Issue(s): Marvel Team-Up #128
Cover Date: Apr 83
Title: "Sweet temptation!"
Credits:
J.M DeMatteis - Writer
Kerry Gammill - Penciler
Mike Esposito - Inker
Eliot Brown - Assistant Editor
Tom DeFalco - Editor

Review/plot:
Spider-Man and Captain America team-up to fight Vermin.

Both are at a street festival in their civvies, when Vermin first surfaces. Peter Parker is with his friend Roger Hochberg and his girlfriend Mia Carrera. Steve Rogers is with his girlfriend Bernie Rosenthal and thinking about how the death of Sharon Cater is keeping him from getting closer to her.

Peter recognizes Steve.

Per the events of Captain America #265-266 that should mean he knows that it's Captain America, but there's no indication of that. When Vermin surfaces...

...Peter gives the keys to his apartment to Roger and Mia, and both heroes sneak off to adjacent bathroom stalls to change.

Vermin sends rats and dogs after Cap and Spider-Man...

...but eventually flees.

SHIELD agent Gail Runciter, who Cap recently chewed out for killing a bunch of people that Baron Zemo had turned into freaks, happened to be at the fair, and she approaches Cap after Vermin escapes.

She invites Cap back to her apartment, and Spider-Man also heads home.

Back at Gail's place, things start to get intimate, but Cap breaks it off (he's still bringing Sharon into it, though).

Same thing happens at Peter's place with Roger's girlfriend, Mia, but it's interrupted by a news bulletin about Vermin.

I was half-certain that this was going to be revealed to be the result of some kind of "horney hormone" that Vermin infected the guys with, causing them to attract women and feel amorous themselves, but nothing along those lines is stated. Without that, though, the scenes are more than a little strange (although based on the title of this issue they seem to have been the central point of the story).

Cap and Spidey manage to defeat and capture Vermin in the rematch.

What's interesting is that Vermin is really just scrounging for food in these appearances, although he's more than willing to fight back hard with deadly force when cornered. That still makes him seem more pitiable than anything. But Vermin provokes a primal sense of disgust and hatred from both Cap and Spidey. Unlike the "horney hormone" this is pretty clearly meant to be the case, even though we have Cap state with authority that "If there was ever any decency, any dignity, in his soul -- it was bled out of him years ago".

With the fight over, both heroes return to the girlfriends that they nearly cheated on.

The cover of this issue has a really awful photo cover with some of the detail (like Spider-Man's web lines) added back in as very obvious pencil/ink lines, creating a very artificial effect. The back of the issue devotes six pages to the creation of this cover, going into way more detail than anyone would need ("I generally exposed 1 to 1 1/2 f-stops less for the background than the light-meter called for..."), and including more photos, all of which look even stiffer and more awkward than the one that made the cover.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: The MCP places this between Amazing Spider-Man #239-240, and it must take place after Spectacular Spider-Man #76. The events of this issue are referenced in Captain America #281-283, so this has to take place before that.

References:

• Peter is depressed because the Black Cat is in the hospital - "very possibly dying" - after Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #76.
  
• Steve Rogers says that he met Peter Parker "when I was doing some illustrations for the Daily Bugle". That's a little different than the premise for Captain America #265-266 where Peter met Steve after a party that J. Jonah Jameson was throwing, but i assume they're referring to the same incident. Steve did also show up earlier at the Bugle pretending to look for work in Marvel Team-Up #106, but (as he was anticipating) the Scorpion's attack interrupted the conversation.
  
• Captain America last saw Vermin in Captain America #278. He wonders how Vermin traveled from Zemo's castle in New Mexico to New York so fast but then realizes that he had done the same thing himself.
  
• A reference to Vermin having been transformed into his current form by Baron Zemo is given a footnote to Captain America #270, which doesn't feature Vermin at all. The footnote may have been a mistake meant for Captain America #272, which was Vermin's first appearance (but doesn't show his origin). Or referencing #270 may have been deliberate since it's when we first started seeing Zemo's machinations.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Out of curiosity, did that feature on the photo cover mention who was in the Spider-Man costume?
I ask because Jim Shooter has mentioned that Bill Sienkiewicz was often recruited to dress as Spider-Man for promotional events. Might be a fun bit of trivia if Bill deserved a "modeling" credit here.
It probably isn't him, but it got my wheels turning. :)

Spider-Man is John Morelli (mainly a letterer, but not on this issue) and Captain America is Joe Jusko.

Thanks!
Pretty funny that they still didn't spring for actual models and just used staffers and freelancers for stuff like this.
I'm waiting for that pin-up calendar with Vince Coletta in a Ms. Marvel costume.

A lot of freelancers and staffers would consider it a real treat to have a chance to pose as Spider-Man or Captain America on an actual published comic book cover. I wonder if the freelancers even got paid for it? I'd have gladly done it for free, just so I could put the cover on my wall for a while. No matter how bad it was hah