MARVEL TEAM-UP #2

"And Spidey Makes Four!"

• Writer: Gerry Conway
• Artist: Ross Andru
• Inker: Jim Mooney
• Print Date: May, 1972

Featuring:

Plot Summary:

River Sounds: The quiet twilight moaning of sea against pilings -- the soft, fading wail of an up-river tugboat --- the slap and crash of waves over a bridge foundation...

Late in the evening, Johnny Storm stands out on the pier and contemplates the river passing by. His thoughts are abruptly broken when a drunken sailor named Nat interrupts with some words of wisdom. Seeing that something is on Johnny's mind, Nat suggests that finding a friend you can trust makes everything matter. Johnny agrees, and with that, he "flames on" and flies off pier. Not believing his eyes, Nat vows to get back on the wagon, and to make sure he takes the pledge seriously, he vows to seal it with a drink.

And soon, in the last gray light twilight, high over the mid-Manhattan area, Johnny Storm finds the object of his mid-evening quest -- Spider-Man. Johnny blazes by the webhead interrupting him in mid-swing. Johnny figures after they worked so well on the Sandman case last issue, they could just hang on and talk. Spider-Man wants none of it, and takes off telling the torch the last thing he needs is "playing counselor to some neurotic's fantasies!"

Unnoticed by the pair, the Wizard announces to the Trapster and Sandman that Spider-Man will complete their little group and they'll become "The Frightful Four" once more. Since Medusa left their little group, they've been at less than fighting strength. With luck and the Wizard's genius, they'll correct that problem and strike at dawn.

Hours later, as dawn finds a restless Johnny Storm drinking badly-brewed coffee, the events of the night before seem distant -- yet, somehow, no less annoying. Johnny muses over his encounter with Spider-Man and his recent split with the Inhuman Crystal. Johnny is apparently alone in the Fantastic Four's headquarters as Reed and the rest of the group are in Chicago.

Suddenly, the intercom buzzer from the lobby rings. On the spy camera, Johnny sees Spider-Man waiting to be admitted and assumes that the web-slinger has come by to apologize. Smiling to himself, unaware that the web-slinger is not alone, Johnny takes the express elevator to the lobby of the Baxter Building. As soon as the elevator is open, Spider-Man takes down the unsuspecting Human Torch with a roundabout to the jaw. As Johnny sits dazed on the floor, he spots the Sandman standing with Spider-Man. Before Storm has a chance to recover, Spider-Man lashes out and pummels him in the elevator car. It is only when Spider-Man pauses in his attack that the Torch has a chance to counter-attack. He slams Spider-Man out in the lobby and, as the Wizard, Trapster, and Sandman watch with interest, Spider-Man and the Torch begin to slug it out. Sometime during the battle, the Torch realizes that Spider-Man is not fighting on his, but is instead being controlled by the others. Unfortunately, this knowledge causes the Torch to hold himself back, and Spider-Man knocks him out with a final blow to the head.

The Torch awakens. He's bound in a straight-jacket, and his legs and feet are sealed in paste. He sees the Wizard sitting at one of the computer consoles attempting to contact the Negative Zone. Trapster and Sandman amuse themselves by slapping around and verbally abusing an entranced Spider-Man while the Wizard attempts to harness the energy of the Negative Zone. Suddenly, three men fall silent as a striking figure appears in the Negative Zone. Annihilus is using the Wizard's contact to open a portal back to Earth. He strikes down the Sandman, and locks the controls on the Wizard's console. With each passing moment he grows stronger and more powerful. The Sandman pulls himself together as the Trapster ineffectually lobs paste grenades into the portal.

Meanwhile, the Torch manages to free himself by baking the paste to brittleness, and cutting the straightjacket open on some broken glass. The Sandman notices the Torch, but before he can warn the other, the Torch fuses his body into quartz with a well-timed fireball. As the Torch flies into the next room, he draws the attention of the Trapster. He dodge the Trapster's paste stream, but he is not so lucky against the Trapster's grenades. Once his flame is snuffed by the grenades, the Wizard instructs Spider-Man to simply kill the Human Torch. With his flame extinguished, the Torch is no match for Spider-Man His only hope is to break the trance, and he pleads with Spider-Man to snap out of it. His pleas finally cut through the mental barrier, and Spider-Man is finally free of the Wizard's control.

The Trapster is no match for the combined might of Spider-Man and the Torch, and he is quickly subdued. As the monstrous figure of Annihilus steps forward from the screen, the Wizard panics and attempts to flee. Spider-Man throws the hapless Trapster at the Wizard, and the collision knocks them both out. Moments before Annihilus is unleashed upon the Earth, Spider-Man leaps forward and pulls the breaker on the machine cutting the power, and banishing Annihilus back to the Negative Zone.

They've save the day, but they're not done yet. The Sandman awakens, and attacks. However, he's not completely recovered and is still partially solid quartz. With a single blow, Spider-Man smashes him into a pile of sand and apparently stuns the Sandman in the process.

As Spider-Man takes off, the Torch looks around at the mess made of the Fantastic Four's headquarters. Having nothing much else he can do, he calls the police to pick up remaining members of the Frightful Four.

Comments:

All right, it is an early morning at the coffee shop, so I'm going to see if I'm up for writing this or not.

We start off with Johnny Storm (AKA the Human Torch) brooding about Crystal down by the riverfront. It doesn't have much to do with Spider-Man, but the Torch spend a lot of time brooding about Crystal in the early Fantastic Four comics. Of course, this being the riverfront and late at night, you have to have the omnipresent drunken sailor wandering around to boot. As long as we're playing up stereotypes, the sailor has an Irish accent and is a bit of a street philosopher to boot. Advising Johnny that nothing matters unless he has a friend he can trust, Johnny's thoughts immediately turn to.. his fellow Fantastic Four members - Wait, no. Crystal - Nope. His high school chums - Wrong again. Spider-Man with whom he's had a borderline antagonistic relationship for years? Ding! Ding! Ding! And in a final bit of comedy gold, the Torch "Flames on" and flies off causing Nathaniel to pledge to get back on the wagon (although, the redemption is short live when he wanders off to seal the pledge with a drink).

Soon, Johnny finds Spider-Man swinging above the rooftops. Now, I know a character dressed like a spider and swinging on webs might draw attention even in New York, but what the odds that Johnny could go out and find the one person he was looking for - especially in New York? Creative license aside, all is not necessarily right in "hero land". The Torch wants to hang out and talk. Spider-Man has no desire to play therapist to a neurotic super-hero. In another amazing coincidence, the exchanged was witnessed in secret by the three remaining members of the Frightful Four. I can only wonder how many other hero/villains were in the area and remained undocumented? I can only assume there was some sort of weird "probability nexus" in this area that required Doctor Strange's attention off-screen. Anyways, the Wizard and Trapster have recently returned from taking first and second in a local "tackiest purple outfit" context, and are contemplating returning to their criminal ways. The Sandman makes three, and the Wizard announces that Spider-Man will round off their number and makes them the Frightful Four again. Personally, I think they'd be better off just renaming themselves the "Terrible Three" (although given their costumes, "Tasteless Three" wouldn't be inappropriate).

Now, the story takes an odd jump. If it wasn't for the fact that my pages are numbered properly, I'd swear my issues was missing an entire chapter. Anyways, from what I can infer, the Frightful Four followed Spider-Man, jumped him, captured him without anyone suffering major injuries, and subjected him to the Wizard's ID Machine to place him under the Wizard's controlled. Of course, none of this is mentioned in the comic which leaves the reader to wonder which member has developed a 'mind control' power.

In his continuing depression, Johnny mopes around the Fantastic Four headquarters by himself. He mentions that the remaining members of the Fantastic Four were called out to Chicago last night while Johnny was wondering around. After a full page of watching Johnny talk to himself (maybe he is completely neurotic), Spider-Man rings the "front door" in the lobby. Johnny assumes that he's here to apologize, and takes the elevator to the lobby of the Baxter Building. Instead of getting the apology he was expecting, Johnny is coldcocked with a blow to the chin as soon as the elevator opens.

Now, I know the Torch is a super-hero. He's capable of handling himself in a fight, and presumably he works out periodically to maintain himself in top physical form. Having said that, I still can't imagine how he takes Spider-Man's punch to the chin, completely unprepared, and remains conscious. Now, he is stunned, but he shakes that off immediately when he see the Sandman standing with Spider-Man in the lobby. Unable to focus, Johnny Storm takes another backslap to the head, a punch to the chest, and another roundabout to the head. This would normally be enough to kill any normal human, but not only does he survive, he manages to boot Spidey out of the elevator buying the seconds he needs to "flame on". The Spider-Man/Human Torch fights goes on for a full four pages. The Torch realizes that Spider-Man is acting weird, and deduces that he must be under some sort of mental domination. Now, how Johnny determines that this is the real Spider-Man and he is under mental control is a hard to tell. Spidey could easily be a robot, a look-alike, or hell, a clone for that matter (NO!!!!!!! NOT ONE OF THOSE!!!!!!) Ultimately, Johnny's unwillingness to injure his friend overcomes his common sense, and he is eventually knocked unconscious.

He awakes imprisoned. He's bound by some sort of flame-proof straightjacket, and his legs are pin together by the Trapster's paste. From his position laying on the floor, he sees the Wizard working on Reed's Negative Zone communicator/portal/thingy. I really have no clue what it is called. Sandman and the Trapster hang out nearby slapping around an unresponsive Spider-Man for kicks and giggles.

Now, here's a question. The Wizard wants to tap into the Negative Zone to power his own cosmic device. What's in it for the Trapster and Sandman to motivate them to help him out. There's probably not a lot of money stashed in the Fantastic Four headquarters. They don't seem interested in looking for valuables, weapons, or other high-tech equipment. They seem content to watch the Wizard tap the Negative Zone. The suggestion being they are either simple hired muscle that the wizard likes to keep around or the Wizard has some bigger (unmentioned) plan which is going to net them a large fortune or a lot of power.

Anyways, it is all fun and games until someone draws the attention of Annihilus. Now Annihilus didn't really play a big part of this issue, so I didn't give him his own villain page. When facing an intimidating otherworldly being who declares himself the supreme being of his world, do you A) Grovel in fear, B) Power-off the device, or C) Smart-off. Sandman chooses option C, and Annihilus manages to blast him through the viewscreen scattering sand all over the floor. Trapster declares that only his traps can save them, and he hurls several explosive devices through the viewscreen where the explode ineffectively against Annihilus' armor. Wizard grovels in fear.

Meanwhile, Johnny storm frees himself by burning off the Trapster's paste. Go figure. That was almost as useless as tying cloth ropes around his feet. The straight-jacket poses a bigger problem. To get free of that he has to kick over a lab table, cause several beakers to smash on the floor, and then cut the straight-jacket off using the broken glass. Apparently, the straight-jacket is strong enough to withstand the Torch's flame and strength, but weak enough that the straps can be easily sliced by broken glass. And this is all accomplished without the Torch slicing open his hands, wrists, or back.

I'm not sure if the Sandman responds to the noise or is fleeing Annihilus, but he chooses that moment to come into the room. The Torch quickly puts him out of action by hitting him with a fireball hot enough to fuse the Sandman's body into glass, Further down on the power scale, the Trapster takes on the Torch and manages an upset when the Torch's flame is doused by several of the Trapster's trap discs. The Wizard orders Spider-Man to finish off the Torch.

Ok, we get two pages of Spider-Man tossing the Torch around like a ragdoll. The Torch takes the abuse as he plead with Spider-Man to throw off the Wizard's programming. Annihilus is starting to come through the viewscreen in the background. All is lost. Right?

Wow! In miraculous fashion, Spider-Man manages to free his mind from the Wizard's control. Who could've possibly seen that coming???? Together, Spider-Man and Torch disarm the Trapster.

Meanwhile, the Wizard is still sitting at the controls of Reed's Temporal Matter Screen (what??) while Annihilus is emerging from the screen. Spider-Man throws the Trapster at the Wizard, incapacitating both of them. However, there is still the matter of Annihilus to deal with in. In a desperate maneuver, Spider-Man marshals all his knowledge and strength and leaps forward to... throw the breaker on Reed's device effectively powering off the machine. Apparently, the Wizard wasn't smart enough to figure that out.

Since we still have a half-page to fill, the author has the Sandman recover from being turned to glass, throw a punch at Spider-Man, and get taken out when Spider-Man's punch scatters him to dust. And, for once, we see the aftermath of a fight of this caliber when the Torch bemoans having to clean up the place, and calls the police to come pick up the remaining members of the Frightful Four.