Issue(s): Marvel Team-Up #87
Cover Date: Nov 79
Title: "The razor's edge!"
Credits:
Steven Grant - Writer
Gene Colan - Penciler
Frank Springer - Inker

Review/plot:
Spider-Man helps Black Panther foil a behind-the-scenes plot by Roxxon to discredit Wakanda in order to help with a trade deal. They stage a scenario where it looks like the Black Panther kidnaps Thomas Agar of the company Agar Ores. Agar recently swindled money during a vibranium/tungsten deal where the tungsten turned out to be bad.

Peter Parker is on scene to photograph the preliminary hearing at the Justice Department, and he tries to stop the fake Panther.

After that, Spider-Man hunts down the real Panther at the Wakandan embassy, and after a fight, they clear things up.

The guy who disguises himself as the Panther turns out to be a villain called Hellrazor.

It's at the end that we learn that Roxxon was behind the attack.

The "Roxxon has designs on Wakanda's vibranium" uber-plot could have been interesting, but the "disguise myself as the Black Panther" scheme is tired, and Grant's scripting isn't very good, and this isn't a good venue for Gene Colan's art, either.

An FYI on two of the characters appearing: Aubrey Pearson is a US State Department official with one other appearance, and J.T. Gamelin is the bearded Roxxon executive; he's got a few additional appearances.

Quality Rating: D+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: Peter doesn't mention the name of the paper he's currently working for. Despite this being published after Black Panther #14-15, it seems to take place before that, since in those issues Monica Lynne and Kevin Trublood arrive at the Wakandan embassy and then meet T'Challa in Marvel Premiere #51 but we don't see them here. And i've pushed the Black Panther stories back before Spider-Man is fired from the Bugle in Amazing Spider-Man #193, so this is pushed back (almost a year in publication time) as well.

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

@Fnord- Upon immersion into this project, did you ever consider assigning negative Historical Signifance points to the first appearance of lame-o characters like Hellrazor? Had that been the case, considering his two appearances are this Spidey/T'Challah time-waster and then being literal machine gun fodder for Scourge in CAP #319, he would have rated a solid -4, IMHO. :)

Please allow me a correction: Spidey/T'Challa, not to be confused with the popular kosher bread!:)

There's dialogue in here where Hellrazor claims he's "bio-synthetic" and can absorb kinetic energy...but then the Panther drops him with a punch, so uhm, sure.