Issue(s): Marvel Team-Up #57
Cover Date: May 77
Title: "When slays the Silver Samurai!"
Credits:
Chris Claremont - Writer
Sal Buscema - Penciler
David Hunt - Inker

Review/plot:
Spider-Man and the Black Widow team-up to stop the Silver Samurai from acquiring a clay statue of seemingly little value.

That's about it, but it's Claremont's first issue of Marvel Team-Up, and this is the beginning of the development of an ongoing plot in the series, and it's done fairly well.

The statue actually contains a Cavourite Crystal, which will be revealed in an upcoming issue of Marvel Team-Up.

At one point Spider-Man has to rescue someone from a falling building, and he uses a new technique that he's developed since failing to rescue Gwen Stacy.

It's clear in this issue that Spider-Man believes that Gwen died from her neck snapping after he caught her, and that she wasn't already dead when the Goblin threw her.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

• The Black Widow previously faced the Silver Samurai when he was an agent of the Mandrill in Daredevil #111.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Considering Claremont's near-exclusive use of the Silver Samurai from this point on, it's possible he may have been more involved in his creation than anybody knows during his time as Steve Gerber's assistant.

That would make sense. Claremont evidently had a fair bit of affection for other Gerber (and pre-Gerber) DD rogues, too, given his use of Angar in Iron Fist and Spider-Woman and of Stilt-Man in Giant-Man.

AIM - and MODOK - were originally after the Cavourite Crystal from NASAs Skylab due to its known properties for hyperspace travel, as shown in numerous Ms. Marvel issues from the 70s (written by Claremont of course).

When Carol held the Cavourite Crystal in her hand after Super Skrull's defeat at the end of Marvel Team-Up #62, she had visions of her alternate selves, like Dazzler had with the Crystal of Ultimate Vision in Uncanny X-Men Annual #11.

Was the Cavourite Crystal therefore capable of opening up doorways into alternate universes, and the "hunger" Carol felt when holding it was perhaps due to this?

That is, while it can send one's physical form to another location in space in our universe, as it did with Grotesk and Super-Skrull in Ms. Marvel #8 and Marvel Team-Up #62 respectively, it only enables one to enter an alternate universe by projecting their consciousness into their alternate self's physical body and probably does so via the Astral Plane.

So it housed the Shadow King's essence after Xavier killed Amahl Farouk in Uncanny X-Men #117 and appears to have been released from the Astral Plane by the Cavourite Crystal after Team America stole it from AIM's Project: Matrix in their Black Mesa facility in New Mutants #6 for Viper (who'd previously send Silver Samurai to obtain it for her in Marvel Team-Up #57 so she could power her teleportation ring), and he later ends up in Amahl Farouk's body from Crusader X's universe after he is expelled from Karma's body, using the ring she wears on her finger on the cover of New Mutants #34 (which I'd suggest contained a piece of the crystal and had previously been the one Silver Samurai acquired from John Belushi in Marvel Team-Up #74) to do so.