Polite Dissent

Power Man is coaching a track team of inner city teens. His star runner Bret has been performing poorer and poorer. He and his girlfriend sneak off after practice one day. Suspicious, Power Man follows them and discovers that they have been smoking and playing pool (Gasp! Professor Harold Hill was right!) at the South Side Social Club. As Power Man is trying to listen in, Spider-Man swings by and eavesdrops as well.

For no discernible reason at all, these two experienced and powerful heroes decide that they need to bring in outside assistance to keep an eye on Bret. So they choose a hero who’s good at tracking like Wolverine, right? Wrong. So they choose a hero who was raised in the inner city and is streetwise like…um…Power Man, right? Wrong. Nope, Spider-Man and Power Man decide that they need the help of none other than Storm. There is no logical reason for including her in the story except that she was Marvel’s only notable black female superhero at the time (and probably still is).

Shortly, the bad guys’ dastardly plot is revealed! A ridiculous looking villain named Smoke Screen has decided he wants to control the local sports betting scene. Apparently the way to do this is by influencing the results of the high school track meet (because every gambler knows that’s where the big money is). His plan? Hook the star athlete on cigarettes so that he no longer has the cardiovascular endurance to compete in top form. No, really, that the plot: silly looking villain hooks star athlete on cigarettes so that he can take over the local mob by making millions from people betting on high school track.

No writing or art credits are given on this comic, and even the Grand Comics Database has no clue. That looks to be a John Romita Spider-Man on the cover, but I suspect it’s a cut and paste job as it doesn’t quite match the rest of the art. After some more thought, I realized I’d seen that Spider-Man pose before — it’s from the cover of Marvel Treasury Edition #28 (Spider-Man and Superman versus Dr. Doom and the Parasite) whose cover was penciled by John Romita. Spider-Man, Storm and Power Man was produced by Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc. and the American Cancer Society. It was first published in 1982 and I have the 1992 reissue — though it’s clear they never updated the math between the two editions: