Issue(s): Team America #10
Cover Date: Mar 83
Title: "Dust to dust!"
Credits:
Steven Grant - Writer
Alan Kupperberg - Penciler
Vincent Colletta - Inker
Tom DeFalco - Editor

Review/plot:
I don't know if i should call this a fill-in or if it really matters, but it's the only issue of the series to not give a writing credit to Bill Mantlo and/or Jim Shooter (Mantlo had at least a scripting credit on every issue prior to this except for #1, which was the issue that was re-written overnight; i assume he wrote the rejected original. And Shooter plotted all but the solo character issues and this one.).

For this, a former colleague of Honcho from his CIA days sends him a letter after infiltrating a cult centered around Minister Ashe, who has a dust that turns people into dust.

Instead of just opening up the mailbox and getting the letter back (i assume because tampering with the mail is a Federal offense, unlike murdering people on the street), Ashe begins harassing Honcho. Honcho hasn't actually received the letter yet, but he gets kidnapped. And then nearly murdered by this poor woman.

It's not a surprise that she slithers around on the floor because it must take a tremendous amount of back strength to stand upright.

You can tell that Honcho is astonished, and not by the knife.

Anyway, Team America rescues Honcho and breaks up the cult (with some help from the Marauder), but the twist is that Honcho's former colleague actually hated him, and he wasn't trying to betray the cult at all. He was trying to kill Honcho by sending him some disintegration dust in an envelope. But Minister Ashe catches up with Honcho and grabs the letter and becomes the victim instead.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: Ghost Rider appears in Team America #11 between Ghost Rider #75-76, so this also needs to take place before GR #76.

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A