Nick Peron

View Original

Marvel Team-Up #22

Nick Peron

The Messiah Machine!

Credits

While Spider-Man is web-slinging across the city, he is so deep in thought he doesn't notice Hawkeye firing an arrow at him. Although his web-line gets severed, the wall-crawler saves himself by gripping the side of a building. However, this leaves him open to being pinned with arrows by Hawkeye. Spider-Man pulls free, yet Hawkeye lunges for him. Although the wall-crawler manages to fight him off, the bowman keeps coming at him. Spider-Man demands to know why Hawkeye was attacking him and is told that the surprise attack was meant to get his attention. Spider-Man is not impressed and tells Hawkeye his reasons had better be good.

Hawkeye tells Spider-Man how he had cut ties with the Avengers recently in order to run solo. The other day, he had spotted an electronics supply truck being stolen. Swinging into action, the former Avenger tried to stop the thieves with a flame arrow. When the crooks emerged from the truck, he attempted to incapacitate them, only to learn that they were robots. Hawkeye was blasted by a ray gun, but as the robots made their getaway he managed to hitch a ride on the back of their truck. It took him to a mansion upstate in Westchester. When the robots began offloading the truck, he jumped one of the robots and stole its coveralls and hat. However, when a massive robot came to inspect it's subordinates, it immediately detected Hawkeye. With his cover blown, Hawkeye made a quick escape.

Concluding his story, Hawkeye asks Spider-Man for help investigating this situation further as he doesn't want to go crawling back to the Avengers. Spider-Man decides to tag along to see what is going on. Back at the Westchester mansion, the Automatoid reports to it's master, the living computer known as Quasimodo. Quasimodo is furious to learn that his minions allowed a human to escape. Suddenly, he is alerted to the arrival of both Hawkeye and Spider-Man on the premises. The two heroes believe they have arrived undetected since Spider-Man rigged up a device that should have masked their presence. They soon learn how wrong they are when they are ambushed by an army of robots. The two heroes easily smash the robots using their combined skills. However, before they can get into the mansion, a trap door opens up under them and they fall into containment tubes in Quasimodo's lab. Spider-Man recalls that Quasimodo was seemingly destroyed during a battle with the Beast. The sentient machine explains that it is tired of the humanoid life it was given by the Silver Surfer and intends to link itself up with the massive computer system that unit created. To dispose of Spider-Man and Hawkeye, he ejects them out of the tubes at a high rate of speed. However, Spider-Man and Hawkeye manage to save themselves with their unique skills.

They leap back down into the lab, much to the frustration of Quasimodo. It orders the Automatoids to attack them while he connects with the chair. In order to stop them, Hawkeye snares the robots in metal cables which he plugs into the power source, shorting them all out. With the robots down, they find they are too late to stop Quasimodo from plugging into the control chair for his supercomputer. However, the feedback from the electrical surge shorted out Quasimodo's mind. Presuming their foe has been vanquished, Spider-Man switches off the computer and they depart.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Hawkeye, Quasimodo

Continuity Notes

  • Spider-Man mentions how Liz Allan reappeared in his life. He last saw Liz after they graduated high school in Amazing Spider-Man #29. At the time of this story, she recently reappeared in Peter Parker's life in Amazing Spider-Man #132.

  • At the time of this story, Hawkeye had recently quit the Avengers (Avengers #109) and a short stint with the Defenders (Defenders #7-11).

  • Quasimodo seemingly perished battling the Beast in Amazing Adventures (vol. 2) #14.