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Marvel Team-Up #57

May 1977
Chris Claremont, Dave Hunt

Marvel Team-Up #57 cover

Story Name:

When Slays the Silver Samurai!


Synopsis

Marvel Team-Up #57 synopsis by Peter Silvestro
Rating: 4 stars

Spider-Man is swinging through the night on regular patrol when he spots a quartet of costumed babies running across a snow-covered roof, a jeweler chasing them. A hood fires a shot at the man so Spidey swings down to hustle him to cover, surprising him as the Saily Bugle says Spider-Man is a menace. Spidey thrashes them all but his Spider-Sense detects their leader behind him: the Silver Samurai attacks the hero with a sword that emits an anergy field. The baddie hurls Spidey against a stone chimney, stunning him….

Summoned by Nick Fury, the Black Widow arrives at the barbershop which is the secret entrance to SHIELD’s secret HQ. Surprisingly, no one is there so she takes the chair-elevator down to the main section. The entire HQ is deserted though with signs that someone was there only moments earlier. Leaving the building, she sees an energy flare in the distance and flies the Champions’ aircar over to investigate….

Natasha arrives just as Silver Samurai is about the deal a killing blow to the unconscious Spider-Man. She rams the villain but he hangs onto the hood, making her an easy target so she dumps him at the base of a nearby building. SS recognizes Natasha and they spar, her avoiding his deadly slashes while fighting back with her Widow’s Bite. Nat is cornered when Spidey arrives to clout the baddie. To distract the heroes, SS slashes the building’s main utility core, shaking the fifty-story structure and hurling a workman from the top floor. Spidey dashes upward to catch him, applying the laws of physics to rescue the man without being yanked off the building to his death. The man tells him that the core pylon is one of four supporting the building and the structure is starting to collapse. As Black Widow continues to engage Silver Samurai, Spidey races to the damaged pylon and begins placing girders against it and webbing them in place. By the time the building is stable again, Spidey has webbed over thirty girders to it and is now exhausted and out of webbing. The two heroes together then knock out the villain. Spidey searches the Samurai to find out what had been stolen—and finds a small clay statuette. He and Natasha feels cheated….



 

Review / Commentaries


Marvel Team-Up #57 Review by (November 1, 2023)

Review: Enjoyable action issue has a lot of thrilling moments and many unseen as Black Widow must have been keeping the Silver Samurai occupied for a very long time while Spidey was shoring up the pylon with a huge number of girders. And it’s not just Spidey and Nat that feel cheated at the end: we’re told the questions would be answered in future issues of THE CHAMPIONS—but the comic was cancelled only a few months later so we never find out what the statuette is about or what happened at SHIELD HQ.

Comments: Silver Samurai debuted in DAREDEVIL #111, where he met Black Widow; this is his second appearance and features the introduction of his energy sword; his next appearance is in issue #74, Spidey’s classic appearance on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE. Oddly, Spidey compares SS to John Belushi’s samurai portrayals on SNL, before that issue appeared. Black Widow was a member of the short-lived Champions when this story took place. Natasha also refers to the Marie Celeste, a famous case of everyone mysteriously vanishing from a sailing ship in 1872; suggest you Google it, it’s a strange story. Gaspar Saladino did the lettering on page 1.




> Marvel Team-Up comic book info and issue index

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Main/1st Story Full Credits

Dave Hunt
Dave Hunt
George Roussos
Dave Cockrum (Cover Penciler)
Dave Cockrum (Cover Inker)
Unknown (Cover Colorist)
Additional Credits
Layouts: Sal Buscema. Letterer: Denise Wohl.

Characters

All stories. Listed in alphabetical order.

Black Widow
Black Widow

(Natasha Romanoff)
Spider-Man
Spider-Man

(Peter Parker)


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