Issue(s): Marvel Team-Up #121
Cover Date: Sep 82
Title: "Look before you leap!"
Credits:
J.M. DeMatteis - Writer
Kerry Gammill - Penciler
Mike Esposito - Inker
Linda Grant - Assistant Editor
Tom DeFalco - Editor

Review/plot:
This is a fun one. It starts with some nice Spidey/Torch rivalry...

...that starts with them competing to nail some common criminals and gets escalated when the Speed Demon gets involved.

Watching the showboating heroes, a guy in the crowd has a little fit, and his son has to lead him away.

The father turns out to be the old villain Leap-Frog (real name Vincent Patilio). He's been trying to live straight, but the stress of being a widower with a crummy job and a son (Eugene) to raise is getting to him. When they get home, he angrily lashes out and strikes his son, but quickly apologizes for it. His son says that he understands.

What Vincent doesn't know is that Eugene has secretly been working on an update to his Leap-Frog costume, and he goes off to be a "success" to make his father proud.

Meanwhile, Spider-Man and the Human Torch aren't having much luck against Speed Demon.

The new Leap-Frog doesn't have much control over himself...

...but he eventually stumbles into the fight and accidentally lands on the Speed Demon.

His father shows up at the end, and is indeed proud. Eugene decides to call himself Frog-Man instead of Leap-Frog because it has more "pizzazz".

Despite obviously being a more light-hearted story (with a little light child abuse thrown in for spice), Kerry Gammill nonetheless throws in some nice action sequences.

Please note that although this is Frog-Man II, his father was not the first Frog-Man; he was Leap-Frog. The original Frog Man (no hyphen) is one of the Ani-Men.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - first Frog-Man II

Chronological Placement Considerations: I'm out of sync with the MCP on Marvel Team-Up thanks to my placement of issues #117-118 and #124, but both Spider-Man and the Human Torch appearances are context free. I have the Human Torch in the same gap in FF issues as Contest of Champions.

References:

• Speed Demon was last seen in Amazing Spider-Man #222.
  
• Leap-Frog's origin from Daredevil #25 is shown with no footnotes. It seems to imply that his career ended after facing Daredevil that one time, but he actually had a couple of additional appearances.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

"Belker" is a reference to the early 1980s cop show Hill Street Blues.

Marvel did have a magazine called Pizzazz in the late 1970s. I won't go into detail here, but it reportedly nearly destroyed the company.

even as a kid, that "just love me, dad. just love me." line made me gag.

Mark, I am seeing this comment *4* years after the fact, (but I have not read through all the years since early 2013 so this is probably why) but am very curious about Pizzazz nearly destroying the company. I remember seeing house ads and it just looked like an attempt at an 'Electric Company' sort of magazine for younger readers, and can't recall seeing mention of this in any articles about Marvel's history, etc. Totally not doubting you, just curious!