Waiting for the Trade - Spider-man

Waiting for the Trade

By Bill Miller

 

Spider-man Family: Untold Team-ups

by Jeff Parker, Chris Giarrusso, Kevin Grevious and Chris Eliopoilas
collects Spider-man Family 4-6

Why Bought This: It features a team-up with Spider-man and Throg (aka Frog Thor). Who doesn’t want to read that?

 

The Plot: A collection of Spider-man team-up stories with the Agents of Atlas, Dr. Strange, Throg and Ka-Zar.

Chapter 0 – A 5 page story: Puppet Master witnesses bullies toss a young kid’s action figures into a pond so he gives the victim a magic Spider-man doll capable of independent speech and movement.

Chapter 1 – Spidey chases a dinosaur-man into a Broadway theatre where the stage manager acts like nothing is wrong. Wanting to investigate further Peter buys tickets for himself and MJ to see the show. A dude on stage dressed like a shaman uses audience participation to cast a spell that summons a bunch of dinosaurs and jungle animals for no discernable reason. The Agents of Atlas are also in the audience and they get involved. They are Jimmy Woo (their contact in the FBI, no powers), Venus (magic, may even be the Greek goddess), Gorilla Man (literally a talking Gorilla), Marvel Boy (a former wielder of Quasar’s quantum bands, last I saw he’d gone insane and was working for Thanos, who gave him low-powered replicas of the bands in Quasar’s solo title; although he seems to have different powers here that involve wearing a bowl of water on his head), Namora (a female version of Namor) and M-11 (a robot). Spidey briefly fights Gorilla Man in the confusion before the heroes sort out what’s going on. Spidey then hitches a ride on their UFO and we learn the villain is part of some cult the Atlases have fought before. The heroes track them down and easily defeat the non-powered cult members. Marvel Boy erases Spivey’s memory of meeting the Agents because they’re secret spies.

Chapter 2 – We start with Spidey and Dr. Strange being held captive by Snake-men before a flashback shows us Pete was with Aunt May when Strange telepathically summoned him. Strange explains Morbius stole Dr. Strange’s powers, probably to cure his vampirism. Strange has enough power left to enhance Spidey’s spider-sense so they can track him down. Morbius’s attempt at spell-casting goes out control. This leads to Snake-men ambushing Spidey and Strange (Strange is forced to use kung-fu and magic knives against them). They win the first fight but as they search the city more Snake-men are attacking civilians. Spidey insists they try to help and this gets the heroes captured. Back in the present Spidey’s enhanced spider-sense is giving him clairvoyant visions and he sees Snake-men coming for Aunt May. This gives him the adrenaline to burst his bonds and win the fight. The heroes find Morbius also fighting Snake-men. Dr. Strange takes out the Snake-men with his flying knives giving Spidey time to smash the magic amulet Morbius used to steal Strange’s powers. Once restored Strange banishes the Snake-men back to their home dimension. Strange goes to chastise Morbius for being selfish and we learn he wasn’t trying to cure himself of vampirism but cure his best friend of ALS. Strange explains magic can’t be used to cure natural diseases but offers to use his skills as a medical doctor to help.

Chapter 3 – Kraven the Hunter is hanging out on the rooftops with two young girls vowing to hunt the Man-Wolf (John Jameson turned into a pseudo werewolf by a moon rock). Kraven finds Man-Wolf in combat with Spidey. Spidey gets distracted by the girls who are meant to be Paris Hilton stand-ins. Kraven saves Spidey and wrestles the creature while the girls shoot blindly. Eventually Spidey and Kraven remove its amulet only for Spidey to see this wolf isn’t Jameson. Kraven explains he’s using the rock to make money legally; getting hired by rich people who want to hunt a super-human and paying homeless people to wear the amulet for the hunt. Kraven gloats that he’s broken no laws so Spidey can’t do anything to him. Spidey responds by webbing all four of then up and giving the civilians a lecture. Spidey then swings off leaving them to hang around for a few hours until the web dissolves.

Chapter 4 – Thor stops a purse snatcher. When he returns the victim’s purse she kisses him and he turns into a frog. Before he can touch his hammer he’s captured for a biology class as Loki looks on. Cut to Midtown High where teen Pete gets Frog Thor. Frog Thor breaks free and is able to communicate with Pete by nodding his head in response to questions. Pete ducks out of school, switches to Spidey and lets the Frog lead him back to the hammer. Once the frog lifts it he becomes Throg—humanoid Frog with Thor’s powers including speech restored. Thor suspects Loki and tracks him to Midtown where he was disguised as a student hoping to witness Thor’s death. Throg pummels Loki a bit until he’s gets magic zapped. Spidey interjects by blinding Loki with webbing and Throg hits him some more until Loki surrenders. He says the only way to reverse spell is with love’s kiss. MJ shows up and wants to kiss Spidey for saving her life in the commotion. He gets her to close her eyes and pulls a switch thus restoring Thor. Thor takes Loki back to Asgard, while teen Spidey sulks for missing chance to kiss MJ.

Chapter 5 – Spidey and Ka-Zar defeat Stegron fairly quickly. Ka-Zar notes Zabu is depressed. Ka-Zar is in NYC to speak the United Nation about global warming and asks Pete to cat-sit. Pete talks to Aunt May and she talks about out-living all her friends. This gives Pete the idea to take Zabu to a museum to see stuffed saber-toothed tigers. Spidey also gives him a pep talk that he still has family in Ka-Zar. Zabu cheers up and we see the aftermath of Spidey & Ka-Zar defeating Sauron. Zabu gives Spidey a hug before him and Ka-Zar return to the Savage Land.

Critical Thoughts: This was mostly fun in a harmless way. While I’m never too enthused with teen Spidey, I still found the Throg team-up to be entertaining enough. The art in that one is also very Ditko-esque, which helps set the playful tone you’d want given the premise. The final battle with Throg battling Loki is especially well drawn in that vein.

I enjoyed most of the other stories as well. The Dr. Strange story was much better than I expected. Usually Strange-Spidey team ups are very one-note and for most Spidey’s presence in them seems forced given Strange’s power levels. This one by featuring a depowered Strange who has to rely on magic weapons puts the characters on more even footing, and the Spider-Sense as tracking ability gave a plausible reason for Spidey to be Strange’s first choice for this team up. I even enjoyed seeing the Snake-men again who used to trouble Spidey in several of his mystic team-ups in the original Marvel Team-Up series. Spidey insisting he and Strange save the civilians is also a really nice touch to differentiate the two heroes: Strange is focused on ending the macro-cosmic threat, while Spidey sees it from the micro man-on-the-street level.

The Zabu team-up and Kraven story, while both on the shorter side, at least felt tonally right with where I prefer Spidey’s characterization. The only negative is the Agents of Atlas team-up. I’ve never seen them before, but based on this what a boring team of characters. Also not helping is that the plot of stage magician has real powers and is evil was stale back in the Silver Age.

 

Grade C+. While none of these stories will have any impact on continuity, it still makes for a moderately entertaining diversion at a low cost (about $5) much in the vein of the original Marvel Team Up series. If you have fond memories of that series you may want to give this book a shot.