Once Upon a Time, in a Castle… (Marvel Team-Up #36) (1975)

 HALLOWEEN REVIEWS 2025

Author: Gerry Conway

Artist: Sal Buscema

Embellisher: V. Colletta 

A fairly routine encounter between Spidey and a couple of two-bit hoods is going as usual, until…

And Conway very efficiently brings our two protagonists together.

Enter the villain of the piece, Baron von Shtupf, and if you have trouble taking that seriously, he’s also known as the Monster Maker.

Von Shtupf may be accustomed to dealing with monsters, but he seems unprepared for a man with the proportionate strength of a spider.

On the run, Spidey and Frankie get to know each other. I can see why Peter might want to spend time getting to know the Monster’s backstory, but I question the use of two pages to recap such a well-known story for the reader.

We are brought up to date. There’s a nice bit of continuity when Spidey references the contemporaneous Gwen-clone saga as a reason he is able to accept the Monster’s story (although, really, shouldn’t someone operating as a superhero in the Marvel Universe be able to find almost anything plausible?)

The sudden appearance of a damsel in distress changes the pair into allies.

The lady, however, is not what she seems, which becomes apparent when she turns the tables on our heroes.

Spider-Man and Kemmer move on von Shtupf to foil his plan to create the ultimate monster, leaving Frankie behind because of his clumsiness.😢

The assault begins.

As the rejected monster brings up the rear.

It’s starting to look like he might end up being the cavalry.

The monster mashup continues, though I’m not quite sure how von Shtupf sees Spidey in the same category as Man-Wolf and the Frankenstein Monster.

Lacking in logic but otherwise fun; personally, I  always preferred the issues of MTU like this that featured obscure second-string characters that had been underused or had faded from the spotlight.