Issue(s): Marvel Team-Up #69, Marvel Team-Up #70
Cover Date: May-Jun 78
Title: "Night of the living god!" / "Whom gods destroy!"
Credits:
Chris Claremont - Writer
John Byrne - Penciler
Ricardo Villamonte / Tony DeZuniga - Inker

Review/plot:
Havok and Polaris are attacked by the minions of the Living Pharaoh on Muir Island while Moira and the Multiple Man are away.

Havok is captured and Polaris is left for dead in the ocean, but she manages to drag herself out.

Meanwhile, Peter Parker stumbles upon a burglary by another group of the Pharaoh's men at E.S.U.. Due to a bizarre mishap, Spidey winds up caught in his own web, but manages to tag the goons with a spidey-tracer.

Polaris calls the X-Mansion and gets no response, so she calls the Avengers and gets the Beast. Hearing that no one is at the X-Mansion, the Beast takes a Quinjet (even though Gyrich has forbidden their usage) and heads there, hoping to find Havok as well. He winds up getting caught up in Mesmero's plot over in Uncanny X-Men and is effectively out of the picture both for this story and the Korvac saga. It's a busy time for the Marvel Universe.

Spider-Man catches up with the Pharaoh's henchmen and frees Havok...

...but the Living Pharaoh himself shows up and defeats both of them. The Pharaoh cuts off Havok's access to his solar powers, which turns the Pharaoh into the Living Monolith.

Spidey's in big, big trouble... and then Thor shows up. There's something about the scene where Thor swings in and catches Spider-Man, calls him 'young friend', and mentions the aid that Spidey has given in the Avengers in the past, that gave me a thrill.

It's the combination of the great art, the speech mannerisms that fits the characters perfectly, and the acknowledgement of the characters' history, that just made everything feel perfect. When i read through my collection, i leave little post-its that mark references and other significant things in the comics. For this scene, i just wrote 'awesome'.

Anyway, Thor drops Spidey and heads after the Monolith alone. He gets swatted away like a fly.

Thor compares the Monolith's power to that of the Destroyer or perhaps Thanos. Spidey, left more or less on the sidelines, is also reminded of Thanos, thinking about how useless he was when he teamed up with the Avengers and the Thing to fight the mad titan.

While Thor continues to wage an epic battle against the Living Monolith, Spider-Man tries to figure out ways to rescue Havok and cut off the Monolith's power source. Eventually he succeeds, and the Monolith looses his powers. It is speculated that he reverted to human form and got swept away by Thor's hurricane, most likely killed, but no one knows for sure. Thor flies Havok back to Muir Island to see Lorna.

I'll say it again: awesome.

As Mark Drummond mentions in the comments, there's possibly a brief cameo by minor Iron Fist character Princess Azir. What you see below is the entirety of her appearance and the MCP doesn't list her, but i think Mark is right that it's her.

Quality Rating: B+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: Takes place concurrently with the Korvac saga. Thor and the Beast's appearance here takes place during Avengers #172, and the Beast moves on to Uncanny X-Men #111. Spider-Man makes a reference to Aunt May's heart attacks in Amazing Spider-Man #177, so it definitely takes place after that (although the MCP places this between ASM #171-172; i'm not sure why; other than the heart attack reference and the fact that Peter is studying at the university, the issue is context-free from Spidey's point of view.)

References:

• Havok and Polaris were recovering on Muir Island from their tough year, which they mostly spent possessed by Eric the Red, beginning in Uncanny X-Men #97. The X-Men finally returned home in Uncanny X-Men #109.
  
• They've also been sifting through the damage of Moria's lab, which was destroyed by Magneto in Uncanny X-Men #104.
  
• Aunt May is suffering from a series of heart attacks she experienced in Amazing Spider-Man #176-177.
  
• The Beast winds up sticking with the the X-Men as a result of Polaris' call, beginning with Uncanny X-Men #111.
  
• Havok and the Living Pharaoh last met in Uncanny X-Men #55-56.
  
• Spider-Man fought Thanos with the Avengers and the Thing in Marvel Two-In-One annual #2.
  
• Thor knows that the Monolith doesn't really have anything to do with the Egyptian pantheon, who he knows personally and met as recently as Marvel Two-In-One #22-23.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Marvel Tales #206 (Issue #69 is an original)

That princess(Azir?) that Iron Fist met in his last Marvel Premiere issues appears in #69, but nothing comes of it.

Wow, i think you're right. I've updated the entry above, and listed her as a Character Appearing, but it's impressive that you were able to identify her with almost no information.

I read both comics(and the Premiere) when they came out, and I own most of Marvel's Essential volumes.

The title to #69 is another reference to "Night of the Living Dead".

Polaris' mention of the Living Mummy is weird; she's never met him, although the Living Pharoah did.

Strange that Spidey remembers himself as "ineffective" in the Thanos fight. He was the big hero in that one. He managed to free all of the avengers and later was the one who destroyed the gem to defeat Thanos (while the thing and avengers were getting their butts kicked).

If anybody was ineffective in that story it was the beast. I remember him shouting "ill paste thanos one for Warlock." Sure, Henry, Im sure thanos was scared of you.

Olshevsky's Index places this issue earlier also - there's a comment that despite the heart-attack footnote, this issue takes place quite a bit before ASM 177. It doesn't say why, although it does go into a rather long discussion about the seasons and the snow shown in this issue.

The DeZuniga inks from the Thor issue happens to be John Byrne's favorite.

Yeah, Tony was just knocking them dead around this time. His ink work on Simonson's first run on Thor (ending about this time) had gotten better and better with each issue, and this was right up there with it.

Byrne's fondness for people and things reversing course (sometimes taken to extremes, such as the "Kraven punches straight overhead to hit Spidey" image you used from Team-Up 67) really pays off on the "Thor rescues Spidey" sequences you highlight here.

The Beast running off to find the X-Men led me to pick up X-Men #111, saving me a TON of money on both those issues and the Cockrum New X-Men issues I went back and got. The speculation prices went up like a rocket, very shortly thereafter (remember, X-Men is still bi-monthly at this point) and I consider myself quite lucky to have had Shooter let Claremont use the Beast (and this issue) to point Avengers readers at the soon-to-be red-hot X-book. Thanks, Jim!

This issue highlights what is both great and annoying about Claremont. He makes great use of personalities here - I love the interaction between Thor and Spider-Man. Thor has always had a warmer relationship with Spider-Man than any of the other Avengers and it helps show why Thor would offer him membership in Avengers #221.

On the other hand, things get left dangling and sometimes dealt with off-panel. For instance, the last time we actually saw Alex and Lorna, they were still mind-controlled. Yes, we heard from Moira that they had recovered and gone to Muir Island, but it seems like that should have been shown. And Beast reacts to Lorna's phone call, but then abandons Lorna and heads off to find the X-Men.

But these issues simply highlight the awesomeness of Byrne's art. I love the image of Spidey hanging on to the hammer for dear life.

fnord I love ya bruh but "There's something about the scene where Thor swings in and catches Spider-Man, calls him 'young friend', and mentions the aid that Spidey has given in the Avengers in the past, that gave me a thrill." sounds a little fruity LOL

Wow. Just wow.

Just letting you know that you've written Pharaoh wrong throughout your articule. It's a minor thing I know 😋

Regards!

*article

Thanks Bibs. But please use the Thread of Shame to point out typos in the future.

Fnord, I think it's a lost cause to set aside a separate place for correcting typos. Any newcomer is going to go 'hey cool, comics!' and feel glad to contribute by pointing out a misplaced comma. My suggestion would be to correct the typos and then delete the posts pointing the typos out, establishing that policy in your FAQ, "Thread of Shame" etc.

Maybe it's just me, but it looks like your problems [beyond doing a Marvel Universe timeline in the first place :P ] are fixing typos and thanking the people who point them out. I'd advise fixing the typo and either erasing the comment that brought it to your attention or letting the comment stand. It would certainly encourage people to go back and read the arcitle again. [Where did he misspell "article"? Scroll back up.]

People who point out typos on the spot are always going to be there. Take them for granted as proofreaders, and thank them or not as you see fit.

Also, I misspelled "article" up above, you should fix it.

You could just include a note to use the Thread of Shame for typos on the comment form itself.

Sorry, my bad.

I agree with Morgan about including a note in the Comment form regarding typos. That would probably remind us that if it's a typo we're going to correct, then there's a proper place to do it.