What, an issue of Daredevil?? When I saw Team-Up 12 continued here, I decided to get a copy, so we’ll see how it ends. This blog has gotten me a bunch of random older comics. I have a pretty significant run of mid-to-late-80s Daredevil and a few of the Miller issues, but that was as far back as I went until recently. This issue is brought to us by writer Steve Gerber, unfairly maligned classic Marvel artist Don Heck on pencils, and Sal Trapani, whose name I don’t know, on inks. And while this is a Daredevil comic, the splash has us feeling right at home:
Daredevil and Black Widow, currently a couple, are on their way home from an adventure that apparently took them to the offices of Rolling Stone Magazine, how hip. They have a box of documents that could be evidence against the biggest mob boss in San Francisco that they’re holding for safe keeping. After they enter the mansion I guess they live in (? I know almost nothing of this era of DD), we check back in with our man, recapping the recent events of his life, and MTU 12, specifically, as he changes to Peter Parker to go interview the two heroes like he was paid to do. The first person he encounters is some mustachioed mechanic who thinks Peter should interview him, instead. He never gives his name, but he does tell Pete to go knock on the front door of the house.
As DD comes down and they get ready for an interview, we learn that Natasha rented this place with the last of her inheritance. But Peter’s Spidey sense goes off again as they head into the library, and then…
This, er, Ramrod seems to know exactly where to go to find the safe DD put the papers in, and soon he has them. He just smashes back out the nearest wall as DD & The Widow give chase, Peter Parker running behind them. Ramrod waits for them outside so he can beat the crap out of them and prove they’re no match for him, and preposterously, he does just that. I don’t feel like this He-Man-toy-lookin’ dude should be able to easily dispatch 2 seasoned vets, but he does. The heroes rush off to catch Ramrod, leaving Peter alone to do his own thing…
Weird take on Spidey’s web, there, Don. As the heroes hunt for Ramrod, he helpfully recaps his deal for us. How he was a foreman on an oil rig, and was crushed in an accident. How he passed out in a hospital and woke up in a crazy laboratory, where some mysterious, shadowy figures had replaces his crushed bones with steel and increased his strength, and in exchange, wanted him to kill Daredevil. To his credit, Ramrod wanted no part of that, but then they told him they’d injected him with a poison, and he won’t get an antidote until he’s done their bidding, so now he’s a villain. He’s about done with his recap when…
Yoink! Ramrod chases Spidey, and they fight a bit before DD & The Widow show up and get in on the action, too.
Spidey runs off and DD & The Widow engage again, suddenly doing a lot better than before. They quickly notice Ramord’s face is as vulnerable as any human, which leads to some pretty funny combat of them specifically just zapping, kicking and punching him in the face. But then he fakes being stunned long enough to get a good hit in on Black Widow and toss her off the roof so he can go after Spidey, so DD leaps to the rescue.
That’s how Ramrod always knows where the papers are, we find. Spidey thinks climbing the tallest building in the area will be an escape, but Ramrod’s strong enough to just dig handholds in the side and come after him.
Stinging! Spidey decides it’s time to finish this right as DD & Widow catch up. Ramrod’s so shocked to see Natasha alive that…
Well, that was a quick end. And Kraven’s in the next issue? He’s supposed to be one of our guys! Odd amount of crossover with the Spidey world here. Well, that was fun. Not the most substantial story, but an interesting little detour outside our usual area of study. And, improbably, this is not the last time we’ll see Ramrod on this blog, so that’s helpful. Next time, it’s back to regular programming with Marvel Team-Up 13.