REVIEW: Marvel Team-Up #133: Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four

Writer: J.M. De Matteis
Artists: Sal Buscema and Mike Esposito
Colorist: Bob Sharen
Letterer: Diana Albers
Review: Art Bee

Here we are within the pages of a tale of comicdom from yesteryear. Since Madman delved into the pages of a Marvel Team-Up book last week, I figured I would copy from his test. This brought me to Marvel Team-Up #133, and it had me all over the place. It reminded me of a young lady, who had no opinions or preferences, I dated in my high school days. That date was long and awkward.

This issue was not bad per se, but the way the story is told makes it hard to follow the first time through. It starts with Reed Richards (a.k.a. Mr. Fantastic) in a bit of a rage over his family and friends being missing. Luckily, our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is there to lend a hand. The duo sets out to find Reed’s family and team all the while Spider-Man is throwing some wicked curveballs. He is not using his web shooters, being clumsy, and not using his spider-sense correctly. That’s right; it’s not Spider-Man.

So is this really a Team-Up? My answer is no.


As the story rolled out, my feelings were all over the place: confusion, wonderment, excitement, depression, etc. The good news is the end of the comic book does make the rest of the book make sense. The second read-through was enjoyable, but my thought was: why it should have taken two reads to get there? The problem may have been with me, but elements of the story almost felt like they were aimed at slightly different targets. throughout the story there is a “voice-over” of Doctor Faustus who is obviously behind all of this and is determined to break Reed’s mind. Doctor Faustus’ overture seemed to be designed to keep the story in scope. Instead, it felt a bit off from the story and the change in colors kept me thinking the speaker was changing even though the voice and tone stayed the same.

We have to stop here for just a minute. I am no comic book expert but am well versed in comic lore . . . Who in the hell is Doctor Faustus! In times like this I turn to Google . . . it’s some kind of theatrical play. Confusion is a dominant theme here.

It turns out Doctor Faustus has very little to do in the Marvel universe. He starts out as a villain for Capt. American, but after this issue, his mind is cracked and does little else. That is all fine since he is very unexciting. There are many great Marvel Team-Up comic books, but I just had to choose one of the ones whose greatness tank was a bit empty.

Once again please help orphaned comics find a home; adopt today.