Essential Marvel Team-Up

    (Marvel, 2002-2006)
™ and © Marvel Entertainment Group

Marvel Team-Up, the mid–70s title that featured Spider-Man and a rotating cast of guest stars, is an unexpected and enjoyable addition to the Marvel Essential bookshelf. These stories deliver the essence of the 1970s Marvel style, with breezy storytelling and solid, action-oriented art from stalwart pros like Andru, Kane, Jim Mooney, and Sal Buscema.

Marvel Team-Up stories were fun on a number of levels. In some issues, Spidey got together with such familiar characters as The Human Torch, The Hulk, and Thor for some good old-fashioned super-heroics. Other issues brought figures from the far edges of the Marvel universe into mainstream settings in an attempt to leverage fan interest in Spider-Man into sales for new or offbeat titles. The Black Panther, Man-Wolf, Morbius, Ka-Zar, and Captain Marvel (who all had series running in second-string books at the time) were kept in contact with general Marvel continuity through these stories. The appearance of The X-Men in MTU #4 provided one of the bridges between the old series and the new, which made its debut shortly afterwards.

Like all Essentials, Essential Marvel Team-Up provides lots of pages for a reasonable price, as long as readers don’t mind black and white. But here, the format seems especially unfortunate, because this particular style of art really wants color. Someday soon, Marvel should find a cost-effective way to deliver the bulk value and outstanding range of material of the Essentials at the quality standards of its other softcover color graphic-novel series.

— Rob Salkowitz
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#2


Cover Price: $16.99
1 copy available for $14.50 		Len Wein, Gerry Conway, Bill MantloJim Mooney, Sal Buscema, Ron Wilson