Marvel Team-Up #76
Spidey & Dr Strange!
It's a Ditko Extravaganza!
Well, filtered through the typewriter of Chris Claremont and the pencil of Howard Chaykin.
Creative Team: Chris Claremont-writer, Howard Chaykin-breakdowns, Jeff Aclin-pencils, Juan Ortiz-inks, Joe Rosen (and an uncredited Rick Parker)-letters, Carl Gafford-colors, Bob Hall-editor
Hall and Jim Shooter's credits are placed before Rosen & Gafford. Mistake or ego? Probably mistake, s 3 artists do crowd the credits bar and the editor was going to make dang sure he was listed (same for the EIC). At least they weren't billed as "And the rest....."
Synopsis: Claremont pontificates on the Tarot....
"In the hands of a
charlatan, they're mere cards, pieces of painted plastic. But, in the hands of one who knows and
respects the forces behind them, they can be
windows on the future gateways to a man's soul."
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Or, in the hands of the gullible, a nice way to blow ten bucks!
Anyway....
Spidey goes swingin through Greenwich Village, passed the home of Dr Strange, who tries to call too him from his Eisner-swipe window (Sorry, Steve; but, you know it's true.); but, Spidey doesn't hear him. Strange has layed out an array of painted pieces of plastic that he says are charged with power (Well, they were charged $9.99 at the little shop, down the street...the one with the Voodoo books, black candles and the clerk with the heavy black eye make-up.). Clea wants some lovin', but Doc ignores her again and she leaves in a huff.
Spidey lands and changes into Peter Parker's clothes and muses about a Spidey Sense alarm he got when he was swingin' along (on Moonlight Bay...) He ignores it, because when has it ever warned him of danger? Dr Strange returns to the tarot layout, after placating Clea. The Orb of Agamatto glows, as Strange ponders the inconsistency of a card that means both balance and upset.
Elsewhere, Carol Danvers is stepping off a bus and gets shoved out of the way by someone obviously to distracted to check out her butt, in tight jeans" and she tumbles into Wong, on the way back from the neighborhood bodega. Carol recognizes Wong, from meeting him in the Defenders, as Ms Marvel; but, Wong is too stupid to recognize a woman without her mask, even though her face, body and voice would be the same.
Back at the ranch...or Sanctum, Clea goes to check on why Stephen is keeping her waiting and finds him practically frozen in place, staring at the tarot. She calls out to him, then icky ectoplasmic hands reach for her...
...from the Orb of Agamotto. Strange is too busy wondering how that could happen, without his orders (subliminal command after feeling hen-pecked, when Clea got mad at him?) and then casts a spell, which doesn't work and the creature sucks Clea's soul from her. Doc gets whammied by the agony, received via his telepathic rapport with Clea.
Wait, if he has a telepathic rapport with Clea, then why couldn't he sense that she wanted some sweet lovin', down by the fire? Must be a very selective telepathic rapport.
Strange sends a Mental-gram to Wong, who runs off, leaving Carol with his groceries and nearly plowing into Petey, who gets a Spidey Tingle (though that may be the sight of Carol, in her Calvins). He ducks into an alley, changes clothes again and then Spidey runs to the front door and barges in, without knocking. There, he and Wong find Doc and Clea, passed out on the floor...
They are interrupted by Ms Marvel....
...who shows what gets between Carol and her Calvins, though, where does she keep the boots? She was wearing sandals, before...
They debate identity checks, since this is a new costume, though based on Spidey's eyeline, he should recognize her chest. She says he will have to trust her and, being an idiot, he does. Then, Doc wakes up and calls out to Wong.
Doc recovers with a Spell of Rejuvenation (better known as a stiff brandy and a handful of aspirin) and then tells Spidey and Miss....'scuse me,
Ms Marvel that the tarot came from New Orleans (oh come on Doc, there are loads of shops in the neighborhood with tarot card decks for sale) and that is where he is going, to rescue Clea's soul. He tells Spidey and MM that they don't have to come, though he implies they are wusses if they don't, so, they join him.
Like they were going to pass up a free trip to New Orleans!
They materialize on Bourbon Street, because why would they materialize near on outer shopping mall? Doc camouflages them with an illusion, which makes Pete look a bit like Dick Grayson and makes MM a black woman (Shades of Lois Lane!). Doc then follows an energy trail to a shack, near the bayou, because, why not? No respectable mystic would have digs inside New Orleans, where tourists could find them and get palm and tarot readings and love potions. Or at least some gumbo.
The shack is a TARDIS and has a swanky interior the defies its outer shell. There, they meet Marie Laveau, Witch Queen of New Orleans...
She tells them to sit down and confirms that she sent the tarot to him, as a warning and that his foe is Silver Dagger, the balding jerk who stabbed him in the back and further messed with him, in Dr Strange #1-5 (from the much better Steve Englehart and Frank Brunner). Dagger and the demons there have taken over the Orb, to steal Clea's soul. Strange uses the Eye of Agamotto to check things out and sees Clea calling to him, about to be burnt at the stake, by Silver Dagger.
Glad to see she is living up to her history as the Damsel-in-Distress Supreme. Seriously, isn't she supposed to have her own powers? Might as well change her name to Gwendoline, for as much as she ends up in chains and such.
Marie tells Stevie that he can cross over to the dimension and retrieve her soul,, if he masters the Shiatra Book of the Damned, available at your local bookstore or call 1-800-555-FAKE. Operators are standing buy.
Allow 4-6 weeks for delivery.
Doc then tells us that the book is the oldest occult tome and the equally fictional Necronomicon was derived from it, thereby calling Abdul Alhazred a plagiarist. He also says its lore is evil. Marie replies, "Evil-shmevil, just get it, Stevie baby!" She claims it is power, nothing more. he questions her price and she asks what that matters. Being a moron, he agrees and she zaps him in the amulet and his astral form exits, stage right. Spidey's sense kick in and now he suddenly pays attention to them, as we end on a cliffhanger.
Oh, and some masked goons with knives and machetes are sneaking up on the shack. They may just be Cajuns looking for some National Guardsmen who ticked them off.
Walter Hill wishes he had a film like Deliverance, Midnight Express or Apocalypse Now! He's a better writer than director, like John Millius.
Thoughts: Not exactly an original plot, as it seems Dr Strange is forever getting ambushed within the Sanctum Sanctorum, and having to go onto the astral plane to fight the enemy. The only difference is that Spidey and Ms Marvel have been tossed in, to stand around and look stupid. At least, for this issue. I'm not a fan of Claremont on supernatural stories and characters, as he isn't as good at it as Roy Thomas, Steve Englehart or Doug Moench. His stuff tends to come off as pale copies of their stuff (and of Steve Gerber). He brought along his favorite, Ms Marvel, for this one, which is another point against the story, in my book. Nothing against Ms Marvel; I just find that putting more sci-fi heroes in a supernatural story rarely works well. Supernatural stories tend to have way more "deus ex machina" endings than sci-fi stories (not that sci-fi doesn't, in many hands); but, magic is always rather vague in comics and doesn't work until it has to. Sci-fi characters tend to have more rules built into them, though, again, it depends on who's writing them.
Marie Laveau was a real person, in New Orleans, in the 1800s. Except she wasn't a white woman in a slinky dress. Now, the depiction of her as a white woman started in Dracula Lives #2, from marvel's B&W magazine line, in a story by Roy Thomas and Gene Colan, where Dracula meets Laveau, in New Orleans, in the present, as a very old woman. With the aid of a potion, that includes Dracula's blood, she is restored to youth.
Now, the black and white nature of the art doesn't really indicate skin color; but, her features are pure European. The real Laveau was mixed race and looked something like this.....
Nothing in the original story or here has any suggestion that she is anything other than a woman of white European ancestry. Pretty typical of comics, though the physical subtleties of a person of multiple ethnic backgrounds are hard to capture in line art, on cheap newsprint.
The earlier story, once Marie is transformed into her younger self, is depicted in something closer to a harem outfit or your typical fantasy illustrations scantily clad female. Here, the design has more than a passing resemblance to the very recent Madame Xanadu, from DC. Might be a coincidence, might be a direct swipe (especially since Mike Kaulta created her design), though I'm not sure if both might owe something to another inspiration, like a Morticia Adams or something from a film or other comic.
Clea really is a pretty useless character, in the hands of the majority of writers at Marvel. Once in a while, she gets to kick a little butt; however, normally, she is usually kidnapped, enchanted, tortured or just an annoying distraction in need of Dr Strange to fix it. I mean, even Lois Lane got to kick some butt in her own stories. Mostly, she ends up seeming to be nothing more than Strange's concubine, for lack of a better description. Claremont is doing much better by her, indulging in his penchant for female characters suffering at the tortures of some villain, often with BDSM trappings. Sure, it's a comic cliche; but, for all the praise of his feminist or strong female characters, he sure does indulge in it a lot more with women than men.
All kidding and kibitzing aside, this isn't a bad set-up for the story, continued in the next issue. It is something different; but, it falls into the trap of letting top billing characters stand around, for most of the issue. Often, it's the guest star, while Spidey handles everything (or most of it); but, this time, it is Dr Strange.
The art is fine, though, outside of the layouts and staging, I detect very little of Chaykin. Jeff Aclin wasn't a prolific artist at Marvel (or DC, where he had a couple of credits). He primarily worked as a mimic, creating new splash pages for stories that were segmented in the weekly Marvel UK comics. He was one of several artists who would do new splash pages for segments that continued a reprint of a Marvel US story. Not sure what else he did, as credits end around 1980. His son, Justin Aclin, has written for comics, as well as for ToyFare's "Twisted ToyFare Theater." Chaykin's breakdowns and Aclin's pencils tell the story well, aided by Ortiz's inking. Faces are a bit stiff and there is a generic look to clothing and settings.
Ms Marvel gets guest-star billing, in the next issue.
