Marvel Team-Up #7Issue(s): Marvel Team-Up #7 Review/plot: His comment about chivalry is a littler weird. I mean, chivalry might mean i open a door for a woman or lay my coat on a puddle. Preventing someone from being raped is like, basic human decency, right? I guess it's like old school chivalry, like with literal knights in shining armor. But i don't think that's what most people mean when they say "chivalry is dead". Ok, dwelling a bit. Sorry. I do want to mention that the woman in question has crazy hair. Like, really crazy hair. That's her own business and i don't mean to be rude by pointing it out, but, wow. Anyway, the ruckus attracts the attention of Thor, resulting in some really interesting scenes where Peter kind of reverts to his Spider-Man personality and Thor is a bit shocked to see a regular person talking to him this way. While they're talking, something strange starts to happen. Thor protects Peter with a vortex... ...but everyone else on Earth is turned into negatives. The effect turns out to be the work of a troll named Kryllk the Cruel, who Thor is apparently aware of (but this is his only appearance, surprisingly). Kryllk has acquired an artifact called the Dark Crystal (i'm not making any references to the Jim Henson movie, so you can just forget it)... ...which is what produces the negative effect, and after taunting Thor for a bit he disappears. Before Kryllk's attack, Peter changed into his Spider-Man costume. I really like the no-muss, no-fuss way Peter gives up his ID. Circumstances didn't merit any of the usual shenanigans and really, what does Thor care about Spider-Man's secret ID? Can he even tell one mortal from another? Thor takes Spider-Man to Avengers Mansion (that's Scarlet Witch, Iron Man, and Fandral; this takes place when the exiled Asgardians were staying with the Avengers)... ...so that Spidey can use their technology to track down Kryllk. One trail leads to Asgard, and since Thor is currently banished from that realm, Spidey has to go there on his own while Thor investigates an asteroid near Jupiter. Each hero finds a version of Kryllk. Thor's version tells him that he "found" the Crystal "in a cavern beneath thy hallowed Asgard". When the heroes are done fighting their Kryllks, the Watcher shows up to take away Kryllk and the Dark Crystal. The Watcher claims it was his device all along and someone stole it. Now, considering the discrepancy between Kryllk's story and the Watcher's, i guess we have a few possibilities: 1) The Watcher is lying. This is his way of safely storing this dangerous device somewhere without seemingly breaking his oath of interference. Anyway, the story is kind of nonsensical (why is Kryllk on an asteroid near Jupiter?!?!) and his trolls seem about as tough as the rapists that Spider-Man fought earlier, but the interaction between Spidey and Thor is interesting, at least. Quality Rating: C Chronological Placement Considerations: This takes place after Thor is banished from Asgard, between Thor #205-206 and after his appearance in Avengers #105. As with Team-Up #5-6, the Index places Spidey's appearance here during Amazing Spider-Man #107 thanks to a long string of continued stories in the ASM issues; i've placed this after ASM #115 when there's finally a break. References:
Crossover: N/A Continuity Insert? N My Reprint: Essential Marvel Team-Up vol. 1 Inbound References (1): showCharacters Appearing: Fandral, Iron Man, Scarlet Witch, Spider-Man, Thor, Uatu the Watcher 1972 / Box 7 / EiC: Roy Thomas CommentsThe woman's giant hair was actually fairly common among female country & western singers at the time. Posted by: Mark Drummond | March 16, 2013 5:19 PM Well if you won't... Is it just me or does Uatu have a bit of an Urskek look to him? Or is it just he wants to be Augra to them? (well someone had to) Posted by: Ataru320 | March 17, 2013 9:25 PM "Can he even tell one mortal from another?" If he can't tell one mortal from another I don't see how he could tell one Asgardian from another, since Asgardians look human. But agreed, Peter had no reason not to show his face w/o worry in that situation. Superheroes don't stop and think often enough about the reasons they have things like secret identities. Like I always wondered why SpiderMan hid his face from the FF in the old Stan Lee issues. Just wasn't reasonable. Posted by: Paul | March 21, 2013 6:22 AM It's a good thing the attackers never noticed Peter's "Spider-Feet"! Posted by: Brian Coffey | May 21, 2017 11:52 PM I'd say this issue's important for those of us who care about characters revealing their identities... but has it ever been referenced in later Spidey/Thor team-ups? No, because Thor truly doesn't care about any identity other than his own (when he has one). So it ends up being a trivial revelation for both of them. Peter knows his secret is safe with Goldilocks. Hell, Thor may even have forgotten it over the years. To be honest, I forgot about that issue until recent comment activity brought it back to my mind. Posted by: Nate Wolf | May 22, 2017 9:41 AM Thor doesn't learn Spider-Man's real name in this issue, so at best he discovers that Spidey is a white guy with dark brown hair. I think it's more significant that, two issues ago, Spidey revealed to the Vision where he lives. If the Avengers compared notes, they could pretty easily figure out what Spider-Man's true identity is at this point. But they haven't even confirmed that Iron Man is Tony Stark yet. Posted by: Tony Lewis | May 22, 2017 3:49 PM I'm sorry, but this line of reasoning seems kind of ridiculous. Back in the Stan Lee days, Peter didn't even know the Fantastic Four that well on any personal level. We the readers know that they are trustworthy, but from the point of view of a fresh era of superheroes from a civilian or even another supehero, who knows what skeletons the Fantastic Four might have had in their closet? In real life there are countless situations in which people in a position of power or moral responsibility are hiding the most horrible, horrible things. Who's to say the Fantastic Four weren't using teleporters to deal contraband on the side? Who's to say that they weren't a Thunderbolts or Dark Avengers situation waiting to happen? Who's to say that even if they'd even keep a lid on his ID? Trust comes with time, and I'd assume that in Posted by: Max_Spider | May 22, 2017 4:19 PM a world where any Tom, Dick and Harry could throw on a mask and say they fight for truth and justice, the same would apply. Even if someone like Iron Man was a genuinely good person, it doesn't mean someone would trust him not to spill their identities on a drunken binge. Frankly, I feel like there's been a lot of incidents that justify superheroes keeping their identities a secret from one another. And that's without getting into stuff like mind control and duplicates and the like. Posted by: Max_Spider | May 22, 2017 4:33 PM I mean, the less people who know who you are, the less brains there are for a psychic to extract that information right? As if psychic powers are even the only way. Posted by: Max_Spider | May 22, 2017 4:36 PM Peter always had a reason not to give away his secret identity - he was afraid of people going after the ones he loves. In some cases, he was also afraid of what would happen if his loved ones found out who he was. In the case of Gwen Stacy, he was worried since she blamed Spider-Man for her father's death. And in the case of Aunt May, he was afraid the stress would be too much for her. Posted by: clyde | May 23, 2017 9:30 AM This is the 2nd time in the 1972 index that I've noticed the Watcher dressed in red and acting out of character. The 1st was in Avengers #101. A possible theory might be that these are the first two unknown appearances of Aron the Rogue Watcher. Besides dressing in red and acting out of character, he is also shown in the last scan above to be wearing pants, and Uatu never wears pants; it's a dead giveaway. Aron's official 1st appearance is in Captain Marvel #37-39, 1974. Posted by: Holt | January 20, 2018 7:25 AM Comments are now closed. |
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