For me, this book represents the end of an era (although I wasn't even reading comics at the time). Team up books represented a huge chunk of my childhood comic book reading. Between 1978 and 1983, I read a ton of MTU, Marvel Two-in-One, Brave and the Bold and DC Comics Presents. By the time Marvel Team-Up #150 hit the shelves at the tail end of 1984, it was the last one standing. This great series was cancelled in order to make room for the less than great Web of Spider-Man, but at least they gave it a double-sized issue as a swansong. It's a pretty fun story, with Juggernaut sharing some of his power with Black Tom Cassidy. Sure, the fight sequence are overly long, but the characterizations are strong and Spidey's humor is intact. I've never been a big fan of the Barry Windsor-Smith cover, though, as it isn't consistent with the overall tone of this series. Like Joni said: you don't know what you've 'til it's gone.Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Exit Stage Left: Marvel Team-Up #150
For me, this book represents the end of an era (although I wasn't even reading comics at the time). Team up books represented a huge chunk of my childhood comic book reading. Between 1978 and 1983, I read a ton of MTU, Marvel Two-in-One, Brave and the Bold and DC Comics Presents. By the time Marvel Team-Up #150 hit the shelves at the tail end of 1984, it was the last one standing. This great series was cancelled in order to make room for the less than great Web of Spider-Man, but at least they gave it a double-sized issue as a swansong. It's a pretty fun story, with Juggernaut sharing some of his power with Black Tom Cassidy. Sure, the fight sequence are overly long, but the characterizations are strong and Spidey's humor is intact. I've never been a big fan of the Barry Windsor-Smith cover, though, as it isn't consistent with the overall tone of this series. Like Joni said: you don't know what you've 'til it's gone.
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10 comments:
It seems strange to see an appearance of the X-Men without Wolverine front and center.
That cover always seemed a little "off" to me.
Sadly, this was the FIRST issue of Marvel Team-Up I bought. I SO missed out.
Minor nitpick, but DC Comics Presents would have been the last one standing -- it survived to 1986.
Eh, as much as I loved Marvel Team-up (I'm pretty close to a complete run in single issues), I never liked this issue. Maybe I'll give it a re-read sometime soon.
I like the cornerbox--kind of a reprise of ASM#50.
Chris
You're right - I don't know why I had 1984 in my head. As I said, I wasn't much into comics around that time. Oops.
Thelonious - I love that too!
I liked the cover, thought it was unusual and moody. Sadly, it was kind of cramped by all the logos and cover copy. Never much liked Marvel Team-up, I thought the guest stars were just window dressing for pretty pedestrian stories--I always unfavorably compared it to Haney and Aparo's Brave & the Bold, the gold standard for team-up books.
I actually don't think I've read this one, which is odd. I loved Marvel Team-Up when I was a kid, but always thought the series ran out of steam after it hit 100. I've been rereading some of the early issues lately (the Bill Mantlo/Sal Buscema time-travel romp in MTU #41-46) and they remain great fun. I'll have to give the later issues a spin sometime soon.
As for the other team-up books, I find I still enjoy them — particularly Jim Aparo issues of The Brave & the Bold. I think I like those even more as an older fella!
Cheers,
Andrew
http://ComicsBronzeAge.com
Not only did DCCP survive until the Byrne revamp in '86, but it was replaced by the new Action Comics which continued as a Superman team up book until #600
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