Issue(s): Marvel Team-Up #101
Cover Date: Jan 81
Title: " To judge a Nighthawk! / Don't let the sun come up on me!"
Credits:
J.M. DeMatteis / Mike Barr - Writer
Jerry Bingham / Steve Ditko - Penciler
Mike Esposito / Steve Ditko - Inker
Mark Gruenwald - Assistant Editor
Denny O'Neil - Editor

Review/plot:
Kyle Richmond is giving a press conference addressing his recent legal problems when he's attacked by a woman demanding to know why he murdered her. Peter Parker, in the audience, jumps into the fray without the usual hemming and hawing about his secret identity (note that Peter is still at the Globe and also the reaction from his peers).

Peter returns as Spider-Man and discovers that the woman is a robot.

I really like that bottom left drawing of Spider-Man. But there are an insane amount of words coming from Spidey in that top panel.

Kyle reveals that the robot was modeled after Mindy Williams, a former girlfriend that he thought he killed during an accident he caused while driving drunk. The robot invites Kyle (whose identity as Nighthawk is public knowledge) to return to the college in upstate New York where he and Mindy were dating. Spider-Man, sensing that Kyle's guilt over Mindy's "death" is similar to his own about Uncle Ben, decides to tag along. Don't ask me how Spider-Man web-swings to upstate New York.

When Spider-Man and Nighthawk arrive at the college, they are attacked by robots representing various factions of the 1960s - hippies, jocks, riot police - and then meet Mindy herself.

Mindy, it turns out wasn't actually killed; just paralyzed and paid off by Kyle's father to keep quiet. She used the money to make connections with AIM and purchase "the finest in Latverian robotics".

She now tries to kill Kyle in a recreation of the accident that crippled her. Spider-Man is able to get her to stop by accusing her of never having loved Kyle in the first place, just his money, because if she really had ever loved him she wouldn't do this to him. That works, but Mindy still isn't well. It's said that she is handed over to SHIELD, but this isn't the last we'll see of her.

The story ends with Nighthawk feeling like his experience with Spider-Man has helped him work through the guilt he's been carrying, but a back-up story drawn by Ditko says that he's relapsed into feeling guilty again.

However, by helping a crippled girl escape from a crumbling building, he again regains his positive attitude.

The return of Mindy Williams is a fairly significant plot point for J.M. DeMatteis' Defenders run, so this issue really serves the Defenders storyline more than Spider-Man, but making the connection regarding Kyle and Peter's guilt was a nice touch. That said, DeMatteis' writing is very verbose and heavily reliant on extraneous symbolism (the robots of the 60s?). Bingham's art is nice.

The back-up is pointless but it's certainly worth it for the curiosity of seeing Ditko drawing Nighthawk.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - return of Mindy Williams

Chronological Placement Considerations: The MCP places this between Amazing Spider-Man #209-210 and between Defenders #91-92 (this issue is referenced in Defenders #92, and it takes place while Nighthawk is dealing with his legal problems).

References:

• A legal injunction prevented Kyle Richmond from becoming Nighthawk circa Defenders #77 but it was lifted in Defenders #88. His legal troubles are still ongoing, however ("See recent issues of The Defenders").
  
• Mindy's death was shown in Defenders #32.
  
• Mindy says to Kyle that she "saw your transformation from egocentric playboy to incompetent super-villain to third rate super-hero". A flashback panel shows Nighthawk fighting Daredevil from Daredevil #62.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

SDS is Students for a Democratic Society, YAF is Young Americans for Freedom, left- and right-wing student groups, respectively. LSD is, well, not just a way of referring to "pounds, shillings, and pence."

The back-up's title is a play on the Elton John hit. As an adolescent I loved J.M.'s robots, counterculture references,and verbosity. It seemed very deep, with supporting characters touching upon pieces of the real world. By their time I found more of his Marvel work, I shared his Sixties, rock, and eventually, literary affinities. He was a big Gerber fan.

This is JM's first Spider-Man story. My first of his Spider-Man stories is in MTU #111, his 2nd try-complete with Spider (story builder) God Omm. Here we have more of a Kyle Richmond tale, revisiting what is I'm sure a big favorite Defenders storyline for its later writers: The Headmen! Callbacks to the Origin of Kyle Richmond- and yet another story where some menace comes out in the trappings of a past decade! I see how he got tapped to write Captain America, in a way.