Marvel Treasury Edition #8 (1975)

Giant Super-Hero Holiday Grab Bag
Twas The Night Before Christmas Fury is retiring for Christmas, when he finds Laura Brown waiting for him in his apartment. A very welcome guest, she offers to spend Christmas with him when he's called in to work. It seems the Hate-Monger has returned from the grave yet again, this time planning to destroy the Earth with a biological agent, wiping out "inferior" races so the samples of the master race aboard his satellite can repopulate the Earth.

Spider-Man Goes Mad! Peter's day doesn't start off well as he breaks up a burglary, but can't sell pictures since Frederick Foswell spotted Spider-Man but not Peter Parker. While trying to hide from J. Jonah Jameson at The Daily Bugle, he spots a letter from Ned Leeds to Betty Brant. When Peter comments on it, as much as he tries, he comes off as jealous and webslings around the city to keep his mind off of it. Suddenly, Jameson decides to have Bugle staff interview normal people and tell them why they hate Spider-Man (even if the Bugle staff never publish the good things). When Flash catches wind of this, he scares all the staff off. Meanwhile, Liz Allan allows Peter to be her tutor for science, much to Flash's dislike. As Jameson celebrates his biased poll, he gets a visit from Dr. Ludwig Rinehart who tells Jameson that due to a split personality between that of a man and a spider, it's only a matter of time before Spider-Man breaks down. When Peter hears this, he worries he might be going crazy and not know it. He makes his way down to the Bugle to tell Dr. Rinehart that he's wrong, but his spider-sense tells him that a jealous Flash is following him. Peter finally loses Flash covertly by throwing his "spider beam" to a roof while rounding a corner that Flash hasn't rounded yet. He gets distracted by the beam and loses interest in Peter. Peter then turns into Spider-Man and makes his way to Jameson's office but, out of nowhere, Doctor Octopus comes to attack him but disappears just as quick. This repeats again with Sandman as well as The Vulture and Spider-Man starts doubting his sanity. He worries that he might start attacking innocent people believing they're criminals so he heads home for rest. When he sees himself in the mirror, he decides not to wait and visits Dr. Rinehart immediately. As he enters the doctor's house, the entire room is upside down including the furniture, bookshelves, and even the doctor. As he runs to another room, it's also upside down and as Dr. Rinehart starts to consult him, Pete is taken to a room where everything is normal. As the consulting begins, more images of his enemies appear and vanish. At The Daily Bugle, however, Foswell comes to Jameson with news and Jameson tells the press room to kill the story on Rinehart as Jameson goes out to find him. Jameson enters in (with an angry Flash) just as Spider-Man is ready to confess who he is and confronts Dr. Rinehart of being a fraud. As the fraud is revealed, Flash tackles Jameson and Spider-Man runs after Dr. Rinehart realizing that the house had been staged with furniture nailed to the ceiling. The mask is pulled off and the doctor is none other than Mysterio. Mysterio tells Jameson that due to his editorials he picked the right time for Spider-Man to crack and tells Jameson that had he not have interrupted, Spider-Man would have been finished. Liz finally catches up to Peter and they go out to study. Before doing so, Peter tells a worried Aunt May where he's going.

Jingle Bombs! On Christmas Eve, Luke Cage is spending time at the clinic where Noah and Claire work. Luke happens to spy a child being beaten by a man in Dickinson-style dress. Stopping him, Luke learns that the man's name is Marley and he certainly acts his part -- telling Luke that he was beating on the boy for charging him fifteen cents for a newspaper (when he never paid more than two.) before disappearing into the winter weather. Taking the boy into the clinic for medical aid, Luke is unaware that this was orchestrated by Marley who wanted to see if there were any good Samaritans left in the world. Before leaving with Claire, Luke is warned by Burnstein that Phil Fox has been nosing around to try and get a story about Noah's clinic, bringing up fears that Noah's past might reveal Luke's past as a criminal. Later as Luke and Claire are out for a walk, they encounter what appears to be a war vet. Upon giving him some change, he has a bout of shell-shock and attempts to shoot them with an automatic weapon. Luke quickly disarms the man and breaks his gun, feeling sorry for the man they leave him be. This "vet" however turns out to be Marley once more, continuing the test he started earlier. After taking Clair out for dinner, the two are attacked by Marley yet again -- this time dressed as a futuristic "police-man" right out of George Orwell's Nineteen-Eighty Four, demanding their "identification cards" and attacking Luke with a laser. Luke manages to subdue Marley and turn him over to the police. However, when Luke notices the police car crashed on the side of the road not far after, he sends Claire home in a cab and goes after Marley. Marley gets the drop on Luke, managing to knock him out while disguised as a charity Santa Claus. Waking up, Luke is face to face with Marley, who tells him that entire evenings episode was to see if there was still any good in mankind. Unconvinced, he plans on destroying New York with a nuclear bomb of his own design at dawn. However, before he can detonate the bomb, he is distracted by the sound of someone coming down the chimney. This gives Luke the chance to stop Marley and destroy his detonator. With Marley incapacitated Luke is surprised to find that the person coming down the chimney was a would be thief. However, having just saved the city, Luke allows the thief to stumble through his explanation and the two watch the sun rise, Christmas Day finally arriving.

Heaven Is A Very Small Place! The Hulk lands in the desert and witnesses the formation of a small town, the result of an elaborate mirage. To his surprise the people in the town seem warm and friendly, however, in reality, they cannot see the Hulk and the Hulk confuses their neighborly gestures as being directed at him. The Hulk wanders around the town and realizes that everything passes through him as though he were a ghost. Confused, the Hulk finds a little girl in a wheelchair, who can apparently see and talk to him. Calling him a friend she tells him that they will talk forever. But just as suddenly as the Hulk meets this girl, she and the mirage world around him suddenly vanish. Alarmed at the sudden abandonment, the Hulk screams for the town to come back, but to no avail. After a moment of sorrow, the Hulk angrily strikes the ground, causing an earthquake large enough to register at a seismology center.

Eternity, Eternity Dr. Strange has a dream of Eternity, who tells him that he survived his battle against Dormammu, however when Strange approached, Eternity changes into Nightmare. Awakening from the dream, Wong informs Strange that it's New Years Eve. Taking Clea out to Times Square to count down to the New Year, things get weird when the clock strikes 12. As the New Year passess, dinosaurs, barbarians and other beings from other times start appearing in Times Square and attack the crowd, prompting Dr. Strange to dawn his sorcerers guise, publicly revealing his true nature. Fighting these threats, Nightmare suddenly appears with Eternity as his prisoner. Nightmare challenges Dr. Strange, who naturally accepts, and Nightmare forewarns him that one misttep will lead to the death.

Release Date: 1975