Marvel Team-Up (Vol. 1) Annual #6

"The Hunters and the Hunted!"
Published October 1983
Writer: Bill Mantlo
Penciler: Ron Frenz
Inker: Kevin Dzuban
Cover Artists: Ron Frenz and Klaus Janson

What's Going On?
Spider-Man has noticed a distinct drop-off in crime in the warehouse district, combined with an increase in dead teenagers and bad guys suffering from cold numbness.  Spidey recognizes this as the MO of superheroes Cloak and Dagger.  When he catches up with them, they reveal that someone is trying to replicate the process that gave them super powers; the bad guys are kidnapping teens, injecting them with experimental drugs, and those kids are dying.  Why are they trying to create a new Cloak and Dagger?  To fight the current C&D and become junkie criminal muscle.  Obviously.

Meanwhile, the New Mutants (Cannonball, Psyche, Sunspot, and Wolfsbane) were allowed to catch the muscial "Cats" in the big city by themselves.  Instead of heading back to Xaver's school right away, Sunspot drags the team to a video arcade.  Some local punks try to start some trouble, so Sam and Roberto publicly use their mutant powers to defend themselves.  They try to get to the bus station so they can go home, but get lost and encounter more angry punks.  In the ensuing scuffle, Roberto gets slashed by a switchblade, and Rahne has a bullet graze her head.  The two incapacitated heroes are captured by some opportunistic criminals, and they are taken back to the warehouse district.  Their idea is that, since mutants are already genetically special, they might stand a better chance of surviving the Cloak and Dagger drug.  As it turns out, the crooks are right. 

Roberto gains some Cloak-ish powers and Rahne gets more Dagger-y.  Spider-Man, Cloak and Dagger, and the New Mutants manage to all arrive at the church where C&D take shelter, so they all team up to punish the criminal and purge the drugs from Sunspot and Wolfsbane. 

Writing!
Well, this is the first issue of Marvel Team-Up that I have ever read, so I don't have much of a frame of reference for how good this is compared to the average issue.  That said, it's a pretty basic story, designed to highlight Cloak and Dagger right before they star in their first limited series.  As far as I can tell, all the characters are portrayed faithfully, which is not always the case with guest appearances.  It's not inspired, but Mantlo succeeds in shoehorning Spider-Man and the New Mutants into what is essentially a Cloak and Dagger story.

Art!
This isn't great work from Ron Frenz and Kevin Dzuban.  Frenz's pencils can tell the story well enough, in the typical Marvel house style, but Dzuban's inks highlight the fact that Frenz isn't great at drawing facial expressions.  While they might not be pretty, the characters are fairly distinct visually, so that's a plus.  I was less of a fan of the action scenes; I wasn't looking for realism, but you at least hope for Kirby-esque energy, right?  These scenes just looked awkward.

It's always interesting to see how artists choose to handle superheroes that wear "civilian" clothes.  I find the "their clothes evaporate" option one of the more amusing ones.

Retrospectively Amusing:
- For some reason, Dani seems to be assuming that Cloak and Dagger are homeless.  I think she's right (I'm not too familiar with the characters), but damn that's a big assumption about people you've barely met.  Do they smell like urine or something?

- Cannonball refers to Dani as "Psyche."  I don't know if that's happened once in New Mutants.

- I love this frame of Rahne in times Square:

- Check out how abruptly this issue ends.  Here is the last page:

"Yeah."  Nicely stated, Spidey.

Worth Noting:
- As far as I can tell, this is the first time someone other than Chris Claremont wrote any of the New Mutants.

- While this isn't as bad as some of the other instances of women being easily defeated in fights in New Mutants, it would have been nice if Rahne had stood up for herself here.

- Since I'm focusing this blog on all things X-related, I typically wouldn't spend time on a Spider-Man book.  Obviously, this issue happens to co-star the New Mutants, and is eventually referenced during Bill Sienkiewicz's run.

Daredevils #10

"The Sound and the Fury"
Published October 1983
Writer: Alan Moore
Penciller: Alan Davis
Inker: Alan Davis


What's Going On?
Picking up at last issue's cliffhanger ending, The Fury attacks Captain UK.  After some intervention from Merlin (see the Sub-Plots), Captain Britain comes joins in the fray, along with members of the Special Executive.  They don't stack up well against The Fury.  Wardog is immediately crippled; The Fury tears off his cybernetic arm. 

Legion, whose ability is to summon future versions of himself from his own timeline, has one of his future selves murdered.  Captain Britain survives a beating, but only because The Fury directed its attention to the others.  Things don't look good; Cobweb announces that the future of the multiverse has been cancelled.

Sub-Plots, oh the Sub-Plots!
- Merlin and Roma continue their game of chess.  The appearance of The Fury on the game board takes them by surprise and, when he senses The Fury's imminent attack, Merlin protects Captain UK's real body by shielding her chess piece with his hands.  She survived a deadly blast unscathed, and Merlin's hands were badly burned as a result.

- Cobweb, the precognitive member of the Special Executive, starts seizing and foaming at the mouth as The Fury begins to attack.  She repeats "I didn't see it coming," over and over again.

- Zeitgeist refuses to join the battle because he was not hired to fight.

Writing!
The Merlin/Roma metafictional subplot is interesting, but I'm not really getting much enjoyment out of it.  I get it, Merlin is playing chess with human lives; making it a literal game for him is clever, but I don't think it really adds much to the story. Aside from that, Moore does a great job cranking up the tension.  One of the hardest things for a comic writer to do is to make the hero look hopelessly outmatched, and Moore makes it look like CapBrit ans co. are about to die.

Art!
Alan Davis keeps getting better, month after month.  Here, he gets to flex his experimental muscles a bit with Cobweb's monologue and it is pretty great.  

 (Note: two-page spreads are hard to scan properly)  Not only is the recurring Fury face repeating across this scene interesting, the 90-degree rotation of Cobweb's head along with the action of the scene was very cool.

Retrospectively Amusing:
- The revelation that Legion and Cobweb are lovers seemed a little out of left field.  Since neither character made the transition to Excalibur as part of the Executive Elite, I wonder if this is ever mentioned again.

Worth Noting:
- This is the first time we see Merlin and Roma's chess game directly impacting reality.

- The future version of Legion was killed by The Fury, but the current version lived.  The implication of this is that one day soon, current Legion will become future Legion and blink out of existence, which is a cool idea, right?

New Mutants (Vol. 1) #8

"The Road to...Rome?"
Published October 1983
Writer: Chris Claremont
Penciller: Sal Buscema
Inker: Bob McLeod


What's Going On?
The team continues its Brazilian vacation with Nina DaCosta, exploring an uncharted tributary of the Amazon River.  During one of their shore excursions, they encounter a group of aggressive female Native Brazilians and decide to capture one.  When Nina tries to interrogate the captured girl, Amara, she gets a lot of conflicting information; the girl does not appear to speak any recognizable language, some of her weapons are from far away lands, and one of them is surprisingly modern.  Meanwhile, Sebastian Shaw and Emmanuel DaCosta have a crew member on the boat that has been charged with ruining the expedition.  He does this by knocking out the New Mutants, Amara, and Nina; he apparently kills the rest of the crew and steers the boat down a waterfall.  After the boat crashes, the New Mutants all make it to shore, but Roberto's mother is missing.  Amara also survived, but it turns out that she was not really an indigenous person; she was a white blonde that was disguised as a Native. 

 

And then, on the shore, the survivors are confronted by the Roman Legionnaires, who decide to enslave them.  

Sub-Plots, oh the Sub-Plots!
- Cannonball has learned how to make turns while blasting.  It apparently happened off-panel between issue 5 (when he last lamented his skills) and now.  So much for that sub-plot.  I don't think it ever really comes up again.

- Speaking of the team's continuing development, Psyche has developed the ability to project specific thoughts instead of just someone's fears.  Here, she uses Rahne's memory of snow to cool her down.

- Professor Xavier is still teaching Team America?!?  I am 99% certain this is the last time this is mentioned in any X-book.

- Professor Xavier continues to encourage the team to assume that Karma is dead.

- Rahne is still sensitive about people's reaction to her mutant power.  She pours her heart out to Amara, assuming that she does not understand English.  When she learns otherwise, she is pretty upset.

Writing!
The poor writing continues with this issue.  Even ignoring the bizarre choice to have Sam and Dani capture Amara, or the completely illogical decisions made by Shaw's saboteur, this is an issue that ends with the Roman Legion showing up in the middle of the Amazonian rain forest.  There is no payoff on Earth that will make this ridiculous moment worthwhile.

Art!
The saving grace of the art in this issue is, once again, Bob McLeod's inks.   The action isn't too impressive in this issue, but there are some solid character moments.

Retrospectively Amusing:
- So this issue's action hinges on the choice to kidnap a Native Brazilian that was minding her own business, until Cannonball and Psyche ran into her.   Sure, they fought, but she was basically defending herself.  It's an odd choice for teenagers to make, but it's even weirder that none of the adults on the ship are shocked or tell them this is a terrible idea.

- Emmanuel DaCosta has a super-villanesque hidden map behind a wall in his home.  I love that this revelation receives zero comments from Sebastian Shaw.

- Sebastian Shaw's operative that is trying to ruin the expedition makes some bizarre choices.  First, he knowingly risks Psyche's life by attracting piranhas to the boat while she was swimming.  Then, he sticks up for the New Mutants when the rest of the crew considers mutiny when they realize there are mutants on their boat.  After that, he tries to beat information (what information?) out of Amara.  Later, he causes the shipwreck and murders some of the crew members...but not everyone. 

Worth Noting:
- As far as I can tell, this is Team America's last appearance for a while.  According to the Marvel Wikia, they next pop up in The Thing #27, almost two years after this issue.

- This is the first appearance of Amara, AKA Magma, AKA the girl who was apparently wearing body paint and hair dye to pass herself off as a Native Brazilian.

- It looks like Rahne will fall victim to the ongoing "beat the women easily" trend in this title, but she recovers nicely:

 

It's not exactly empowerment, but it is one of the better instances of a female character holding her own in battle in The New Mutants.

Uncanny X-Men #174

"Romances"
Published October 1983
Writer: Chris Claremont
Penciller: Paul Smith
Inker: Bob Wiacek

What's Going On?
This is one of those "juggle the sub-plots" issues.  The only "main" plot here deals with Cyclops and Madelyne Pryor.  They get engaged and consider leaving Earth to join the Corsair and the Starjammers in space.  Before they can make that decision, though, Cyclops asks Madelyne point-blank if she is the reincarnation of Jean Grey/Phoenix.

Her response seems pretty definitive, but the illusionist Mastermind made an appearance just before this, so is everything what it seems?  Well, no, probably not.

Sub-Plots, oh the Sub-Plots!
- Carol Danvers / Binary is joining the Starjammers, and will be in deep space with them for the foreseeable future.

- Lilandra and Xavier discuss their future.  She still plans to join the Starjammers in space and he still plans to stay on Earth and run his mutant teams.

- Xavier is still having difficulty walking.  Lilandra confirms that the problem is not mental, but physical.  That seems like an odd and less interesting choice, right?

- Corsair repeats his offer to have Cyclops join him and the Starjammers (last mentioned back in Uncanny X-Men #167), but Scott is having second thoughts, probably (but not explicitly) due to his increasingly serious relationship with Maddie.

- Wolverine confronts Mariko about calling off their wedding.  She basically tells him that she loves Logan the man, not Wolverine the beast.  In addition to insulting Wolverine, Mariko has also forgiven Silver Samurai and he is now her heir.  Since the man vs. beast idea seemed to have been resolved with the Wolverine limited series, I'm a little confused with Claremont's direction here.

- Kitty Pryde and Peter share another kiss, and this time, it's not because they think they will die.  The sexual tension is mounting...

- Storm got rid of all the plants in her bedroom, as yet another "subtle" hint as to her physical and mental change. You might have thought that the mohawk and leathers were the end result of her changes, but apparently Storm isn't done changing yet.

Writing!
Chris Claremont does an impressive job juggling sub-plots here.  The main plot doesn't get much attention until the end of the issue, but there are a lot of quality character beats here.  After the emotional turmoil of last issue, this is a good "calm before the storm" issue, especially since next issue will be an over-sized anniversary event.

Art!
Paul Smith has already shown that he handles character moments well, and this issue plays to that strength.  

Retrospectively Amusing:
- Nightcrawler, who has been shown as a stuffed animal before (back in Uncanny X-Men #168), receives a stuffed version of his girlfriend, Amanda Sefton.  It's a cute idea, but who is making these custom stuffed animals?

- Nightcrawler is identified as the team's medic.  Apparently, Moira MacTaggert and Xavier are not qualified?


Worth Noting:
- Xavier notes that Madelyne Pryor's mind is closed to him.  He comments that it is unusual, but doesn't seemed too concerned about it.  Rogue's mind is closed because she has multiple personalities (one part alien, too) and the helmets of Magneto and Juggernaut protect them, but I don't know if Xavier has ever had trouble reading a supposedly "normal" brain before this.

- Kitty's power set is expanding.  This issue shows her phasing someone else through a wall with her and having them walk on air together.

- Cyclops and Madelyne Pryor get engaged off-panel in this issue.

Everything 80s:
- Kitty is reading Marvel's Star Wars comic in this issue.  The back cover appears to be a Kool-Aid ad.

- Marvel felt the need to take up an entire page of space to justify their change in cover format.  They sacrificed a page of ad space to say, "Look, we have slightly more artwork space now!"  The 80s were a different time...