Marvel Team-Up #23 (1974)

When they try to make Marvel Team-Up a non-Spider-Man team up, the result is usually flat.  Mainly because they usually use Human Torch, who is one of the most boring characters in the Marvel Universe.  Ask anyone who their favorite hero is, they’ll never say Torch.  Ask them who their favorite Fantastic Four member is, and I bet they won’t say Torch.

Here, they team him up with Iceman, which has all kinds of possibi…zzzzz.

Iceman’s another one nobody cares about.  Ask anyone who their favorite mutant is, they’ll never say Iceman.  Ask them who their favorite founding member of the X-Men is, and I bet they won’t say Iceman.  Ask them who their favorite X-Man who can control ice and then…Maybe. Thor and Storm can create blizzards, and they’re both better than Iceman. Marvel even made Bobby gay and still nobody bought his solo book.

In this issue, he has the power level of “stupid Green Lantern.” Why would you try to cut a fire lasso with ice scissors? While they are squabbling, Cyclops and Jean drive up in a green limo.

Why would anyone have a green limo? They break up the fight and then the two fight Equinox, in his first appearance, a guy who can control BOTH fire and cold.

That either makes him twice as cool, or twice as lame, as Iceman and Torch combined.

And speaking of combining powers, when Iceman and Torch combo-blast Equinox they literally blow him to smithereens.

That means they both killed a villain. Not what I was expecting, even if it was by accident. And they don’t seem all that broken up about it. (Pun intended.)

4 thoughts on “Marvel Team-Up #23 (1974)”

  1. Sir, your observations about the Human Torch and the Iceman simply could NOT be more wrong! Speaking just for myself, of course, but I do not consider either of these two legendary stalwarts BORING. The Human Torch is Marvel’s most visually-interesting character, with a power-level that ranks him among the mightiest people on Earth. Because of this, and because he and I have similar backstory, he has always been MY favorite member of the Fantastic Four! I always considered any issue of ‘Marvel Team-Up’ featuring him and a co-star to be a winner! In particular, issues#18 and 32, co-featuring the Incredible Hulk and the Son of Satan, are two of the most memorable issues of the entire series! Ah, to be the Human Torch! Power that allows you to cope with virtually any adversary or situation! Similarly, the Iceman is in my top-three favorite X-Men. I was absolutely incensed when Marvel disbanded the original X-Men in 1975, in favor of a bunch of one-dimensional, politically-correct jerks who mostly have failed to stand the test of time. ( Storm and Wolverine being the dramatic exceptions ) In recent years, Iceman has discovered, with some help from the White Queen, the true potential of his powers, making him, as well, one of the mightiest people in the world. Even Apocalypse acknowledges this, identifying Iceman as one of the twelve mutants who will be pivotal in determining the course of the world. So, that’s not too shabby for a mutant who nobody supposedly cares about. As for the gay-issue, Marvel has been forced to “step-back”/retcon that whole business, due to an unexpected backlash from Iceman’s longstanding fan-base. That one issue is probably what caused readers to boycott his recent solo-series. I read it out of allegiance to the character, and was not amused. The writer, a homosexual himself, chose to make Bobby’s new lifestyle the main focus of the series, which turned pretty-much everybody away from the series, and it was mercifully euthanized after only eleven issues, and shortly afterward, Marvel quietly retconned the whole development out of continuity. If the Iceman loves anybody, it’s Polaris, as the past half-century-plus worth of “X-Men” comics have borne out! In as far as the killing of Equinox the Thermodynamic Man is concerned, the rumors of his demise were somewhat overstated, as our hot-and-cold heroes observed that there was no body! Besides, any ( or at least most ) court/s of law would rule that Equinox’s killing was justifiable, since the villain had already established himself as a menace to society! More importantly, no corpse, no case! Case dismissed! All day! So- do not underestimate the fan-power of the Human Torch or the Iceman! Word out!!

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  2. No, Mr. Arthur, you totally missed the entire point: Just because a homosexual writer accepts an assignment from Marvel Comics to write a series about a character who has displayed absolutely ZERO homosexual tendencies throughout his entire half-century of fictional existence, and who, as a matter of FACT, pursued quite a number of fetching women in his time, including, but by no means limited to, Moondragon, Darkstar, Rogue, Zelda the Coffee-A-Go-Go Waitress, his leading lady from the ( putridly disappointing ) 1984 ‘Iceman’ miniseries, Cloud, ( while in it’s female state ) and, above all others, Polaris, who is beyond any shadow of any doubt the True Love of His Life, does NOT mean the character is homosexual. This is wish-fulfilment on the part of the above writer, who, as noted in my above post, was canned from Marvel and the series terminated after a mere eleven issues when the readership revolted over the issue, and the entire development was somewhat awkwardly retconned out of existence. This post is not to be interpreted as an indictment of homosexual characters in comics, however, the Iceman has a very seriously prominent fanbase which dates back to the Sixties, and we like our guy as he is! Bottom line: If Marvel Comics, or any other publisher, wants to give the homosexual fanbase some homosexual characters to love and follow, that’s okay, because it’s a big world full of all types of folks which makes the world go ’round, but just don’t subvert characters who have been previously and heavily established as heterosexual, just for the sake of promoting a politically-correct agenda. The hard-core, die-hard fanbase just won’t stand for it, as the late, un-lamented ‘Iceman’ series clearly established. Thank you.

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