Issue(s): Marvel Team-Up #2
Cover Date: May 72
Title: "And Spidey makes four!"
Credits:
Gerry Conway - Writer
Ross Andru - Penciler
Jim Mooney - Inker

Review/plot:
Pretty much lacking in all the qualities that made issue #1 fun (except for Ross Andru's art, which is fine here), this issue is another Spidey/Torch team-up, and even again features Sandman as the villain, along with the rest of the Frightful "Four".

But where the first issue showed another side of the Sandman, this one has him back in straight-up villain mode.

And where the first issue took the time to develop the friendly rivalry between Spider-Man and Johnny, this one starts with Spidey rudely brushing off the Torch...

...and later coming to the Team-Up only thanks to a brainwashing by the Wizard, the means of which are never described in the issue. It's not the Id Machine, because Spidey is just a blank slate, not an evil version of himself.

It does result in that staple of team-up books, the hero vs. hero fight.

The Frightful Four use Spidey to gain access to the Baxter Building and then they dumbly open a portal to the Negative Zone that allows Annihilus to come out and attack everyone.

Well, he doesn't actually come out, he just stands in the portal looking menacing and doing nothing...

...until Spider-Man comes to his senses and turns off the device (while admonishing Johnny for dropping out of college, pretty much the only enjoyable bit of character interaction in the issue)(although you shouldn't need a college education to know how to flip an Off switch).

To be clear, this wasn't terrible like Conway's Sub-Mariner and Iron Man runs. The simple format and one-and-done nature of the book probably helped focus him. But it is a significant drop in quality from the first issue (by Roy Thomas).

Spider-Man's brush-off comes after the Human Torch was moping on the docks and he was given advice to find friends by a drunken sailor.

Pointing it out only because the sailor, Nathaniel (a "hard-drinking sailor", per the Index), has another appearance.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: The Index and MCP both place this between ASM #99-100 and after FF #116. It's been "a few weeks" since Marvel Team-Up #1. See also the reference below regarding Annihilus; this actually takes place during the Kree-Skrull War.

References:

• Annihilus has been seen in "myriad issues of F.F. and Avengers". At this point it's really only been Fantastic Four annual #6, Fantastic Four #108-110, and Avengers #89 and Avengers #96-97. Both Avengers scenes are part of the Kree-Skrull War, which i have occurring after this issue, and i see that the MCP only has the appearance in Avengers #89, which was a flashback scene, taking place before this issue. Essentially, this issue should be considered as taking place concurrently with the Kree-Skrull War.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Essential Marvel Team-Up vol. 1

"Calot" is the name for a big vicious rat-animal in Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars books. Not sure what it's doing here...

I always wondered if Nathaniel had subsiquent appearances. He was also always my favorite part of this issue (there isn't much competition when Spider-man says less then a doorknob). I was worried that if he appeared again that he'd be come super annoying (see O'brien) but since its only one other appearance might I ask where it is?

Nathaniel's other appearance is Marvel Team-Up #13.

Conway uses "calot" again in Iron Man #91. I must have spent years trying to figure that one out -- a weird dialect version of "clod?" Something to do with "helot?" But no, it's just Conway making a weird, confusing, out-of-context reference to something he read as a teenager.