One of the 77. We’re back to Marvel Team-Up, this issue brought to us by Steven Grant, Mike Vosburg & Bob McLeod. And it irks me a little on page one:
Not the story elements, but that caption saying it takes place before MTU Annual #2. This is the February, 1980 issue of MTU. That annual came out sometime in 1979. I have to just kinda guess when most of these things take place in relation to each other, but I’ve moved that Annual in my chronology twice already, and now it has to go after this. Ugh. Ok. Stay tuned for MTU Annual #2 as the next post. Aaaaaaanyway, ladies go crazy for a furry blue man, apparently. Who knew? And Peter is here with his most random girlfriend of all time, Cissy Ironwood, and he’s more interested in Beast’s ladyfriends. Delightful, Mr. Parker, delightful. Cissy spots the Beast, and Peter starts complaining about how women are always throwing themselves at him everywhere he goes, like he’s suddenly an obsessive fan, when he notices Cissy’s not with him anymore because she’s gone to join his adoring crowd. And then… Peter just heads to the science exhibit he came for by himself. He’s being quite a guy this issue and it’s only page 2. Meanwhile, Killer Shrike and the Modular Man are here (Modular Man?) Ok! The two villains are casing very device Peter has come to see.
Maaaaaaaan that’s a lot of exposition! But I needed it, so I guess it works. What a ridiculous villain. Also, apparently Killer Shrike doesn’t know who he was before “The Conspiracy” turned him into a supervillain, and The Modular Man thinks he can help once he’s normal again. Their cause seems… pretty reasonable? Like why not just ask if they can use the thing? “Hey, man, our lives have been ruined and your machine could help.” I’m sure people would understand not wanting to look like a cartoon robot for the rest of your life and/or having your past stolen from you as decent reasons. Of course, as he goes to get the thing, Modular Man thinks to himself that he’s just using Killer Shrike. These type of guys just don’t play well with others. Peter senses danger and slips away to switch to Spider-Man, and is soon knocked into the other room by Killer Shrike, alerting The Beast to the trouble.
You think Killer Shrike looks a lot like Batman on purpose? Have I wondered about that in previous appearances? To his credit (I guess?), Spider-Man isn’t being jealous to Beast’s face like he was behind his back earlier. The ridiculous villains are able to overwhelm our heroes largely because Spidey & Beast have never heard of these guys and don’t know what they can do, which is fair.
I’m gonna guess Steven Grant wrote a lot of that Rampaging Hulk book, which I believe was a black & white magazine. Survey sez… No! Nothing. Sure are a lot of references to that series, then, that’s weird. Anyway, a guy helpfully tells our heroes the villains will need “massive amounts of microwaves” to power the device, which they have yet to actually perfect. Then Spider-Man puts a tracer on Beast and tells him he’ll catch up later so he can scamper off to find Cissy. He says he doesn’t want her to think he ran out on her…
New channels! Oo la la! Man, Peter Parker & Cissy Ironwood, a Romance for the Ages!
Aaaaaalright. I begin to think either Steven Grant or I have no idea how TV works. Beast has deduced they’ll use the cable transmissions as their power source, and that the transmissions will be made from the Empire State Building, so he’s watching them helicopter up above the antenna with binoculars when Spidey shows up. Killer Shrike places a dish up there and Spidey leaps into action. Modular Man’s plan seems to be working, though, as he’s channeling all that energy into himself. The cable execs are losing their minds because no one’s getting anything on TV.
Beast saves Spidey and kicks Shrike across the platform, but then Modular Man comes out of the exploding helicopter, growing huge. Naturally, he turns on Killer Shrike immediately, batting him aside.
It worked.
Weird, abrupt, downer ending! Bang! Sure thing. A nice change of pace from Spider-Man seeing villains die and being like “whatever!” throughout the 70s, tho. Ah, well, here’s what’s more important: The next time we see Cissy Ironwood… As far as I’m able to determine… will be her last appearance ever. Will it make sense? Will it pay off? Well, I mean, I know, I read it a long time ago and keep having to move it forward, but… you will find out!