Marvel Team-Up (Vol. 3) #7

Background

The last Marvel Team-up story arc told a very unbelievable tale. A sinister, chubby mutant named Paul Patterson reveled in being a murderer. He was put down by Spider-man and Wolverine.

Fantastic Four and Dr. Strange matched wits with an alternate Tony Stark from the future of another dimension. They lost the battle but walked away with their lives and sent a warning to S.H.I.E.L.D.*

Using Paul Patterson as a battery, Evil Tony Stark put into motion plans to send himself home. Evil Tony was thwarted when Captain America,(a useless) Black Widow, Spider-man and X-23 intervened.

All the while a mystery player known as Titannus watches the heroes with his comatose girlfriend. Many question were unanswered, the most pertinent, of course, is: Who is Titannus?

*Supreme Headquarters International Espionage Law-enforcement Division

Why don't they do that anymore?

Story Details

Titannus flies back to his ship after beating the crap out of Sunfire, a Japanese mutant. He begs forgiveness from his comatose girlfriend, shivering and professing his love.

A meeting hidden in public view is taking place between the Ringmaster and an old china man named Chen Hsu. Chen Hsu has a ring that has the power to warp reality. At first, Ringmaster tries to use his hypnotizing hat powers to swindle the old man, but Chen Hsu come prepared. He uses a stick to THWACK the Ringmaster in the head. While being somewhat impressed, the Ringmaster has a trick up his own sleeve. He uses a hypnotic gaze to subdue Chen Hsu and take the ring. Master of the ring, get it? You know, the Ringmaster...a powerful ring...bah, you get it.

Peter Parker is cooking steaks for his wife while griping about how it's her night to cook. After looking "sooo cute", Peter is rewarded with whoopee on the kitchen floor. Unfortunatly, the steaks burn and Peter's forced to dawn the red and blues to get Chinese takeout.

Constrictor and his crew of flunkies are robbing some sort of warehouse until Moon Knight interrupts and passes out some whoop-ass. Eventually his gets constricted (get it? You know Constrictor...bah, you get it) and Spider-man joins the fray. Moon Knight says one of those "The situation was under control," lines, but at least he adds a "thanks." So he's not a total jerk. Constrictor gets free and they have to hand out a couple more ounces of whoop-ass.

Titannus looks upon a computer screen that shows a bunch of superheroes. He mentions how he sees them as raw materials that he can shape into weapons of war. He also brings up finding a cure for his girlfriend.

Ringmaster tries out his newfound precious by attempt a bank robbery.

After totally webbing up Contrictor, Moon Knight offers Spidey a lift on his Moon jet thing. Spidey agrees but must grab the food he left on a ledge first. Spider-man is extremely nervous and shows it by rambling badly. He makes a comparison of Moon Knight to Batman. Moon Knight's pilot informs him of a robbery and then CHOOM! The Moon jet crash lands.

The three are okay until Spidey realizes that the take-out was in the crash. "My wife is going to kill me!"

The Ringmaster gloats and then re-creates his old gang, complete with the Crafty Clown and the Great Gambonnos. After getting creamed for a bit, most notably getting bonked in the head with bowling pins, Spider-man notices that the Ringmaster is very focused. Moon Knight undoes that focus by twonking him in the face with a metal baton. Ringmaster retaliates by turning Spider-man's web fluid into a "highly volatile explosive substance."

"You wouldn't. Oh, you're fighting dirty," Spider-man says as he looks at his hands. Then from a distance a huge explosion is seen.

General Comments

I want to not like the issue, I want to be wary of it. The first part of the last story arc was very good but then the story kind of got weird. It's not that I don't like this issue, but I just hope it maintains this level of goodness.

I found out that Titannus didn't kill Sunfire after all. A fan of the site brought to my attention that Sunfire shows up in Rogue with some broken bones. I was hoping Titannus was more hardcore than that. Sissy.

Being a big fan of the Hulk has made me a fan of the Ringmaster. I like the character and his powers. When the Ringmaster showed up in early Spider-man issues, well that was a big bonus. He even got kicked out of his own gang. Seeing him brought back was very cool for me. He has that classic villain look with the long mustache and top hat.

This team-up was a class act. I like the way that Moon Knight and Spider-man interract. As Spider-man mentions, it reminded me of the first team up between Batman and Spider-man. One guy dark, one guy light. But in this team up, the dark guy isn't a big jerk the whole time and probably wouldn't get upset at the mention of Superman.

I have a minor problem with the Ringmaster having a hypnotic graze but aside from that, it looks like this story arc will go pretty well with less of the weirdness and Evil Iron man rubbish from the last arc.

Overall Rating

This book was entertaining, the art was decent and it was pretty funny at times. It served it's purpose and it's worth reading, but it not perfect. So Four webs.