Issue(s): Marvel Team-Up #53, Marvel Team-Up #54, Marvel Tales #262, Marvel Tales #263
Cover Date: Jan-Feb 77 / Jun-Jul 92
Title: "Nightmare in New Mexico!" / "Spider in the middle!" / "A Case of Sunstroke" / "The Scream"
Credits:
Bill Mantlo / Barry Dutter / Scott Lobdell - Writer
John Byrne / Vince Evans / Robert Walker - Penciler
Frank Giacoia / Mike Esposito / Vince Evans / Jim Sanders III - Inker

Review/plot:
Still stuck in the desert, the X-Men agree to give Spider-Man a lift back to NYC in an "X-Shuttle" that was "psycho-kinetically summoned" by Phoenix.

This is the first Byrne art with the new X-Men team. The group shot is pretty nice but it's not totally in the classic Byrne style yet, and an inset picture of Xavier looks pretty bad.

On the way back they are attacked by soldiers. Spider-Man decides he wants to figure out what they are guarding, but the X-Men are remarkably incurious.

Spider-Man finds a town that has been wiped out by a chemical spill, and a fight between the Hulk and the obscure Bill Mantlo created-character Woodgod.

Woodgod is a Pan-like creature that has a child-like diction and refers to guns as "the pain". He's frankly not a very interesting character.

Eventually Spidey helps Woodgod and the Hulk free themselves from the soldiers that take them captive.

The issue ends with Spider-Man being launched into space in a rocket intended for Woodgod.

Nice art by John Byrne overall, though.

There's a back-up story (Dutter/Evans) in the Marvel Tales reprint for Marvel Team-Up #53 that depicts another adventure the X-Men had on the way home. It's by Barry Dutter and Vince Evans. They fight a character named Sunstroke, who is part of a group of Desert Dwellers that will appear in an issue of West Coast Avengers many years from now.

The twist of the story is that while the X-Men talk about how they won the fight due to their teamwork, whereas Sunstroke fought alone, it turns out that Sunstroke's Desert Dweller allies were actually helping him as well.

It's really a throwaway story, but it does serve the purpose of having Jean get injured again, in what was likely an attempt to fix the continuity error of the original Team-Up stories (as discussed in the entry for Uncanny X-Men #101).

Horrible art.

Another back-up (Lobdell/Walker/Sanders) shows Woodgod's intelligence having increased "over the past week" since his fight with Hulk and Spider-Man.

He convinces a (SHIELD? Vertigo Base?) agent to let him carry away his dead parents' contaminated bodies.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - gets Spider-Man in position for the Starlin story in Marvel Team-Up #55, first Desert Dwellers.

Chronological Placement Considerations: Takes place directly after Marvel Team-Up annual #1. The X-Men are still here during Uncanny X-Men #101 (see the Chronology note for that issue for details). Spider-Man is launched into space at the end of this issue and shouldn't appear in any other books until after Marvel Team-Up #55.

References:

• Woodgod's only previous appearance was Marvel Premiere #31. (A snarky footnote in the Marvel Tales back-up says it's on sale in a "Five Comics For a Dollar" box near you.)
  
• The Desert Dwellers will next appear in West Coast Avengers #17.
  
• A similar plug tells us that Woodgod is currently appearing in Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD #37.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? P - (The back-up story for Marvel Tales #262 has a new X-Men story that takes place on their way home from dropping Spider-Man off in Woodgod's town).

My Reprint: Marvel Tales #262, Marvel Tales #263

I suspect Woodgod may have been inspired by the title character in John Barth's "Giles Goat-Boy".

I'm wondering why Major Tremens didn't remove Spidey's mask.

Maybe "Del" is short for Delirium and his judgment was impaired?

That inset picture of Professor X could have easily been redrawn by someone other than Byrne. At this point in his career, Byrne wasn't immune to such "corrections".
On the subject of art: Most of the visuals on that Sunstroke backup don't really work for me either, but I think that closeup of Phoenix is pretty nice.

My own snark...where Colossus is about to toss Wolverine for their Fastball Special (tm), the small font on my iPad makes the "S" in "SUCKER WE MEAN BUSINESS" look like an "F" at first glance. All the other "S"s look fine!

Dave Cockrum redrew the X-Men's heads here. He was also brought in to do that in the X-Men's appearance in Iron Fist's comic.

I'm wondering why Major Tremens didn't remove Spidey's mask.

Now you're undermining one of the key tenets of comics' suspension of disbelief. How many times are masked heroes captured and/or rendered unconscious, but never unmasked?

Bill Mantlo clearly was in need of some time off rollin a Joe Dirt looking Faun called Woodgod out to fight the Hulk? C’mon Bill. There is a whole lotta need for either psychiatric help or sleep aides to clean this hot mess of a character outta the memory bank.