Marvel Team-Up Vol 1 #76: "If Not For Love"
It’s time for another Superhero team-up which includes Ms. Marvel.
The issue opens with an explanation about tarot cards. The cover has Avengers character on the cards so the explanation makes sense. In the Marvel world, tarot cards have power, real power, that some people know how to use. In this case, it is Dr. Strange who is using them. He got them as a present, but he doesn’t know from who.
He sees Spider-Man passing by and calls him, but Spider-Man doesn’t hear him. His Spidey sense got turn off for a second. Very strange, and apparently dark magic can make it happen.
Clea comes in to Strange’s work room, he has once promised her not to keep her out of his art, but that's what he does now, and she walks out in fury. Therefore, he misses the crystal of Agamotto starting to glow. Just a friendly reminded, the Eye of Agamotto is not an infinity stone in the comics.
Then we see that Spider-Man decides to take a night off. It’s time for Peter Parker to have a good time. But we all know that that is not going to happen.
We see Dr. Strange returning to the work room and he looks at the cards again and tries to decipher them, so again he misses the glow of the Eye.
Then the third character on the cards shows up, Carol Danvers, a.k.a Ms. Marvel. Apparently, she’s been having a hard time at work. She’s been butting heads with J Jonah Jameson, and winning, but she has a bad feeling about the finale consequences. We hadn’t had so much information about her work even in her own issues lately. It looks like she’s been putting in some serious extra hours to make sure that the latest issue of “Woman” will reach the stands on time. When she gets off the buss someone pushes her and send her into a collision with Wong, Dr. Strange’s manservant. Obviously, he doesn’t recognize her as Danvers, but he is very nice to her and she is to him.
Then we see Clea coming to Dr. Stranger’s office. She notices that it is cold and that the orb is glowing. Even though it shouldn’t be able to do anything on its own. Yet, from the inside a Demons of Denak comes out. The demons claw at his mind and steal Clea’s soul.
Dr. Strange telepathically calls Wong and he runs to help. Leaving a baffled Carol Danvers with his groceries. But that just puts Danvers on high alert. As Wong runs towards danger, he also almost runs over Peter Parker, who’s Spidey sense now kicks into high gear. His night out is officially canceled, so is Danvers’ rest and hot bath.
Spider-Man arrives at Dr. Strange’s house. He finds that the door being unlocked is a bad sign and he is right. He eventually finds both Dr. Strange and Clea lying down on the floor, Wong is too afraid to check if they are still alive.
Spider-Man’s spider sense goes off again when Ms. Marvel approaches. He doesn’t recognize her because the last time they meet she had a different costume on. She says he can check with the Avengers that it’s really her, but only WASP has seen this costume, because she helped Ms. Marvel make it. I know that is not true, all of the Avengers have seen his outfit before. My case in point is Avengers Annual Vol 1 #8, but I’ll let that one slide, continuity is problematic.
It seems that Dr. Strange is regaining consciousness, so Ms. Marvel tells Spider-Man to take him to the next room, while she’ll take care of Clea.
Later on, we find out that Dr. Strange has used a spell to speed up his recovery, but Clea’s condition is more problematic. Her soul is trapped within the realm that is inside the orb, they must save her soul. The start will be to find out who send the warning cards. Spider-Man wants to bail out, but Dr. Strange convinces him to stay, he needs all the help he can get. Spider-Man agrees and Dr. Strange uses a spell and all three of them disappear.
The cards came from New-Orleans, so that’s where they, well teleported? Then Dr. Strange erases the memories of the crowd and gives them different appearances so no one will recognize them. It’s easier to walk around as an anonymous human, then in a superhero costume.
Dr. Strange finds a supernatural trail and follows it out of town. The house that they find may look rotten on the inside, but it’s beautiful on the inside, and they are expected there. A woman greets them with the words that Dracula used to welcome Jonathan Harker, “enter freely, and of your own will.” That is a really bad sign. The woman in front of them is Marie Laveau, The Witch Queen of New-Orleans. When I googled the name online I found that there is a song called The Witch Queen of New-Orleans by a band called Redbone. From what I understand even in the song her name is Marie Laveau. The song came out in 1971, so plenty of time for it to get famous and come to the attention of the writers. It’s pretty cool, but also disturbing because the band probably should have gotten some rights for the character if they invented her or royalties.
The Witch Queen of New-Orleans says she is a friend and that she tried to warn Dr. Strange of the coming threat. His real enemy is Silver Dagger. Silver Dagger tried to kill Dr. Strange with, well, his magical dagger. But in the end Dr. Strange survived and Silver Dagger was pulled inside the unreality of the Orb of Agamotto. Long story short, Silver Dagger still exists inside of the Orb and he now controls it and and Clea’s soul, where he wants to burn her for being a witch.
The Witch Queen of New-Orleans says that the only way for Dr. Strange to enter to Orb is to master the Shiatra book, which could be evil. His astral form leaves his body, even though he fears betrayal. Only Spider-Man and Ms. Marvel remain. But Spider-Man says that his Spider sense is ringing alarms and he is right, they don’t know that they are surrounded by assassins. Or ninjas. Or something in between. But it is bad.
This issue is a lot of fun. Even though Danvers doesn’t have much to do in it. We learn about her hardships at work, and she is ready and willing to help Dr. Strange without hesitation. Considering that Spider-Man doesn’t help out either, I guess it's not too bad, it is basically Dr. Strange’s story. We’ll see what happens in the next issue. She does look really impressive in her new suit. I liked her in this issue.
This is the link to my original post.
Check out my website for more such posts, and more in depth analysis.
You can also follow me on Twitter.
Please follow me and upvote my posts to help yourself stay up to date with everything that is nerdy and awesome.
Resteems will also be most appreciated.
See you in my next post.