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!

Marvel Team-Up #8 (April 1973)

Let's look at Marvel Team-Up #8!

The cover is a Jim Mooney and Morrie Kuramoto piece. It's pretty cool. I got a chuckle out of Cat threatening to team up with Man-Killer to beat up Spidey if he jumps into their fight.

"The Man-Killer Moves at Midnight!"
Writer: Jerry Conway
Penciler: Jim Mooney
Inker: Jim Mooney
Colorist: Stan Goldberg
Letterer Gaspar Saladino, Charlotte Jetter
Editor: Roy Thomas
Editor-in-Chief: Roy Thomas
Peacemaker: Irving Forbush

The story begins with Spider-Man doing what he does best: Wall-Crawling! Yup, our man Spidey is patrolling the streets of his native New York City, not realizing that a figure is stalking him. The figure is a mysterious woman in yellow and blue. Spider-Man's trademark Spider-Sense alerts him of the woman as she leaps at him. The two scuffle, and Mr. Parker makes a discovery.

Yeah, because the skintight suit didn't make that obvious. Peter Parker, Master Detective.

The lady introduces herself as The Cat, knocking him away. Spidey is able to save himself with his webbing. The Cat wanted to demonstrate her skills as she felt that Spidey would have found it hard to believe that a woman could have superpowers. Yeah, more on that later. The Cat wants Spidey's help. Back in her stomping grounds of Chicago, a politician was killed by an assassin known as...the Man-Killer. 

Back in Chicago, the Cat had been watching a rally held by the politician, a Mayor No-First-Name Samuels. One of his platforms was being hardcore anti-Women's Lib. Someone had thrown a spinning blade at the Mayor. It hit his chest, killing him almost immediately. The Cat had spotted the killer on a rooftop. The feline heroine made her way there, and discovered the assassin.

The two scuffled, but the Man-Killer was able to KO the Cat with one blow. The Cat tracked the assassin to Manhattan, and we're here. Spidey is wondering why she wants his help. After all, it's not like he's the only superhero in town. She explains that she sees Spider-Man as a fellow outsider, but the Wall-Crawler's like "Yeah yeah, let's just get this team-up going". Meanwhile, the Man-Killer makes an entrance.

The meeting involves a group of women, one of whom implies this group trained and financed the Man-Killer. The villain spots a man in the group and gets very angry. The group try to explain that the man is a professional they hired. It doesn't help that the man, only known as Drake, has a big mouth that makes him rant about how he won't take trash talk, especially from a woman.

(uh-oh)

He gets a beating for his trouble. We then get a flashback of the origins of the Man-Killer. Before she was an assassin, Katrina Luisa Van Horn was a skier. A good skier. Good enough to ski in the Winter Olympics. One night, Van Horn overhears a male skier named Karl Lubbings guffaw at the idea of women competing in the Olympics.

Van Horn understandably takes offense to the statement. Instead of showing him up at the actual games, she challenges him to a ski race "off-hours", as it were. The race heads towards a rock formation that resembles a ski jump. The egomanical Lubbings tries to cut Van Horn off.

Lubbings' ego causes the two skiers to fall off a cliff. Lubbings was killed, but Van Horn...was arguably not so lucky. Van Horn did survive, but her body ended up scarred and crippled, only able to even move thanks to a lot of rehabilitation and the exoskeleton in her costume. The costume itself was provided by a militant group. So, what is Van Horn in New York for? Well, she and the group plan to attack the Manhattan-Harlem Power Plant.

The Cat and Spider-Man wall-crawl through the city, and we get a quick recap of The Cat's origins. Basically, Greer Grant-Nelson was a widow, and ended up working on a project with a Dr. Joanne Tumolo whos purpose was to realize a human's physical potential. Other stuff happened, Greer got her Cat powers. Keep in mind, she's not quite Tigra yet. that comes later. Spidey and Cat's conversation is interrupted by the Man-Killer's attack.

Yeah.

More like a Mad Max-ified Volkswagen Beetle. The vehicle is a glorified battering ram, which smashes its way into the power plant. The Man-Killer and her all-girl goon squad attack the plant, but are taken down by Spidey and the Cat. Spidey webs up the goons, but the Man-Killer gets away. The owner of the plant reveals she made off with a prototype of a new generator. 

Spidey takes off searching for the Man-Killer. The Wall-Crawler spent until dawn searching the whole island. The Man-Killer ambushes him. The Cat finds the two and reveals that her rehab and training was actually funded by AIM, not the radical militant group she thought had funded her. This somehow makes Katrina's brain go blue-screen. The story ends with Spidey and Cat getting back the generator...while leaving Katrina Van Horn just standing there catatonic. Hopefully, one of the heroes called the cops to pick her up.

This comic was...not that great. The Man-Killer is admittedly a rather flat villain. Very one-note. The story does also have one big hole in it, and that's The Cat discovering AIM's involvement. How did she find that out? The story never indicated AIM was involved in any way. The story is an interesting in that it can be seen as a bit of snapshot of 1970s culture. Women's Lib and the feminist movement was a big theme of the Cat's stories at the time, and it does show here as well, with Man-Killer being seen as a more militant feminist. Her dialogue and actions show that. 

If you really want to read this for yourself, I recommend tracking down the 2019 trade paperback Tigra: The Complete Collection.