Issue(s): Marvel Team-Up #91 / Marvel Tales #256
Cover Date: Mar 80 / Dec 91
Title: "Carnival of souls!" / "Freaks"
Credits:
Steven Grant / Scott Lobdell & Dan Slott - Writer
Pat Broderick / Mark Pacella - Penciler
Bruce D. Patterson / Dan Panosian - Inker

Review/plot:
Spider-Man goes to a lot of circuses. So many that he disproves my "If it's a circus, it's the Ringmaster" truism. And every time, he seems to find some monster-hero that is unjustly held there. This time it's the Ghost Rider (but there's also a guy in a very realistic Man-Thing suit).

Ghost Rider is nekkid! How did that get past the Comics Code Authority?

The bad guy here is a magician named Moondark. He's appeared once before in an old issue of Marvel Team-Up. He considers Spider-Man his "greatest foe". Spidey vaguely recalls him as "another cornball third-rate wizard in a turban".

He's stealing souls or something. After Spidey shakes GR from Moondark's mind control...

...Spidey and GR put a stop to it, but Spidey is again put off by Ghost Rider's cruel attitude, which is even worse than the last time they met.

In the Marvel Tales reprint, there's a back-up story about some of the circus freaks from Moondark's circus.

It's here where it's confirmed that the Man-Thing was actually a completely different monster. It's plotted by Scott Lobdell and scripted by Dan Slott in possibly his earliest work at Marvel. It's drawn by Mark Pacella in an early 90s McFarlane-esque style. I thought it was going to be terrible, but it's really only pretty bad. They protect a scientist from Hammer & Anvil.

I like the fact that the Marvel Tales back-ups, as throwaway at they may be, follow-up directly on the main story being reprinted. And in many cases, they help smooth over potential continuity problems. In Marvel Tales #262's back-up, we saw how Jean Grey got injured again explaining why she needed to be ("re-")hospitalized. In Marvel Tales #255 we see the Trapster recovering from being burned by the Ghost Rider. And in this issue... well, we confirm that the Man-Thing appearing in the main story wasn't the real deal, and it also shows how Hammer & Anvil get their connecting cable repaired.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: Per the note in MTU #88, this has to take place after Amazing Spider-Man #200. The MCP places Ghost Rider here between Ghost Rider #40-41.

References:

• Spidey almost wonders if it's worth saving Ghost Rider, since he seemed 'almost as bad as the bad guys' the last time they met, in Marvel Team-Up #58.
  
• Moondark previously appeared in Marvel Team-Up #12.
  
• Spider-Man recently broke Hammer & Anvil's connecting cable in Marvel Team-Up #86 but the scientist in the back-up story repaired it (under duress).

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? P - (Back up story in reprint adds new material)

My Reprint: Marvel Tales #256

There was a 1962 horror movie called "Carnival of Souls", but it doesn't seem like this story refers to it at all.

Jeez, how bad can the art in the back up be? Look how it can't even be consistant with which arms Hammer and Anvil are connected by. In one panel it is right wrist to right wrist. Talk about taking no pride in your work.

Gorilla Girl will become a cadet of The Initiative

Thanks, Midnighter. I've added her to the Characters Appearing, along with "Muck Monster" and "Six" (even though so far they haven't had any more appearances).