Nick Peron

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Marvel Team-Up #13

Nick Peron

The Granite Sky!

Credits

Peter Parker has come to the New York waterfront to think. He had hoped that his recent travels to San Francisco would help get his mind off of the recent death of Gwen Stacy. His thoughts are interrupted by a drunk sailor named Nathaniel who can see the sorrow in Peter's eyes. As the man rambles on about how one needs to move on in life, Peter has had enough of this man's drunken advice. While his back is turned, Parker uses his web-shooters to quickly swing away. Nathaniel is taken aback by the sudden departure of the young man he was giving advice. Suddenly, a strange meteor falls out of the sky and splashes down in the water. When Nathan goes to investigate he finds a strange man emerging out of the water. Helping the man out, Nathan is suddenly turned into stone. The man he attempted to rescue turns out to be the super-villain known as the Grey Gargoyle.

A few blocks uptown, Peter Parker is changing into Spider-Man and thinking over what Nathaniel had said. At first, he curses the spider who gave him his powers but ultimately decides that it was for the best and goes looking for a crime to stop. As he patrols the city Spider-Man comes across some A.I.M. scientists who begin shooting at him on sight. Spider-Man easily rounds up the shooters and decides to investigate where they came from. Swinging down the street, the wall-crawler's spider-sense begins to tingle. Suddenly, he spots an A.I.M. goon getting tossed out a window by Captain America's shield. Spider-Man leaps into the building to give Cap a helping hand. The two men easily defeat the AIM soldiers, and with the fight over Captain America radios S.H.I.E.L.D. to pick them up. Suddenly, the pair is teleported aboard the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier, much to Spider-Man's surprise. They are greeted by Dum Dum Dugan, who has them lowered from the flight deck into the facility. There, an eager S.H.I.E.L.D. agent remembers that Spider-Man is wanted for murder and tries to apprehend him. Spider-Man fights back to evade capture, but the situation is quickly defused when Nick Fury enters the room and orders his men to stand down. He then invites the wall-crawler to sit in on his debriefing with Captain America.

Fury tells them that while Cap's mission was to stop AIM from getting ahold of a new telemetry system, there were three of the devices made and that A.I.M. managed to snatch the other two while Cap went after the first. However, Fury anticipated this and planted homing devices on them and they were able to track A.I.M. to a secret facility in Queens. They then begin organizing an attack, which Spider-Man is hesitant to take part in, but Fury convinces him to do so for the sake of national security. Meanwhile, at the A.I.M. facility hidden below the site of the old World's Fair, the Grey Gargoyle is plotting to get revenge against Captain America for stranding him in space. He recounts that he was trapped in space until he was able to contact A.I.M. and had them shoot down his vessel so that he could crash-land in New York. Before they can launch their own missiles, Captain America, and Spider-Man attack. However, during the course of the battle, the pair are turned into stone by the Grey Gargoyle.

He then chains their stone bodies to the rockets that contain a weapon that will allow the Grey Gargoyle to turn entire cities into stone, as part of a scheme to blackmail the entire world. However, when the rockets are shot off, he is suddenly attacked by Captain America and Spider-Man again. Something unique to their body chemistries allowed the two heroes to break free from the Gargoyle's spell. During the ensuing battle, one of the loose chains wraps itself around the Grey Gargoyle's leg as the rocket takes off, pulling the villain into space once more. With the battle now over, Spider-Man decides to head home, leaving Cap to clean up the mess.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Captain America, Grey Gargoyle, AIM, SHIELD (Nick Fury, Dum Dum Dugan)

Continuity Notes

  • Peter Parker is still reeling from the death of Gwen Stacy, who at the time of this story had recently killed during a battle between Spider-Man and The Green Goblin circa Amazing Spider-Man #121.

  • The drunken sailor is the same man who tried to give the Human Torch a pep talk in Marvel Team-Up #2.

  • Captain America was able to break free from the Gray Gargoyle's control thanks to his enhanced strength given to him from Viper's venom. This happened in Captain America #157 (although this issue misattributes this to Captain America #57).