clea left to sit there and look concerned.) The GCD's recap is short and to the point: "Satana helps rescue Dr. Strange, but she loses her life in the process." Poor Sat hadn't made a ton of appearances at that point, and Claremont may have written a lot of them, including her Marvel Premiere issue, but I wonder. Damien: Omen II would've come and gone the year before; and looking it up Marvel's Tomb of Dracula was about to wrap up: I suspect editorial was putting a lot of the horror stuff out to pasture. It would not have a heavy presence in the 80's there.

I honestly thought her horns were real for most of this issue, and that maybe they disappeared when she died? But now I'm thinking it was just a hat. A terrible hat. That can't be comfortable...
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"Sounds like Superman is in trouble!...but, I'm already going the other way, so..."

I don't recall if Brave and the Bold ever did this, but Marvel Team-Up and Marvel Two-in-One used to sometimes and it would drive me up the wall. Today, Superman's team-up book pulls that stunt: from 1979, DC Comics Presents #6, "The Fantastic Fall of Green Lantern!" Written by Paul Levitz, pencils by Curt Swan, inks by Francisco Chiaramonte.

A press club awards dinner honoring Clark Kent and Lois Lane is marred by Clark falling over like a clod again; but if he hadn't, several people would probably have been killed by the crash-landing Green Lantern! Superman had heard him coming, and feigned clumsiness to keep everyone out of harm's way. Barely conscious, GL gives his ring to Clark, who gets his own outfit! Lois is pretty quick to ask why, the implication being Clark shouldn't be trusted with a stapler, but 'Superman' arrives to help Clark out and take the ring. That's a projection created by the power ring, which explains what happened: Green Lantern had gotten the stuffing kicked out of him, by none other than Star Sapphire!

Sapphire had faced Supes before--in Superman #261, which I'd love to read--and isn't intimidated. She's able to get the power ring away from him in short order; then teleports away to abduct Hal, in order to learn him some manners so he'll be a proper consort for her, and she can become queen of the Zamorans! Which was contingent on getting Hal, for some reason? Supes is able to intercept Sapphire's ship on the way to Zamora, but doesn't realize he's being watched, by the Weaponers of Qward! Fighting Sapphire, Superman is able to recover the power ring; but is then zapped simultaneously by her and an unseen Weaponer, knocking him out momentarily. Even unconscious, Supes is still trying to use the ring to get the Star Sapphire gem off of Carol Ferris, but doesn't have enough will...still, that's pretty impressive.

Hal recovers the ring, since he can control it when close enough; and explains a little about how Sapphire is giving him such a hard time: he loves Carol, who doesn't want him as GL; and she is tempting as Star Sapphire--crazy/evil is hot--but that would mean the end of his Green Lantern career. GL revives Superman, who is able to get the gem and turn her back into Carol, and she passes out. Hal confesses to Superman, part of him wanted to lose to her; and takes Carol back to Coast City. As he takes off, Superman wonders how she was able to affect him so strongly, and the Weaponer strikes again! He claims his "Q-Energy" bolts could kill even him...to be continued, next month, with a different hero: Red Tornado! Ugh, I know GL took off in a hurry, but the Weaponer hit him with a friggin' thunderbolt, he maybe should've heard that. I never like it when the team-up stories continue, with a different guest-star. If the first guest-star stays on for the second part as well, that's fine; but when they ditch out it just strikes me as rude.
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We've checked out the disappointing Franken-Castle team-up, the meh last issue, the not-bad Thor, issue, and the pretty good Satana one; but today we're up to the best of the run! From 2011, Deadpool Team-Up #885, written by Rick Spears, art by Phil Bond, inks by Dan Brown.

Deadpool and his caption boxes fail a situational awareness check when showing up for a job, and catch an anvil in the face. After a dream about triceratops and a bikini girl, Pool wakes up captured by the strawberry Quik-drinking Dr. Kilgore. Wait...that's not strawberry Quik; "this pink libation is actually the vampire lactations of Hellcow!" (Part of this balanced breakfast!)

Kilgore recaps Hellcow's origin, including a disturbing sequence where Howard the Duck drives a stake through her heart. That's not the disturbing part; Howard is drawn especially toothy there. Kilgore had dug up Hellcow's body, restrained her in a silver cage, and had been drinking her milk to stave off dying of drug-resistant tuberculosis. But the effects of the milk were starting to wane, so he had a new plan, involving drilling into Deadpool's brain, removing his pituitary gland, and injecting himself full of mutated human growth hormone. Deadpool tells Hellcow in an aside, "I'm starting to think this Kilgore dude might be kinda not cool." They have to team-up to fight for their freedom, hijinks ensue.

Even for this title, this is a very silly issue. But for Hellcow, it works! As I write this one, I don't think there's been any big announcement of Marvel Legends for this year's San Diego Comic-Con. I'm guessing they're not making Hellcow--that would probably be risky, even for HasLab--and yet, it's been tough to keep her down.
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If she doesn't come with the mounted heads, I don't know what's the point of anything.

Since Hasbro announced the upcoming White Rabbit figure, there have been several fans thrilled by the news, and perhaps a few that feel like she's going to be a massive pegwarmer. Admittedly, she feels a bit more like a Batman villain, probably an associate of the Mad Hatter, and I do believe there has been a White Rabbit there since. But, I found this issue in my garage, and now I'm not 100% sure I've read it before! From 1983, Marvel Team-Up #131, "The Best Things in Life are Free...But Everything Else Costs Money!" Written by J.M. DeMatteis, breakdowns by Kerry Gammill, finishes by Mike Esposito.

It could be I may have put off reading this one because of the guest-star, the fabulous Frog-Man. I remembered his appearances in Amazing, building up to him teaming up with Toad and Spider-Kid. (That may have been one of Peter David's first credits. I don't hold that one against him.) But I think there's a bit of potential in the Rabbit: not unlike her fellow ginger super-villain Arcade, she has a bit of what the press would in recent years come to describe as affluenza. (Actually, looking it up, that term has been around longer!) The Rabbit had been born into and later married into more wealth; but kept sheltered and bored until she "set out to transform my life into the literary opus I'd always wanted it to be!" Her robberies are merely for the thrills; she's paying her goons far more than she made!

Interestingly, that Arcade link suggests the two of them may have dated; I'd suspect them of being related. Both from money and looking for kicks. Honestly, Arcade probably deserves a figure more than her; but would probably be too much sculpting. (Wasn't he a little shorter? And those platform shoes...)

Despite years as a joke or an also-ran--actually, despite that, White Rabbit was probably still the number-two female Spider-Man villain, behind the Black Cat. It's not a deep field...And her star may be on the rise: I'm not caught-up on recent Spidey, but she may have recruited a female Electro (Electra? That doesn't sound right...) to join a new Sinister Syndicate. Good for her, I guess.
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Pier 1 stock is down as I type this, with the company closing some stores. Presumably, not because of unconscious monkeys, or the Trapster! From 1977, Marvel Team-Up #58, "Panic on Pier One!" Written by Chris Claremont, pencils by Sal Buscema, inks by Pablo Marcos.

I'm going to take a second to check something here: what was Evel Knievel's heyday? Probably peaked with the failed Snake River jump in 1974. (Fun sidebar to this sidebar: wrestling's Vince McMahon lost money on that jump!) I mention this because of something an old comic book shop guy told me: Marvel is always late to hop on a trend. After all, disco's body was room temperature by the time Dazzler was introduced...Today, in Chelsea, it's location shooting for the Stunt-Master TV show, with stuntman Johnny Blaze about to perform a sick stunt--with the degree of difficulty raised exponentially by the unseen interference of the Trapster!

Peter and Mary Jane are watching the stunt (since it was on Peter's street, and blocking his way home) and MJ is actually hurt when Johnny has to trigger the Stunt-Master cycle-jets: the jets were the least bad option, rather than plowing straight into the crowd. At this point, Johnny has to transform into Ghost Rider, since he was now doing 80 on a one-wheeled motorcycle into cross bound traffic. Ditching MJ--okay, leaving her with a medic, but we don't see her again today!--Spidey snags GR with his webbing, but is then himself snagged, by the Trapster's paste!

I don't believe it: I just did another quick check, and the Trapster had been mentioned by name once in all the years I've been doing this blog? Huh. I was checking if maybe the Frightful Four's defeat mentioned here, from Fantastic Four #178, was here; but no, I haven't read that one. Still, the Wizard's escape method seems familiar, like maybe he's done it more than once: claiming to have a cracked tooth from getting punched in the mug by the Thing, the Wizard throws a magnesium flare hidden in a false tooth! (Do not bite down hard on that one...) Wizard frees Trapster and Sandman, but Trapster sees a newspaper headline that Johnny Blaze--and Ghost Rider--are in town. Did that just spill his secret identity? Regardless, Trapster wants payback for getting run out of L.A, possibly in Ghost Rider #13, not #15 as the footnote says. (Unless it took a couple issues, I'm not positive.) Spidey just got in the way, and nearly turns the tables on him, before Trapster gets him with a magnesium flare of his own and throws him off of his anti-gravity sled!

Ghost Rider saves-slash-cooks Spidey with a "hot air vortex" trick cribbed from the Human Torch, then shoots Trapster's sled down with a hellfire blast. He crashes on the carrier USS Halsey...which wasn't a carrier? OK, whatever. Trapster puts up a pretty good fight, aided by the United States Marine Corps, who do not take kindly to trespassers and of course get in Spidey and Ghost Rider's way more. Trapster also attempts to launch an F-14 Tomcat into the Westside Highway, but Spidey stops it...from hitting the highway, not from falling off the carrier. Oops. Then he and GR scuffle a moment before the Rider burns Trapster's soul with a hellfire blast! Spidey doesn't approve.

This was a stretch when Ghost Rider was still Johnny, as opposed to being a separate entity within him. Trapster gets treated like an actual threat for most of this; but I know he would hit a long skid around here. And the next issue was a favorite, with Yellowjacket and the Wasp, and John Byrne art.
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Say what you will about Batroc, he is inclusive...

The last Spider-Man/Captain America team-up we checked out tied into Spidey's current continuity quite a bit; this time was more on Cap's side: from 1976, Marvel Team-Up #52, "Danger: Demon on a Rampage!" Written by Gerry Conway, pencils by Sal Buscema, inks by Mike Esposito.

A demon appears through a strange portal, arriving in the middle of a New York City street; it's shortly followed by the Falcon, his girlfriend Leila, Texas Jack, then a bunch of mentally ill extradimensional refugees, then finally Captain America! Where did they come from? The end of Captain America #203, a Jack Kirby issue involving the Night People and a standoff against demons. Cap doesn't really have time to recap anything, since Falcon was still brainwashed and crazy; the cops were rounding up the "madmen," and one patrolman is already blaming Spider-Man for this mess. The demon is seemingly forgotten, and wanders down an alley near the penthouse hideout of none other than Batroc the Leaper! Calling it "le diable," Batroc befriends it quickly. Enh, it could do worse.

Almost immediately thereafter, Batroc and Diable hit a S.H.I.E.L.D. transport, hoping to make off with some "trans-uranium." Cap was already in the area, and Spidey shows up shortly, cue four page fight. Le Diable begins glowing at the end of it, though; which Cap finds troubling even if Batroc thinks he's just trying to scare him. The poor monster fights his way onto a ferry, struggling to find a way home...to a dimension Cap may have already blown up. Together Cap and Spidey blow up Diable as well, with Spidey having at least the decency to feel kind of bad about it.

Later, as Peter Parker gets his aunt from the hospital (and Mary Jane needles him) he sees a moping Cap, and wonders what it would be like to be an adored hero like him, with no problems...as his internal monologue goes on and on about his problems. Cap is seemingly still worried about the Falcon, who might've been okay by their next issue, so maybe Peter has a point.
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It never seems right to me, an issue of Marvel Team-Up with the Human Torch as the lead instead of Spider-Man. Eventually it was all Spidey, but during the first forty issues Johnny had five team-ups with Spidey (including the first three issues) and six of his own, including this one: from 1975, Marvel Team-Up #32, "All the Fires in Hell...!" Written by Gerry Conway, pencils by Sal Buscema, inks by Vince Colletta.

This issue was set December 31st, 1974; and surprisingly Johnny wasn't on his way to blackout drunk: he tries to contact his pal Wyatt Wingfoot, only to find he's possessed by a demon. This sort of thing just happened back then. With Ben a little sketched out by his adventure last week with Ghost Rider, and figuring Reed and Sue weren't the guys for this one, Johnny calls in a surprising backup: Daimon Hellstrom, the Son of Satan!

Could be wrong, but I feel like Marvel gave him a lot of push too, even though he never got to the level of Ghost Rider. The conclusion seems a little rushed--not unlike the last issue of Team-Up we checked out--but not bad. Even though it also feels weird to me to see Johnny think something through and not be kind of a jerk.
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Back in the neighborhood, but hardly friendly today.

I've had this story for years, in the glorious Marvel Treasury Edition #22, which also included the delightful "Here We Go-A-Plotting!" But we finally have a copy to put in the scanner! From 1973, Marvel Team-Up #13, "The Granite Sky!" Written by Len Wein, pencils by Gil Kane, inks by Frank Giacoia and (per the GCD, an uncredited) David Hunt.

Spidey is honestly, surly as hell this issue; although with good reason: this was still shortly after Gwen's death in Amazing #121. That issue was from June and this from September, and while Spidey had multiple adventures in his own book, Marvel Team-Up, and a guest-spot in Daredevil; it may only have been a couple weeks in Marvel-time since she died. Spidey had just returned from San Francisco, where it inexplicably took him, DD, and the Black Widow to beat Ramrod; and was looking for a fight to take his mind of his troubles. After he ditches out on a drunken sailor, though, he just misses a meteor land near the docks, that opens to reveal...the Grey Gargoyle?

Not far away, Spidey runs across two A.I.M. beekeepers running down the street: they seem mad since they had to run "from one costumed fanatic--and right into another!" He wallops them, then backtracks along their trail to find Captain America taking out more A.I.M. troops. Afterwards, Cap calls in S.H.I.E.L.D. for clean-up, and Spidey is remarkably testy, right before they're both...beamed up? To the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier?

An overzealous (and over-confident) agent wants to capture Spider-Man for questioning, and gets shellacked with webbing for his trouble. Nick Fury strongly suggests Spidey not try that with him, but invites him to a briefing with Cap: A.I.M. had been after a missile "telemetry system," and while Cap had defended one and S.H.I.E.L.D. another, A.I.M. managed to steal a third. Still, it had been fitted with a homing device, leading them to a base in Queens, beneath the Science Pavilion of the '64 World's Fair. Instead of MODOK today, though, A.I.M. is being bossed around by the Grey Gargoyle, who had been launched into space in Captain America #142. (Two years prior, don't ask what he ate or breathed that whole time...) The Gargoyle had contacted A.I.M. to bring down his stony prison, and together they were going to take control of earth's airspace, or something.

For some reason, instead of S.H.I.E.L.D. sending in the troops, Cap and Spidey take on the base, but are both turned into stone fairly quickly. They are then chained to the rocket that will launch the Gargoyle's satellite, with a "power-beam...capable of turning entire cities into lifeless stone!" With the launch seconds away and about an hour until the Gargoyle's stone-touch wears off, Cap and Spidey are doomed...unless the touch wears off early, for no apparent reason! Cap wonders if the venom that briefly gave him super-strength saved him, but can't even guess what saved Spider-Man. (They were on the second-to-last page, that's what saved him.) Cap throws the Gargoyle, who gets snagged in the chain that had held them, and dragged into space with the rocket. Other than that, it seemed like a pretty successful launch...I'm not sure where the Grey Gargoyle appeared next, or if he mentioned his stone-satellite-beam, but I don't think he and A.I.M. teamed up again. Captain America would appear in Marvel Team-Up again fairly soon, though: just got that issue, which we'll see some time later.

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A time capsule in multiple senses! Mostly in that I'm crating it back up...

We had a recent Daredevil post, that tied into an old post from way back; and we're doing the same today with the issue after an old team-up...not quite classic: from 1996, Spider-Man Team-Up #4, "Webs of Time" Written by George Perez, art by Steve Geiger and Chris Ivy, Darick Robertson and Andrew Pepoy, Dan Jurgens and Tom Palmer, and Brandon McKinney and Chris Ivy.

This series was from during the Ben Reilly Spider-Man days, which had the virtue of Marvel trying something new that nobody at all wanted. (I think. Maybe people loved it, I don't think so, but I don't recall.) That would probably be a strike against it; two more would be this month's guest-stars, the Avengers! The virtually unrecognizable, 90's Avengers! Mutated Wasp, extreme Hawkeye, shirtless Thor, teenage Iron Man. (It would be a few years before Marvel would have success with shirtless Thor...) Teen Tony gets a lot of page time, as the Avengers are trying to train him up to adult Tony's level, even though his new armor is far more dangerous than his early suits. Tony also has some records delivered, by "dark condiment." Bwah? Oh, it's Pepper Potts! Who is...aggressively hit on by teen Tony. It's borderline.

The plot's a little confusing, with some time-travel flashbacks, people getting aged, a mysterious pyramid, and another Spider-Man! Ben isn't thrilled at the notion of yet another clone out there, but that's not what this is. It has a couple bits that seem unrelated, like the opening; like it maybe needed another draft to settle down. And the bad guy ties in to both Spidey and the current Iron Man storyline, so read out of that context it might be a bit to puzzle through. (Spoiler after the break, if you're curious!) One big selling point: this issue does feature Black Widow punching Henry Peter Gyrich!


(The villain is Kang the Conqueror's Spider-Man robot from Avengers #11! Reactivated after the most recent final battle with Kang, Timeslide; it had been draining time from its victims, to power up a time machine, for his "master," Iron Man! The older Tony had been a pawn of Kang's, so the robot thought it was helping by grabbing the younger one, but it may also think it really is Spider-Man. After Quicksilver beats down Ben, Gyrich immediately realizes he isn't the Spider-Man they were after, because his costume was different: Gyrich forced the Avengers to go after Spidey, but may have wanted to cover up the robot, so he misled them into thinking Spidey had gone bad.)
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