If you're a faithful reader of this column (and really, who isn't? except for... everyone) you've probably guessed that I'm horribly into just about anything Marvel put out in the 60s and 70s (yes, even Devil Dinosaur! How's that for love?). I consider those two decades to be the absolute best in comics, because that's when the industry really hit its stride and set its pace for the future. Yes, comics existed before the 60s (and some great ones at that!), but the foundation for the stories we have today, from all companies, really come from the explosion in the 1960s.

I've confessed my love for Robert Kirkman's recent revival of Marvel Team-Up, due to the fact that it's such a throwback to the fun stories of yesteryear, so it only stands that I, the lover of all things old (I'm not into old women though. At least... not like that), also enjoy the original series, which debuted in 1972. So guess what? Nope, there will be no Hypno Hustler references this week (hyuk), but there will be a review of a classic issue of Marvel Team-Up!

Marvel Team-Up #15 - Featuring Spider-Man and the Ghost Rider - "If An Eye Offend Thee..."
Original Release Date: November 1973
Writer: Len Wein
Pencils: Ross Andru
Inker: Don Perlin
Colorist: Glynis Wein
Letterer: John Costanza
Editor: Roy Thomas

Peter Parker can't believe his eyes; he finally takes a night off from being the web slinging adventurer, the Amazing Spider-Man, only to be reminded that he can't escape his alter ego as a kid walks by holding a balloon with the wall-crawler's face on it. Mary Jane Watson, Parker's long-time girlfriend, could care less as she stares at the poster of tonight's attraction. You see, they've come to Madison Square Garden to catch the sensational and mysterious motorcycle stuntman, Ghost Rider!

MJ insists that Peter enjoy himself tonight and Peter seems to want nothing more. He remembers a time when he owned a motorcycle (ahem... that's a bit of an overstatement. Peter owned something more akin to a bicycle with a small electric motor on it!), so he figures that maybe he could really relax and get into the show.

The two purchase their tickets and head into the area to find their seats. Once they've found them, the packed out and busy arena falls into a hush as the flame-headed stuntman enters the arena on his custom hog. For a few minutes the strange rider puts his bike through its paces around the arena. Finally, an announcer's voice echoes across the Garden, explaining that Johnny Blaze, the Ghost Rider, will be performing the Headsman's Run!

Four other motorcyclists enter the arena and cross between two ramps just as GR uses those very same ramps to jump across them, his wheels narrowly missing their heads! The crowd goes wild and Peter finds himself going right along with them; he's finally enjoying himself and not worrying about being that blasted webs linger for once!

Let's pause here so that I can initiate the uninitiated to the origins of the Ghost Rider. Johnny Blaze, a motorcycle stuntman (yeah, you've figured that out already) sold his soul to the emphatically evil entity known as Mephisto in order to save his adopted father, Crash Simpson, from death due to a blood disease. To make a long story short, Mephisto betrayed Johnny and eventually pushed the demon Zarathos into Blaze's body, cursing him to become the Ghost Rider. Now, originally (and at the time of this comic book) Ghost Rider manifested himself only at night. Later on, GR sprang up any time there was evil around. That's pretty much all you'll need to know for this column.

Back to the fantastically fascinating story (I really need to stop). One of the riders that helped GR with his stunt reveals herself to be Roxanne Simpson, the daughter of Crash Simpson, and Johnny's love (yes... also his adopted sister...). From the other side of the arena, a sudden and unplanned event occurs as a motorcycle gang enters. A security guard tries to stop them, but is incapacitated when the leader of the gang, wearing a helmet styled just like a giant eyeball, hypnotizes him!

The Orb, as he calls himself, proceeds to ride around the perimeter of the stage area, hypnotizing all who are unfortunate enough to look his way. Being that this is a stunt show and all eyes are on the performers, everyone in the audience is suddenly put under a spell, except of course for Peter Parker! Finding something horribly wrong with all of this (and rightly so), our favorite wall-crawler changes to his alter ego, the very thing he didn't want to do that night.

Roxanne protests GR's insistence on taking out these bad guys, but GR finds himself being attacked first. The riders in The Orb's gang herd him away from Roxanne as The Orb rides by and snatches up Roxanne. GR lashes out against the villain's lackey with his Hell-Fire powers. Not one to let another hero steal the show, Spidey jumps in and takes down one of the rogue riders.

Flame head uses the web-slinger's appearance as a diversion for the gang and goes after the leader. In his pursuit, the crowd suddenly begins leaving their seats and jumping down onto the arena floor, coming between GR and The Orb. Spidey swings by overhead, but is suddenly grounded as Blaze shoots a beam of Hell-Fire into our hero's web line. Spider-Man, irritated, asks what the big deal is and GR explains that Roxanne is his responsibility and that he wanted to be sure that no harm came to her himself.

Suddenly, the crowd on the staging floor begins speaking in unison the words of The Orb. The villain will trade Roxanne for ownership of Ghost Rider's stunt show, formerly the Crash Simpson Daredevil Cycle Show. As Hot-head makes up his mind to give in to The Orb's demands, we find ourselves privy to the goings on in the villain's hideout: the baddie ties Roxanne to a chair and then gives the age old villain exposition! The Orb's real name is Drake Shannon and he was once Crash Simpson's partner. The partnership fizzled out, but neither of the astonishingly competitive men would agree to sell the other his half. So, in an excellent display of judgment, it was decided that a cross-country motorcycle race would take place to settle the claims to the show. Drake ended up crashing his motorcycle and landing on the pavement of a road face first. The villain was put in a hospital and vowed that one day the cycle show would be his!

The Orb explains that "they" found him and gave him the hypnotizing helmet (ambiguous explanation? check!) and that he found it was time to collect the show. In a rather shocking moment, The Orb removes his helmet and reveals a horribly (and I mean that) disfigured face. I want to note here that Ross Andru is an awesome artist and that panel alone proves it.

After The Orb puts his helmet back on, GR arrives on the scene with the deed to the show. Flame head unties Roxanne and begins to leave when (as you may have foreseen) The Orb announces that he would never allow them to walk out freely, not when they could report him to the police. The villain's goons train their weapons on the duo, but the Amazing Spider-Man arrives on the scene! He quickly dispatches the armed baddies and we find that the two heroes were able to locate The Orb due to one of Spidey's trusty spider-tracers! The two proceed to whip some ass while The Orb once again grabs Roxanne and takes off with her on his bike.

GR and Spidey both grab a couple of the now-defeated gang's cycles and take off after the fleeing Orb. Apparently the no-good-nik's hideout was an abandoned power room in an (gasp!) abandoned subway station. Our two heroes chase one-eye through the station and eventually find themselves in an active Subway station! Civilians run and dive in all directions as the three recklessly speed through the terminals.

Finally, Spidey comes up with a plan and the two quickly commence in its operation. Simultaneously, GR releases a bolt of Hell-fire, hitting The Orb and Spidey shoots a web, ripping Roxanne from the madman's grasp. With the plan a success, Spidey stays back with the hysterical Roxanne while GR speeds off after that crazy caitiff, but not before telling Spidey, who had just made a comment about his face, that it was not a mask!

Resorting to the tools of a normal man, The Orb aims a pistol at the pursuing hero, but quickly finds it too hot to handle due to a Hell-fire bolt! The Orb jumps his cycle onto a Subway track and GR follows suit. As one can expect from a busy New York Subway line, one of the trains is making its way down the track... right at our colorful duo. Unfortunately for The Orb, he doesn't get out of way in time and is pulled under the train, effectively ending his tortured life, while GR leaps out of the way just in time.

After the train has passed, Spidey meets up with GR to find that the papers The Orb was so interested in risking his life for were nothing more than forgeries. Hot-head feels sorry for the poor stupid fool, but finds happiness in the fact that Roxanne is unharmed. The two heroes part ways on good terms and Spidey finally realizes that GR had said that his face wasn't a mask!

Great story! Len Wein weaves an action-packed tale that leaves you pretty much panting for more Ghost Rider, which I would guess is the point of this particular issue of Marvel Team-Up. People already loved Spider-Man, so pairing him up with Johnny Blaze brought some attention to the character that perhaps he didn't ordinarily get. To me, GR is just one of those characters that I find intensely interesting and amazingly original. This story goes pretty far in helping maintain those thoughts on a rather mysterious and dark character.

Speaking of Mr. Wein, he's another legend in the world of comic books. Yup, this guy had his hand in a lot of the great stuff that was going on in comic books in the 70's. He co-created Swamp Thing and he wrote this little thing called Giant Size X-Men #1, which introduced the world to the New X-Men (Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Thunderbird, Sunfire, and Banshee). Now, he and Dave Cockrum created these new characters and, of course, Wolverine appeared previous to all of them during Len's run on The Incredible Hulk (talking about putting your stamp on the world. Wolverine is one of the most popular fiction characters in modern history). Chris Claremont would go on to really flesh these characters out, but it should be remembered that Len and Dave started it all.

Ross Andru is no slouch either and, as I mentioned before, is fantastic. I consider his run on Amazing Spider-Man to be just as iconic as John Romita, Sr. (whom he followed up on the book) and Steve Ditko's; most people know that I consider Steve Ditko to be my favorite artist ever (Kirby comes next), so that's a pretty hefty compliment that I'm giving the guy. Ross was the perfect choice to follow Romita, Sr. because his art complimented and expanded upon JRSR's. This is consistent with his work on other titles, Marvel Team-Up included.

Older issues of MTU aren't hard to find and usually aren't too expensive, but your best bet, as usual, is to pick up the first volume of The Essential Marvel Team-Up. Marvel, if you're reading this (and you're probably not!), please release more volumes of this book!

That's it, that's all you're getting from me this week. Like I said, I'll not be mentioning the Hypno Hustler... I swear.