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Marvel Team-Up #111

J. M. DeMatteis | Herb Trimpe

Marvel Team-Up #111 cover

Story Name:

Of Spiders And Serpents


Synopsis

Marvel Team-Up #111 synopsis by John McDonagh
Rating: 4 stars
In the modern era, human worshippers of Set became hosts for the spirits of the original Serpent Men. These Serpent Men, acting on the prophecy of the Age of Heroes, identified the Defenders (Doctor Strange, Clea, Hulk, Namor the Sub-Mariner, Valkyrie, Gargoyle, and Devil-Slayer) as the beings they needed to possess. However, the Serpent Men still had to reacquire the relic stolen by the Spider People. (The Spider People still existed in vastly diminished numbers, although their modern representatives had dramatically lower intelligence.) The Serpent Men knew that the remaining Spider People still had a powerful idol of the spider-god Omm guarding the relic, and knew that any non-arachnoid who tried to take it would be destroyed by the idol. So, one of their number devised a plan. He stole Devil-Slayer's enchanted cloak, and impersonated him. Reasoning that Spider-Man, with his arachnid-enhanced blood, would fool the spider-deity Omm if he tried to take it, this Devil-Slayer imposter set out to fool Spider-Man into doing just that. After recovering the relic, The Devil-Slayer imposter brought them back to New York. Claiming that telepathic probing had uncovered the whereabouts of the Defenders in the sewers, the imposter and his duped ally went to find them. The two encountered beings claiming to be the Defenders, who said that they had freed themselves and defeated the Serpent Men holding them and ended their Setian menace permanently. The Doctor Strange imposter asked Spider-Man for the statue taken from the Omm idol, ostensibly to study it for his mystical logs. Spider-Man, sensing something amiss, asked the "Defenders" to say "Ka nama kaa lajerama". They could not, so the Serpent Men discarded their disguises. Spider-Man managed to destroy the statue and free the true Defenders. Doctor Strange banished the Serpent Men to the limbo of their dead. The human followers of the Serpent Men were allowed to leave unmolested.


Characters
Good (or All)
CLEA
DEFENDERS
DSLAYER
DOCTORSTRANGE
GARGIC
HULK
SPIDERMAN
SUBMARINER
VALKYRIE


> Marvel Team-Up comic book info and issue index


Marvel Team-Up #111 cover

Excelsioring your collection:
statue
Holy smokes, Batman!
(The Boy Wonder)

Main/1st Story Full Credits

Herb Trimpe
Mickey Demeo
Bob Sharen
Herb Trimpe (Cover Penciler)
Frank Giacoia (Cover Inker)
Unknown (Cover Colorist)
Additional Credits
Letterer: Diana Albers.



Review / Commentaries


Marvel Team-Up #111 Review by (February 5, 2025)
The Serpent Men were introduced in Kull I#2. They are Robert E. Howard creations. According to the Appendix of #11 of the original Official Handbook, the Serpent Men seen in this story were humans possessed by ghosts of the original Serpent Men.

Additional Review by Peter Silvestro: My, this was a complicated issue. Spidey dies and it leads to a detailed account of some ancient bad guys, not seen since the days of Kull. Then it turns into a quest story which is over pretty quickly but also featuring some more details of ancient history. Then we trace the cultists down to the present day and there we hit the present and discover that the baddies are impersonating the goodies which throws the reader for a loop but only when it is discovered that Devil-Slayer, the issue’s nominal guest star, has been a fake all along. And what really threw us off is that the phony DS is just as much of an obnoxious jerk as the real one. No one saw that coming! Anyway, the overly detailed plot is handled quite nicely in the allotted page count and should have won an Eisner Award for that accomplishment, though the story isn’t that good. But it’s an adrenaline rush of crazy stuff.

Additional Comments by Peter Silvestro: Part one of two parts. King Kull defeated the Serpent-Men in KULL THE CONQUEROR #2. KINGDOM OF THE SPIDERS (1977) is a real movie, with William Shatner yet! Spidey sarcastically calls Devil-Slayer “Smilin’ Jack,” after the aviator hero of an eponymous comic strip (1933-1973). Letters page includes one by future illustrator/designer Jill Weber.






Thor

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