In every installment of I Love Ya But You’re Strange I spotlight strange but ultimately endearing comic stories. Feel free to e-mail me at brianc@cbr.com if you have a suggestion for a future installment!

Today, we look at an odd team-up between Spider-Man and Thor.

Now look, I get it. I really do. When you are writing a book like Marvel Team-Up, it is a major pain in the butt to come up with ways for superheroes to run into Spider-Man. I think that that is why later writers would often try to come up with longer arcs, as the longer arcs make it easier for Spider-Man to team up with different heroes, as you could have him team-up with Vision and Scarlet Witch and then have the Vision be the team-up for one issue and Scarlet Witch be the team-up for the second issue.

So yes, I am very aware that this is a difficult way to write a monthly comic book, but the way that Gerry Conway came up with to have Spider-Man and Thor team up in Marvel Team-Up #7 still cracks me up.

The issue, which was drawn by Ross Andru and Jim Mooney, opens with Thor and Spider-Man in battle with some bad guys and then flashes back to how they got into this predicament.

Peter Parker is walking down the street when he hears a woman scream. He leaps into action, literally, as he jumps out of his own shoes (hoping that the criminals won't notice that he is wearing Spider-Man's leggings on his feet).

Doesn't the woman's haircut seem like she is destined to be, like, an alien or something like that? That's one weird hairdo she is rocking there. Since she doesn't show up again this issue, then Andru must have just been trying to draw a contemporary hairstyle and it got away from him. When she says that she doesn't want to get involved, Peter has a bad reaction, presumably thinking back to the time that HE didn't want to get involved and he allowed a burglar to get away and then that burglar murdered Peter's beloved Uncle Ben.

While he is pitying himself (as he is wont to do), suddenly Thor starts heckling him!

Yes, Thor apparently watched the whole thing from a fire escape. Why did Thor just watch a mugging from a fire escape? Your guess is as good as mine, but the whole thing is so wild that I actually kind of dig it.

Seeing a fellow superhero, Peter sorts of instinctively kicks into his wiseass persona and starts giving Thor some grief, which Thor is shocked to be getting from some random human...

Oh no, something crazy is going on!

Page 2: [valnet-url-page page=2 paginated=0 text='Spider-Man makes a major revelation to Thor']

The whole world has been turned into negatives as they are also frozen!

Since things are so dire, Peter figures that he shouldn't beat around the bush and he just reveals that he is Spider-Man. Since Thor didn't get his name and I doubt he pored over Peter's looks, it makes a legitimate enough reason why he didn't remember that Peter was Spider-Man.

It turns out that some troll dude got a hold of a powerful dark crystal...

However, do note that we later learn that the dark crystal was actually something that belonged to the Watcher and they stole it from him. It's weird that they forget the whole "found it in a cavern" part of the plot that they establish here...

Anyhow, they defeat the bad guy and give the Watcher his crystal back and then there's this bit where, was it really a coincidence that Thor and Spider-Man happened to be together when the villain froze the rest of the world, or perhaps that was somehow the Watcher's doing, as well. Maybe the Watcher is the reason Thor was hanging out in an alley on a fire escape?

Either way, it's bizarre, but the comic book is fun anyways.

If anyone else has a suggestion for a future I Love Ya But You're Strange, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!