Alright,so this is Marvel Tales which is basically Spiderman reprint material.It doesn't say anywhere obvious on the issue but these stories go back to the 70's and 60's respectively.The first story is a reprint of Marvel Team up #60 from 1977 starring Spidey and the Wasp in the second part of a two part story.The villain here is a man named Equinox who has fluctuating fire and ice powers. In the previous issue,Equinox has apparently killed Yellowjacket,the Wasp's husband and she and Spidey have to bring him to justice with the help of Equinox's scientist mother.The story is by Chris Claremont and the art is by John Bryne,I believe this right around the time they began working together on the X-Men.As a story, this a pleasant enough romp but nothing earth shattering.Fight,chase,origin recap,big fight at the end..pretty typical for Team up comics of the time.John Bryne's art is good but not great.It's professional with clear storytelling.Flashy and dynamic enough to be interesting.The inks by Dave Hunt give it an extra layer of slickness.The most notable thing is probably the power increase given to the Wasp in this tale.If you know the modern history of Yellowjacket,an unintentional creepy moment comes at the end when YJ explains the power boost because he "secretly" gave her a modified serum.Who "secretly" gives their wife anything that's going to change her body unless he's up to no good?Think about it,Hank and Jan never had kids...was he "secretly" sterilizing her too?I'm just saying.
The back up story is a fight between Spiderman and the Human Torch by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby with inks by Steve Ditko.I 'm not sure what comic it's originally from but it's obvoiusly from the very early 60's based on the art style and the character's relationships with each other.It's a juvenile story no matter how old you are.Basically,in an effort to show off,Spidey crashes a party the Torch is at and picks a fight with Torch.That's it.Fight breaks up when the rest of the Fantastic Four show up.One fun aspect is seeing some of the campy ways Spiderman uses his webs that's rarely shown today.He creates a fake bat,parachutes,water baskets,and wings.Yes,the 60's were fun weren't they?
All in all,a solid two and a half stars out of five stars.More interesting as an artifact than as entertainment.The issue is full of ad's for candy and saturday morning cartoons,but it's from the days before comics "grew up".
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