Marvel Team-Up (Vol. 3) #1

Background

Marvel Team-ups, since the 70's, have been a great place for Spider-Man to get out there and meet his peers in the superhero world. The stories are sometimes...different but they're usually pretty good. There was this one with Hercules that was pretty bad, but I can't remember the particulars. This one involves Wolverine, a man who just isn't satisfied with being in three separate X-Men teams.

Story Details

Wolverine is noticeably upset, and with good reason. The issue opens up with him webbed in-between two walls with his claws pointed at his head. Obviously, something went down.

Earlier that day, Spider-Man sits (upside-down, mind you) eating doughnuts and drinking coffee. Meanwhile Logan is searching for someone who isn't home at the moment.

After stopping an apparent armored car robbery and getting caught slipping into class late by the Principal, Peter Parker has lunch with some co-workers. They give Peter a little guff about being married to such a hot supermodel/actress. Peter's pretty cool about it, saying "I pinch myself every morning to see if I'm dreaming." Miss Bradley, a blonde and not half-bad looking teacher, tells Peter that she'd "have renovated the janitor's closet with (Peter) in a second." Peter explains to her that he's happily married and she responds more or less with a so what.

Just then, a fat kid, who's getting beat up, throws a bunch of kids off him with magical glowing hands. Peter sends them off to the Principal's office as they're complaining of the kid being a mutant. After school Peter, as Spider-man, confronts the fat kid. "You're him, aren't you? That teacher from lunch...Mr. Parker," says the fat kid. Peter denies it, and takes the fat kid to the rooftops where they can talk in relative peace. They talk about how the fat kid wishes that he didn't have powers because he hurts people...

...People like Wolverine who got punked by this kid twice before getting webbed up into the position he was in at the beginning of the book. By extending his claws into his adamantium skull, Wolverine gives himself enough room to claw free of the webbing. "Now I've got to find them again. Shouldn't be too hard with Spider-Man involved...I'll just follow his scent of bad jokes," grumbles Wolverine.

Spidey and fat kid arrive at the house Wolverine was at earlier and Spidey tells fat kid a little bit about Cerebro. The kid seems genuinely impressed, but closes down when Spidey mentions fat kid's parents. Fat kid says that his dad is home, he's in the bedroom down the hall, and he won't care that they're home. Spider-Man opens the bedroom door to surprise the kid's dad and instead finds himself suprised to see a rotting corpse.

General Comments

As I was reading this book, I thought to myself, this seems a little plain to be a Spidey/Wolverine team-up. It was a solid issue with good dialogue, but pretty simple: Wolverine wants the kid, and Spidey is protecting the kid from him, creating a big misunderstanding. Simple, right?

Then it happened. A crazy plot twist/cliffhanger where Spider-Man finds the corpse of the kid's dad, and the kid has a very casual attitude toward it all. I thought to myself, this kid has got to be psycho. Norman Bates style. I couldn't wait for the next issue...yeah, yeah, but I had to.

Overall Rating

A pretty standard story with an ending that bumped the score into a four. Crazy kids.