Ultimate Marvel Team-Up #13

Background

This month, we have part 2 of the Spider-Man and Dr. Strange team-up. The first part ended with Xandu putting a spell on Spider-Man to go out and kill Stephen Strange.

Story Details

Young Stephen Strange is having a flashback. He asks his mother, Clea, what happened to his father. He found things on the internet about him. Clea gets upset, doesn't want to hear about Mystic Arts and assures him that his father was only a doctor and died in a car accident.

Stephen gets out of his trance. Wong suggests he should try to clear his mind when Spider-Man comes crashing through the window. Using a spell, Stephen puts Spidey into the astral plane. Wong gets upset, because you just can't toss people into there. So, Stephen goes to the astral plane himself and gets Spidey back.

Later, Spider-Man wakes up, in a bed, his mask has been pulled off. Wong offers him some tea, to relax. The tea tastes delicious, but Peter wonders who they are and most importantly, why did they take off his mask? Stephen assures him he doesn't know who he is and asks why he came there. Spidey tells some bald guy made him do it, he had to kill Stephen and steal something.

When Wong then realizes that since Spidey came in through the window, the seal is broken. The seal that kept all the mystic forces out. Xandu (the earlier mentioned bald guy) has entered the building. Quickly Wong goes downstairs and tries to trick Xandu into believing Spider-Man killed Stephen. When Xandu asks where the Wand of Watoomb is, he shows Xandu a room full of wands.

Asking Wong which one is the right one makes that Wong leaves the room and he closes the door behind him. Stephen turns out to be in the room now and he and Xandu are having a fight. Xandu knocks out Stephen and goes back to searching for the wand. Then Spidey comes crashing through the door and hits Xandu who then falls unconscious on the floor.

Stephen regains consciousness and discusses with Wong what to do next. Spidey, feeling like a fifth wheel on the wagon right now, asks whether he can go home now. Stephen thanks him for the help. And as Spidey swings off, he's thinking "Took off my mask..."

General Comments

You know, this book (like the previous one) really shows how well Chris Eliopoulos is at doing the letters. Another great job Chris! And that's about the only really positive I can find about this book. True, the story is more along the lines of the classic Marvel Team-Up stories, but it could use more fleshing out. Had both issues 12 and 13 been condensed into one book, then I'd consider it a great comic.

And all this stuff about the father of Stephen? All we get to see is that Clea is upset about something. We do not get any answers, just more questions are raised. Which is bad, because next installment will be with the Black Widow and we do not have a clue as to when we'll get another Dr. Strange story. Within a week, I will have forgotten about these questions and will have lost interest. Meaning, I've read two parts of a story I will not care about anymore just because too much is unsolved and will not be solved soon. Which is a shame.

Overall Rating

Yeah, just 2 webs. Not much but it's a bit more than the previous installment. And that's because the story was a wee bit better. It's what a Team-Up should be. A silly fight between the heroes followed by both of them fighting the bad guy. There could have been more word balloons though. Unfortunately, the art is downright UGLY. So, again, I'm deducting points. I just hope this is the last time Ted McKeever does Spider-Man.