Marvel Team-Up in the 70s
Marvel Team-Up was the first ongoing Spider-Man spin-off title (if you ignore Spectacular Spider-Man magazine). It featured Marvel’s most popular character teaming up with other heroes in the Marvel Universe. It gave the creative team the opportunity to put Spider-Man in situations that might not be possible in the core Spidey title, Amazing Spider-Man.
The original creative team included writer Roy Thomas and artist Ross Andru. The first issue paired up Spider-Man with his long time ally the Human Torch against the Sandman. The pair decided to let the villain go when they learned that he was trying to visit his mother on Chirstmas. The story is noteworthy for introducing the character Misty Knight although he appearance here was as a random person-on-the-street that Spidey and the Torch ran into. The next issue paired Spider-Man and the Torch again, this time against the Frightful Four. The next issue two issues were written by Gerry Conway and drawn by Gil Kane. It was a two part story involving Morbius the Living Vampire with the first part featuring the Human Torch (again), and then the X-Men, who were in publication limbo at the time while their own title was pushing out reprints. Conway and Kane continued the series with another two parter involving the Puppet Master in issues #5 and 6, pairing Spider-Man up with Vision and later the Thing. The second story is noteworthy as it looked into the past of the Puppet Master and his step-daughter Alicia Masters. Conway and Ross Andru did the following issue, a one-off story pairing up Spider-Man with Thor against a lame otherdimensional troll type character called Kryllk. Conway and Jim Mooney then paired up in issue #8, teaming up Spider-Man with the Cat (later Tigra) against a new villain called the Man-Killer who — GET THIS — hated men.
This was followed by a three issue story arc that had Spider-Man defending all time from Zarrko the Tomorrow Man and Kang the Conqueror. It paired him up with Iron Man, the Human Torch (yet again), and the Inhumans. Jim Mooney took over penciling the 2nd and 3rd part and Len Wein helped write the final chapter. The pair then worked together with Ross Andru to do a story pairing Spider-Man with the Werewolf by Night in issue #12. Len Wein took over writing with Gil Kane and Ross Andru alternating as artists. Wein paired Spider-Man up with Captain America, the Sub-Mariner, and the Ghost Rider. While most of these stories picked up various threads of continuity they did little to add anything substantive to the sprawling history of the Marvel Universe. Next came a two part story in issues #16-17, which introduced a new villain named Bassilisk and paired Spidey with Captain Marvel and Mister Fantastic. Issue #18 gave Spider-Man a break, giving the Human Torch top billing and teaming him up with the Hulk against Blastaar. This started a trend in the early run of the series when Spider-Man would take a break from the title (usually because there was a lot going on in his own title) and using another known character.
Issues #19 and 20 teamed up Spider-Man with Ka-Zar and the Black Panther against Stegron the Dinosaur Man, one of the few villains introduced in this title that would move on to make regular appearances in the core Spider-Man books.
Anyway, there were a parade of writers and artists on regular rotation on this title. Some team-ups were better tan others. Some notable stories include issues #41-46 which featured Spider-Man going back in time to the Salem Witch Trials (!?!) with the Scarlet Witch, Vision, Moon Dragon and Doctor Doom. Then, he gets flung into two different futures where he teamed up with both Killraven and Deathlok. Issue #48-51 brought us the Wraith saga, which is better known for introducing Jean DeWolff, a police officer with an affectation for the 1930s who later becomes one of Spider-Man’s most staunch allies and one of the few people in law enforcement who believes the wall-crawler is a hero. Issues #63-64 saw Chris Claremont use the title to wrap up loose ends after Iron Fist was cancelled, while issues #65-66 introduced North American readers to Captain Britain and is the first appearance of Arcade, would go on to torment the X-Men on a regular basis.
One of the stranger issues of the title is issue #74 which saw Spider-Man team-up with the original cast of Saturday Night Live. This comic is notable due to the fact that various issues such as licensing with NBC for SNL and the likeness rights of the cast members ensures that this comic will probably never be reprinted. Speaking of janky rights issues is possibly one of the best Team-Up stories of the 70s: Marvel Team-Up #79, which saw Spider-Man team-up with Red Sonja. Since then, the rights to Red Sonja were licensed to Dynamite Entertainment. Interestingly Marvel Team-Up #79 was reprinted once when Marvel and Dynamite worked together in a contemporary Spider-Man/Red Sonja team-up limited series. When that series was reprinted in trade paperback it included a reprint of Marvel Team-Up #79.
The only other noteworthy story to point out from this decade is issue #81, which featured Spider-Man team up with Satana. Satana, the sister of Son of Satan was mostly featured in Marvel’s horror magazines of the era. Claremont worked on the character in a bid to boost its popularity but to no avail. So instead he dumps her in Marvel Team-Up and killed her off, not that that lasted very long.
Marvel Team-Up struggled with being a “plug” series (attempting to introduce readers to other characters by roping them in with Spider-Man) and trying to tell meaningful stories that mattered to continuity a test the title would struggle with in the next decade.
