Comic Review #6: Marvel Team Up #139 (1984)

 

It's back to discuss the sheer cool awesomeness of Team Up comics. This time discussing a Marvel Team Up comic. Issue 139 to be precise. This was WAY near the end of Marvel Team Up's first issue (Marvel Two In One was cancelled in 1983 to make way for a solo series for the Thing... and that series was never as fun as Two in One was). This might not be the BEST issue of Marvel Team Up but it's still a decent look at what most stories in Marvel Team Up were like. A comic that wasn't going to change anything about any of the characters or the Marvel universe as a whole but you weren't going to put the comic down in anger and yell about it on the internet.

Marvel Team Up #139 has one of my favorite kind of covers. A kind where even the damn title is being destroyed. This kind of cover does not show up very often,  but man it always takes me aback when I see it. I can remember a Neal Adams cover with the X-Men logo being crushed by the villain of the issue. That cover (and comic) is definitely way better than this one but I'm always going to pick up an issue where the cover gets destroyed or messed up. It's neat to me, damnit. 

This comic was brought to us by Cary Burkett, Brian Postman (who I have never heard of until right now) and Mike Esposito. I was kinda weary when I saw Cary Burkett's name because well he's very hit or miss on the whole writing comics thing. He wrote some pretty lackluster issues of the Warlord for DC. The story had to do with some kind of weird fancy future stuff and that just doesn't feel like it should be in a series like the Warlord and maybe it shouldn't be his fault. He also created the character of Nemesis in a series of backups in The Brave and the Bold which I'm sure we will end up talking about some time in the future. The main point is what I'm saying is that Cary Burkett has nothing on  Cary Bates! That's the Cary I love. Cary is a weird name. Just name yer damn kid Gary. Brian Postman's art is pretty good and so is the inking by Mike Esposito.  

The story is thus, Spider Man in his Peter Parker duds is taking pictures of a big fancy superstar actress and BLAM a fuckin Dreadnaught comes out to capture here. The best part of this fight is Spider-Man talking about how much he hates to fight robots because he doesn't know what they will do. Don't worry Spidey, I think a lot of heroes feel this way. The Dreadnaught kidnaps the fancy actress. The scene then turns to Nick Fury and Dum Dum Dugan. I always loved how they brought those guys into the present Marvel Universe after their World War II adventures. Fancy science makes them younger so we get grumpy rascal Nick Fury in new stories. Anyway they are found by Dino Minnelli, A Dean Martin take off that was in several war stories with Nick and Dum Dum, who has married the actress lady. Nick Fury says he won't help Dino but that was just to try to keep him from doing anything stupid. 

Nick Fury then goes to a crooked lawyer who works with the Maggia. The Marvel Mafia. I love seeing them fight the Mafia and all that but damn if the name they gave the Mafia, the Maggia in comics just a really dumb name. It just looks so weird to me too. I do not like that name. This also shows one of my favorite things about S.H.I.E.L.D. all the cool James Bond like spy gadgets. This one shoots off from Fury's arm and hits the building the lawyer is in on the other side of the street and is able to listen in on his actions to find where the Actress lady is. He does and he is off! Spider-Man had earlier gotten one of his tracers on the Dreadnaught and when the Dreadnaught was turned off he had time to find where the Maggia were. Here is where we find out that the Actress is in on it! She was hired by the Maggia to show Dino Minnelli that nobody crosses the Maggia. They were going to bankrupt him on the ransom and she was going to leave him, making it that he was BROKE and HEARTBROKEN. Pretty rough shit.

This plan is messed up with Dino Minnelli himself pops up, seeing as Dino Minnelli himself shows up. The Maggia head guy decides that now he can off Dino AND The actress because she knows too much. This causes Dino Minnelli to break through his ropes and take a bullet in the arm for her, because despite it all he still loves her. Nick Fury and Spider-Man then break their ropes too and beat the shit out of the Maggia AND Nick Fury also pulls off his neck collar and it's ALSO a fucking S.H.I.E.L.D. spy device. I want to write a comic where he uses his S.H.I.E.L.D. socks to stop someone. this neck collar when made to combust will uh jam all the Dreadnaughts doohickies inside it. I like the word doohicky.

FINAL VERDICT: This was a decent fun issue. It won't make the top 10 lists of 1984. It won't even make the top 10 issues/stories of Marvel Team Up, but it's definitely worth adding to your collection. It's strange that even at it's worst Marvel Team Up was still decent. Apparently most writers and artists didn't even want to work on the book either! Weird huh?