Marvel Team-Up (1972 series) #48

Comments: Part one of four parts. Story has a second title on pages 2-3, “Enter: the Wraith!” First appearance of Jean DeWolff and her roadster (make and model not identified). First appearance of the Wraith. Spidey and Shellhead previously teamed up in MTU #9; Spidey also mentions his team-ups with Vision, Scarlet Witch, and Moondragon in issues #41-44. Includes references to TV series PERRY MASON (lawyer show, 1957-1966), and THE LIFE AND TIME OF GRIZZLY ADAMS (wilderness show, 1977-1978). And in a gag that wouldn’t appear today, Spidey wishes Iron Man “Rotsa ruck,” a mock-Chinese way of saying, “Lots of luck.” And for some confusing logistics: On the last page, Wraith grabs Spidey by the wrists while facing him but a second later he’s holding Spidey facing away from him; I’d like to see how Wraith must have flipped him in the air. Gaspar Saladino lettered the first page. Mike Esposito did the finished art with Dave Hunt supplying the backgrounds.

Review: And so here comes the Wraith, a fairly cool second string bad guy who comes off fairly well in his first (brief) appearance having spent the rest of the issue with bomb-dropping toy planes, not the usual M.O. for a villain with a ghost theme. And he seems to be fairly good at it, baffling the cops, Iron Man, and Spidey. Since this is part one of four, we’re still getting to the Team-Up part, though it’s odd that of the three protagonists, it’s Jean DeWolff, hardnosed chain-smoking cop, who gets along with the others and will try to pull them together. The most unusual part is that Iron Man is hostile and suspicious toward Spidey, even accusing him of being the bad guy. This leads to Spidey accusing Shellhead of taking J. Jonah Jameson’s editorials too seriously. And Spidey also cites his track record of team-ups with other Avengers, something Tony Stark would be aware of. So where does this suspicion come from? Maybe the armor is chafing at Stark’s unmentionables.

The standout bit is the introduction of Jean DeWolff, a tough cop because she has to be, situated in the mid-1970s when the feminist movement was still fairly new: she busts a cop who accuses her of being promoted as a favor to her influential daddy and not earned. And the accusation still rankles her because it was a real thing in the 70s (and in some places even now). How do we know she’s a tough cop? She is always scowling, that’s how. And don’t forget the smoking (though I would like to…ugh); cigarettes signify several things in the arts, including glamour, sophistication, addiction, and here, a reckless and slightly self-destructive attitude. But the strangest bit is that the cigarettes she is constantly puffing on are slimmer than any regular cigarette, seeming as thin as straws in most panels. I’m sure that’s just a quirk of the art but what if it’s not…? Nonetheless, Jean DeWolff is an interesting character for more than her tragic death in a later Spider-Man story arc.

Nice touch: Tony recognizes the projector he designed, a call-back to an incident we’ve never seen.