MARVELous Monday

This weeks MARVELous Monday is a bit different. Usually I window shop the Marvel Unlimited app to pick and choose sort of at random the books I cover based on just the cover art that catches my attention.

This week I actually am going with the book I found at Half Price Books for just a buck. It’s just a shame it wasn’t truly half price from it’s original 30 cents cover price.

The issue is Marvel Team-Up #52 featuring Spider-Man and Captain America.

The book caught my attention as it was in pretty good condition for being a bronze age book from 1976 that was dumped at Half Price Books (which can be pretty much the end for most books since they get manhandled by kids and people who don’t know how to handle comics with care).

This find isn’t going to make anyone rich but the real reward was reading it in person, the smell from the old newsprint pages and just the memories reading these old books brings back from my days back in the 80s of picking up my weekly reads from the local Eckerds or drugstore with the spinner racks.

Maybe going forward I’m going to try and find the time to do these Monday rediscovers with real books I find out in the wild.

So Spider-Man is swinging through the city when a portal opens up with a demon coming through it. Spider-Man as he does so well bickers to himself how it never ends as a hero and how he just finished a battle with the Tarantula (which happened in Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #1).

He attempts to take down the demon but gets swatted. Then out from the portal comes Falcon, Texas Jack, Leila Davis a some of the insane Night People of Zero Street with Captain America the last one to come through the portal in which they were all in an alternate dimension from the pages of Captain America #201 through #203.

Falcon and the others are on a rampage. Captain America knocks out Falcon and the others, getting the police to round up the Night People of Zero Street, telling Spider-Man he’ll have to explain what’s happened later. Spider-Man who is still wanted by the police himself escapes.

Elsewhere Batroc the Leaper is at odds with his butler and noticed the demon monster out on the street from his balcony. He confronts the monster and offers him his friendship (his real motives are to enslave him for his own personal gain).

Later in the evening, a S.H.I.E.L.D. carrier is landing to deliver some valuable trans-uranium and is attached by Baltroc and his new demon monster. Captain America starts to battle them off to protect the shipment but soon finds himself out numbered until Spider-Man arrives to lend a hand.

During the battle, Spider-Man and Captain America somehow dodge Baltroc and the Demon so they plow into each other.

This knocks Baltroc out while the demon escapes but they notice he’s now got a certain glow emitting from his body.

The confront Baltroc who knows nothing about the glow from the demon and he is left with S.H.I.E.L.D. to help track down the demon to a yacht. As Spider-Man battles the demon, Captain America sneaks down into the boat to rig it to explode.

Spider-Man gets caught up with the creature and is caught in a death grip but Captain America manages to free him and they both manage to jump ship before it explodes, killing the monster in the process.

Later on, Peter sees Captain America walking alone and thinks to himself how nice it would be a hero like Captain America, people adore him, he’s not wanted and has no problems like Peter has in life.

Boy is Peter Parker ever wrong!

18 thoughts on “MARVELous Monday”

      1. Yeah, it was. I was just kidding. I got a couple of my other comic friends with it.

  2. Hi there,

    Best wishes.

    Wow, you’re referencing the 80’s in this article. I thought you were in the 18-25 year old bracket Agent Poyo. Would you kindly write your articles objectively? What I mean by this is to write the article from the top without using first or second person. It’s not about you or CHU, it is about comic books. Right?

    Consistently R E S I S T the narcissism and write objectively about comics please. Get in touch with yourself by leaving yourself out once in a while.

    Good day,
    James

    1. Do you even know what narcissism is by chance?

      narcissism: excessive interest in or admiration of oneself and one’s physical appearance.

      I really fail to see how this article has any type of narcissism in it. I briefly wrote about the experience of finding the book at a book store to share and how it brought back memories of buying comics as a kid. Why on earth would you assume I’m 18-25 is beyond me as well.

      Anyone else feel this article has “narcissism” all over it? I’m dying to know why one would think that from what I’ve written here.

      1. I was kinda thinking the same thing, Poyo, when I first read that comment. Including yourself in your article does not mean that you are narcissistic. It simply means that you are writing from a 1st person perspective. Narcissism and 1st person perspective are two different things. One can write objectively from their perspective as long as the author is concerned about facts and are not influenced by personal feelings or biases. Having said that, this article, based on its theme, is not something that needs to be objective as it is just a review, so to speak. Keep up the good work, AP. 40 + in age….20 something in spirit.

        1. Thanks JayClue. I was just puzzled myself with that comment. I’m all for criticism but when it’s not constructive, that’s when it bugs the crap out of me.

          And yeah, by all means if I ever become a narcissist here on CHU, please do kick me in my butt please!

          1. Comics and the enjoyment involved is a very personal experience. My point being it is about you. I am always up for good debate, but that feedback was misplaced and unwarranted.

            1. Exactly and well said. There was nothing narcissist about me briefly mentioning my find (that happened to bring out some fond memories of buying comics from my childhood) that I’m now sharing with the readers of CHU. I think a lot of us collectors can relate.

  3. I read the article and it was ok. I mean it wouldn’t hold a candle to my article if I, the God of all things comics, were to have written, because I simply am that good and you don’t reach my ankle in such things.

    Your article did provide a brief moment of nostalgia, but I would have provided an immense nostalgic satisfaction because I of course am perfect.

    In this world there are heroes, there are super heroes and then there’s ME.

    See what I did there? hehe!

  4. Half Price Books is always fun to browse. Sometimes I find gold, sometimes it’s all metaphorical coal. Still is a gas, and in Saint Louis the stores have free coffee!

    2. That is the 1st time I have seen St.Louis spelled Saint Louis. To each their own, I suppose. ?

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