Issue(s): Marvel Team-Up #131
Cover Date: Jul 83
Title: "Best things in life are free... but everything else costs money!"
Credits:
J.M. DeMatteis - Writer
Kerry Gammill - Penciler
Mike Esposito - Inker
Eliot Brown - Assistant Editor
Tom DeFalco - Editor

Review/plot:
This issue introduces the White Rabbit, who pretty quickly became a joke character but is actually relatively plausible here. Bunny outfit aside, of course. But she's a spoiled rich kid that can afford to hire armed goons and have an array of gadgets built...

...and she performs crimes to entertain herself, not for profit or world takeovers or anything.

Which is why this issue starts with her robbing a Kwikkee Burger.

Essentially she's Arcade but on a smaller and dare i say more realistic scale. Again, except maybe for the bunny suit.

Her credibility was probably also hurt due to the fact that Spider-Man's team-up partner for this issue is the bungling Frog-Man.

Spider-Man shows up but not in time to catch the White Rabbit. He again tries to discourage Frog-Man from being a super-hero, and Eugene gets a similar if angrier message from his father (and his "wild, Italian temper") when he gets home.

Due to the financial problems the Frog family is having, we're lead to believe that Eugene's father Vincent is signing up to work with the White Rabbit. The Rabbit says that she knows his "reputation"...

...which you'd think would mean that she knows he used to be Leap-Frog, which would be useful information to have when you're being pursued by Frog-Man, but she doesn't seem to make the connection, so soon he's dressed in the standard issue purple turtleneck and blue skullcap and face-to-face with his son.

However, it turns out that Vincent is actually undercover for the police. And he and Eugene get to split the reward money for capturing the White Rabbit with Peter's friend Roger Hochberg, who needed money for his mother's medical bills, and conveniently enough the fight wound up in her hospital room where he was able to knock her out.

Don't get me wrong. The issue is plenty goofy. But there's no reason why the White Rabbit couldn't be, say, Marvel's Harley Quinn sans the Joker infatuation.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - first White Rabbit

Chronological Placement Considerations: The MCP places this between Amazing Spider-Man #241-242.

References:

• The White Rabbit's first attack in this issue is at the same Kwikkee Burger that Tigra did ad work for in Marvel Team-Up #125.
  
• Frog-Man's father, Leap-Frog, first appeared in Daredevil #25.
  
• Frog-Man debuted in Marvel Team-Up #121.
  
• Peter is initially a little worried that Roger's girlfriend Mia didn't tell him about the way Peter was flirting with her in Marvel Team-Up #128. Peter calls his own behavior "weird" suggesting that he possibly was under the influence of Vermin.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

I admit that I really like the White Rabbit, more for her potential than what was done with her. Lewis Carrol's writing has some very disturbing elements to it which is why I think the Mad Hatter could have been a more intriguing villain in the Batman mythos than he's actually been.

If you ignore the more hackenyed elements (the carrot shooting out of her umbrella gun), and concentrate on the surreal, disturbing aspects, she could make a very cool villain. Probably not A Spider-Man villain, but perhaps for Daredevil or Moon Knight.

I'm surprised DeMatteis didn't have White Rabbit look like Grace Slick.

OK, throw me on the White Rabbit bandwagon. She's supposed to be a silly spoiled rich brat who does it for thrills, so I don't see anything wrong with having her around. Sure she should be more of a threat out there but there's enough room for her if there's room for a lot of the other things they call villains at Marvel.

Dan Slott has reinvented the White Rabbit as a drug dealer who seems to be getting high on her own supply. I think it works really well, and she'd be a great first-ten-minutes character in a Spider-Man movie.