Issue(s): Marvel Team-Up #69, Marvel Team-Up #70
Published Date: May-Jun 78
Title: "Night of the living god!" / "Whom gods destroy!"
Credits:
Chris Claremont - Writer
John Byrne - Penciler
Ricardo Villamonte / Tony DeZuniga - Inker

Review/plot:
Havok and Polaris are attacked by the minions of the Living Pharoah on Muir Island while Moira and the Multiple Man are away. Havok is captured and Polaris is left for dead in the ocean, but she manages to drag herself out.

Meanwhile, Peter Parker stumbles upon a burglary by another group of the Pharoah's men at E.S.U.. Due to a bizarre mishap, Spidey winds up caught in his own web, but manages to tag the goons with a spidey-tracer.

Polaris calls the X-Mansion and gets no response, so she calls the Avengers and gets the Beast. Hearing that no one is at the X-Mansion, the Beast takes a Quinjet (even though Gyrich has forbidden their usage) and heads there, hoping to find Havok as well. He winds up getting caught up in Mesmero's plot and is effectively out of the picture both for this story and the Korvac saga. It's a busy time for the Marvel Universe.

Spider-Man catches up with the Pharoah's henchmen and frees Havok, but the Living Pharoah himself shows up and defeats both of them. The Pharoah cuts off Havok's access to his solar powers, which turns the Pharoah into the Living Monolith.

Spidey's in big, big trouble... and then Thor shows up. There's something about the scene where Thor swings in and catches Spider-Man, calls him 'young friend', and mentions the aid that Spidey has given in the Avengers in the past, that gave me a thrill. it's the combination of the great art, the speech mannerisms that fits the characters perfectly, and the acknowlegement of the characters' history, that just made everything feel perfect. When i read through my collection, i leave little post-its that mark references and other significant things in the comics. For this scene, i just wrote 'awesome'.

Anyway, Thor drops Spidey and heads after the Monolith alone. He gets swatted away like a fly. Thor compares the Monolith's power to that of the Destroyer or perhaps Thanos. Spidey, left more or less on the sidelines, is also reminded of Thanos, thinking about how useless he was when he teamed up with the Avengers and the Thing to fight the mad titan.

While Thor continues to wage epic battle against the Living Monolith, Spider-Man tries to figure out ways to rescue Havok and cut off the Monolith's power source. Eventually he succeeds, and the Monolith looses his powers. It is speculated that he reverted to human form and got swept away by Thor's hurricane's, most likely killed, but no one knows for sure. Thor flies Havok back to Muir Island to see Lorna.

I'll say it again: awesome.

Quality Rating: B+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: Takes place concurrently with the Korvac saga. Thor and the Beast's appearance here takes place during Avengers #172. Spider-Man makes a reference to Aunt May's heart attacks in Amazing Spider-Man #177, so it definitely takes place after that (although the MCP places this between ASM #171-172; i'm not sure why; other than the heart attack reference and the fact that Peter is studying at the university, the issue is context-free from Spidey's point of view.)

References:

• Havok and Polaris were recovering on Muir Island from their tough year, which they mostly spent possessed by Eric the Red, beginning in Uncanny X-Men #97. The X-Men finally returned home in Uncanny X-Men #109.
  
• They've also been sifting through the damage of Moria's lab, which was destroyed by Magento in Uncanny X-Men #104
  
• Aunt May is suffering from a series of heart attacks she suffered in Amazing Spider-Man #177
  
• The Beast winds up sticking with the the X-Men as a result of Polaris' call, beginning with Uncanny X-Men #111
  
• Havok and the Living Pharoah last met in Uncanny X-Men #55-56
  
• Spider-Man fought Thanos with the Avengers and the Thing in Marvel Two-In-One annual #2
  
• Thor knows that the Monolith doesn't really have anything to do with the Egyptian pantheon, who he knows personally and met as recently as Marvel Two-In-One #22-23.

Cross-over: N/A

Continuity Implant? N

Reprinted In: Marvel Tales #206 (Issue #69 is an original)