Marvel Team-Up (vol. 3) #5
Golden Child Part 5
The mutant known as Sunfire has come across the space ship owned by the Skrull named Titannus. He demands to know what the alien is doing in his country. That’s when he notices Amissa in suspended animation and assumes that she is the Skrull’s prisoner. When Sunfire attempts to free her, Titannus becomes furious and knocks the mutant out of his ship with a single blow.
Meanwhile, in New York, Spider-Man is trying to stop Cardiac from attacking a Drugco cargo ship. The vigilante tries to explain to Spider-Man that Drugco is smuggling a shipment of Catazene Seven that has been manufactured in South American factories and do not meet FDA standards. However, the web-slinger doesn’t want to listen because he has written off Cardiac as a lunatic. When attempting to disarm his foe, Spider-Man grabs Cardiac’s staff and is stunned long enough for Cardiac to destroy the drug shipment. Accomplishing his goals, Cardiac then summons his glider to make a getaway since he has no futher reason to fight. Realizing it is now daybreak, Spider-Man realizes that he had just enough time to get home and get changed before having to go to work.
At that same moment, at the X-Mansion, Storm walks past the security room and finds that X-23 has been up all night watching the monitors. Storm assures X-23 that the mansion is secure and the alarms can warn them of danger. When Laura ignores her, Ororo leaves her to whatever she is doing. Once Storm is gone, X-23 changes on the the monitors so she can watch Wolverine sleep. [1]
Back in Japan, Titannus is withstanding the full fury of Sunfire’s powers, asking if the mutant understands that he almost terminated Amissa’s life. Sunfire doesn’t care and continues to pour on the power, but all it does is make Titannus even angrier.
In New York, the Invisible Woman returns home ot the Baxter Building and discovers that her husband, Mister Fantastic, has been up all night working in his lab. He tells Sue that he has been in touch with Nick Fury who is out looking for the alternate-reality version of Tony Stark they recently encountered. Since there is nothing Reed can do until Fury finds this evil version of Tony Stark, Sue insists that he go to bed. With a smirk, Reed muses that people are wrong to think he’s the leader of the Fantastic Four.
At that same moment, working in a secret location, the evil Tony Stark is putting together a device that will allow him to return to his home reality. His prisoner, Paul Patterson, is pretending to sleep but Stark isn’t fooled. He tells the boy to quit faking it, telling him that the inhibitor collar he has placed on the young mutant will prevent him from using his powers. Stark is disappointed that the only way Paul can think to use his powers was to generate energy blasts, disappointed that the children of this dimension have the same lack of ingenuity as the ones back home.
Meanwhile, Peter Parker is running late for his classes at Midtown High and as he runs through the hall, his colleague Jean Bradley takes the opportunity to flirt with Peter as she enjoys how it makes him feel uncomfortable.[2] When Peter Parker arrives in class he is relieved that the principal hasn’t noticed he was late again and decides to cut his students some slack to keep quiet about his tardiness by making the planned quiz an open book test. Checking his voice mail, Peter is shocked to find a message from Paul Patterson, pleading for Peter to help him as Spider-Man. At the hideout of the evil Tony Stark decides to test out his device by deactivating Paul Patter’s inhibitor collar. When Paul attempts to kill Tony with is powers they are instead absorbed by the machine instead. Satisfied, Tony reactivates the collar so he can put in the final touches on his machine.
Paul Patterson’s power surge causes a blip that is picked up by Cerebra at the X-Mansion. Seeing this, X-23 tries to tell Cyclops and Emma Frost about it. However, Cyclops explains that they don’t have time to investigate the small blips from Cerebra, only the big ones, saying that going after small blips is something Wolverine would do. Insulted by this, X-23 decides to do exactly what Wolverine would do. While in Japan, Titannus has overpowered Sunfire and is preparing to punish the mutant for threatening the life of his beloved. In New York, Peter Parker decides to call Reed Richards for help. Reed is busy trying to track down the evil Tony Stark still but agrees to help Peter track where Paul Patterson’s call had come from, unaware that the young mutant is a prisoner of the very man he is trying to find. By this time, X-23 has followed the reading from Cerebra to the warehouse where Stark has Paul Patterson prisoner. Stark has finsihed building the dimensional gate that will return him home, telling Paul that his mutant powers will power the device, but unfortunately, it will kill Patterson in the process. That’s when Lauara’s enhanced senses warns her that someone is coming and turns to face Spider-Man as he arrives on the scene. Having never met X-23 before, Spider-Man jokingly wonders what they did to Wolverine.
In Japan, Titannus mercilliously pummels Sunfire while back in New York, X-23 tries to attack Spider-Man. As the web-slinger tries to evade her attacks, the pair end up falling through the skylight into the evil Tony Stark’s hideout. Landing in front of the evil Iron Maniac, Spider-Man jokingly introduces himself, since he has not met this alternate Tony Stark before either.
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man, X-23, Paul Patterson, Titannus, Cardiac, Iron Maniac, Sunfire, Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, X-Men (Cyclops, Wolverine, Storm, Emma Frost), Jean Bradley, Amissa
Continuity Notes
X-23’s interest in Wolverine is because she was created using his DNA. She is a genetic twin of Wolverine, not a clone. The most obvious difference is that she is female whereas Wolverine is male. Outside of this, Larua only has two claws on each hand, with the a claw on each foot. This was all revealed in X-23 #1-6.
Some facts about Peter Parker here:
At the time of this story, Peter was working as a teacher at Midtown High, a position he started in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #31.
Jean Bradley mentions Peter’s “Supermodel wife”, this would be Mary Jane Watson. At the time of this story, the couple are married. However, not long after this, their marriage is erased from existence by Mephisto in Amazing Spider-Man #545. In the new timeline, Jean would refer to Mary Jane as Peter’s fiancee instead of his wife.
