Ultimate Marvel Team-Up Vol 2

Ultimate Marvel Team-Up Vol 2 

By Brian Michael Bendis & various (Marvel)
ISBN 0-7851-1299-5

Probably the best of the three collections from the short lived (16 issues) Ultimate Marvel Team-Up series that introduced the re-worked Marvel Universe characters to the audiences then latching on to the stripped-down web-spinner and Mutant franchises.

The stories originally appeared in issues #9-13 of Ultimate Marvel Team-Up, all scripted by Bendis and feature a staggeringly innovative selection of comics stylists on the art chores. First up is the madcap Jim Mahfood, whose unique interpretation of the Fantastic Four – not to mention the never-so-wacky Skrulls – is a triumph of insanity.

Hard on those heels is a bleak tale of sewer monsters and family betrayal guest-starring the Macabre Man-Thing, illustrated by John Totleben and Ron Randall. A return bout with Wolverine and the X-Men comes next, courtesy of Chynna Clugston-Major. All these young heroes met during a bad day hanging at the Mall, in a refreshingly combat-free escapade, and the volume ends with Ted McKeever’s two-part Dr Strange tale as the son of Earth’s greatest Magician joins the wall-crawler in a charmingly odd multi-dimensional romp, loosely based on the Lee-Ditko classic that appeared in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #2 (1965).

The refreshing willingness to play with the characters and the creative fourth wall lent this series a much-needed spontaneity that eased a great deal of the tedium that should have occurred whilst reintroducing 40 years worth of characters to an audience that most pundits were sure they were already painfully familiar with them. And stylish funny engrossing stories will always find an appreciative audience.

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