Marvel Team-Up #12
August 1973
Marvel Team-Up again! They had a bunch of Marvel Team-Up issues in that bargain box. I specifically remember Spider-Man and Mister Fantastic as well as Spider-Man and Ka-Zar. I picked this one up for a couple of reasons. Number One, it's tattered and ragged on the edges, but it's not warped and moldy from water damage, and a lot of the books in that bargain box were in sorry shape. (I ended up with two or three books that are badly warped and have more than a hint of an unpleasant odor.) The Number Two reason is Werewolf by Night!
I hardly ever bought horror comics when I was first collecting in the mid-1970s. I would sometimes read them at the drugstore, standing at the spinner rack. And I had one friend who didn't much read super-hero comics but he had a decent collection of horror comics, the DC anthology books, Tomb of Dracula, 1960s monster reprints, Fear, Man-Thing. So even though I didn't buy them, I still had a basic ides of the storyline in series like Tomb of Dracula or Werewolf by Night.
(I think the reason I didn't like the Marvel series like Frankenstein or Dracula or Werewolf by Night was because of my devotion to the Universal horror films of these characters. I remember as a kid being kind of uncomfortable with differing continuities for different versions of characters I liked. I really really hated the Johnny Weismuller Tarzan movies for a long time because I liked the Edgar Rice Burroughs books so much. So the fact that the Dracula in the Tomb of Dracula comic book was not the same Dracula that Bela Lugosi played in the 1921 film was something that bothered me. I got over it within a few years.)
I slowly warmed to the horror books. I started collecting Tomb of Dracula just a few issues before it was canceled, and I soon amassed a collection of back issues that included most of the issues from #40 to #50 and I was only missing one or two issues from #51 to the end. And every once in a while I still pick up the stray issue of Tomb of Dracula. I have about ten issues from #11 to #40. It's a weird way to read it. I seldom have two issues in a row. I frequently don't know what's going on. It's kind of fun!
And I also liked the Ploog Monster of Frankenstein series, collecting #1 to #7 when I was in high school. A few years ago, I started picking up MOF again, and I'm only missing three or four issues now.
Which leaves poor Jack Russell out in the cold, shivering (because he's not wearing a shirt! Or shoes!) and looking at me with those puppy wolf eyes.
I've gotten kind of interested in Werewolf by Night from the few appearance I've seen. I used to have the Moon Knight issues. And a few years ago, I bought WBN #8 and #9, the first storyline with Topaz.
So when I was flipping through the bargain box, I got Marvel Team-Up #12 and an issue of WBN (to be discussed tomorrow) to feed my WBN curiosity.
Written by Len Wien. Plotted by Gene Conway (so no phrases like "Guess again, Bumpkins!" We'll see.) Art by Ross Andru and Don Perlin.
Spidey is in San Francisco, swinging around on the Golden Gate Bridge. He's in San Francisco partly to help him get his mind off the death of his girlfriend Gwen Stacy, which happened in the very recent past at this point. So he's in a different city to forget the death of his girlfriend. A city that's most famous landmark is a bridge. A bridge that's famous for people falling off it. And his girlfriend died from a fall off a bridge. And the first thing he does is go to that famous bridge in the city where he's gone to help him forget about his dead girlfriend who died falling off a bridge.
He's attacked by Werewolf by Night and they both fall off the bridge and Spidey - in mid-air - has a flashback about why he's in Frisco ...
He was at the Daily Bugle and Jameson was being a jerk to him for no real reason (as usual) and Robbie gave him an assignment to go to Frisco to get photos of Daredevil and the Black Widow because that's a legitimate news mission. (And he eventually runs into them in DD #103.)
What with the Ross Andru art and the appearance of Jameson and Robbie, this looks almost like a lost issue of The Amazing Spider-Man. Andru wouldn't be drawing the main Spidey series for a few more months, but he was Spidey's main artist for a long time, including during my first three years reading Spider-Man regularly. (My first issue of Spidey was #151.) Ditko is my favorite, and I love the work of Romita and Kane and a bunch of other Spidey artists, but there's a part of me that will always think of Andru as THE Spider-Man artist.
When the flashback is over, Spidey knocks Werewolf by Night into the bay and doesn't see him emerge from the water. So he changes into Parker and goes to a diner where everybody is acting like zombies. And Werewolf by Night shows up and attacks him and nobody in the diner even flinches. He knocks Werewolf by Night unconscious and he turns to Jack Russell and the diner zombies all wander away.
Jack regains consciousness and tells Spidey he was at a theater to see a stage magician and the whole audience was hypnotized by a sorcerer named Moondark, who sent Werewolf by Night to go take care of Spider-Man before he could interfere with his plans. So they join forces and find Moondark, and Jack becomes Werewolf by Night again and they fight. Spidey pushes Moondark into a magic cloud that transports them to the top of the Golden Gate Bridge. Spidey saves himself by grabbing a cable and makes no effort to save Moondark from falling to his death. The end.
There's also a full-page ad for Doc Savage (from the comic book adaptation of The Monsters) with stunning Gil Kane art.
Not bad, I guess. Team-up comics, right? I probably would have loved it if I'd gotten my hands on it in 1975 or 1976. It's nice to see some continuity with the main Spider-Man book. But Jack (and two of the members of his supporting cast) are in San Francisco for no discernable good reason except to meet Spider-Man. Which is, you know, team-up comics, right? They could have had Spidey go to Los Angeles, where it would have made sense for him to run into Werewolf by Night. Except he has to be in Frisco to meet Daredevil in DD #103. What can you do?
And Moondark's kind of lame.
If I had picked this up when it was new, I probably wouldn't have been persuaded to start reading WBN.