MARVEL TEAM-UP #24
by Len Wein, Jim Mooney, and Sal Trapani
Spider-Man and Brother Voodoo vs. Moondog!
POINTLESS TRIVIA
BEN: The previous issue of Marvel Team-Up featured The Human Torch and Iceman against Equinox, with an appearance by the rest of the X-Men. Spider-Man only made a brief cameo appearance, so we didn’t cover it.
DUY: I really do have to wonder why Johnny wasn't seen fit to have his own ongoing, if they were going to have him be the backup anchor of the book.
BEN: The first and only appearance of Moondog.
WHAT'S AGED THE BEST?
BEN: One of the complaints among a current group of bitter malcontent “fans” is that Marvel has too much “forced diversity.” What they don’t understand is that diversity, or the lack of it, is a choice made by writers and artists, and it’s a choice Marvel had steadily been making since the early days of the Silver Age. Everything in a fictional story is forced, because it’s not real. Part of introducing a new diverse character, is making sure the fans will like them, so they will want to see more of them. You have to hype them up a bit, is what I’m saying. This was true of all the characters Stan, Jack, and Steve created too. Stan hyped up Spider-Man in every issue. Every new character, no matter what race, has that mountain to climb when they’re created. There are subtle ways to do this, like Spider-Man talking up Brother Voodoo in his thought balloons here, and less subtle, like everything Roger Stern would later do with Monica Rambeau. Regardless, all approaches are necessary, because diversity is necessary. I said it before, Marvel has been a force for diversity since the ‘60s, it’s just that some of you didn’t notice.
DUY: Spider-Man really puts Brother Voodoo over in that panel. Yeah, diversity has always been a Marvel specialty. I'm sure bigots complained about these back then too.
BEN: This is a good "drifting off" effect.
WHAT'S AGED THE WORST?
BEN: The name Brother Voodoo might be drifting too much into stereotype. Which might be why they changed it to Doctor Voodoo in recent years.
DUY: I want to say anything related to the African race has aged badly here, but those were necessary steps for the times.
NITPICKS
DUY: I know this has to do with voodoo, but c'mon, yet another mind control plot? Also, I'm almost positive there's no way one marker is going to have enough ink for this.
FAVORITE PANEL
BEN: Mooney looked like he enjoyed drawing Voodoo more than Spider-Man:
DUY: I'll say the Jameson vandalism splash up in the Nitpicks section.
WHO WON THE COMIC?
DUY: Brother Voodoo.
BEN: Brother Voodoo.
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