MARVEL TEAM-UP #8
"The Man-Killer Moves At Midnight!"
Featuring:Plot Summary:As Spider-Man patrols the city at night, his Spider-Sense warms him that he's being followed. Spider-Man turns to confront his pursuer, but before he is ready, The Cat strikes. The scuffle is short-lived. Spider-Man briefly captures The Cat, but it shocked to find a girl in his grip. Once he recovers, The Cat explains that she was just trying to prove herself to Spider-Man because she needs his help. She shows him a newspaper clipping from Chicago where a politician was slain. The Cat is convinced the killer is in New York to strike again - Katrina Luisa Van Horn aka The Man-Killer. Ok, I guess I can fathom Spider-Man's initial surprise that he was being attacked by "a girl" (or "A woman" as The Cat replies). However, I don't know why The Cat felt she had to 'prove herself' to Spider-Man in the first place. "I know men" is her reasoning for that. Apparently this is going to be a ham-fisted issue regarding women's rights. Let me bow down so the writer can more easily beat me over the head with whatever point he is trying to make. Flashback to a week ago, The Cat was observing a political rally for Chicago Mayor Samuels when Samuels was suddenly killed by a spinning blade. The Cat caught up to the assassin, the Man-Killer, on the rooftop. When The Cat attacked, the Man-Killer smashed her to the ground and left her unconscious on the rooftop. The Cat has since tracked Man-Killer to New York where she fears the assassin will strike again. She's enlisting Spider-Man's help because, like The Cat, he's a loner and an outcast. Convinced, Spider-Man heads off announcing "We've got a job to do!" Re-reading this issue I'm trying to figure out how Man-Killer goes from killing a notoriously anti-women's lib politician (makes sense given her sentiments) to stealing an experimental generator from a power-plant. That promotes women.. how? 
Elsewhere in New York, the Man-Killer smashes through a wall and interrupts a meeting. Several women and one guy sit around a table. The women indicate
that they were the ones who paid for Man-Killer's training and development. Man-Killer responds by battering the one man in the road, slamming him through a wall, and
screaming that "All men are dirt!"
Man-Killer unknowingly works for AIM. This group must be some AIM splinter or something. Why are the women sitting around wearing distinctively Nazi-styled jumpsuits?
Flashback to two years ago at the Winter Olympics. A European skier named Katrina Luisa Van Horn makes an appearance. After hearing sexist comments from Lubbings, one of the male skiers,
Katrina makes a bet with him over who is the better skier. During their race down the slopes, Karl cuts Katrina off causing them both to crash and fall down the slopes. The accident killed
Lubbings and left Katrina crippled and scarred. A wealthy militant group found her, paid for her rehabilitation, and provided her with a powered exo-skeleton to supplement her strength.
Man-Killer tells the group that the "center of male power" in New York lies with the Manhattan Harlem Power Plant and that is where they are going to strike tonight!
I'm not even sure how to make fun of that properly?
The Cat and Spider-Man patrol the city while discussing The Cat's backgrounds and powers. They spot a flying armored vehicle flying about. The vehicle smashes into the Manhattan Harlem Power Plant.
Realizing this is their target, The Cat and Spider-Man race into the fray. Inside the plant, Man-Killer makes quick work of the remaining guards, but her victory is short-lived. While The Cat fights Man-Killer,
Spider-Man quickly takes out Man-Killer's crew of women. Once Man-Killer is flattened with a blow to the chest, Spider-Man and The Cat revel in their victory. While their back is turn, Man-Killer sneaks out of the
power plant stealing an experimental generator along the way.
I dig the flying, armored, hover-tank or whatever it is that Man-Killer's group used to smash into the power plant. You wonder, at what point do these crooks start to realize that, with the
sheer number of super-heroes in New York, stealth and sneakiness might get your further than flying hover-tank and making a giant spectacle of yourself? In typical comic book style, Spider-Man and The Cat
just happened to be hanging around Harlem when the Man-Killer made her move.
"Man-Killer and her Feminist Nazi Crew" would make an excellent title for a B-movie.
How exactly does a giant woman dressed in an outrageous outfit sneak out and get away from the power plant without anyone noticing where she went?
And how does Spider-Man just happen to find her hours later? I guess New York really isn't as big as I would expect.
Spider-Man spends several hours in a futile search. As dawn finds him on Manhattan's Lower East Side, he miraculously finds the Man-Killer still carrying the generator. Man-Killer gets in a couple
of goods shots, but she's no match for Spider-Man. In the middle of the brawl with Man-Killer screaming about what scum men are, The Cat arrives on the scene. Before the fight resumes, The Cat reveals that
the mysterious group financing Man-Killer's crime spree is none other than A.I.M. Faced with the knowledge that she's been working for men all along, the fight goes out of Man-Killer.
Defeated, Spider-Man and The Cat leave Man-Killer to return the generator to the power plant.
So, Man-Killer assassinates a politician in Chicago, smashes up a power plant, assaults some security guards, and steals a radioactive experimental generator, and our heroes just leave her in the alley, alone, presumably to be
punished only by her feelings of betrayal and guilt? What?
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©2002 Samuel Smith
Spider-Man ™ and all images © 2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.
