Marvel Team-Up #30 — Nick Peron

Jan 22

Jan 22 Marvel Team-Up #30

All That Glitters Is Not Gold!

After a patrol, Peter Parker is changing out of his Spider-Man costume when he hears a scream from the streets below. Dutifully putting his mask back on, Peter spots his neighbor, Glory Grant being attacked by a group of men. Spider-Man gets between Glory and her attackers. Worried about having another false murder accusation lobbed against him, the wall-crawler pulls his punches on these thugs, even though they are coming at him at full force. Dodging a bullet, Spider-Man knocks out the attackers, with some assistance from Glory Grant. Now that Glory is safe, she asks Spider-Man to do her a favor and carry her attackers up to her apartment. The web-slinger complies to this strange request, and when he asks why he learns that one of these thugs is her cousin, Ramon.

As she starts telling him that this is a family affair that she must deal with alone, Ramon suddenly wakes up and tries to attack them again. Noticing the youth is in a trance, Spider-Man wraps him up in webbing to stop him from hurting anyone. Suddenly, Ramon snaps out of it and tells them what happened to him. He explains that he and his friends went to a local nightclub where they were grabbed and drugged by some goons. They were then taken into the back of the establishment where a man in a gold suit sprayed them with something, and that was the last thing he remembered. Glory heard about this golden man, and how there were rumors about him wanting to wipe out African-Americans. Hearing this, Spider-Man is furious and decides to deal with this mystery foe and swings off.

With Spider-Man gone, Glory places a call to the office of Sam Wilson in Harlem. Hoping it's Captain America, Wilson instead learns that it is from Glory Grant. After she tells Sam everything she knows, Wilson changes into the Falcon and goes out to investigate this new lead. The two heroes descend on the nightclub, unaware of each other until they both come crashing in through the main entrence. Their foe, a golden garbed man named Midas, orders his men to kill them. While Spider-Man webs up on half of the shooters, the Falcon tangles up the rest in a massive show curtain. During the confusion, Midas escapes, leaving the heroes to try and get answers from his minions. The Falcon tells Spider-Man to let him talk to the thugs as he speaks their language. Going outside, Spider-Man hears the sound of a ruckas inside as the Falcon beats the location of their employer out of them. When the Falcon emerges from the club, he tells Spider-Man that Midas is actually Harrison Merriwell. This comes to a shock to Spider-Man, as Merriwell is a well-known philanthropist.

The pair travel to Merriwell's estate located in a suburb of Connecticuit and decide the best way to announce their presence is to come up and ring the doorbell. The butler is surprised to see two costumed individuals standing on the door, and invites them in anyway. No sooner are they inside, Spider-Man and the Falcon are struck from behind. When the pair awaken, they find themselvse shackled to the floor of a walkin freezer. There they are then confronted by Midas who tells them that he is leaving them to freeze to death, saying that they are as insane as his brother. As Midas turns to leave, Spider-Man fires some wedging the door, preventing it from closing all the way. As the temperature starts to drop, Spider-Man's webbing begins to expand, causing it to force the door open. The noise draws down people who are attending a party downstairs.

Upstairs, they accuse Harrison's brother Malcolm of being Midas and trying to murder them. Malcom denies this but when the two heroes try to apprehend him, he fights back. Admitting that he did so to prevent his brother from squandering their fortune on the unfortunate. While trying to fight back, Malcolm is knocked out of a window when the Falcon literally pulls the rug out from under him, sending him into the river below the window. Harrison is not surprised that his brother was doing this, and fears that he is somehow responsible because he didn't pay enough attention to his brother. The Falcon and Spider-Man tell him that all Midas ever cared about was gold.