Marvel Team-Up (Vol. 2) #4

Background

This issue has Spider-Man teaming up with the Man-Thing. I think? Spidey also finally comes face to face with the Authority who wants our hero to stop the reconstructed Man-Thing before everyone in the world is burned up by this Man-Thing's kinetic powers. The Authority has turned out to be not so much a villain as an information broker who is testing Spidey's powers by sending him into dangerous situations in order to save innocent lives.

Story 'Suspended Sentence'

I will attempt to do my best here in trying to summarize a story that makes no sense and is ultimately pointless. The Man-Thing has been reconstructed ("after he was discorporated in Heroes Reborn: The Return #1") by the destabilization of dimensional barriers and the Norn Stones of Asgard falling to Earth. Not only has the Man-Thing been reconstructed, but he has been scrambled with a mailroom employee named Carl Shuffler. So the Man-Thing and Carl, a late-middle aged man, have been scrambled together and are now sharing each other's minds but are living as separate living beings?

The Authority summons Spidey to his mansion in order to tell him that he must stop the Man-Thing and Carl from meeting and melding together. If they do everyone in the world who feels the emotion of fear will be burned because "if the stones came into contact, they could amplify Man-Thing's Psychopyrokinesis." We get to know more about this mysterious figure known as the Authority by seeing that he works out of a laboratory in which he and numerous employees are hooked up physically and mentally to computers. The employees gather information and pass it on to the Authority who synthesizes it for answers.

Let's just say that Spidey stops the Man-Thing and Carl from destroying everyone. You figure out the rest, if you even care by the end of this terrible story.

General Comments

First the good parts. The cover was a great drawing of the Man-Thing carrying Spidey's unconscious body in a swamp. The Sandman makes a brief appearance in which he risks his job with Silver Sable by giving Old Webhead information on the Authority. There is a funny exchange between two of the Authority's employees about the existence of the Man-Thing. That's it for the good parts folks!

On the bad side, this has to be one of the worst comic books I have ever read. I had to read the story twice in order to make any sense out of it. In order to summarize the plot for this review, I had to keep referring back to the issue, because the plot is hopelessly confused and pointless. The artwork is terrible. Not only is the art a bad copy of Todd Mcfarlane's style, but it doesn't show you what is going on in the story which leaves the reader even more hopelessly confused. The art style makes the people look horrible and the action scenes disjointed and perplexing.

I considered just writing a few sentences for this review in which I said that this was the worst, stay away!!!

Overall Rating

This issue gets a half of one web, because I love Spider-Man and, as I said, there were three good (albeit small) things in the issue. So Merry Christmas Marvel, next time I may not be so kind and generous!