Issue(s): Marvel Team-Up #122
Cover Date: Oct 82
Title: "A simple twist of... Fate"
Credits:
J.M. DeMatteis - Writer
Kerry Gammill - Penciler
Mike Esposito - Inker
Linda Grant - Assistant Editor
Tom DeFalco - Editor

Review/plot:
J.M. DeMatteis has been using Marvel Team-Up to highlight characters from his Defenders run. The past year has seen Devil-Slayer (#111), Valkyrie (#116), and Gargoyle (#119), as well as the villain Professor Power in issues #117-118 (and he'll be showing up again, along with the Defender Beast, in #124). And this issue features Ian Fate, another character from Defenders.

I think this is great. Along with the recent Defenders/Captain America team-up, DeMatteis is creating some nice inter-title continuity, which i always appreciate, especially when it goes beyond just a writer bringing in the same pet characters all the time.

In the aftermath of Fate's last appearance, Dr. Strange sent him to a psychiatrist with some knowledge of the occult, but Fate eventually teleported away. He was trying to get back to the little pocket dimension he'd been using, but he wound up near the Man-Thing's Nexus instead.

He "befriends" Man-Thing...

...and brings him to New York.

Fate used to be a reporter, and he knows J. Jonah Jameson. Of course, that was before he became an occultist and started hanging out with the Man-Thing.

Fate is obviously disturbed, and he wants JJ to use the Daily Bugle to publish a treatise on why the world should be better than it is, but he's a bit unclear on the details and JJ tells him it would be a breach of journalistic integrity anyway.

That causes Fate to lash out at JJ and Spider-Man steps in. When Fate subsequently shows fear, the Man-Thing reacts.

That results in a fight between Spider-Man and the Man-Thing.

Peter Parker had been doing a series of photos of old people at the retirement home...

...and when Fate sees those JJ is able to get through to him. Fate heads to where Spider-Man and Man-Thing were fighting and finds that the Man-Thing has been reduced to a pulpy mess (the story implies that it's because he's been away from the swamp for too long, which was a limitation that had actually been removed some time ago).

But Manny is still alive, and Fate returns with him to the swamp.

Worth the price of admission for the Man-Thing in "disguise", but the story is otherwise a little unsatisfying. Ian Fate is clearly not well in the head, so having him just return to the swamp is no resolution (that said, i believe this is his final appearance). And the way JJ gets through to Ian Fate isn't all that linear, either. He says that yes there's bad things in the world but your dead wife and kid wouldn't be happy with what you're doing. And not only is that cliched and not all that convincing but it doesn't really have anything to do with the photos that Peter had taken. All that said, the story is at least trying to be a little deeper than just "crazy wizard uses Man-Thing to fight Spider-Man" so i guess that's worth something.

I do like seeing Peter use his photography skills for real for a change.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 1

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 Spider-Man's appearance is context free. Spider-Man passes out at the end of this issue and wakes up in a hospital at the beginning of MTU #123, so no Spidey appearances should occur in between.

References:

• Ian Fate tried to kill Devil-Slayer in Defenders #104.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A