Marvel Team-Up (1972 series) #49

Iron Man is at the bottom of a crater in the street, as Spider-Man is held over the edge of a roof by the villain called Wraith, and Police Captain Jean DeWolff, gun drawn, uncertain how to act….

Iron Man, stunned by the bomb blast last issue, drags himself from the crater to the street, before collapsing. Cabbie Charlie Hacker wants to apply some sort of aid to the injured hero but can’t remove his helmet….

Spidey wonders why this villain is so powerful…and the Wraith answers him, telling him it’s all in his mind. So the building they are standing on the roof of vanishes and the bad guy drops Spidey toward the street and reality shifts so he can’t shoot his webs accurately. He appeals to Iron Man below to catch him but this Shellhead transforms into a monster, letting Spidey hit the ground//

//Spidey comes to his senses and discovers he is still being held by the villain over the drop and the fall really was all in his mind. Jean DeWolff shoots at the villain but he halts her mentally. Spidey, recognizing that Wraith can only control one mind at a time, breaks free and tries to fight the Wraith but he is able to bend reality—though Spidey recognizes illusions, having fought Mysterio and Mirage. Jean tries to arrest Wraith but he manipulates her into aiming at Spider-Man and firing….

In the street, Iron Man finally clears his head somewhat, thanks Charlie for his aid and flies up to take the bullets meant for Spidey, who was allowing Jean to fight off Wraith’s control by herself (and now we’ll never know how that would work out). The two heroes try to tackle Wraith together but he vanishes, leaving them to bump heads. He appears above them, fires a gas pellet to keep Spidey from tracking him as he vanishes….

The other cops rush into Captain DeWolff’s office to see if she is alright, having been delayed by a fire-bomb through the front door. Then, former Commissioner Phillip DeWolfe, Jean’s father, arrives, mocking her performance and ability, having always believed that her brother Brian should have been promoted to the position instead of Jean. He hands her a threatening note that had earlier been delivered to his home, signed by the Wraith, written in Brian’s handwriting…but Brian is dead according to Jean. DeWolff has never accepted his son’s death and, with more snide comments about his daughter, takes his leave. Spidey and Iron Man enter Jean’s office and question the note in her brother’s writing. But she points out that her brother is dead and there was never any hostility between them. She explains how they graduated from the Police Academy together and served until two years ago when Brian and his partner Tim were ambushed by bad guys and there was a gun battle; Tim and four of the crooks died and Brian was never seen again. The heroes depart but outside Iron Man reasons that if they really are up against a ghost, they ought to call in a professional: Doctor Strange….