This is the oddest issue of Marvel Team-Up I’ve ever read. Spider-Man and Dracula bump into each other on a cruise ship. After that, the boat gets hijacked and they both take out the hoods–but they do so separately, never actually meeting.
Kind of innovative way to tell an otherwise standard “beat people up” tale.
There’s also an intro piece that has nothing to do with the rest of the book, which introduces the character Equinox, briefly.
I do believe that this is the one-and-only Marvel Comic ever published where you can find Spider-Man, the Human Torch, and……….wait for it……..Count Dracula…….. all in the same story! The writer, the late Len Wein, in conjunction with the editorship, was very coy about giving us a “non-meeting” between their number-one superjock and their number-one monster-character, because, as of the time of this issue, Marvel still wasn’t totally clear on where it stood on having their “supernatural” characters co-exist with their superheroes, for valid reasons. Editor Roy Thomas provided a good explanation on the letters page as to why they should, and, apparently this issues’ “Ship of Fools” was meant to be a litmus test for the mid-Seventies readership. It seems to me the issue was sufficiently resolved in the previous years’ ‘Marvel Team-Up’#12, when the Webbed Warrior survived a brush with the ‘Werewolf By Night’ thus firmly establishing that all of Marvel’s superheroes and monster-characters co-existed together in the same continuum of reality. So- why the ambiguity-?? And, here’s the million-dollar question that revolves around the key scene of the entire issue: When Spidey ( in his Parker-mode ) is approaching the King of Vampires- the most successful mass-murderer of all-time- on the promenade deck- WHY did his SPIDER-SENSE FAIL to GO OFF???!!! It SHOULD have been SCREAMING like a SIX-ALARM FIRE!!!!!! Holy STORY-HOLES!!!! Of course, this was written in 1974, before the policy of earning a “No-Prize” by explaining away a major story-gaffe ( such as this one ) was established. Perhaps, if the policy had been in force at the time, some bright Marvelite of above-average intelligence could have come up with something. It’s a half-century later, and all I can still come up with is some vague crap about the Count’s hypnotic powers working overtime, but even THAT theory is torpedoed by the issue of “Spider-Man Unlimited” where, when the two actually DO meet, in earnest, Dracula’s hypnotic hold over the Arachnoid Adventurer is broken ( just in time ) by Spidey’s…….SPIDER-SENSE…..!!!! So- so much for THAT theory!! Well, even though 49-50 years is just a little too after-the-fact for a No-Prize, maybe some bright, enterprising Marvelite will come up with something! As for the “C” rating- ……..I agree. This issue was heavily-hyped all throughout the Spring of 1974, and I just couldn’t believe that Marvel was going to actually have Spidey ( or, frankly, any superhero ) meet the Lord of Vampires!! So- ‘Giant-Size Spider-Man’#1 did not exactly fall into my lap, that Summer- I had to scour the city I lived in at the time LONG and HARD, to find it. So- you can imagine how distressed and disappointed I was at the final result. Not really a BAD issue- just, not GREAT, like it COULD have been, and SHOULD have been. But-still, a comic featuring Spider-Man and Dracula, with a cameo by the Human Torch, IS a rare oddity in the Marvel scheme of things, and should be considered! Word to Joe Mama!
Love this and agree 1000%. Marvel’s Dracula is at his best in Tomb of D…Although his “romance” with Storm was pretty good.
Marvel’s version of Count Dracula is at his undead best when he is drawn by the late, great Gene “The Dean” Colan, period. No other artist, to date, has been able to recapture that moody style. Like I pointed out in my post for ‘Tomb of Dracula’s#1-6, maybe sometimes, a trend just belongs to it’s own time. One thing is for sure- there will NEVER be another Gentleman Gene Colan. The two-part battle between Dracula and Dr. Strange, from ‘Tomb of Dracula’#44, and ‘Dr. Strange’#14, known collectively as “The Tomb of Dr. Strange” ( clever!! ) from 1976, remains my all-time favorite ‘Monster versus Superhero’ adventure. An insurmountable classic. As for the Count’s little thing for Storm, ( he may be an asshole, but there’s definitely nothing wrong with his taste- he even finally threw poor, dead Rachel in the sheets, in her inevitable swan-song, in the 1982 ‘X-Men’ Annual ) the late series ‘Mutant X’ gave us a very interesting alternate Marvel dimension where he finally turned her into one of his brides! She ( had to ) change her name to “Bloodstorm”, and she became quite a tragic figure, but very interesting. ( ditto for the Angel in this series, who also failed to redeem himself following his corruption by Apocalypse, and degenerated into a bat-winged, flame-belching, nocturnal, beyond-salvation horror known as “The Fallen” – THAT was an understatement ) But, as usual, I digress….. suffice to say, as interesting as I found “Bloodstorm” to be, I hope 616-Storm will continue to be able to resist Vlad’s sinister charms, at least until Dr. Strange, or somebody, can finally get around to fixing his little bloodsucking wagon once and for all. Peace out!
Completely agree about Gene. He was a “gene”-ius.