Issue(s): Marvel Team-Up #114
Cover Date: Feb 82
Title: "The heat in Harlem!"
Credits:
J.M. DeMatteis - Writer
Herb Trimpe - Penciler
Mike Esposito - Inker
Mark Gruenwald - Assistant Editor
Tom DeFalco - Editor

Review/plot:
Debate club time, people. Everyone pull a position out of the hat and defend it to the best of your ability.

Ok, Spider-Man, i see you got the Con position on Vigilantism. That's going to be tricky for you, since you are, in fact, a vigilante. Let's see how you do.

Hmmm. Well, i guess you get points for not going the easy route and just saying it's different because the Young Watchers group that are used as stand-ins for the Guardian Angels in this story are children. But having powers makes the difference, huh? I hope your guest star for this issue, the Falcon, doesn't hear that, since he barely has any powers to speak of.

J. Jonah Jameson, i see you got Pro on the same subject. Well, you've been railing against costumed vigilantes for years, so that's going to be a tough position to defend, right?

Oh.

Ok, Falcon, you've pulled an entirely different topic. "White superheroes operating in Harlem." Well, the standard answer there goes back to Denny O'Neil's "...you helped out the orange skins... and you done considerable for the purple skins! Only there's skins you never bothered with--! ...the black skins!". Now obviously that was someone talking to the Green Lantern, and i don't want to put words in your mouth, but the idea that super-heroes don't do enough to prevent crime in black neighborhoods is surely one you agree with, right? I know you've criticized Cap for going off to fight the likes of the Yellow Claw instead of focusing on more local problems, and certainly you and Cap were partners for a long while and... hmm? Oh. You pulled the Con position.

Now granted, Spider-Man does go too far in support of his position. He busts in on the Young Watchers and accuses them all of being thieves, although he does admit he was being "indelicate".

But it does turn out, as the Falcon learns from his nephew Jim Wilson, that something fishy is going on in the Young Watchers, and in fact they are being manipulated by Stone-Face.

And so Spider-Man and the Falcon make peace and team-up. And by "make peace", i mean the Falcon tells Spider-Man that he's "jive".

And then tells him that he's all right for a white guy (as the white Young Watcher in the background smiles and says, "Hooray! Mr. Falcon, am I all right for a white guy too?!").

Ultimately Stone-Face is exposed and defeated, and then JJ withdraws his support for the young vigilantes. But Spider-Man is sticking to his position. At least until lunch.

Quality Rating: D+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: The MCP places this between Amazing Spider-Man #225-226. #226 references this issue and starts the same night. Jim Wilson is still a Young Watcher in Captain America #270; this story should take place before that one because he is shot and hospitalized there.

References:

• Stone-Face was first defeated by the Falcon, Spider-Man, and Captain America in Captain America #138. (By the way, i don't think Spider-Man even recognizes Stone-Face in this story; these footnotes come from Stone-Face ranting alone in his office after reading a Bugle editorial.)
  
• Stone-Face subsequently set up shop in Nigeria, but the Falcon and the Black Panther busted up his operation there in Captain America #171.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

If you think this debate about vigilantism is bad, wait until you get to 1986 and review Web of Spider-Man 11-12. Highlights include Joe Robertson arguing that a man stopping a rape that's happening right in front of him is wrong and Peter Parker letting would-be rapists go and get a second chance.

The Young Watchers will turn up later in Captain America #270 and #272, also by DeMatteis.