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Marvel Team-Up #127

Mar 1983
J. M. DeMatteis, Kerry Gammill

Story Name:

Small Miracles


Synopsis

Marvel Team-Up #127 synopsis by Peter Silvestro
Rating: 4 stars

Spider-Man swings over to his Aunt May’s house for a Christmas celebration. He changes into Peter Parker on the roof, grabs his bag of presents, and goes in to join the party with Aunt May’s fiancé Nathan Lubensky and her friends. After a while, Pete notices that Arthur Chekhov looks upset so he asks him why; Chekhov is concerned about his granddaughter Bette, his only relative, who said that maybe she would attend the party and he is despairing. Then Pete finds his Spider-Sense tingling and he goes outside…and suddenly it is snowing heavily and he is in his Spider-Man outfit, facing the Watcher, whom he has never seen before. The huge silent figure shows Spidey a crystal with the face of Bette Chekhov appearing within….and then the giant fades away. Spidey knows that he is being asked to find her and that, somehow, it is urgent (a point Watcher reiterates at length for a page and a half).

Spidey calls directory assistance to find an address for Bette Chekhov and, after some confusion, he is directed to a building in Brooklyn Heights. He goes there and discovers the police bringing out a dead body; a talk with an abrasive detective reveals that the dead woman’s name was Sheila Fiori, there was a stash of cocaine, and the woman’s roommate, Bette Chekhov, is missing. Spidey takes off and swings aimlessly around the neighborhood without finding anything of value so he sits on a rooftop and mopes; he is spotted by Captain America who gives him encouragement so that Spidey takes off again with new resolve. He looks at the jewel the Watcher gave him and it displays the image of a sleazy bar called Jimmy’s Corner; Spidey enters, intimidates the crowd, and terrifies an informant named Joe Face who knows nothing. It turns out, however, that Bette Chekov is in the apartment over the bar with Buck, her boyfriend who has stolen cocaine from the mob; she tells him they killed Sheila and now Buck, fed up with her panic, intends to silence her before she can lead the mob to him. Spidey, alerted by Buck’s loud voice, crashes through the window and clobbers Buck as Bette runs away with the bag of cocaine. She is spotted by the gangsters who chase her into a dead-end alley. Spidey swings down and beats up the hoods and Bette is shot by one of them. Spidey takes down the gunman and discovers Bette is dying. The Watcher appears and Spidey throws the crystal at him, it bursts against a wall and suddenly Bette is breathing easier. He rushes Bette to the hospital where the doctors save her life; Pete calls Mr. Chekhov and he sits by his granddaughter’s bedside. Pete goes on the roof and breathes a sigh of thanks to the Watcher….

Epilogue: Watcher wraps it up by telling us that small things like this are why he is fascinated by the human race….



 

Review / Commentaries


Marvel Team-Up #127 Review by (July 4, 2023)

Review: A special Christmas issue involves Spidey saving the life of a desperate woman because the Watcher wants him to. A nice sentimental tale for a holiday comes off quite well with an earnestness that seems to have vanished from Marvel over the years. Cynics may call this corny but even the pompous and verbose Watcher comes off as a decent and humane fellow. And Captain America is his usual decent self.

Comments: Though this is portrayed as Spider-Man’s first encounter with the Watcher, they had already met in issue #7 of this very title. First appearance of informant Joe Face who returns in issue #131 and dies in WEB OF SPIDER-MAN #31. Arthur Chekhov’s (unheard) poem, “Dancing Toward Bethlehem” is a variation on “Slouching Toward Bethlehem” by William Butler Yeats, who is acknowledged. The letters page includes one by future Marvel colorist John Wilcox and one by future historian Ross Frederick Bagby.




> Marvel Team-Up comic book info and issue index

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Holy smokes, Batman!
(The Boy Wonder)

Kerry Gammill
Mike Esposito
Glynis Oliver
Ed Hannigan (Cover Penciler)
Al Milgrom (Cover Inker)
? (Cover Colorist)
Additional Credits
Letterer: Rick Parker.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Captain America
Captain America

(Steven Rogers)
May Parker
May Parker

(Aunt May)
Spider-Man
Spider-Man

(Peter Parker)
Watcher
Watcher

(Uatu)

Plus: Nathan Lubensky.