Issue(s): Marvel Team-Up #117, Marvel Team-Up #118
Cover Date: May-Jun 82
Title: "Scents and senses!" / "Meeting of the minds"
Credits:
J.M. DeMatteis - Writer
Herb Trimpe - Penciler
Mike Esposito - Inker
Tom DeFalco - Editor

Review/plot:
Wolverine and Spider-Man both wind up investigating a strange medieval castle in upstate New York populated by people in knight outfits but using high tech machinery.

They manage to stop the castle's owner from engaging in some wanton destruction, but they don't learn who he is.

Wolverine invites Spidey back to the X-Mansion for a Danger Room session and some breakfast.

Professor Xavier then heads out to the city for a meeting with Professor Anthony Power, a historian and expert on foreign affairs. Power contacted Xavier via FBI Agent Fred Duncan. Spidey hitches a ride on the roof of the car, but winds up falling asleep and traveling the full trip with Professor X.

Xavier finds that Power and his lackeys all have mental shields. Professor Power is actually aware of Xavier's powers and association with the X-Men, and he wants Xavier to awaken his son, who has been in a coma since the Vietnam war.

Xavier is unable to do so, but Power believes that Xavier simply refuses to. It turns out that Power has the Fixer under his employ...

...and he's also got the comatose body of Mentallo.

So, with Xavier's 'refusal', his plan is to drain Xavier's mental powers into Mentallo. Spidey battles the Fixer while Xavier fights Mentallo on the astral plane.

In the battle, Power's son is killed.

Herb Trimpe's art is better than expected, but DeMatteis's writing is particularly bad. It's especially noticeable in the scripting for Wolverine.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 3 - developments for Professor Power (actually this is his first published appearance, although he's been behind-the-scenes in the recent Defenders/Captain America crossover)

Chronological Placement Considerations: Kitty Pryde is introduced to Spider-Man as the newest addition to the X-Men. Wolverine describes the Danger Room as not being fully operational due to a recent attack. Xavier is still in a wheelchair. Spider-Man's appearance takes place after his appearance in Defenders #106-109. Spider-Man's appearance is context free (except for the Defenders dependency), but Wolverine and Xavier's appearance is a little more problematic. I assume that based on Kitty Pryde's newbie status and the state of the X-Mansion, and especially Xavier being in a wheelchair, the MCP didn't like this taking place after X-Men #167 when the X-Men return from Earth and Xavier's body is cloned. However, Professor Xavier is sick in bed in issue #161, and has been for some time prior to that, due to the Brood egg in his belly. It doesn't make a lot of sense for him to head out for a non-emergency visit even if he did happen to have a brief recovery off panel. The X-Men were also living on Magneto's Cthulhu island during that time period. It makes more sense for this to take place after the X-Men return from space. Xavier was still shown to be relying on his wheelchair for some time after his body was cloned, and the other references are all relative, especially since they're being explained to Spider-Man, who hadn't seen the X-Men in some time.

Professor Power says that it was "some weeks ago" that he launched his attempt to take over the world in the Captain America / Defenders crossover.

The problem with that is that Marvel Team-Up #119 takes place directly after Defenders #109. See the Defenders entry for more, but the short story is i've placed this after Marvel Team-Up #119.

References:

• Issue #117 starts off with Wolverine passing the time by 'hunting' deer the way he described it in Uncanny X-Men #109 - by sneaking up close enough to touch them. It's a clunkily written scene, with Wolverine engaging in a lot of exposition, telling the deer what he's up to.
  

• Professor Power is interested in studying super-heroes after he was thwarted in Captain America #268 and Defenders #106.
  
• Mentallo's mind was burned out in Micronauts #25.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Marvel Tales #243, Marvel Tales #244

Does issue 188 link directly from issue 117, or did you just decide to do these plot synopsis in a group since they both involved X-characters?

They are linked. Spider-Man goes back to the X-Mansion with Wolverine and hitching a ride home from there with Xavier is what gets him involved in the Mentallo portion.

DeMatteis stated in Comics Interview #39 that this was the worst story he ever did.

That moment when you realize you'd actually read a comic (MTU #118) and it meant so little that you hardly recognized it when you see a recap. I've actually been looking on this site for comics I read when I was just little, and the Spidey-Prof. X team-up didn't remotely ring a bell, until I'd gone through several panels, and darn it if they don't look familiar. Weird wild stuff.

I didn't think the son was killed; I thought his mind was destroyed. Later on, we'll see that his mind is still "in there' somewhere, since Moondragon uses this to defeat Professor Power in his New Defenders storyline.

I thought Charlie had sworn off mucking with peoples' minds. Guess I was wrong.

The idea here isn't that Xavier mucked with Matt Power's mind; it's that he and Mentallo had a mental battle and somehow the "psychic crossfire" hit Matthew's mind which was...I dunno, floating around the room or something?

Though I suppose he does mess with the minds of the police when they arrive to conceal Spider-Man, Professor Power, and the two defeated supervillains.

Never mind, it's explained right here that some of Xavier's psychic energies were left in Matthew's mind following his brief probe of it, at Power's request, and that this is why the battle between himself and Mentallo screwed Matthew's mind up even further.

I find it interesting that DeMatteis focuses on the possible therapeutic applications of tProfessor X's powers. While the potential for abuse and manipulation are always part of powers like Xavier's, this might be one of the few ways you could make a case that projecting telepathy isn't inherently unethical by its very nature.

The police were who I was talking about.