Marvel Team-Up (Vol. 3) #5

Background

Spider-man and Wolverine did battle with a psychopathic, chubby kid who can shoot gold beams with immense power. The ending of the battle occurred when the kid, after being stabbed by Wolverine, disappeared in a golden explosion.

Meanwhile, Tony Stark, wearing this season's silver Iron Man/Doom armor with matching green cape and skirt, appeared in Latveria. He was bent on destroying Reed Richards and family. Dr. Strange theorized that this Tony Stark must be from an alternate dimension. Thinking the battle over and the Fantastic Four finished, Doom-Stark fled to Stark Enterprises to create a way home. The only missing component was a suitable power source...

Paul Patterson, the chubby golden boy, reappeared in front of the Hulk in upstate New York. After a short battle with the Hulk, the Evil Tony Stark apparently saved the kid...for his own plans.

All the while, Titannus, a new player to the Marvel U, watches the events unfold. He is looking for allies to aid him and his comatose girlfriend.

Story Details

Last issue, Sunfire entered Titannus's space ship. This issue picks up from there as Sunfire is introducing himself. Sunfire jumps to some pretty severe conclusions, tries to open the coma girl's pod, and gets a MAJOR beatdown from Titannus. Did I emphasize major enough? Major!

Spider-Man is doing battle with Cardiac, who wants to destroy a shipment of contaminated medicine. After gaining and quickly losing the upper hand in the situation, Spider-Man is at the mercy of Cardiac, who seems to be a pretty lousy shot, having missed the coup de grace. "You're a really bad shot with that thing," says a wounded Spider-Man.

"Oh? I came to destroy a drug shipment-- not a misguided super hero," smirks Cardiac. He doesn't really smirk, but he is pretty smug as he flies off. Maybe he does smirk. Spidey's battle will give him just enough time to go home and change for work, but no time for sleep. The Parker luck is holding strong.

X-23 is watching the security cameras at the X-mansion. Storm tells her she doesn't have to watch the mansion all night, and the place is safe, but X-23 doesn't seem to care. X-23 seems focused on her gene donor, Logan.

Titannus takes a moment to talk with Sunfire, maybe call off the fight. He tries to explain to Sunfire what would have happened had he opened the pod, but is met with a big blast of fire. This pisses Titannus off. "You only succeed in compounding my anger."

Peter, late as usual, is hit on by a fellow teacher named Jean Bradley on his way to class. Jean thinks he's playing hard-to-get as he scurries off to class. In class, Peter gets a call from the chubby kid, Paul, telling him that he's in trouble.

Meanwhile, Evil Stark is testing his dimension-jumping machine by riling up Paul and forcing him to shoot his gold beams.

Titannus is still kicking the living crap out of Sunfire. "It is not wise to anger me!" shouts Titannus, as he grabs Sunfire by the neck.

Evil Tony Stark lets chubby Paul know that he'll be "dying for a worthy cause."

After a call to Reed Richards, Spider-Man is atop the building where Evil Iron Man has imprisoned Paul Patterson. Spidey is shocked to find X-23 already there. "Wolverine, good lord! What did they do to you?!" Spider-Man makes the coolest joke EVER about X-23. They battle and fall through a skylight right in front of Evil Iron Man and chubby Paul. "Uh, hi. I'm Spider-Man. I don't believe we've met."

General Comments

I'm starting to enjoy this story a little more now that Titannus is opened up a little bit. The butt-whomping that he gives Sunfire is pretty bad. I could feel the lumps. Paul Patterson calling up Peter Parker was a cool touch. I like it when story arcs come around in a full circle, and this one's just about ended.

The little Cardiac/ Spider-Man sub-battle seemed a little thought out to be just some random fight. I wonder if they're going to use it as an excuse for a future team-up story.

X-23 seemed like she was practically forced into the story. I'm a fan of her character, but as with Wolverine, I don't want to see her in every single comic book. In my opinion, the story would have gone smoother if they'd used Wolverine, but they'd have sacrificed an adamantium/webbing battle. Oh, well.

Overall Rating

This book kept me very entertained, with fighing every so often to balance out the improving storyline. Overall, the book was good, but some things didn't settle right with me, and so I give it four webs to reflect the story arc improving to what it was when adamantium met web in issue 1 and 2.