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Marvel Team-Up #2Issue(s): Marvel Team-Up #2 Review/plot: 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- 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:
Crossover: N/A Continuity Insert? N My Reprint: Essential Marvel Team-Up vol. 1 Inbound References (3): showCharacters Appearing: Annihilus, Human Torch, Nathaniel (Sailor), Paste Pot Pete, Sandman, Spider-Man, Wizard 1971 / Box 6 / Silver Age Comments"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... Posted by: Mark Drummond | February 23, 2013 8:48 PM 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? Posted by: Silverbird | August 5, 2014 7:21 AM Nathaniel's other appearance is Marvel Team-Up #13. Posted by: fnord12 | August 5, 2014 9:23 AM 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. Posted by: Omar Karindu | November 3, 2015 9:02 AM Comments are now closed. |
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