{"id":11986,"date":"2022-02-07T00:00:43","date_gmt":"2022-02-07T04:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/?p=11986"},"modified":"2020-12-15T16:27:48","modified_gmt":"2020-12-15T20:27:48","slug":"mtu-053","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/2022\/02\/07\/mtu-053\/","title":{"rendered":"MTU 053"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I found this one could be hard to get at a reasonable price. At first, I thought it was like ASM 119-120, where it\u2019s still just an early meeting between our hero and The Hulk driving up the price, but that\u2019s not it. We\u2019ll see what it is in a second. No idea who drew this cover, but I know John Romita redid Hulk\u2019s face. This is a Bill Mantlo, John Byrne & Frank Giacoia production, and it begins with Hulk leaping into what appears to be an abandoned town in his endless search for a place to be alone. It\u2019s not gonna go well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s something charming about Hulk wanting to be proud of Hulk Town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I know nothing about Woodgod. I used to know a guy on a comics forum for whom Woodgod was the funniest thing, but this is, I think, my first exposure. Two guys talking like Hulk at each other is not good reading. But before anything can go down, we cut away to the 2-page spread that reveals why this book is expensive:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is the first time future X-Men superstar John Byrne ever drew the X-Men. This is all happening moments after MTU Annual 1. That came out months ago, but here we are. Phobias has \u201cpsychokinentically summoned the X-Shuttle,\u201d so the gang is all flying back to New York, but they\u2019re attacked by weird little 2-person helicopters who seem to be around to watch the town Hulk\u2019s in. They fire a bunch of missiles, which the X-Men manage to destroy\u2026 except one, which hits their ship and sends Spider-Man falling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

You think Banshee kept his word and reminded Spider-Man to send him an atomizer and cough drops? Spidey is worried they might actually be able to kill Hulk, and wants to help. He also thinks there\u2019s a story here JJJ would love to get, and he\u2019s the only photographer around. How is he going to explain anything about any of this? About MTU Annual or this story? Ah, well. Professor X apparently reads Spider-Man\u2019s mind and everyone decides Banshee will hang back and take Spidey down to help Hulk while the rest fly on to New York. Back in the town, \u201cGreen Man\u201d and \u201cGoat-Man\u201d are pummeling each other and talking like toddlers for a few pages, Hulk eventually heft a car into a powerline and electrocuting himself, which won\u2019t hurt him, obviously, but does have the surprising effect of making him turn back to Bruce Banner. Banner passes out immediately, and Woodgod assumes Green Man has left, and walks away just as those helicopters descend on him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Wait, what? How is Spider-Man going to get from New Mexico to New York??? I thought Banshee was in it for the long haul! Spidey swings into town, wondering why whatever\u2019s effecting the place doesn\u2019t seem to be effecting him, while Woodgod uses a telephone pole to knock one of the \u201cfloaters\u201d out of the sky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sure, man, why not, the magic anti-radiation spray also works on nerve gas. Woodgod runs up and suckerpunches our hero, who sees the passed out Bruce Banner, and gets upset. He webs his goofy opponent, but Woodgod just tears right through it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Well, that\u2019s no place for a Spider-Man to be. How can any of this resolve? I guess I\u2019ll find out. This issue features a letter from cartoonist Fred Hembeck, who really enjoyed MTU 48 & 49, especially the introduction of Jean DeWolff. Right on, Fred, Jean was cool.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I found this one could be hard to get at a reasonable price. At first, I thought it was like ASM 119-120, where it\u2019s still just an early meeting between our hero…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11985,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[107,41,59,180,71,2,1030,75],"class_list":["post-11986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1970s","tag-bill-mantlo","tag-frank-giacoia","tag-hulk","tag-john-byrne","tag-marvel-team-up","tag-spider-man","tag-woodgod","tag-x-men"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11986"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11994,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11986\/revisions\/11994"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}