Testing out the coding for Marvel Team-Up post.

[perletwo]

skalja requested some old-school Marvel Team-Up. For your sampling pleasure today I've selected four issues from 1977, #s 59, 60, 61 and 62, by Chris Claremont, John Byrne and Dave Hunt.

I loved the old MTU series for its meticulous attention to continuity; it wove the team-ups around the characters' own series, yet still flowed smoothly from one story to another itself; and, as you'll see here, it was a great place to pick up and expand upon dropped plot threads and start new ones. The tricky bit here is that the individual stories are only 17 pages long, which my trusty calculator tells me makes for 5 and a half postable pages. And the plots are kind of all over the place, so this may be a bit tricky to follow, but I shall try to fill in the gaps.

We start with #59, guest starring Yellowjacket and the Wasp, titled "Some Say Spidey Will Die By Fire...Some Say By Ice!" BTW, this issue is "dedicated - with respect and admiration - to Roy Thomas." I know not why.



Next a battering ram of ice knocks him silly. Luckily, Hank and Jan Pym are enjoying sexy funtimes in their penthouse overlooking the East River, and notice the battle through the picture window.



Torch and Iceman both have alibis, the Pyms tell Spidey, and Spidey recalls hearing tell of the Torch/Iceman teamup of MTU #23, where they faced a dude with fire/ice powers. He exploded, but there was no body... dun dun dun dunnnn Hank offers at least his assistance, pointing out he still owes Spidey a solid for helping him with Curt Connors' son (in Marvel Feature #4, see what I mean?) and Spidey's on the point of turning him down when his spider-sense starts a'tinglin', and y'all know what that means.



The battle spreads out onto York Avenue, where a middle-aged black lady (MABL) is racing towards the chaos. The team's taking a few hits, and Jan takes a moment to chide Hank for souping up his own powers while leaving her in the bush leagues. Suddenly MABL comes running up with a serious gun, and distracts Equinox: "YOU? HERE?!" He throws a car at MABL; Spidey pulls her out of the way, but Jan gets knocked out by the impact. Hank dives in to take Equinox on single-handed, cogitating on the mystery of MABL and her big big gun all the while.







Now we move on to MTU #60, "A Matter of Love and Death," guest starring the Wasp.

We open with Capt. Jean DeWolff and her beret offering condolences to Jan whilst Equinox gloats. Jan jumps the police barricades and goes for Equinox, only to be caught by Spidey.



Equinox attacks, and Mrs. Sorenson tries out her gun...which doesn't work. So the heroes retreat to the Baxter Building, and along the way Mrs. Sorenson spends a couple pages explaining Equinox's origin.



Jan gets them into the Baxter Building with her Avengers ID, but a skirmish between Equinox and cops cuts power to the building and reboots the security system. This is bad, since the BB security system frowns on intruders. So Wasp has to go flying around dodging lasers and get into the guts of the system to shut it down, something she notes should be impossible for her - but she's able to do it anyway, and fairly easily. Meanwhile, Spidey and Mrs. Sorenson work together to tweak her cure for Equinox into something more workable - but it has to be applied directly to his skin. So who wants to get that close? Show of hands?



Spidey webs up his hands and dives in, ineffectually, when suddenly we have a new contender.







And they're off, I like to imagine for some scientific sexy funtimes with the Pyms, Mrs. Sorenson and Jean DeWolff. But isn't it just Spidey's luck to get stuck with the cleanup at the Baxter Building?

...where, y'know, nothing could possibly go wrong in the FF's absence...



Now we're onto MTU #61, "Not All Thy Powers Can Save Thee," guest-starring the Human Torch. Spidey gets knocked clean out of the Baxter Building, only to be caught by the Torch. Spidey jujitsu's Torch headfirst onto a rooftop, and Torch is none too pleased: "YOU LITTLE TWERP! WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA? In case you hadn't noticed, I just SAVED your RED-&-BLUE BUTT!" And yet Spidey is unmoved. "Kind of you. Especially after YOU and the REST of the FF just finished using me as a PUNCHING BAG!"





Ya know, it's kind of a bad day when Johnny Storm calls you an idiot and the accusation sticks.





Jean DeWolff's back on the job for like her third shift in a row in response to the all-points at the Baxter Building. I mention this only for this lovely line: "Let's move, Lieutenant. Where the FF's concerned it could be anything from a family squabble to the fifth coming of Galactus - as if life in the Big Apple wasn't rough enough already!"

Anyhoo, now it can be fighty time, obviously; observing the fray from a nearby ocean liner is Carol Danvers, editor of "Woman Magazine," who really wishes she could pitch in. Torch gets clonked but good, so Spidey goes it alone, setting a trap for Super-Skrull.



That brings us up to MTU #62, "All This and the QE2," guest-starring Ms. Marvel.



The wires temporarily make visible the satellite beam from the Skrull Throneworld that gives SS his FF powers. An ill-timed blast from SS makes it all go boom...





Carol gets knocked on a collision course for the Statue of Liberty, but Spidey rescues her, and he and Carol develop a plan. Spidey distracts SS while Carol wires up a much larger version of Spidey's wee electrical grid in the QE2's rigging.



The grid blocks the satellite beam, but SS has an alternate power source handy. Luckily, it's one Carol knows pretty well.






So. What'd you guys think of the trip down memory lane?