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''Marvel Team-Up'' is an
American comic book An American comic book is a thin periodical originating in the United States, on average 32 pages, containing comics. While the form originated in 1933, American comic books first gained popularity after the 1938 publication of ''Action Comics'' ...
series published by
Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...
. The series featured two or more Marvel
characters Character or Characters may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk * ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to The ...
in one story. The series was originally published from March 1972 through February 1985, and featured
Spider-Man Spider-Man is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appeared in the anthology comic book '' Amazing Fantasy'' #15 (August 1962) in the ...
as the lead "
team-up In superhero comic books, a team-up is a fictional crossover where two or more superheroes or superhero teams who usually do not appear together work together on a shared goal. Overview The first team-up between characters published in different c ...
" character in all but ten of its 150 issues, and in six of its seven ''Annual''s. It was the first major ongoing spin-off series for Spider-Man, being preceded only by the short-lived ''
The Spectacular Spider-Man ''The Spectacular Spider-Man'' is a comic book and magazine series starring Spider-Man and published by Marvel Comics. Following the success of Spider-Man's original series, ''The Amazing Spider-Man'', Marvel felt the character could support ...
'' magazine. Of the issues that did not star Spider-Man, the
Human Torch The Human Torch (Jonathan "Johnny" Storm) is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character is a founding member of the Fantastic Four. He is writer Stan Lee's and artist Jack Kirby's reinvention of a si ...
headlines six issues (#18, 23, 26, 29, 32, 35); the
Hulk The Hulk is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in the debut issue of ''The Incredible Hulk (comic book), The Incredible Hulk' ...
, four (#97, 104, 105, and ''Annual'' #3); and
Aunt May Maybelle "May" Parker-Jameson (née Reilly), commonly known as Aunt May, is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, commonly in association with the superhero Spider-Man. Making her first full appeara ...
, one (#137). Publication of most of the issues starring the Human Torch coincided with that of ''Giant-Size Spider-Man'', an alternate Spider-Man "team-up"-themed series by the regular ''Marvel Team-Up'' creative team. When cancelled with #150 in 1985, the title was replaced by ''
Web of Spider-Man ''Web of Spider-Man'' is the name of two different monthly comic book series starring Spider-Man that have been published by Marvel Comics since 1985, the first volume of which ran for 129 issues between 1985 and 1995, and the second of which ran ...
''. The second series was published for 11 issues from September 1997 through July 1998 and originally featured Spider-Man;
Namor the Sub-Mariner Namor (), also known as the Sub-Mariner, is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Debuting in early 1939, the character was created by writer-artist Bill Everett for comic book packager Funnies Inc ...
was the featured character starting with #8. From 1995 to 1997, a quarterly series titled ''Spider-Man Team-Up'' fulfilled much the same purpose as the original title. The third ''Marvel Team-Up'' series, written by Robert Kirkman, began publication in January 2005 and frequently featured Spider-Man. This volume often reintroduced lesser-known Marvel characters that had fallen into obscurity. The spirit of ''Marvel Team-Up'' was carried on by '' Avenging Spider-Man'' and later by '' Superior Spider-Man Team-Up''.


Publication history

Comics journalist Jonathan Miller summarized ''Marvel Team-Up'' in a retrospective article: The series debuted with a March 1972
cover-dated The cover date of a periodical publication is the date displayed on the cover, which is not necessarily the true date of publication (the on-sale date or release date); later cover dates are common in magazine and comic book publishing. More unus ...
issue featuring Spider-Man and the Human Torch in a story by writer
Roy Thomas Roy William Thomas Jr."Roy Thomas Checklist" ''Alter Ego'' vol. 3, #50 (July 2005) p. 16 (born November 22, 1940) is an American comic book writer and editor, who was Stan Lee's first successor as editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics. He is possibl ...
and artist
Ross Andru Ross Andru (; born Rostislav Androuchkevitch, June 15, 1927 – November 9, 1993) Part 1: Animation: We Leave the Army", p. 21. In 1948, Andru's first professional work as a comic strip illustrator was drawing layouts for the ''Tarzan (comics), T ...
. Spider-Man and the Human Torch were originally the permanent headliners on the series, but the creators found this format limiting, and after just three issues the Human Torch was dropped in favor of a rotating co-star slot. The main artists on the series for the first several years were Andru,
Gil Kane Gil Kane (; born Eli Katz ; April 6, 1926 – January 31, 2000) was a Latvian-born American comics artist whose career spanned the 1940s to the 1990s and virtually every major comics company and character. Kane co-created the modern-day versio ...
,
Sal Buscema Sal Buscema (; ; born Silvio Buscema, January 26, 1936) is an American comics artist, primarily for Marvel Comics, where he enjoyed a ten-year run as artist of '' The Incredible Hulk'' and an eight-year run as artist of ''The Spectacular Spider-M ...
, and
Jim Mooney James Noel Mooney (August 13, 1919 – March 30, 2008) was an American comics artist best known for his long tenure at DC Comics and as the signature artist of Supergirl, as well as a Marvel Comics inker and Spider-Man artist, both during wh ...
. In 1974, Marvel started publishing ''Giant-Size Spider-Man'', which was a quarterly 68-page comic that lasted for six issues which complemented ''Marvel Team-Up''. The series featured team-ups, with each issue featuring a new story with a back-up reprint, except the last issue, which only featured a reprint. Due to the limitations of the typically single-issue team-up stories, the supporting cast of Spider-Man's other titles rarely appeared in ''Marvel Team-Up''. The series often featured non-superhero characters in the co-star slot. A multi-issue time travel story arc began in issue #41 with Spider-Man and the
Scarlet Witch Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby. Her first appearance was in ''The X-Men'' #4 (March 1964) ...
traveling to the
Salem witch trials The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. More than 200 people were accused. Thirty people were found guilty, 19 of whom w ...
in 1692, and pushed the barriers of continuity by having Spider-Man team up with two characters who had no established connection to the mainstream
Marvel Universe The Marvel Universe is a fictional shared universe where the stories in most American comic book titles and other media published by Marvel Comics take place. Super-teams such as the Avengers, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, the Guardians of ...
,
Killraven Killraven (Jonathan Raven) is a character (arts), fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character has been depicted as a freedom fighter in several Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, post-apoca ...
and
Deathlok Deathlok (also referred to as Deathlok the Demolisher) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He first appeared in '' Astonishing Tales'' #25 (Aug. 1974), created by Rich Buckler. At least three sub ...
. Though the series did often team Spider-Man with other highly popular characters, it regularly gave the co-star slot to obscure characters that the average reader was unlikely to even recognize, particularly during writer
J. M. DeMatteis John Marc DeMatteis (; born December 15, 1953) is an American writer of comic books, television and novels. Biography Early career J. M. DeMatteis's earliest aspirations were to be a rock musician and comic book artist. He began playing in ban ...
's run. DeMatteis recounted, "I was always attracted to the more obscure characters, mainly because they were ripe for exploration. You could crack them open and really develop them. ... I just looked at these fringe characters as more inviting than the mainstream, more established characters - who all had their set-in-stone continuity. I wanted room to play and those characters gave me all the room I wanted. And let's face it, our lead character was as mainstream as you can get, so the obscure ones made for a nice contrast." With issue #47, the series had a crossover with '' Marvel Two-in-One'' #17, which featured the
Thing Thing or The Thing may refer to: Philosophy * An object * Broadly, an entity * Thing-in-itself (or ''noumenon''), the reality that underlies perceptions, a term coined by Immanuel Kant * Thing theory, a branch of critical theory that focuses ...
.
Jean DeWolff Jean DeWolff is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. She is a New York City police detective, and a supporting character in stories featuring the superhero Spider-Man. Introduced in ''Marvel Team-Up'' ...
was introduced as a supporting character in the Spider-Man/Iron Man story in issue #48. John Byrne, who would later become the artist on ''The
Uncanny X-Men ''Uncanny X-Men'', originally published as ''The X-Men'', is an American comic book series published by Marvel Comics since 1963, and is the longest-running series in the X-Men comics franchise. It features a team of superheroes called the X ...
'', first drew the characters in ''Marvel Team-Up'' #53. Byrne and his ''Uncanny X-Men'' collaborator, writer Chris Claremont worked together on several issues of ''Marvel Team-Up''.
Captain Britain Captain Britain is a title used by various superheroes in comic books published by Marvel Comics, commonly in association with Excalibur. The moniker was first used in publication by Brian Braddock in ''Captain Britain Weekly'' #1 by writer Ch ...
, a character created for
Marvel UK Marvel UK was an imprint of Marvel Comics formed in 1972 to reprint US-produced stories for the British weekly comic market. Marvel UK later produced original material by British creators such as Alan Moore, John Wagner, Dave Gibbons, Steve Di ...
, made his first appearance in an American comic book in ''Marvel Team-Up'' #65 (January 1978).
Karma Karma (; sa, कर्म}, ; pi, kamma, italic=yes) in Sanskrit means an action, work, or deed, and its effect or consequences. In Indian religions, the term more specifically refers to a principle of cause and effect, often descriptivel ...
, a character that later joined the
New Mutants The New Mutants are a group of fictional mutant superheroes appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, generally in association with the X-Men. Originally depicted as the teenaged junior class at the Xavier Institute, subs ...
, was created by Claremont and artist
Frank Miller Frank Miller (born January 27, 1957) is an American comic book writer, penciller and inker, novelist, screenwriter, film director, and producer known for his comic book stories and graphic novels such as his run on ''Daredevil'' and subsequen ...
in #100's lead story. A photo cover by Eliot R. Brown was used for the Spider-Man/Captain America team-up in issue #128. Though published for well over a decade, the series format never truly caught on with readers. Upon taking a serious look at sales figures for ''Marvel Team-Up'', Marvel's editorial staff found that sales dramatically rose or fell with each issue depending solely on the popularity of that issue's co-star. Taking this into consideration, Marvel editor-in-chief
Jim Shooter James Shooter (born September 27, 1951) is an American writer, editor and publisher for various comic books. He started professionally in the medium at the age of 14, and he is most notable for his successful and controversial run as Marvel Comic ...
concluded that it would make more sense to have another Spider-Man solo series with guest stars appearing when the storyline and/or promotional needs called for it, rather than a team-up series which unnaturally forced guest-stars upon the story. The series ended with issue #150 (February 1985), to be replaced by ''
Web of Spider-Man ''Web of Spider-Man'' is the name of two different monthly comic book series starring Spider-Man that have been published by Marvel Comics since 1985, the first volume of which ran for 129 issues between 1985 and 1995, and the second of which ran ...
''. A Hulk and the Human Torch story written by
Jack C. Harris Jack C. Harris (born August 30, 1947) is an American comic book writer and editor known mainly for his work in the 1970s and 1980s at DC Comics. Biography Early life and career Jack C. Harris attended the Philadelphia College of Art and grad ...
and drawn by
Steve Ditko Stephen John Ditko Page contains two reproductions from school yearbooks. A 1943 Garfield Junior High School yearbook excerpt lists "Stephen Ditko". A 1945 Johnstown High School yearbook excerpt lists "Stephen J. Ditko" under extracurricular act ...
in the 1980s that was intended for ''Marvel Team-Up'' was published by Marvel as ''Incredible Hulk and the Human Torch: From the Marvel Vault'' #1 in August 2011. ''Spider-Man Team-Up'' was a brief attempt to revive the concept of the series and was soon followed by ''Marvel Team-Up'' vol. 2 which was published from September 1997 to July 1998. The third ''Marvel Team-Up'' series launched in January 2005 and ran for 25 issues which starred a variety of characters. The fourth series began with a June 2019 cover date and contains legacy numbering.


''Marvel Team-Up''


''Annual''s


''Spider-Man Team-Up''


''Marvel Team-Up'' vol. 2


''Marvel Team-Up'' vol. 3


''Marvel Team-Up'' vol. 4


Collected editions


Volume 1

* ''
Marvel Masterworks ''Marvel Masterworks'' is an American collection of hardcover and trade paperback comic book reprints published by Marvel Comics, with the main goal of republishing classic ''Marvel Comics'' storylines in a hardcover, premium edition, often with ...
: Marvel Team-Up'' ** Vol. 1 collects issue #1-11, 248 pages, December 2010, ** Vol. 2 collects issue #12-22, 256 pages, June 2012, ** Vol. 3 collects issue #23-30, ''Giant-Size Spider-Man'' #1-3, 272 pages, May 2018, ** Vol. 4 collects issue #31-40, ''Giant-Size Spider-Man'' #4-5, ''Marvel Comics Calendar 1975'', 296 pages, January 2019, ** Vol. 5 collects issue #41-52, 304 pages, August 2020, ** Vol. 6 collects issue #53-64, 320 pages, August 2021, * ''Essential Marvel Team-Up'' ** Vol. 1 collects issue #1-24, 496 pages, April 2002, ** Vol. 2 collects #25-51, 528 pages, August 2006, ** Vol. 3 collects #52-73, #75, and ''Annual'' #1, 480 pages, September 2009, ** Vol. 4 collects #76-78, 80–98, and ''Annual'' #2-3, 480 pages, February 2013, * ''Spider-Man: Marvel Team-Up by Claremont & Byrne'' includes ''Marvel Team-Up'' #59-70, 75, 240 pages, December 2011, * ''Fantastic Four/Spider-Man Classic'' includes ''Marvel Team-Up'' #100 and #132-133, 152 pages, April 2005, * ''Essential Defenders'' ** Vol. 5 includes ''Marvel Team-Up'' #101, 111 and 116, 448 pages, August 2010, ** Vol. 6 includes ''Marvel Team-Up'' #119, 528 pages, October 2011, * ''Spider-Man: The Complete Alien Costume Saga'' ** Volume 1 includes ''Marvel Team-Up'' #141-145, ''Annual'' #7, 488 pages, January 2012, ** Volume 2 includes ''Marvel Team-Up'' #146-150, 504 pages, May 2015,


''Spider-Man Team-Up''

* ''Spider-Man: The Complete Clone Saga Epic'' Vol. 5 includes ''Spider-Man Team-Up'' #1, 424 pages, April 2010, * ''Spider-Man: The Complete Ben Reilly Epic'' ** Volume 3 includes ''Spider-Man Team-Up'' #2, 432 pages, January 2012, ** Volume 4 includes ''Spider-Man Team-Up'' #3, 464 pages, April 2012, ** Volume 5 includes ''Spider-Man Team-Up'' #4, 464 pages, July 2012, ** Volume 6 includes ''Spider-Man Team-Up'' #5, 448 pages, November 2012, * ''Thunderbolts Classic'' Vol. 1 includes ''Spider-Man Team-Up'' #7, 296 pages, April 2011,


Volume 3

* ''Marvel Team-Up'' ** Vol. 1: ''The Golden Child'' collects ''Marvel Team-Up'' vol. 3 #1-6, 144 pages, June 2005, ** Vol. 2: ''Master of the Ring'' collects ''Marvel Team-Up'' vol. 3 #7-13, 176 pages, December 2005, ** Vol. 3: ''League of Losers'' collects ''Marvel Team-Up'' vol. 3 #14-18, 120 pages, June 2006, ** Vol. 4: ''Freedom Ring'' collects ''Marvel Team-Up'' vol. 3 #19-25, 168 pages, February 2007,


Volume 4

* ''Ms. Marvel Team-Up'' collects ''Marvel Team-Up'' vol. 4 #1-6, November 2019,


See also

* ''
The Brave and the Bold ''The Brave and the Bold'' is a comic book series published by DC Comics as an ongoing series from 1955 to 1983. It was followed by two mini-series in 1991 and 1999, and was revived as an ongoing title in 2007. The focus of the series has varied ...
'' - The first
DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...
equivalent. * ''
DC Comics Presents ''DC Comics Presents'' is a comic book series published by DC Comics from 1978 to 1986 which ran for 97 issues and four ''Annual''s. It featured team-ups between Superman and a wide variety of other characters in the DC Universe. A recurring back ...
'' - The second DC Comics equivalent. * ''
Ultimate Marvel Team-Up ''Ultimate Marvel Team-Up'' is a comic book series, published by Marvel Comics which ran for 16 issues, including a concluding ''Ultimate Spider-Man Super Special''. It is set in one of Marvel's shared universes, the Ultimate Universe and is base ...
'' - The
Ultimate Marvel Ultimate Marvel, later known as Ultimate Comics, was an imprint of comic books published by Marvel Comics, featuring re-imagined and modernized versions of the company's superhero characters from the Ultimate Marvel Universe. Those characters ...
Universe's team-up series.


References


External links


''Marvel Team-Up''
at the Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators {{Spider-Man publications, state=collapsed 1972 comics debuts 1985 comics endings 1997 comics debuts 1998 comics endings 2005 comics debuts 2006 comics endings 2019 comics debuts Comics by Chris Claremont Comics by Gerry Conway Comics by J. M. DeMatteis Comics by Len Wein Comics by Louise Simonson Comics by Roy Thomas Spider-Man titles Team-up comics