Sunday, June 24, 2018

My First Comics - Part Two

Not long ago, a Twitter post led to me writing something up about my first comics.  It was fun and got me thinking about other comics I read around the dawn of time.  After some research, and buying a couple back issues at MightyCon, here they are.

Marvel Team-Up Annual #4
Cover: Frank Miller and Josef Rubenstein
Writer: Frank Miller
Artist: Herb Trimpe and Mike Esposito

Spider-Man investigates a traffic accident and runs afoul of the Purple Man.  The Purple Man has Spider-Man hanging from a lamppost and singing Elvis Costello in no time.

Unfortunately, the guys in the wreck worked for the Kingpin and the Kingpin sets his sights on the Purple Man.  Daredevil catches wind that The Purple Man is in town and goes looking for him.

Aunt May pressures Peter Parker to take out Deb Whitman.  She's just worried about him!  Anyway, Peter develops his fim and sees the Purple Man.  Spidey and Daredevil join forces and go looking for the Purple Man together, only to have the Purple Man order Spider-Man to jump off a building.  Daredevil saves him but the Purple Man gets away.

Purple Man goes to visit the Kingpin and tries to get him to eat a gun but the Kingpin resists!

Powerman and Iron First save a woman from the crooks that were chasing her and find out there's a hit going down at the convention center later that night.  Moon Knight is working over one of his stool pigeons and foils a murder attempt on him, getting set up by the Kingpin in the process.  Now that all of the heroes are heading for the convention center, The Kingpin reveals that he intends to have the Purple Man gunned down by a sniper wearing ear plugs once the heroes are out of the way.

At the convention center, the Purple Man is planning to out Matt Murdock as Daredevil when Matt starts a fire with a cigar, the panicking ground running for the door.  After a brief misunderstanding, the six heroes unite, just in time to face the mob Killgrave has incited!  Moon Knight takes out the sniper and steals his ear plugs.  Daredevil goes after the Purple Man alone and winds up trying to strangle himself.  Moon Knight shows up and Purple Man tells him to eat his cape, only to get his ass handed to him.

Out on the street, Powerman, Iron Fist, and Spider-Man run for their lives as the murderous mob chases them.  The heroes tip over a water tower and the shock of the water restores the crowd to normal.

There was a ton of stuff crammed into this issue.  Even though Daredevil wasn't at center stage a lot of the time, it was still a Daredevil story more than anything else with the Kingpin and the Purple Man as the villains.  Even as a kid, I was afraid of the Purple Man.  Marvel Team-Up was primarily a Spider-Man vehicle but I think Spider-Man did the least.  Not a bad book at all.  Frank Miller crammed a whole lot into it.

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Amazing Spider-Man #213
Cover: John Romita Jr. and Al Milgrom
Writer: Dennis O'Neil
Artist: John Romita Jr. and Jim Mooney

Someone busts the Wizard out of Ryker's Island.  After a narrow escape from the guards involving a giant octopus, the Wizard and his rescuer head for New York to take out Spider-Man.

Back in NYC, Peter Parker is soaking his costume in a bathtub to make it less itchy.  He briefly meets his hot new neighbor and goes out for an evening with Deb Whitman.  He returns home to find his costume faded and puts it on to go investigating a giant spider.

Spidey battles the spider while the Wizard and his shadowy partner look on.  Turns out it was a trick so The Wizard could get a reading on Spidey's spider sense.

Deb Whitman thanks Peter for their evening and the new neighbor vagina-blocks her. Spider-Man goes to investigate a cave-in and heads back home just in time to run into The Wizard!

Spider-Man comes out on top but the Wizard sets off a bomb atop Peter Parker's apartment.  Spider-Man has to let the Wizard and his partner go in order to stop the fire.  Spider-Man rescues everyone except Wino Charlie.  Spider-Man ends up falling through the floor, setting up a cliffhanger for the next issue!  Damn, I forgot how this one ended.  Maybe I'll read it on Marvel Unlimited.  I really want to know who the Wizard's partner is and who the hot new neighbor is.

The beginning really felt like a Batman comic, not surprising given Denny O'Neil wrote it.  Actually, the whole thing felt like a reworked Batman script.   It was pretty enjoyable, though.  I pretty much forgot about Deb Whitman and she was in both of these books.  It's interesting to see John Romita Jr's art when he was just doing the Marvel house style instead of what his work later evolved into.

There a whole lot of closure missing after I read this.  What's Wizard's beef with Spider-Man?  Who is his partner?  Will Spider-Man save Wino Charlie?

I do not regret buying these two comics in the slightest.  I'd forgotten a lot of the Marvel Team-Up and most of the Amazing Spider-Man.  They sure crammed a lot into issues back then.  Neither of them felt rushed, though, just satisfying, I guess.  I'd have to give the edge to the Spider-Man issue, though.  It felt more organic than the Marvel Team-Up, although the team-up comics always felt a little forced.










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