Marvel Team-Up (1972 series) #145

Peter Parker is sent to the electronics convention in Cleveland to snap some photos for the Daily Bugle but on entering his Spider-Sense goes off; in the crowd he can’t spot any potential dangers. It was because Mark Scarlotti, the former villain known as Whiplash/Blacklash, has just walked by. Scarlotti is looking for a tech job but his being an ex-con is working against him. He then notes a crowd and discovers Iron Man (James Rhodes) demonstrating some new technology devised by Morley Irwin. Scarlotti ponders getting back into the good graces of the Maggia by defeating Iron Man—until his reason takes over, reminding him he has never defeated the armored hero and is unlikely to do so this time either. He returns to his old neighborhood and stops by his parents’ bakery; his mother is ashamed of him and warns him to leave before his father returns. Scarlotti throws a fit, knocking bread to the floor, and departs. He heads to his old bar where his former friends make fun of him. His old pal Rusty, a security guard, buys him a drink and offers some encouraging words, suggesting he apply for a job at the security company and inviting him to dinner. After Rusty is gone, the others gang up on Scarlotti and chase him out of the place. As he paces the streets, a limo pulls up beside him, offering him a job for the Maggia….

Twenty minutes later, Blacklash crashes through the wall of the bar and wrecks the place with his cybernetic whip, rejoicing that he is back in power. He then goes to the convention center to attack scientist Dr. Lawrence Eiben. As he approaches the stage where Eiben is receiving an award for helping the police stop a Maggia-run hacking ring, he discovers that the security guard is his friend Rusty. He decides to retreat and return later but he is spotted by another guard and must overpower him. Then Iron Man arrives to take him on but Blacklash is puzzled that Shellhead doesn’t seem to remember how the baddie’s gear works, not even trying to avoid the cybernetic whip, and so Iron Man is electrocuted and stunned. But by this time, Peter has changed into Spider-Man (black costume) and leaps out, firing his webs at Blacklash, who can spin his whip so fast that it works like a fan, blowing the webs back at Spidey. The villain follows it up with a Bo-Lash, a bolo which creates a heavy gravity field around the hero, pinning him to the floor (and turning him bright blue for some reason). Iron Man flattens the baddie with a Uni-Beam and then frees Spidey from the bolo. But Blacklash has recovered and draws a hidden Necro-Lash and starts slashing and cutting at Iron Man’s armor. But Morley Irwin has been watching and radios to Shellhead that the villain’s gloves are giving off sparks, indicating a malfunction so Iron Man shoots his Uni-Beam again and all of the baddie’s gear shorts out. Spidey tears the costume off Scarlotti, who breaks down, muttering that he’s nothing….

Later, Scarlotti is meeting with his court-appointed lawyer who suggests that, since the case against Blacklash is strong, they try for the insanity defense. Scarlotti asks him to call some “friends” in New York who will get him a hot lawyer; the attorney responds that he did call them and they want nothing to do with him. He then asks the lawyer to call his mother and again he has and she doesn’t want to hear from her no-good son. Scarlotti begs him to call again and the lawyer reluctantly agrees. Scarlotti then starts imagining all sorts of nice things he can do to make his mother proud of him….