Ultimate Spider-Man and Kitty Pryde appreciation thread

[JackalsIII]

I wish Bendis found a way to end it without making Peter a dick

Yeah, and making Mary Jane keep pestering him to call Kitty, doesn't solve the situation.

[ryedog6]

That spread LaFuente did of Kitty's feelings towards Pete is fantastic. Kinda makes me wish he was back on an Ultimate book, his run on USM was fun.

I agree.. Hopefully he'll get his own title sometime soon. Alot of spidermen r getting alot more attention than they deserve and ultimate peter gets no recognition watsoever.

[a0040pc]

A little something fun

Issue Information
Title- Marvel Team-Up (Volume 1) #135
Release Date- November 1983
Writer- Bill Mantlo
Artist- Ron Frenz & Mike Esposito

Major Notes
Features Kitty Pryde

Brief Summary

Down Deep In Darkness

Spider-Man is riding on the top of a subway train which is being held up by a group of thugs. As they demand money from the passengers Spider-Man smashes through one of the windows and knocks out a thug. The others go to attack but Spider-Man is able to put each of them down, the remaining thug enters the driver’s area and pulls the driver out. He then sets the train at full speed and there is a train at a stationed not too far away. Spider-Man notices this and throws the thug out. He then tries to stop the train but he realises that it is too fast to stop in time.

Spider-Man leaps to the other train and warns everyone to get off before the first train hits. They do what he says and he soon realises that he is directly in the way of the oncoming train. He is just able to leap out of the way in time but as the passengers are seen to by emergency services they don’t see an unconscious Spider-Man get taken away by Morlocks.

Meanwhile at a house in Westchester Kitty Pryde is babysitting twins named Edward and Jeff who are arguing while playing a fantasy board game. Kitty is on the phone to Storm and she is not happy that Professor Xavier sent her there so that she could have normal teenage experiences. A combination of her annoyance at Xavier and the constant bickering between the twins causes
Kitty to slam the phone down and she breaks the two up. She snaps at them and then drags them up to bed. When she is done she admits that babysitting is worse than a Danger Room simulation.

Sometime later Kitty falls asleep on the couch and the twins sneak out of their window and make their way down to a housing development close to their home so they can act out their fantasy board game. They find a pit and Edward is the only one brave enough to go down. Jeff stays above and he hears Edward talk about a shaft that leads to a deeper hole. He investigates but something from out of the hole grabs him and he screams for help. This sends Jeff running back to the house.

Five minutes later Jeff returns with Kitty who is somewhat annoyed by what has happened but she knows that she should have kept a better eye on them. They both slid down the pit and they see the shaft. As they investigate they are attacked by Morlocks and although Kitty holds her own Jeff is grabbed and taken down. They leave Kitty alone after that but she phases through the ground and eventually ends up in a tunnel. She sees the Morlocks place Jeff in a space age car and shoot down the tunnel. There is a second car there as well and Kitty is able to leap over them and drive it away before they can stop her. She shoots down the tunnel chasing after the other car.

A short time later the Morlocks bring Jeff forward to their leader named Stigor. Since he and his Morlocks are human any law decreed by the new Morlock leader Storm doesn’t apply to them. He hates the surface dwellers and decrees that Jeff will never see the surface again.

Jeff is thrown inside a dungeon and he begins to think that he’ll never see his brother again. He then hears a familiar voice and he sees Edward along with an unconscious Spider-Man who is held to the wall by energy chains. They try to free him but they get zapped for their troubles, this also causes Spider-Man to wake up. Spider-Man cannot free himself from his bonds but the boys discover a small bowl and some water on the ground. Edward scoops some water up and throws it at the energy chains. This causes them to short circuit and the flash of light is blinding. But it gives Spider-Man what he needs to break free, he thanks them for this and they begin to explain exactly what is happening.

Just outside the dungeon Kitty leaps off the car and walks down the tunnel. She sees the dungeon but can also see two Morlocks guarding the door. She purposely reveals herself causing them to try and tackle them. She phases through them with ease and they hit the wall knocking themselves out. She has also been able to grab the keys and she goes to open the door. At that exact time Spider-Man kicks the door off its hinges and it goes flying towards her but once again she phases through it.

At first Spider-Man thinks that Kitty is a Morlock but Edward tells him otherwise. For the moment he doesn’t know that she is one of the X-Men but the group run through the tunnel knowing that the Morlocks will soon be onto them. They don’t get far until a hoard of Morlocks attack them. Spider-Man and Kitty attack while the twins pick up some weapons and attack as well. Spider-Man also notices the Morlocks going through Kitty like she was a ghost.

The battle continues and the two heroes know that the longer the fight goes on the more danger the twins will be in. They have to find an exit and she mentions about when the X-Men were last in the Morlock that they need to look for tunnels or ladders that lead up. Spider-Man realises that she is Ariel but for now she wants to keep it under wraps. They also notice Stigor has the twins cornered. They use a fastball special to send Kitty directly into the villain more or less knocking him out. Spider-Man is then attack by a brute and he throws him into a column. The column shatters causing the roof to begin to come down on them. Quickly the group find a ladder and begin to climb up to the surface.

When they get up to the surface they discover that they are in New York City. This is miles away from where Kitty and the twins are supposed to be and Kitty knows she has to contact Xavier to have them picked up. She thinks it’s funny since the cost of picking them up is more than she would have earned babysitting. She hopes that this will make him think twice before having her carry out more typical teenager activities.

My Thoughts

Now we get to the fourth issue of Marvel Team-Up in this blog. The first was the original X-Men (minus Beast), the second was the New X-Men, the third was Nightcrawler and now this one
features Kitty Pryde. This was an entertaining issue overall and since it isn’t part of anything bigger we can enjoy it for what it is, a one off team-up issue.

I did notice that the cover had Kitty wearing her Ariel costume although in the actual issue itself she never does. I guess you can’t believe everything you see on a cover. At least the colour scheme was right.

The issue marks the first time that we see Spider-Man teaming up with Kitty Pryde. They have had a couple more team-ups since (Kitty being with the X-Men rather than just her) but it is in the Ultimate Marvel Universe where the pair were actually dating. In that universe they had a real relationship which was popular with fans and even after they split up Kitty became a regular in the Ultimate Spider-Man comic series. Just a shame we didn’t see this in the regular universe.

The villain of the issue is a human Morlock named Stigor who makes his only appearance in this comic book. He reminds me a lot of the Moleman in the fact that he hates surface dwellers but rather than having monsters at his command he has a load of like minded humans. The Morlocks in the issue were humans rather than mutants so this is why they felt that they didn’t have to listen to Storm. That does make some sense but I question how they were able to get those space age tunnel cars that they had. Is one of them an engineer or is it some kind of abandoned project.

We got a little more of an insight into Kitty who thinks that she is above being a teenager due to the adventures that she had with the X-Men. I think she is both right and wrong in that sentiment. Yes she is different to other teenagers but she should enjoy those years as much as she can because when they’re gone she can never get them back.

The fight scene was pretty good and I did enjoy watching Spider-Man and Kitty pulling off a fastball special. It is little things like that which make the series worth picking up every now and again and I think it would have been fun if they teamed up again on a regular basis. Alas it is not meant to be though.

The beginning with Spider-Man was pretty good but I question how the passengers in the first train survived since it was travelling too fast for them to escape and the impact would have killed at least a few of them. I guess this is something that will just have to put into the back of our minds for now. His role in the comic was not too essential since I think Kitty could have saved them by herself but at least he was there to give her a helping hand.

In conclusion I’m giving the issue an 8 out of 10. Not for it being a serious story but one that was fun to read and should be picked up by any fan of either character.

Next Issue
Uncanny X-Men (Volume 1) #176