Issue(s): Marvel Team-Up #100
Cover Date: Dec 80
Title: "And introducing -- Karma! She possesses people! / Cry -- vengeance!"
Credits:
Chris Claremont - Writer
John Byrne - Co-plotter on second story
Frank Miller / John Byrne - Penciler
Bob Wiacek / Bob McLeod - Inker

Review/plot:
This issue introduces Karma, a young Vietnamese mutant who was enslaved by her corrupt uncle, General Nguyen Coy. She and her brother Tranh both have the ability to possess people. Her brother is a bad seed and enjoys using his power to hurt people. He's currently voluntarily working for Coy but intends to take over his operation. Karma (real name Xi'an) does not like possessing others. So Nguyen uses her younger siblings as hostages to force her to do his bidding.

To get out of this situation, Karma possesses Spider-Man.

From what she has read in the Daily Bugle, Spider-Man is a criminal, so morally she has less of a problem controlling him.

She uses Spider-Man to attack her uncle during a gala, but unfortunately the Fantastic Four are there as well...

...and they fight him off.

Realizing he wasn't acting like himself, Mr. Fantastic takes Spider-Man back to the Baxter Building for analysis.

They figure out that he's been mind-controlled With some help from Professor X, the FF and Spider-Man track down Karma and find out the real story.

They confront General Coy, but the FF get possessed by Karma's brother.

Karma subsequently possesses him, which kills him but seemingly absorbs a part of his soul into her.

Nice art by Frank Miller, and a good story. But Claremont pulls out his "No quarter asked, none given." line for the second fight between Spidey and the FF, and it feels clunky given the fact that the FF is possessed.

Cameos by Storm, Colossus, and Wolverine working in the Danger Room while Xavier talks to the FF on the phone.

In a back-up story, an assassination attempt is made on Storm.

She hunts the sniper down and finds out that he's working for a guy from her distant past. In an extended flashback, we find that when they were young, the Black Panther and Storm met each other in Africa and got into a scuffle with some South African white racists.

Their leader is back now, and BP and Storm inadvertently put him in a coma when they destroy the robot he was mentally controlling.

There's a hint of a past romance, but not much of one. A line of narration says that after their fight in the flashback "They traveled together for a time -- the happiest time of her trek, Ororo remembers fondly -- but in the end, they parted. T'Challa's duty took him back to Wakanda, while Ororo followed her dreams to the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro, where she made her home."

This back-up, or more specifically this line of narration and a few furtive glances in the modern day parts of the back-up, will much later be used as the basis for Storm and T'Challa's marriage.

Quality Rating: B

Historical Significance Rating: 6 - first Karma, establishes relationship between Storm and the Black Panther.

Chronological Placement Considerations: The Thing and Alicia Masters are dating again, putting this after Marvel Two-In-One #70. The MCP places it between Amazing Spider-Man #209-210. As Erik notes in the Comments, Wolverine is seen in the Danger Room in his blue and yellow costume, placing this before Uncanny X-Men #139-140.

References:

• Spider-Man and the Invisible Girl teamed-up not too long ago in Marvel Team-Up #88.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

The part about Xian absorbing part of her brother's soul was never referred to again, I believe.

Wow, I tend to forget how grotesque Mister Fantastic's power is. Seeing him in normal clothes really brings it home. Good job, Frank Miller!

The backup was originally announced as Daredevil & Wolverine by Claremont & Miller.

I doubt it's a full-on swipe, but that image of Storm being shot reminds me a lot of "The Senator's Been Shot!" From DC's series THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD with green Arrow from around 1969 or so. It's been a long time since I've seen it, but it was drawn by Neal Adams and I remember it being quite similar. I know John Byrne has cited Adams as a major influence on his early work. I wonder if he drew specific inspiration from that.

Fnord, I know it's a small chronological consideration, but Wolverine is still wearing his yellow and blue uniform in this issue, so shouldn't it really be placed before X-Men #139?

Agree. Thanks, Erik.

The panel of Storm being shot, right down to the bullet grazing her skull, would seemingly be homaged when one of the Fenris twins shoots her later.

I wonder if the idea that there'd be these two Vietnamese characters, one good, one evil started rooted in a Vietnam War analogy that got ditched at some point in the creative process. That sounds like something Frank Miller and Chris Claremont would talk about, when they weren't talking about how awesome Japan is, or how sexually appealing they find strong women. (grimace)

The disclaimer (given in narrator voice) at the end of the Storm-T'Challa story seems really final. I wonder if someone on the team wanted to try discourage any further efforts to hook them up (perhaps out of feeling that having two of the three most prominent black heroes would seem too trite). I think it works out okay, though.

The idea that Storm and T'Challa have a shared past reeks of Eurocentrism... Here we have the only two (at the time) major African superheroes, so of course they must've randomly met in their youth, because, you know, Africa is such a small place.

It looks really bad, and I think they shouldn't have done it for that reason, but so many Marvel characters have seemingly non-sensical coincidental meet-ups and connections in their backgrounds, by the weird rules of fate that govern the MU it's more excusable.

What I find more problematic is the fact that they were and are the only two (black) African characters of note, and one of them is a woman, so they therefore must have a romantic relationship. That strikes me of the same kind of "benevolent" racism that drives a group of high schoolers try to get the two exchange students together because it's "cute."

I think even that is alleviated by the fact that (A) Storm has romantic tension with basically every male character she's ever worked with (which is itself a kind of Orientalism and racism -- look how sexually free she is because she's so close to nature!), and (B) their marriage and break-up actually does lead to poignant soap-opera in the modern age.

I get it that many Marvel characters have these kind of connections in their past, but the majority of them at least live in the same country (USA), and roughly in the same area (New York and its surroundings). But the history between Storm and Black Panther is the equivalent of Captain Britain and Scarlew Witch having had a youthful romance, because they're both from Europe.

“There is no man, really, in the Marvel universe who’s good enough for her, who is her equal,” Claremont thought in The X-Men Companion. “She would not be taking a step down by falling in love with the Black Panther, perhaps."

We keep having royalty lust for her. This includes Doom and the Age of X incarnation of Namor. What exactly is going on here and what is Claremont talking about? Is she... I dunno, hesitant to bow down to anyone or something (which I suppose fits in with her tearing off Malice's necklace or whatever)?

I agree that it's a horrible idea, I certainly don't approve of the marriage this story led to, and I love the Captain Britain/Scarlet Witch analogy.

However, I don't think it's intrinsically unbelievable. According to Wikipedia, Wakanda is located near Egypt and Kenya, so it's not impossible that Storm would have passed that way on her voyage through the Sahara. Moreover, Ororo's mystic heritage was quite developed behind-the-scenes, and [cf Nathan Adler] Wakanda and Vibranium had strong connections to mystic entities as well. Any meeting or relationship between the two would be implausible, but not out of the realm of possibility if guided by 'higher forces.'

I wouldn't be surprised if Claremont and Byrne had been talking about this idea throughout their collaboration and a momentary thaw led to this brief reunion as a 'let's do it' one-off.

And it's also worth noting that Claremont seemed to love implausible coincidence meetings- e.g. Scott just happening to wash up on Magneto's island.

Well that's something you get used to with fiction in general. Especially for heroes and superheroes, whose reason for existence is to find new problems to solve.

You want to talk implausibility, Scott landing on Magneto's island is totally believable compared to Magus passing the Starjammers, then crashing through Asteroid M and sending Magneto spiraling down into the Atlantic, where he's rescued by none other than Lee Forester, and they wind up back on that same island where they first met. Ororo and T'challa look like a match made in heaven by comparison.

My mistake, Magneto and Lee deliberately set out for that island, and this was after he got out of the hospital.

@Mark I'd like to see that DD and Wolverine book!

Hey, folks. I just wanted to thank you for this site. It was a treasure trove of information that I really fell into while writing my Black Panther article for PREVIEWSworld.com. Now that I'm done with the 4-part interview series, I'm going to dive back into this site just for fun.

If anyone is interested, you can read the first of my creator "roundtable" @ https://previewsworld.com/Article/207572-Myth-Makers-Comic-Creators-On-Black-Panther----Part-1 and just click the links at the bottom to continue forward. I talk to everyone one from Roy Thomas to Axel Alonso. Enjoy.

It's a nice detailed overview, Troy-Jeffrey. Good creator quotes. I'm glad the site was of some help (and thanks for including it in the acknowledgement at the end!).