Marvel Team-Up #48 — Nick Peron

Jan 22

Jan 22 Marvel Team-Up #48

A Fine Night for Dying!

Spider-Man is web swinging over Long Island near a Stark International Fuel depot. He suddenly spots a model airplane with a bomb attached it heading toward the depot. The power of the blast sends Spider-Man flying backward. Although he is thrown clear of the heat and flames, he is left in free fall and would have fatally struck the ground if it was not for the timely arrival of Iron Man, who saves him. On the ground, Spider-Man is worried about the innocent people that might be endangered by the blast. However, Iron Man explains that he had the area evacuated and the fire department is at the ready as this attack as Tony Stark received a warning this was going to happen. Iron Man demands to know why Spider-Man was in the area. This infuriates the wall-crawler who doesn't like being accused of a crime he didn't commit. Iron Man admits that while Spider-Man has helped the Avengers in the past, they don't know much about them. Spider-Man points out that his motives are questionable, to ask the Vision, Scarlet Witch, and Moondragon about who he is. Their argument is interrupted by Captain Jean DeWolff, who has been investigating a series of threats that have been made to wealthy businesses, this being the fifth.

While DeWolff and Iron Man compare notes, Spider-Man attempts to examine the remains of the model airplane used in the attack. Before he can, his spider-sense begins to tingle. Realizing it was booby-trapped, Spider-Man leaps away and pulls Jean to safety. This fits the pattern of the other attacks. Jean asks the two heroes if they can put aside their differences long enough to help out with the case. As the three continue to discuss matters, they neglect to notice a strange figure enter one the mausoleums in order to return to his secret lair. Meanwhile, Jean DeWolff rushes Spider-Man and Iron Man to her precinct. The pair witness as one of her officers makes light of the fact that Jean's father was the ex-commissioner of police and that they have to look out for her. Unimpressed, Jean bumps the desk Sargent back down to a patrolman. In her office, DeWolff explains to her allies that she needs to run a tight ship to keep out of being under her father's shadow.

Activating some video equipment loaned to her department by SHIELD to review the five previous attacks. The first was on the Westchester Mansion of Max Vorster, a wealthy New York City slum lord. Volster was killed in the explosion and all evidence was destroyed. The only clue to the identity of their bomber is from a shadowy figure wearing a hood that was captured on video by the local news crew. The next bomb attack was at the Cosmopolitan Bank and Trust, an explosion that killed fifteen people and injured another twenty-two. This time their mystery attacker was caught on security cameras. After they have finished reviewing the footage, they examine the warning letters and discover that they are written on police letterhead, and the letters that form the messages are clipped out of the Gazette, a police newspaper. Suddenly, the masked figure they have been investigating hurls a model plane bomb from the building across the street. Spider-Man's spider-sense tips them off, and while Iron Man deals with the bomb, Spider-Man goes after the bomber. Much to the wall-crawler's surprise, their foe, a masked being calling himself the Wraith, is able to grab Spider-Man's wrists and crush them under great strength.