File:Marvel Team-Up Vol 1 75 001.jpg

Description
Spider-Man is trapped in a burning building in the South Bronx. Thus far, only his strength and agility have kept him from being burned alive. Suddenly the floor crumbles beneath his feet, and he falls into the basement, pinned beneath a beam. As smoke begins to overcome him, he recalls the events that led him to this tenement firetrap. A few hours before, Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson arrived at the Studio 13 disco in Manhattan. Peter was not particularly thrilled to be there, but his relationship with Mary Jane had become very shaky, and he did not want to pass up the chance for a date. Andre, the owner, greeted them and quickly asked Mary Jane to dance. Peter headed for the bar and asked for a beer, where he was surprised to find Luke Cage nearby. As Cage brought a drink to Harmony Whyte, a group of thugs calling themselves the Rat Pack pushed their way into the room. Armed with machine guns, they ordered everyone to freeze. Peter tried to sneak away to the men's room to change into his Spider-Man costume, but two of the thugs, "Stitches" and "Sparks, spotted him. Stitches went after him, but a few seconds later he was hurled back through the door and Spider-Man emerged. The thugs barely had a chance to register surprise when Luke Cage slammed them from behind. Even with their guns, they were no match for the two crimefighters, but then one of them seized a girl, Lisa, as a hostage. Luke whispered to Spider•Man to forget rescuing the girl, saying that he knew this particular gang and they could track them down later. The girl is no use to the gang once they escape, he continued, and they will let her go. Three hours later, as Luke and Spider-Man were on the roof of the tenement off Willis Avenue in the South Bronx, Luke explained that the Rat Pack is an arson mob that extorts protection money from landlords and businessmen. Soon a car pulled up in the street below, and Spider-Man descended to stop the emerging thugs, who were carrying gasoline cans. Simultaneously, Luke Cage jumped with his full weight onto the roof, which gave way and sent him crashing through several stories into the basement. Cage's unorthodox attack surprised three of the arsonists, but before he could knock them out, one of them doused him in the face with gasoline. The arsonist fled, but Spider-Man stopped him. Cage, however, was temporarily blinded, and he could not prevent the others from igniting the gasoline. The resulting explosion blew Cage right out the front door, where he was caught by Spider-Man's web-line. By this time the entire building was in flames. Cage wanted to rescue the residents, but Spider-Man told him that he was far too heavy for the burning beams, so Spider-Man entered alone. These are the last words that Spider-Man remembers as the smoke fills his lungs. Fortunately, Cage disregards Spider-Man's request to stay out of the building, and he smashes down the wall, heaves some burning beams out of the way, and carries Spider-Man outside. By this time, the fire department has arrived, and a physician treats Spider-Man with oxygen. It would have been far more severe, says the doctor, had Spider-Man's face not been covered. Once Spider-Man revives, Cage points out people screaming for help in the building's upper stories. As they watch, a fireman is raised toward the window in a bucket, but part of the burning wall falls on him and knocks him out. Spider-Man quickly runs up the crane and rescues him, while another fireman saves the people. But as Spider-Man lowers the fireman to the street, the remainder of his web fluid is used up, and suddenly the broken bucket crane sends him back into the fire. Spider-Man leaps off the crane onto a neighboring roof, just managing to grab a ledge. The chief, Ken Jorgenson, helps him over, explaining that the fire cut off his exit and he had to retreat up there. In the street below, the firefighters can see that if the building Spider-Man is on does not come down as soon as possible, the entire block could go up in flames. Cage is the only man with enough strength to wreck the building, and despite Spider-Man and the chief, the job must be done. So Cage tears the bucket crane off its truck and slams it like a wrecking ball against the building. As the building starts to shake, Spider-Man tells the chief to climb on his back and, taking a running start, Spider-Man leaps from the building to the one across the street just as Luke Cage's blows bring the building down. Unfortunately, the structure collapses on Cage. Horrified, Spider-Man leaps down and orders the men aside. He can get under the rubble a dozen times faster than a whole crew of diggers, he says. But as Spider-Man starts to dig, Cage taps him on the shoulder and tells him with glee that he was more than agile enough to get out of the way of the falling debris. Then they see the firefighter that Spider-Man rescued from the bucket crane being taken away in an ambulance. He has first- and second-degree burns over much of his body, says Jorgenson, and he may go into a coma. "Those men are the real heroes in this world," says Spider-Man to Luke. "We've just got the costumes."