Issue(s): Marvel Team-Up #80, Marvel Team-Up #81
Cover Date: Apr-May 79
Title: "A sorcerer possessed!" / "Last rites"
Credits:
Chris Claremont - Writer
Mike Vosburg - Penciler
Gene Day / Stephen Leialoha - Inker

Review/plot:
This is a follow-up to Claremont's previous Team-Up with Dr. Strange that i didn't love so much. Dr. Strange has turned into a were-wolf!

Satana shows up to help Dr. Strange fight off his possession.

Then she dies.

This one works a little better than the previous arc. This and issues #76-77 were originally intended to all have been part of one annual, and that may be why it reads so badly, although they are definitely separate stories.

Issue #80 has the first appearance of Cissy Ironwood, a character introduced by Claremont seemingly so that he could have a casual love interest for Peter without stepping on the toes of whatever was going on in Spider-Man's other books. She only has about 3 appearances.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 3 - death of Satana

Chronological Placement Considerations: Peter Parker is dating Cissy Ironwood. The Marvel Index says that this issue takes place "within the space of a few days" of Marvel Team-Up #76-77. Spider-Man only says that "it wasn't long ago". By following the Index, the MCP has a number of Team-Up issues compressed into a short period of time. I should also note that i find the Index to be overly concerned with matching up the weather and seasons in various books and there are a number of Marvel Team-Up placements around this time that are compressed or even out of order because of that. I'm choosing to let "wasn't long ago" be a longer period than the Index.

See the note in Marvel Team-Up #82-85 that explains why this arc is placed out of sequence from that one.

References:

• Spider-Man compares his fight with Were-Strange to his fight with Tigra in Marvel Team-Up #67.
  
• This storyline follows up on dangers hinted at in Marvel Team-Up #76-77.
  
• Satana first appeared in Vampire Tales #2.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

This story marked the beginning of what Fred Hembeck termed "the disposing of disposable characters". I'm guessing this was instigated by Jim Shooter to remove Marvel protagonists that were intentionally not exactly heroic. Satana seemed to top that list, as several writers in fan publications in the 1980s declared her solo series to be outright Satanism and Satana herself to have no redeeming value.

Satana's comics career between her last solo appearance and this seemed to be cursed. In 1978 she was announced to appear in a Marvel Super Special with art by Esteban Maroto, but that didn't happen. Shortly afterwards, she was announced as being a backup feature in the b&w Tomb of Dracula magazine to be done by Michael Fleisher and Mike Vosburg, but that got scuttled as well. So, not only was she apparently "disposable", but an additional factor may be "We can't do a damn thing with her anyway!".

If that wasn't enough, earlier in 1978 Satana was announced to star in her own color magazine by Steve Gerber and drawn by Gene Colan or Tony DeZuniga, with a Lilith backup by Gerber & Colan. Gerber's firing from Marvel probably scuttled that, but the Lilith story later appeared in Marvel Preview.

Weird news item from Amazing Heroes# 127:"The almost-cancelled TV show Sledge Hammer will be a $1.00 Marvel comic...The first issue will guest star Satanna."

Wow, coincidence, was just talking about that show the other day, and thinking about the comic...

Would have to find a copy to reference, but i am *pretty* sure it was someone portraying Satanna, and not intended to be the 616 version.

"The almost-cancelled TV show Sledge Hammer will be a $1.00 Marvel comic...The first issue will guest star Satanna."

I had that comic as a kid, and I'm willing to swear she wasn't in it.

She probably wasn't; check the cover and you will see that they even put a "?!" after her name.
http://www.comics.org/issue/75823/cover/4/

I think a Satana solo series by Warren Ellis (and Mike Deodato I think?) was also announced in the 90s but it obviously never materialised. An appopriately cursed character I suppose, though personally I always loved the Maroto costume and the name.

The "Satana" in the "Sledge Hammer" story was a TV horror show host who called herself "Satana Knight" and not the real Satana we all know and love.