My Ally... My Killer!

I'm both pleased and reluctant to admit that I own the entire run of Marvel Team-Up. The series isn't exactly a feather in one's collection cap, with many issues amounting to little more than a casual diversion that more often than not ended up near the bottom of your reading stack for the week; but Spider-Man was to Marvel Team-Up what the Hulk was to The Defenders, and the character's constant presence on the cover at the very least assured Marvel of reliable sales. Yet, being a little turned off at the proliferation of Spider-Man titles on the racks at the time, it was the other part of the equation which kept me reading MTU: the addition of a guest-star that sweetened the deal and let you see a little more of a character that wasn't getting enough exposure or otherwise caught your eye. Sometimes the appearance worked... sometimes it didn't... but I shelled out 35¢ for an issue, hoping it would.

This particular issue may or may not have worked for you, depending on how much you cared for Tigra, the revamped character who began as the Cat but found new life as hopefully a more compelling sales lure (the Cat already having had her own turn at an MTU appearance five years earlier). Like Nightcrawler, or the Beast, or the Black Panther, or other such characters who have appeared with Spider-Man, Tigra's physical abilities are similar to how Spider-Man performs in the field, so she has the same difficulty as the others as far as what she brings to the table that would set her apart and make her an asset in her own right. Basically, what you'll see here is that she's fast and feral... and she has the claws of her namesake (if less protruding)... and like Wolverine, she enjoys using them in a fight. If you find yourself asking, "And...?", you're also probably wondering why Tigra is considered to be an improvement over the Cat.

The more interesting aspect to this team-up story is supplied with the presence of Kraven the Hunter, who, despite his own limitations as a character, usually manages to be a credible threat to Spider-Man (his mediocre contribution to the first Spider-Man Annual notwithstanding). A clash between Tigra and Kraven would seem to be a match made in the veldt--yet despite her "power" and her fierce disposition when going up against a foe, she proves to be mostly ineffective against Kraven, several times over. Nor does it help that she meets Spider-Man completely in their mutual foe's thrall.

Soooo... where does that leave us here?

We seem to at least be looking at a decent Kraven story, which is fine with me.

I've gone on record as stating that artist John Byrne draws one of the most unconvincing punches in comics--but, more than that, it's also one of the most unexciting, as if you're watching a rehearsal for a play and the actors are stage blocking the scene to be played out, his figures in a state of motion looking stiff and virtually posed. That style practically ties the hands of a character like Spider-Man, whose nimbleness, agility and speed are something to see even on the printed page, but who under Byrne's hand ends up literally "going through the motions."

Kraven's game here appears to be simple revenge against Spider-Man--putting Spidey in the position of fighting Tigra for Kraven's amusement, knowing that one of them must kill the other in order to survive. Byrne and inker Dave Hunt set the mood nicely with Kraven--the artists' instincts on how to portray this kind of character are right on the money, while the captive Tigra is suitably a coiled spring waiting to pounce. (Interesting how the cover's colorist chose to return the character's hair color to that of Greer Nelson pre-transformation--perhaps a nod to her time as the Cat.) When Tigra is turned loose on the chained Spider-Man, a vicious fight in such close quarters--with Tigra having an obvious advantage--might have been quite the page-turner; but the clash ends up depending a great deal on writer Chris Claremont's verbose dialog to tell us just how fierce this fight is, and how dangerous and powerful Tigra is, two things we should be able to see for ourselves.

With Tigra freed from Kraven's control, she immediately moves to take him down--only to be easily dealt with, just as she was in her initial hunt for him following his escape from prison, shown in a flashback. Spider-Man helps her to recover, and Tigra is more than ready to make another attempt to capture Kraven (does anyone think she'll have any better luck her third time at bat?)--but as she and Spidey discover, Kraven hasn't thrown in the towel yet.

Again, Tigra is rendered helpless, with only Spider-Man's interference preventing Kraven from once more subverting her will and bringing her under his control. But when Spider-Man meets with an accident that puts him at the mercy of the stampede, it would seem to be the perfect opportunity for Tigra to redeem herself with the reader--first by saving Spider-Man, and then following up with her settling the score with Kraven. Yet since Tigra isn't this title's headliner, you can probably guess by whose hand Kraven is set to meet defeat.

Nearly two years before her appearance here, Tigra also made the rounds in the Thing's own team-up mag, Marvel Two-In-One, enlisting the Thing's help against the villain known as the Cougar. Whether she pulls her weight in that tale is something to perhaps explore at a later date.

Marvel Team-Up #67 Script: Chris Claremont Pencils: John Byrne Inks: Dave Hunt Letterer: Annette Kawecki