Marvel Team-Up #21 (May 1974)

Back in October 2017, I took a look at the main story of Amazing Spider-Man Annual #2 (December 1965). It depicted the first battle between the tag team of Doctor Strange and Spider-Man battling the rogue sorcerer Xandu. In that blog entry, I pointed out that this story would be followed up on over the years, the stories creating a decades long-spanning saga that turned Xandu from a one-off cosmos conqueror into a more tragic villain. 

I thought it would be fun to take a look at one of the follow-ups to the Annual. As such, the comic we're looking at here is the first of the follow-up stories. This is Marvel Team-Up #21!

The cover is a Gil Kane, Frank Giacoia, Mike Espocito, and Danny Crespi piece. I love this cover. This is what the Amazing Spider-Man Annual I looked at in 2017 should have been more like! You have Xandu looming over a starscape, puppeteering Spider-Man and Doctor Strange into fighting each other. It's an exciting-looking cover.

"The Spider and the Sorcerer!"
Writer: Len Wein
Penciler: Sal Buscema
Inkers: Frank Giacoia, Dave Hunt
Colorist: Glynis Wein
Letterer: Dave Hunt
Editor: Roy Thomas
Editor-in-Chief: Roy Thomas 

The story begins in New York City, the city so nice they named it twice.

Peter Parker, the Original Spider-Man, is swinging on patrol when he sees a group of men about to accost and rob a man in a suit. He manages to send the robbers running. The would-be thieves make a run for it.

The mysterious suit-wearing man is very grateful to our hero. In fact, he wants to do the Wall-Crawler a favor. All Petey has to do is look into his eyes...

“He also owes me twenty bucks!”

Yup, it's Xandu, having somehow regained his memories after Strange erased them. Now that he has the Webhead under his hypnotic power, he gives the Wisecraking Wall-Crawler a mission: Retrieve the Crystal of Kadavus, a jewel that looks like a skull. Doctor Strange has the Crystal in his possession in his Sanctum Sanctorum. Huh. So, the Crystal of Kadavus is a jewel that looks like a skull. Maybe they should go bother Indiana Jones. He has experience with crystal skulls.

He hypnotically convinces Spider-Man that Strange is one of his most vicious enemies and then sends him off to Strange's home. Speaking of Strange, what's he doing right now? Well, he's enjoying a good book.

“Ahhh, I do enjoy a good Clive Cussler yarn…”

He then decides to meditate on what he has read. After all, he needs to put plenty of thought into his review of the book on his blog. I'm joking. The book was written by the Ancient One, Strange's old mentor, and he needs to meditate on what he has learned from it. As he does so, the hypnotized Spider-Man arrives. He carefully sneaks his way through the Sanctum Santorum. However, even though Spider-Man's powerset would make him an excellent ninja, he is not a ninja. As shown when he accidentally knocks over an urn. 

This gets Strange's attention, and he goes to check it out.

He is happy when he sees it is just Spidey. After all, he considers our man a friend. This is clearly just a nice social visit to hang out and talk shop, right?

Exactly. Strange is unaware Spider-Man is under Xandu's power. The two end up fighting in the Sanctorum. Unlike Strange, who is only trying to subdue the Wall-Crawler so he can figure out what is going on, Spider-Man is fighting harder. He managed to KO the Sorcerer Supreme with the move known as Stone Statue to the Head.

With that, Spider-Man is able to retrieve the Crystal of Kadavus and get it to Xandu. So, why did he need the Crystal? Well, it allowed him to restore the Wand of Watoomb.

“Magic. Better than Gorilla Glue!”

So, the Crystal of Kadavus is something for fixing mystical items? Does that mean Kadavus was some kind of mystical repairman?

Anyway, there still is one question: How did Xandu get his memories back after the events of Amazing Spider-Man Annual #2? Well, luckily in the tradition of villains talking a lot, Xandu is happy to explain how.

It turns out just before Strange cast his memory-erasing spell on Xandu in the Annual, Xandu sent his memories into the ether, causing them to erase the spell. And since he still ended up as an amnesiac anyway, Strange thought his spell worked. 

Xandu wandered around as a catatonic homeless man, until his floating memories returned to him. He then reveals to Spider-Man that he isn't just after the Wand to conquer the world: He wants to save a life.

Yeah, there is someone he wants to save.

Using magic to make boobs bigger was not the best idea.

Her name was Melinda Morrison. Xandu met her when he was a younger man, new to the mystic arts. He adored Melinda very much, and presumably she felt the same way towards him. One day, the two attempted a magical ritual. Said ritual went awry, causing a bolt of mystical energy to hit Melinda. She ended up in a trance resembling death. Try as he might, Xandu could not wake her. He put her in a special chamber to protect her body while he searched for a cure. For years he looked, desperately trying to find anything, but he had no such luck.

He then learned of the Wand of Watoomb. He thought the artifact could wake Melinda up. And now he plans to kill Spider-Man. The Webhead helped foil him in the past, and Xandu will not let that happen again. Thankfully for Marvel's mascot, Doctor Strange arrives. Xandu, realizing that Strange has the "home field advantage" in this dimension (being the Sorcerer Supreme of it and all), transports them to another dimension. 

Here, Xandu is almighty. He's also gotten much bigger and has a black beard. Strange and Spidey try to take on the mad magician, but Xandu shows himself capable of shrugging off Stephen's magics and Peter's webs. To show off his power, Xandu makes them into literal puppets.

“Dance, puppets! Dance for the crowd!”

Strange has one last trump card. He casts a spell that he may not be able to reverse, but it's the only shot he's got. While plays around with the two heroes, Xandu causes Spider-Man's arms to be pointed at his face. Seeing an opportunity, Peter takes it.

Peter Parker found himself wondering what was in those brownies he ate…

Somebody gave Peter a magic stat. Yup, Strange caused himself and Peter to switch powers. Spider-Man is now a magician! Strange gives Xandu a blast of webbing to the face...which really makes no sense. At this time, Peter's webs were artificial, fired from mechanical web-shooters. He did briefly get organic webshooters for a while, but that would be in the future. I guess you could say the same for Peter being able to use Strange's magics, but I think in the Marvel Universe, anyone can use magic with time and training. Peter winds up a ball of mystical force...and the pitch...

“UP YOURS, NOLAN RYAN!”

AND IT'S GOOD! XANDU GETS A MAGIC BALL TO THE FACE!

This causes Xandu to drop the Wand of Watoomb, and he shrinks down to his normal size. Not so big now, ain't you buddy? Strange then gives him a spider-powered Mighty Punch, and then tosses the Wand deep into the dimension, where not even Xandu could find it. The three return to their home dimension (and Strange undoes the power-swap). Xandu laments that now that the Wand is lost, he can't wake Melinda. Strange offers to take a look at Melinda and see if he can help. Xandu takes the two heroes to Melinda's chamber. Strange looks Melinda's body over...and he has some bad news.

Melinda is dead. She's not in a trance, she is just...dead. Yeah. Melinda Morrison is no more. She has ceased to be. She has joined the choir invisible. She is an ex-Melinda. Strange can do many things, but even he can't bring the dead back to life. Xandu...takes it well.

“Man, Xandu sounds weird when he cries…”

The story ends with Strange and Spidey leaving Xandu at Melinda's chamber, the crying sorcerer babbling that what Strange said can't be true. Melinda can't be dead. There has to be a way to wake her...

I admit, I enjoyed this little comic. It was a fun little team-up adventure. I did think the power-swap was a bit goofy, mainly because of Strange suddenly being able to use Spidey's webbing. I would have thought it neat for Strange to demonstrate his other powers, like his Spider-Sense. And I admit, Spidey being able to use magic was kind of cool.    

The only real criticism I have of Sal Buscema's art here is that his take on Xandu's dimension didn't have that psychedelic feel that Steve Ditko would have provided.   

If you want to read this story for yourself, I recommend tracking down the 2017 trade paperback Spider-Man/Doctor Strange: The Way to Dusty Death. Thanks for reading this blog entry! If you liked it, show it off! Take care of yourselves and each other! See you next time!