Marvel Team-Up #33 (Spider-Man and Nighthawk)

Continuing on with my (semi) recent trend of random Spidey crap, I picked this book up at shitty comic book show two weeks ago. Errr, correction, a "CON". See, that's short for "CONVENTION". Maybe I'm slightly biased because in, oh I dunno', the World of Commerce Business and Jobs a convention is actually fairly large, located in the center of a large city and is something you would acually PAY to get into. As opposed to a comic book convention, which is usually crammed into the ballroom of a shitty hotel in the suburbs and full of losers selling zombie porn and Happy Meal toys. Which usually features a "special guest+-- somebody from a Star Trek show;. The next "con" to NOT feature a Star Trek alumnus will be the first.

No, no, I'm not bitter at all about dropping 10 bucks on something like that!

To drown my bitterness I found a box of bargain books. I ended up with roughly 3 pounds of random Marvel crap; which, should I lose my job in the next two weeks, I could do an entry for each. This issue has a fairly vibrant cover and a rather unusual story, so I'll quit my yappin' and we can start in on it.

This issue focusses on the return of "The Looter"-- a forgotten Spidey-villain from the 60's who had made all of one appearance. His gimmick was that he had inhaled gas from a meteor which gave him super-strength. Fair enough, but his modus operandi was a little weird in three ways. First, he used his powers to commit lame robberies. Second, he crafted himself a strange PINK and white costume. Finally, he used a frickin' BALLOON to get around and even does so in this issue.

Ayup. Strapped into his backpack, whenever the Looter wants to get away, he inflates a balloon and floats into the sky. How can our heroes ever catch a guy who floats from a balloon?!

So what's this have to do with Spidey and Nighthawk? Well, as Nighthawk returns to his home to become rich guy Kyle Richmond, he's knocked out by the Looter. Looter, in turn, walks off with a meteor specimen that Richmond had purchased awhile back. The same meteor that gave Looter his powers, years ago. Nighthawk puts it all together (by using his own computer, no less. Pretty snazzy for 1975) and heads off to find the only other guy Looter has tangled with, Spider-Man.

After the Obligatory Super Hero Misunderstanding, Spidey and Nighthawk decide to ...wait for it... TEAM-UP to catch the Looter. They split off and, as Spidey hunts the Looter, Nighthawk heads to the ol' State Penitentiary to speak with warden Ivan Carmichael. You know something's up, because the always foreboding CAPTIONS chime in with this lil' nugget:

The warden recounts Looter's days in the clink as "Norton Fester" and how he was a model prisoner until he bunked with an unruly inmate. The inmate pushed all of Fester's buttons, causing him to spazz out, smash things and escape to become the Looter again. Nighthawk's disappointed with this story as he tells the warden that Fester needed help, not to just be kept locked up. Social Commentary, dude... social commentary.

Meanwhile, Spidey's located the Looter and they engage in some fisticuffs. Looter announces that he's changed his name to "The Meteor Man" (no doubt inspiring Robert Townsend to make a less-than-stellar movie in the early 90's). As Nighthawk shows up, Meteor Man floats floats away on his balloon, but instead of helping out 'Hawk lets him escape.

Nighthawk explains that Meteor Man is sick and tossing him back in jail will not help. Pissed, Spidey and Nighthawk have trade blows. Nighthawk leaves ...and that's it. Thought balloons and captions throughout the story explained that both Spidey and Nighthawk were stressed out over issues in their own books. Spidey was in the midst of a Gwen Stacy CLONE caper over in "Amazing", while Nighthawk had just witnessed a young girl get killed in "Giant-Size Defenders". So that explains their unusual behavior... but it's still odd that Nighthawk doesn't want to snag Meteor man so he can actually assist him in getting "help". Just a rather apathtic attitude to let Meteor Man walk...errr, float... away. Nighthawk always was a little bit of an oddball, though.

There's also a minor subplot about a cult named "The Innocents of God", who simply saw Spider-Man swing by and decided to bug him for the next issue. The next issue also saw Nighthawk's Defender teammate, Valkyrie, drop by. They eventually caught the Meteor Man. How? Val threw her sword and popped Meteor Man's balloon. Who'd a thunk it?!

Summary: SOCIAL COMMENTARY, Spider-Man and Nighthawk team-up and chase a pink-suited guy with a BALLOON.
Cover price:.25
Rating: .50

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