Guys, I've just lost my enthusiasm for this project and we are well past what I thought were the glory days of this book. For a while, it was grief that gave me little desire to do these; but, as I have returned, it is clear that I have run out of steam for MTU, as a whole, as we are entering the era where I wasn't looking much at Marvel, period and this series was pretty much just an afterthought. If anything, it remained alive to glut the newsstand, before it was turned into Web of Spider-Man (replaced by, but same effect). So, I think I will just hit the high points of the remaining few issues that I owned and enjoyed, rather than the rest of the series.

Issue #100 introduces Karma, who would soon shift over to the new New Mutants book, with story by Chris Claremont and art by Frank Miller & Bob Wiacek. It uses the then -topical subject of the Vietnamese Boat People, refugges from post-Civil War Vietnam, who were denied entry to many areas, before international pressure got them asylum. Between 1975 and 1995, over 800,000 Vietnames people left the country, to seek life elsewhere. The crisis was at its height in 1978 and 1979. Karma's powers of possessing people is at odds with the name. Karma is a concept of the universe giving back to you what you give out. If you do good, you receive good; if you do bad, you receive bad. It isn't about possession by a force.

Karma possesses Spider-Man, to try to find her siblings and ends up putting him at odds with the Fantastic Four. The hold is broken and Reed figures out that a mutant is involved and they track down Karma. She is trying to save her siblings from her uncle, a corrupt individual who took away her brother, but left the rest of the family to their fates, when the South Vietnamese government fell. The FF , Spidey and Karma try to stop the uncle and her brother. This leads to Prof X being alerted and them Karma joining the other new students in the New Mutants Graphic novel and new series.

The art has a lot of Ditko influence, with the usual Miller touches, though he gets more credit than his inkers, like Wiacek, who do a lot of heavy lifting on Miller's art, in his work, especially Joe Rubinstein, on Daredevil and Klaus Janson, on many things.

#103 features Spidey & Ant-Man battling Taskmaster. Scott Lang is visited by an old friend, from jail, who is killed by a hit-and-run driver. Spidey investigates and discovers a recruitment drive, with Taskmaster as a trainer for an army of thugs. Taskmaster bests Spidey, while Scott infiltrates the group and frees Spidey, so they can battle Taskmaster. The villain escapes, at the end.

#108-109 had one of my favorite minor characters, Paladin, while Dazzler comes into the story in 109. They try to stop a guy who is killing people with energy burst, the result of an experiment gone wrong. Herb trimpe does the art and it kind of lacks the qualities that I like in A swashbuckling tale, especially with a character like Spidey (or Daredevil).

#118 pits Prof X's mental abilities against those of Mentallo, while Spidey battles The Fixer.

#120 brings in a geriatric Dominic Fortune, to battle Turner D Century and I vomit a little in my mouth. It's JM DeMatteis, a decent writer; but this is cornball stuff. More Herb Trimpe art.

That was my last issue, but the series lasted until #150. It became a bit of a revolving door to creative personnel, which didn't help, though that was always a problem on secondary titles. De Matteis has the last sustained run on it, mostly paired with a young Kerry Gammil. Once he leaves, it shifts a round, quite a lot, with Cary Burkett writing several of the final issues.

Sorry to end on an anti-climax; but, better to end than abruptly stop.