Abandon a Friend and Save the World

 

cover art by John Romita

Marvel Team-Up #10 (June 1973) picks up with Zarrko, the Tomorrow Man conveniently monologing about his plan to Kang as the two engage in a ray-gun stand-off.

Kang had easily conquered the 23rd Century because society had totally disarmed itself by that time. (Is there a hidden message here about the danger of not remaining on guard against evil and the impracticality of total pacifism? Probably not, as writer Gerry Conway is simply using Zarrko's already-established back story--but it's cool to think there is.)

But the 20th Century would be a harder target, because we have weapons all over the place. Zarrko, then, has seeded that century with three time devises that will turn back history, eliminate modern technology and make that time period easy pickings. He will preserve one nuclear stockpile and use that to take over.

Iron Man and Spider Man have both regained consciousness and overheard everything. Iron Man, though, can't move in his damaged armor. He tells Spidey to make a break for it, since he can't otherwise help the armored Avenger.

I like this moment a lot. The two had been bickering with each other throughout the previous issue, but when the chips are down, Spidey was willing to risk himself to help Iron Man. He also keeps his wits about him tightly enough to realize that Tony is right. Whether Zarrko or Kang comes out on top, Spidey can't stop them if he's taken prisoner.

So he makes a break for it, using his science skill to figure out Zarrko's time machine and zap himself home. In the meantime, Kang stuns Zarrko and--in a nice use of time travel tropes that will pay off next issue--he is then shocked by someone who appears off panel. 

Spider Man appears back in the 20th C. at the Baxter Building, where he quickly recruits the Human Torch to help disarm the "time bombs." (The rest of the FF is away at the moment.) His chance arrival at the doorstep of this issue's guest star is a bit contrived, but that highlights my one criticism of this otherwise fun story. I'll get back to that in a moment.

Anyway, Johnny takes a jet plane to Japan, where one of the bombs is located. I guess he rents or borrows it, since when we eventually see it, it doesn't have the FF logo on it. The Baxter Building is normally bristling with futuristic vehicles, but maybe Reed hides all the keys when Johnny is home alone.

Jim Mooney's art looks particularly cool as the bomb begin to emit radiation and start to turn time backwards. Johnny has to fist fight a samurai before melting the bomb, doing so in the nick of time before the time radiation takes effect on him. Those changed by the bomb revert to normal after it's destroyed.

Spidey, in the meantime, has spun a web cocoon on the belly of a commerical jet to get to South America, where he also battles time anomolies before Johnny shows up to melt that bomb as well. The two fly to Greece together, where Spidey turns the bomb off with his webbing, figuring they need one intact to figure out how to defeat Zarrko and Kang. 

Here's where the story runs into awkward contrivance. Johnny just happens to remember that the time radiation looks like the same sort of energy used in the force field that protects the Inhumans from the outside world. So Spidey needs to take the remaining bomb to them for help.

Pulling the Inhumans out of nowhere is awkward by itself, but that also means that Johnny needs to leave the story to make room for them in the next issue. His reason for abruptly abandoning an effort to SAVE THE ENTIRE WORLD? He doesn't want to deal with seeing his ex-girlfriend. Gee whiz, Johnny, watch Casablanca and man up, will ya? He takes off without even offering Spidey any sort of transportation to the Great Refuge!

Though the story fails to smoothly segue from one guest star to the next, it is overall a fun story, keying off Mooney's great art during the sequences in which time is flowing backwards to give it a real sense of comic book/science fiction adventure. Here's one more example of that art--Johnny's jet plane turning into a Da Vinci-style flying machine is awesome. It's a scene that does not bear close examination of logic, even by the standards of Comic Book Science (Both Spidey and the Torch have flashlights built into their belts. Shouldn't these have changed into oil lamps?), but it makes up for that in pure fun:

We'll see how it ends next week.