{"id":6640,"date":"2019-04-03T00:00:23","date_gmt":"2019-04-03T04:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/?p=6640"},"modified":"2019-10-16T20:33:57","modified_gmt":"2019-10-17T00:33:57","slug":"mtu-001","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/2019\/04\/03\/mtu-001\/","title":{"rendered":"MTU 001"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Since I started collecting Spider-Man comics \u201cseriously\u201d or whatever in 2018, there have been a lot of obvious things I was not going to get. Marvel Team-Up #1, for example. The first issue of only the 2nd series ever for Spider-Man? Pricey. And, also, maybe not that important, in the scheme of things. Something I could not afford and probably was ok with that. And yet, once again on eBay, I find someone selling a lot of 10 issues of MTU for $20, including 1 & 2. Why? How? I don\u2019t know. But I got it, and here it is. Not a great cover for a first issue. \u201cTwo of Marvel\u2019s mightiest\u2026 neither looking at you, both getting trashed.\u201d That\u2019s another thing, MTU was originally conceived as a Spider-Man & Human Torch title. Every issue, just the 2 of them. I much prefer the variety of future issues. We got Roy Thomas writing, future ASM artist Ross Andru penciling, and the ubiquitous Mike Espositio inking. It\u2019s Christmas Eve, and Peter Parker is at the beach to take shots of the Polar Bear Club doing their thing for JJJ, when one of them feels something weird in the sand, like a snake or a tentacle.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Well, alright. What a horrible suit for Sandman. Sandy beats up the cops and has fun with it as Peter switches into his Spidey gear and gets in there. They go a round, but when Spidey makes a joke about it being Christmas Eve, Sandman is distracted, and vanishes into the sand.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

I guess Roy is forgetting ASM 18 & 19, but I looked it up, and shockingly, this is their first meeting since ASM 19. Sandy\u2019s been off harassing the likes of Thor, The Hulk, and by far most frequently, the Fantastic Four, as a member of the Frightful Four. They\u2019re ever-so frightful, don\u2019t you see. And because of that, Spidey has gone to The Baxter Building looking for help. Johnny Storm was just casually shooting fire rings out the window without knowing he was out there. Johnny says he\u2019s the only one home on Christmas Eve because of \u201cgirl problems,\u201d and does not elaborate. Spidey tells him Sandman\u2019s on the loose and basically says, \u201cHe\u2019s one of yours, do something,\u201d which is pretty funny and very out of character. Torch thinks back to the first time he met Sandman, on the George Washington Bridge. The heroes assume Sandman is from New Jersey, since he was coming into the city both times the boys ran into him (Uh, sure, ok), so they head that way in a Fantasticar. They don\u2019t find Sandman, but they do find some guys trying to mug a woman. Spidey flips onto the bottom of the Fantasticar and does his thing as Johnny swoops in\u2026
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Well, ok. Justice done, but still no Sandman, so they keep on flying, when Johnny spots a tanker truck out of control on the icy road. Johnny flames on to melt the ice in front of the truck, giving it a chance to stop. So they\u2019ve saved yet another day tonight, but are no closer to finding Sandman. Johnny says he\u2019s had enough of all this Merry Christmas stuff and is going home.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

The heroes go after him, but they don\u2019t work together very well as a team, and keep getting in each other\u2019s way.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

No comment. Spidey saves The Torch, and then they rush their foe, who makes his body paper thin, so they just smash into a wall behind him, knocking themselves out. Grade A superheroing, guys! When they wake up, Sandman has tied them up inside a water tower, which he proceeds to fill up to drown them. Spidey has apparently forgotten he\u2019s super strong? He figures out they\u2019ve been tied up through a ring on the bottom so only one of them can reach the surface at a time. Spidey thinks he\u2019s \u201ctoo weak\u201d to break the ropes (Why?), so he dives down to let the Torch get enough of himself out of the water to flame on. They free themselves and soon pick up the Sandman\u2019s trail asn he climbs into the window of a building.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

And that\u2019s that. Not exactly the most exciting start to a series, but honestly, probably a fitting start to this series. And the two heroes will, indeed, get Sandman next time, along with his Frightful Four buddies, but that\u2019s still a ways off.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since I started collecting Spider-Man comics \u201cseriously\u201d or whatever in 2018, there have been a lot of obvious things I was not going to get. Marvel Team-Up #1, for example. The first…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6641,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[72,71,52,74,44,101,2],"class_list":["post-6640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1970s","tag-human-torch","tag-marvel-team-up","tag-mike-esposito","tag-ross-andru","tag-roy-thomas","tag-sandman","tag-spider-man"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6640","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=6640"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6658,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6640\/revisions\/6658"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}