The Downside of Secret Identies

 

cover art by Sal Buscema

Any comic book that includes the two-page splash image below is going to be a fun comic. Heck, if you look up "FUN" in the Oxford English Dictionary, it has this exact image as the definition. 

Marvel Team-Up #40 (December 1975) picks up right where the previous issue left off, in the middle of a free-for-all with Spidey and the Human Torch on one side, with the Big Man, the Crime Master, Sandman, the Enforcers and a bunch of Red Shirt mobsters on the other. Sal Buscema's are has never been better, while Bill Mantlo gives us a story that drips with fun and has a grasp of Spider-Man's verbal wit that few other writers have ever equalled.

Anyway, the good guys manage to give the bad guys a nice run, but in the end they are captured. But all is not smooth sailing among the villains. The Big Man and the Crime Master both want Spider Man for themselves. 

So, naturally, they organize a vote--letting the mobsters (who originally came to bid on the captured Human Torch) decide which of them gets Spidey.

As much as I love this issue, this is were it gets a bit contrived. A martial arts group known as the Sons of the Tigers just happened to be practicing nearby and hear the commotion. 

The Sons of the Tiger, like Shang Chi and Iron Fist, were an outgrowth of the Bruce Lee-inspired martial arts craze of the 1970s, a craze enchanced by the TV show Kung Fu. Unlike Shang Chi and Iron Fist, they didn't form a lasting impression. But they were good characters and perfectly fine candidates for a Team-Up appearance.

But the "just happened to be nearby" coincidence is combined with Johnny (after the heroes are rescued and the bad guys make a run for it) declaring that he can't stay to help because he has a hot date. This is the second time in Team-Up's run that Johnny makes a lame excuse to leave a story mid-stream to make room for another guest star. 

Oh, well. I guess I'm nitpicking.  Anyway, The Big Man, Crime Master and their minions double back and capture the Sons of the Tiger. But they are still bickering with each other and refusing to play nice. In fact, the Crime Master abruptly decides to murder the Big Man.

Spider Man, in the meantime, has picked up their trail and arrives to save the day. He frees the Sons and everyone teams up to beat the snot out of the bad guys. 

Then we get a great ironic ending. It turns out the Crime Master is the son of the original Crime Master. He was in love with the daughter of the original Big Man. Both vowed revenge on Spider-Man, but unfortunately didn't let each other know their plans. So Crime Master, Jr. has unwittingly killed the woman he loves.

It's a powerful ending. But, despite the inherent tragedy here, it doesn't stop the comic book from still being incredible fun from start to finish. The Mantlo/Buscema run on MTU is stuffed with classic stories, this one being one of the finest.

Next week, we'll return to Marvel's Planet of the Apes universe.