Spider-Man and the Uncanny X-Men

Reprints X-Men #35, Amazing Spider-Man #92, Marvel Team-Up Annual #1, Marvel Team-Up #150 and Spectacular Spider-Man #197-199

Written by Roy Thomas, Stan Lee, Bill Mantlo, Chris Claremont, Bonnie Wilford, Louise Jones and J.M. DeMatteis.

Penciled by Gil Kane, Sal Buscema, Greg Laroque and Werner Roth.

Inked by Mike Esposito, Sal Buscema, Dan Adkins and John Romita, Sr.

New York has been rocked by the death of Police Captain George Stacy. He was killed by falling rubble during a fight between Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus. Stacy's daughter Gwen and many other New Yorkers blame Spider-Man for the police captain's death. A corrupt politician named Sam Bullit is running for District Attorney.  Bullit gains Gwen's endorsement when he promises to take down Spider-Man.

Gwen and Bullit visit Peter Parker's apartment and find Parker in his Spidey costume. Panicking over his secret identity being blown, Spider-Man picks up Gwen and swings away with her. He tries to explain to Gwen that he's not a killer, but she doesn't buy it. Spidey insults Parker just to make sure Gwen doesn't realize they're one and the same.    

Bobby Drake, the X-Man known as Iceman, happens to see this and intervenes. They fight briefly until Spider-Man swings away. Bullit shows up and tells Iceman that Spidey must not escape next time. 

Iceman "saves" Gwen from Spider-Man;
Bullit plans to cash in on the public's fear of the Wall-Crawler.

At the Daily Bugle, J. Jonah Jameson and Robbie Robertson have learned that Bullit is crooked. He has ties to white supremacist criminals. Jameson has withdrawn his endorsement of Bullit, which puts his and Robbie's lives in danger.

Bullit sends his henchmen to capture Robbie. Spider-Man learns of this and sets out to save Robbie,  but he's attacked once more by Iceman. He tries to reason with the "animated snowman" (as Spidey calls him) and says he's trying to rescue Robertson.  

Will Iceman cease his attack and help Spider-Man save Robbie? Will Bullit's crooked campaign succeed in getting him elected? 

Months later, an Earthquake hits a nuclear testing facility In Nevada. We see scientists being contaminated by radiation and crushed by the quake. 

Sen. Turner learns that it's not wise to antagonize Wolverine.

Nearby, scientists are meeting aboard an airplane to discuss human mutation. Prof. Charles Xavier is attending this meeting and has brought his students, known to the world as the Uncanny X-Men. Peter Parker is also on the plane, covering the conference for the Daily Bugle. 

The plane is attacked by flying robots, prompting Spider-Man and the X-Men into action. They defend the plane from the robots and successfully land it in the desert. Banshee and Storm determine that the robots must have emerged from a nearby crater.

Out of the crater comes a group of super-powered individuals who have adopted the names of Hindu gods! They tell the Spidey and the mutants that they are the scientists who were caught in the nuclear explosion. The gods are more than a match for the heroes, the X-Men and Spider-Man are subdued and captured.

Brahma explains the origin of him & his fellow gods, while the heroes try to escape.

Their leader, Brahma, says they need more energy to survive. The only way to do that is to siphon power away from Earth, which would mean the end of life on the planet. They ask Phoenix to help them do this, but she has other ideas.

Can the heroes prevent the gods from destroying the world? 

Sometime later, Cain Marko, better known to the world as the unstoppable Juggernaut recaptures the ruby that gave him his super powers. He wants to give it to his friend (and partner-in-crime), Black Tom Cassidy as a birthday present.

As expected, the ruby turns Cassidy into another Juggernaut! Tom is not happy about this and decks Juggernaut. The two Juggernauts engage in a slugfest in the streets of Manhattan. After a few minutes of battle, Cassidy realizes that his possession of the ruby has split the power of the Juggernaut between both of them: Marko's power has been cut in half. 

Two Juggernauts duke it out.

Spider-Man swings by and decides to take some photos of the fight, thinking Cassidy is a superhero.  But Juggernaut notices the webhead and the villainous duo goes after him. Spidey holds his own, but he's overmatched. Suddenly, the X-Men arrive to help.   

Spidey slingshots Juggernaut into Tom Cassidy.

Will the combined powers of the X-Men and Spider-Man be enough to stop Juggernaut and a super-strong Black Tom Cassidy?

Review:
Spider-Man and the X-Men are two of Marvel's most popular franchises. But they haven't had many classic team-ups, in the Bronze Age or otherwise. The stories reprinted here are good, but not great.

Story:
The first tale, from Amazing Spider-Man #92 is okay. Stan Lee wrote this and it takes place during a time when Gwen Stacy acted crazy and hated Spider-Man. That got old fast. But the fight scenes between Spider-Man and Iceman were pretty good. It's a typical "heroes fight because of a mistake" trope, but it works here. The subplot involving Jonah and Robbie was good too. It was good to see JJJ depicted as something other than a cartoonish buffoon who irrationally hated Spider-Man.

The story from Marvel Team-Up Annual #1, written by Bill Mantlo (with plot assistance from Chris Claremont and Bonnie Wilford), is more interesting for its "historical significance" than as a great story. Based on my research, it appears to be the first time the "All-New, All-Different" X-Men guest starred in another series.

Spidey & the X-Men fight Yama & Kali.

But it's an odd tale. The villains never appeared again after this story. Xavier attends a conference held on an airplane. Why? We don't really find out why it's held on a plane, beyond "so it can further the plot" and put them in the same place as a nuclear accident. There's a man on the plane named Senator Turner. An editor's note says he's a character from Marvel's Skull The Slayer series. Mantlo also wrote some of that series, but Turner's appearance is sort of random and adds nothing.

Having said that, it's not a bad story, I enjoyed Spider-Man's interaction with Wolverine. They have very different approaches to fighting crime and Mantlo does a nice job showing that here. Spidey gets off a great zinger about how no one calls Logan "the Amazing Wolverine."  

Wolverine & Spider-Man trade barbs as the heroes enter the Hellpit.

Louise Simonson (she was still known as Louise Jones when the story was first published) penned the Juggernaut/Tom Cassidy story and it's the highlight of the book. This was originally presented in the final issue of Marvel Team-Up and the series went out with a bang. Simonson knew the X-Men from her days editing their series and does a nice job with the characters.

Rogue absorbs Cassidy's power, becoming a Juggernaut herself.

It should be noted the only X-Men present are Colossus, Rogue, Nightcrawler, and Rachel Summers.  But Simonson succeeds in making the "B-Team" of mutants entertaining. It was interesting to see Nightcrawler take on a leadership role in this story, in the absence of Storm, Cyclops, or Xavier.  Simonson's depiction of Peter Parker and Spider-Man is also good. It's consistent with the way Spidey was written in his other series in the early 80s.

Art:
The first story credits Gil Kane and John Romita, two of the best pencilers in the history of comics, as artists. It looks like Kane penciled it, while Romita inked and re-drew some of the faces. We get Kane's "perspective" style with characters that look like the ones Romita made famous. It looks great,they're a fine combination and Spider-Man's fight with Iceman is very exciting, if a bit short.

Next up, Sal Buscema and Mike Esposito handle the pencils and inks, respectively. Buscema didn't draw the X-Men very often, but he does a good job here. He and Esposito were the art team for many years on The Incredible Hulk.  Their work here is as good as was in Ol' Greenskin's series. We get some nice looking fight scenes and I love the pages below where the "gods" start to dissolve.

Greg Laroque penciled the last story, inked by Esposito. It's not flashy, but it's good art, easy on the eyes. The full-page image below, featuring the X-Men's arrival is excellent.  

How does it look?:
Spider-Man and the Uncanny X-Men was published back in 1996, so the reprint quality is bit of a step down compared to more recent books.

I noticed some re-colorings in the Iceman story

Here's a scan from the original issue:

And here's how the same page looks in the tpb:

I don't know why they made Bullit purple in the bottom panel. There are a few other random panels that have changes like that. Most of the rest of the tpb looks okay, so I won't "disqualify" the book on that basis. Here's another scan from the book that looks great:

Rogue begins to lose herself in Juggernauts memories.

Extras:
This tpb contains several stories from other "ages" of comics. We get one page of X-Men #27 that features the first ever meeting of Spider-Man and the X-Men. Next up is X-Men #35, the first full-length battle between the mutants and the webhead. The book ends with 3 stories from the 1990s.

We also get one-sentence descriptions of the stories from some of the creators.  

The stories reprinted in Spider-Man and the Uncanny X-Men are not essential Bronze Age reading. But they feature some very good art and the stories are entertaining and full of action. The Juggernaut story makes it worth getting all by itself. And if you grew up reading Spider-Man and X-Men stories in the Bronze Age, you'll enjoy this book.  

J.A. Morris' rating:

3 Sals.

Black Widow: The Sting Of The Widow

Reprints Tales Of Suspense #52, Amazing Spider-Man #86, Amazing Adventures #1-8, Daredevil #81
Written by Stan Lee, N. Korok, Gary Friederich, Mimi Gold, Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway.
Penciled by Don Heck, John Romita, John Buscema and Gene Colan.
Inked by Don Heck, Bill Everett, Jim Mooney, Sal Buscema, John Verpooten and Jack Abel.

Variant cover.

Black Widow observes Spider-Man & gets some inspiration

The Black Widow (known as Natasha Romanoff in her private life) has decided to change her approach to crime-fighting. She observes Spider-Man and designs a costume and weapons that copy his own.

Peter Parker's love life is complicated (as usual);
Black Widow puts on her new costume for the first time.

Her bracelets shoot ropes that let her swing all over the city. They also emit an electric charge she calls the Widow's Bite that stuns her opponents in battle.

The Widow decides to attack Spider-Man directly, to see what she can learn. She has him in trouble, since he's still reeling from a previous fight. But the webhead rallies and Natasha realizes she's in a bit over her head.

Later, Black Widow's housekeeper Maria asks for Natasha's help. Maria's son Carlos owes money to a mobster named Rizzo. When he fails to pay Rizzo the money, Carlos is taken captive. But the Widow tracks him down, frees Carlos and makes easy work of Rizzo's gang.

Black Widow saves Maria & Carlos from Rizzo's thugs.

Subsequently, we learn that Carlos is a member of the Young Warriors, an activist organization dedicated to protecting civil rights of Puerto Rican Americans. The Young Warriors take over a building with plans to serve free breakfast for poor children. But Anthony Scarola, a corrupt local politician, keeps an office in the building. Scarola sends a gang of armed thugs to take out the Young Warriors.  But the Black Widow shows up and helps the Warriors maintain control of the building.

On Christmas Eve, Natasha's chauffeur Ivan Petrovich finds a young man on a bridge. He's planning to jump off and commit suicide, but Ivan saves him and brings him back to the Widow's apartment.

The young man (we never learn his name) tells them his backstory. He arrived in New York with no place to live and was taken in by a man called the Astrologer, a criminal who used the stars to plot his schemes.  The Astrologer plans to ransom the city's supply of type O-negative blood. When the young man rebelled against the Astrologer, he felt like he had nowhere to go, which led him to the bridge.

Suddenly, the Astrologer and his goons storm Natasha's apartment. The young man saves Natasha's life, but falls to his death in the process. Black Widow is crushed by his death and is determined to bring the Astrologer to justice.

After that, Black Widow is lured to a remote motel. Upon arrival, she's jumped by two men. Natasha learns they work for a criminal who calls himself the Watchlord. The Widow learns that Watchlord was a child in Germany when his country was occupied by the Soviet Union. His father was killed by the Soviets, so Watchlord has declared war on all Russians. He plans to kill Natasha and Ivan as part of his anti-Russian crusade.

Lastly, Daredevil has been beaten by his foe the Owl and is sinking to his death in the Hudson River.  But the Black Widow shows up and rescues DD from drowning. Natasha will team up with Daredevil and help him try to stop the Owl.

Black Widow takes on the Owl.

Review:
I've always been a fan of the Black Widow.  My first exposure to her was in during the years she was partnered with Daredevil.  But the Widow deserves better than what's reprinted in this book.

Story:
The first story reprinted here (from Amazing Spider-Man # 86) was written by Stan Lee and is pretty good. We get the first appearance of Black Widow's iconic black body suit.

Natasha seems to have the upper hand, until Spider-Man breaks loose.

But Natasha's solo adventures that follow aren't a lot of fun. They were written by five different writers (not a good sign, since there are only 8 issues reprinted) and each tale is only 10 pages long.

First off, most of the villains here are just generic gangsters with no super powers. They never feel like a credible threat and Natasha easily defeats them. Black Widow by this point had worked for S.H.I.E.L.D. and helped the Avengers, so she should've been given better adversaries.

The one villain who has super powers is the Watchlord. But his powers are ill-defined and he's never been seen again. Plus, his motivation is silly, even for a supervillain. Watchlord's father was killed by the Soviet Army, so he wants to kill everyone from Russia? Including Ivan and the Widow, who have both defected to the United States?  Watchlord's name isn't even very memorable.

A note about the writers: The story from Amazing Adventures #4 was written by Mimi Gold, one of the first women to write a superhero story. 

I found the stories that featured the Young Warriors to be the most interesting. The Young Warriors are obviously based on the real-life Young Lords organization. This made the story an interesting product of its time. For more info on the Young Lords, click here.

The last tale in this book, from Daredevil #81, is good, but it drops the reader in the middle of a multi-part story. This is a problem I have with in general with reprint books that are built around characters rather than storylines.

Daredevil teams up with the Widow.

Art:
The art in this book is a bit better than the stories. The first story reprinted contains art by John Romita Sr. inked by Jim Mooney (a great penciler in his own right).  John Buscema penciled a couple of the Widow's adventures and his work is great as usual. The splash pages drawn by Buscema are especially nice.  Here's one:

 And another:

Gene Colan is one of my favorite comic artists of all time. But his pencils here are inked by Bill Everett, best known for his Golden Age creation of the Sub-Mariner. Everett was  a legendary artist, but I felt like his inks made Colan's work look fuzzy. Colan pencils the last story here too, and it's an improvement. I love the way Colan draws Natasha's underwater rescue of Daredevil:

How does it look?:
Based on what I've seen of the original issues, these reprints look great. No recoloring in this hardcover.

Nice "Daily Bugle" splash page; Next page features a brief cameo of J. Jonah Jameson & Peter Parker!

Extras:
The first story in the book features Black Widow's first appearance in Tales Of Suspense #52, from the Silver Age. We also get Natasha's entry from The Official Handbook Of The Marvel Universe. 

Black Widow: The Sting Of The Widow was generally disappointing. Natasha deserves better. But I'll give the book a marginal recommendation due to the art of Romita, Buscema and Colan.

J.A. Morris' rating:

 .5


2 and a half Sals.

Captain America vs. The Red Skull

Reprints Captain America (1968)#143, 226-227, 261-263 and #370 and material from Captain America Comics (1941) #1, Tales Of Suspense #79-81, Captain America Annual #13 and Captain America:  Red,White & Blue.
Written by Joe Simon, Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, Gary Friedrich, Roger McKenzie, J.M. DeMatteis, Mark Gruenwald, Roy Thomas & Tony Salmons.

Penciled by Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, John Romita, Sal Buscema, Mike Zeck, Ron Lim, Arvell Jones & Tony Salmons.

Inked by Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, Frank Giacoia, Don Heck, John Romita, Mike Esposito, John Tartaglione, Quickdraw Studios, Danny Bulanadi, David Day, Dan Day & Tony Salmons.

Sam Wilson (better known as the Falcon) is getting criticized for being an "Uncle Tom" in his community due to his partnership with Captain America. His girlfriend Leila invites him to a meeting of the People's Militia, a revolutionary organization based in Harlem.

 

The militia's leader is a masked figure known simply as "The Man". He stirs the crowd into a frenzy and leads them in an attack on a local boys club. But things aren't quite as they seem. Captain America and Falcon intervene and attack the militia. The Man unmasks and reveals that he is actually the Red Skull!

The Skull imprisons Cap & Falcon in a deathtrap. It looks like they're goners, but Redwing (Falcon's pet...Falcon!) comes to the rescue and sets them free, but the Red Skull gets away.

Some months later, Captain America is training on the SHIELD Helicarrier. Suddenly, a SHIELD agent transforms into the Red Skull and attacks Cap. He defeats this "Red Skull", but dozens of other SHIELD agents are also transformed. Cap finds himself surrounded by a veritable army of Red Skulls!

Things get more complicated when the real Red Skull kidnaps Nick Fury. Even if Cap gets through the army alive, he still must face the real Red Skull, and make sure Fury isn't harmed in the process. If Captain America fails, the Skull will increase the numbers in his Skull army and turn the world into a  "Fourth Reich" under his control.

Lastly, Captain America is invited to Hollywood by Galactic Studios to promote a new movie based on his career. Upon arrival, he's attacked by a terrorist group called the Nihilist Order. Cap is assisted in the battle by a superhero who calls himself Nomad. This puzzles Cap, since Nomad was an alias he had used while he was disillusioned with representing the United States. This new Nomad also seems to fight crime just to get his face in front of tv news cameras. We observe Nomad speaking to a hooded figure behind the scenes. This man calls himself Teacher and appears to have complete control over Nomad.

When Cap is attacked by the Nihilist Order, Nomad arrives to help out.

As part of the movie promotion, the studio holds a parade and declares "Captain America Day".  Everyone is having a good time, until the Nihilist Order attacks. This time, they're led into battle by Cap's old foe the Ameridroid! He's a 12-foot tall android with a the brain of a Nazi scientist.  Ameridroid guns down Nomad and captures Captain America.

Red Skull controls the Ameridroid by remote & forces him to attack Cap.

When the Star-Spangled Avenger wakes up, he learns that the brains behind this operation is none other than the Red Skull! He has imprisoned Cap in an abandoned movie studio. The Skull orders Ameridroid to kill Captain American, and it will be captured on film.  Can Captain America defeat both the Red Skull and the Ameridroid?

Review:
Captain America vs. The Red Skull was published as a tie-in to the Captain America movie released in 2011 and contains stories from the 1940s to the 2000s (more on that under the "Extras" section). This review will only cover the Bronze Age portion of the contents.
Story:
The first story, featuring the People's Militia hasn't aged well. Gary Friedrich's (mostly negative) depiction of the Black Power movement is a heavy-handed take on a complicated movement.

This is the weakest part of the book. I'm not sure why this was reprinted instead of the stories from Captain America #147-148 that featured the Skull and the Kingpin.

An army of Red Skulls attacks Cap on the SHIELD Helicarrier.

The second tale, written by Roger McKenzie, is your standard "Red Skull attempts world domination" story, but it's pretty good, as Red Skull preys on Cap's guilt over Bucky's death while Nick Fury's fate is under Skull's control. McKenzie is an overlooked Bronze Age writer and it's nice to see some of his Captain America stories reprinted.

Josh Cooper, Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson enjoy a
pitcher of sangria and sing 'One For My Baby'

The final story is a classic and a personal favorite of mine. J.M. Dematteis gives us a great tale with plenty of action, a bit of mystery and even a light moment featuring Steve Rogers drinking with his friends. Considering the title of this tpb, it's pretty obvious that Teacher will turn out to be the Red Skull. But the presence of Nomad, the Nihilist Order, and (especially) the Ameridroid make this story a lot of fun. The Ameridroid is a great "high concept" character: A giant version of Cap with the brain of a Nazi scientist? That's brilliant. I hope that the saga that introduced the Ameridroid (Cap #218-221) will be reprinted someday.

Art:
The art outshines the stories here.  John Romita's tenure as Cap's penciler is somewhat forgotten, but his work here is just as good as his Spider-Man art.

Sal Buscema delivers his usual solid work in the second story. Some of his work is over-inked, but it still looks good.

Mike Zeck (one of the best 1980s Cap artists & a favorite of mine) gives us the best art of the book. The only problem is that Zeck is inked by "Quickdraw Studios" meaning there are multiple inkers. This is a bit distracting, but Zeck's contribution shines through the worst of the inkers.

How does it look?:
Great, there doesn't appear to be any odd recoloring decisions. This excellent Zeck splash page is a perfect example of how good it looks:

Extras:
Stories from every decade that feature Cap/Red Skull battles. Highlights include the Skull's first-ever appearance as well as his revival in the 1960s by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

Captain America vs. The Red Skull is a decent book. I'm happy to have the Dematteis-Zeck story in a nice, glossy format. And the inclusion of stories from every decade makes it a nice intro to Cap and his greatest foe. The Bronze Age portion of the book is good on the whole, but it's not essential reading.

J.A. Morris' rating:

.5


2 and a half Sals.