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Marvel Team-Up #128

Apr 1983
J. M. DeMatteis, Kerry Gammill

Story Name:

Sweet Temptation


Synopsis

Marvel Team-Up #128 synopsis by Peter Silvestro
Rating: 4 stars

Peter Parker attends a street festival with his friends Roger Hochberg and Mia Carrera but can’t stop brooding over Black Cat who was seriously injured recently—and whom he realized he is in love with. Not far away, Steve Rogers is there with Bernie Rosenthal, who is in love with him but he can’t stop thinking about the dead Sharon Carter. Pete spots Steve, introductions are made and they all walk around the festival together. Suddenly, the festival is overrun by rats, minions of the feral villain Vermin, leading them in foraging for food. Pete sends Mia and Roger home, claiming he is going to take some photos for the Daily Bugle; Steve doesn’t have to make up an excuse as Bernie knows about his secret identity. Spider-Man and Captain America run into each other in the men’s room and team up against the bad guy. Vermin sics his pack of wild dogs on Cap then has his rats swarm over Spidey. Cap uses a hose to blast the rats off Spidey while Spidey webs up the dogs attacking Cap. But when this is done, they find Vermin has gone. SHIELD Agent Gail Runciter shows up, off-duty, she just happened to be passing by. Cap and Runciter work out their disagreement during the assault on Zemo’s caster (in CAPTAIN AMERICA #278). She invites him back to her apartment where she tries to get romantic but Cap resists, heart still aching from Sharon Carter, also a SHIELD Agent, and the love of Bernie Rosenthal, who loves him as Steve Rogers….

Meanwhile, Peter Parker arrives at his apartment to find Mia, Roger having gone home. As they talk, Pete finds himself attracted to her—but a news report that Vermin has barricaded himself in a supermarket leads him to push her out, change into Spider-Man, and swing to the scene. Cap is also there and they enter the darkened market together where they are attacked by the feral villain; as they fight, they suspect that Vermin gives off some sort of pheromone that causes revulsion and clouds the mind so they are having trouble fighting him. But when Vermin tries to unleash his rats on them, he finds they have all deserted him and the heroes are able to defeat him in his confusion….

Later, Cap tells Spidey not to be ashamed of seeing something of Vermin in himself; all men have those feelings, which must be dealt with. They separate, each going to see the woman they love….

“A Cover is Born”
Writer/Photographer: Eliot R. Brown.
Synopsis: The cover photographer, Eliot R. Brown, describes in some detail how the cover photo was created and reproduced for this issue, including showing some rejected options.


 

Review / Commentaries


Marvel Team-Up #128 Review by (July 12, 2023)

Review: Pretty cool entry in the series though Cap comes off a bit too much like the big brother but then that was his major weakness for much of his run. Vermin is a nasty baddie all the more dangerous for not being very smart. The quirky bit is how Pete and Steve are each facing romantic temptations which they are able to deflect with Pete thinking about Felicia Hardy and Steve remembering Sharon Carter—a villainess and a dead woman. At least Steve almost instantly recalls Bernie Rosenthal as well since she is the nice one. And the brief article about the cover is cool—though the cover itself is an eyesore since a comic book press really couldn’t handle photographs very well yet.

Comments: Vermin was previously seen in CAPTAIN AMERICA #272-278. Black Cat was seriously injured in PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #76; Sharon Carter was (apparently) killed in CAPTAIN AMERICA #237; she would return in CAP #445.




> Marvel Team-Up comic book info and issue index

Elektra

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Holy smokes, Batman!
(The Boy Wonder)

Kerry Gammill
Mike Esposito
Glynis Wein
Eliot R Brown (Cover Penciler)
Eliot R Brown (Cover Inker)
Eliot R Brown (Cover Colorist)
Additional Credits
Letterer: Joe Rosen.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Captain America
Captain America

(Steven Rogers)
Spider-Man
Spider-Man

(Peter Parker)

Plus: Bernie Rosenthal, Gail Runciter, Vermin.