{"id":18253,"date":"2018-04-21T08:00:45","date_gmt":"2018-04-21T08:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=18253"},"modified":"2018-04-19T15:47:07","modified_gmt":"2018-04-19T15:47:07","slug":"spider-man-marvel-team-up-by-claremont-byrne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2018\/04\/21\/spider-man-marvel-team-up-by-claremont-byrne\/","title":{"rendered":"Spider-Man: Marvel Team-Up by Claremont & Byrne"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\"\"
\nBy Chris Claremont<\/strong>, John Byrne<\/strong>, Ralph Macchio<\/strong>, Dave Hunt <\/strong>& various (Marvel)
\nISBN: 978-0-7851-5866-0<\/p>\n

The concept of team-up books – an established A-lister joining or battling (usually both) less well-selling company co-stars – was not new when Marvel decided to award their most popular hero the lion’s share of a new title, but they wisely left their options open by allocating an occasional substitute lead in the Human Torch<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In those halcyon, simpler days editors were acutely conscious of potential over-exposure and since super-heroes were actually in a decline at that time, they may well have been right.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, when it launched in March 1972, Marvel Team-Up<\/strong> was the second official Spider-Man<\/strong> title (an abortive companion title Spectacular Spider-Man<\/strong> was created for the more respectable – and pricey – magazine market in 1968 but folded after two issues) and it immediately began bucking the downward trend for costumed crusaders.<\/p>\n

Encompassing July 1977 to November 1978 and re-presenting Marvel Team-Up<\/strong> #59-70 and 75, this highly selective and utterly engaging volume gathers the (almost) complete oeuvre and cathartic collaborations of late 70’s wonder kids Chris Claremont and John Byrne: at that time setting the comics world on fire with their Iron Fist and new X-Men tales. Why \u00e2\u20ac\u0153almost\u00e2\u20ac\u009d? Because the book sadly omits a lovely Red Sonja<\/em> pairing presumably unavailable as the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153She-Devil with a Sword\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is now licensed to another publisher\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

The tense suspense and cataclysmic action commence with #59 which declared ‘Some Say Spidey Will Die by Fire\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 Some Say by Ice!’<\/em> by (Claremont, Byrne & inker Dave Hunt) as veteran Avenger Yellowjacket<\/em> is apparently murdered by rampaging mystery maniac Equinox, the Thermo-Dynamic Man<\/em> and the Amazing Arachnid is hard-pressed to stop the traumatised Wasp<\/em> exacting bloody vengeance in concluding episode ‘A Matter of Love\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 and Death!’<\/em> in MTU<\/strong> #60<\/p>\n

Claremont had actually begun scripting the title with issue #57 as a succession of espionage-flavoured heroes and villains battled for possession of a mysterious clay statuette.<\/p>\n

The secret of the artefact is now revealed in #61 as the Human Torch Johnny Storm<\/em> joins his creepy-crawly frenemy in battle against the Super-Skrull<\/em> and learns ‘Not All Thy Powers Can Save Thee!’<\/em>, before the furious clash calamitously escalates to include Ms. Marvel<\/em> with the next issue’s ‘All This and the QE2’<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Despite the very best efforts of Claremont & Byrne, their Kung Fu fantasy Iron Fist<\/strong> never quite achieved the kind of sales traction of their collaboration on the X-Men<\/strong>, and thus the living weapon lost his circulation battle with issue #15 of his own title.<\/p>\n

The series ended in spectacular fashion, but the cancellation was clearly unplanned, as two major subplots went unresolved: private detective Misty Knight<\/em> had disappeared on an undercover assignment to investigate European gang-boss John Bushmaster<\/em> and K’un Lun kid Danny Rand<\/em> was still suffering repeated attacks on his chi by the enigmatic and murderous Steel Serpent<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Frustrated fans didn’t have to wait long for a resolution though: Marvel Team-Up<\/strong> was becoming the creative team’s personal clearing house for unresolved plot-lines. Issues #63 and 64 exposed the secret of the sinister K’un Lun pariah on the ‘Night of the Dragon’<\/em> before Rand and Spidey – with the assistance of Daughters of the Dragon<\/em> Misty Knight and Colleen Wing<\/em> – finally ended the threat in blistering martial arts manner with ‘If Death Be My Destiny!’<\/em><\/p>\n

After a short and sweet flurry of original adventures in his own UK title, Captain Britain <\/strong>eventually succumbed to the English version of funnybook limbo – his title subsumed by a more successful one with CB<\/strong> reduced to reprints. Soon after, he pyrrhically debuted across the water in Marvel Team-Up<\/strong> #65 ‘Introducing Captain Britain’<\/em> by originating scripter Claremont and British-born, Canada-bred Byrne.<\/p>\n

The story depicted Brian Braddock<\/em> on student transfer to Manhattan as the unsuspecting house-guest of Peter Parker<\/em>. Before long the heroes had met, fought and then teamed-up to defeat the flamboyant hit-man games-obsessed Arcade<\/em> with the transatlantic tale concluding in #66 wherein the abducted antagonists systematically dismantled the maniac’s ‘Murderworld’<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The mystery of a long-vanished feline were-woman warrior was then resolved in ‘Tigra, Tigra, Burning Bright!’<\/em> as the webslinger is targeted by Kraven the Hunter<\/em>, using the Feral Fury as his enslaved attack beast until Spider-Man breaks her conditioning, after which Claremont, Byrne & Bob Wiacek explore ‘The Measure of a Man!’<\/em> in #68 as the Arachnid philanthropically returns the captive Man-Thing <\/em>to his Florida swamp habitat. No good deed ever goes unpunished and soon he encounters horrific demon D’Spayre <\/em>torturing benevolent enchanters Dakimh<\/em> and Jennifer Kale<\/em>. It takes every ounce of courage both man and monster possess to defeat the sadistic dark lord\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

A clash with Egyptian-themed thieves next draws Spidey into the years-long duel between cosmic powered X-Man Havoc<\/em> and his nemesis the Living Monolith<\/em> in ‘Night of the Living God!’ <\/em>(inked by Ricardo Villamonte), but when the battle turns against them it requires the thunderous might of Thor<\/em> to stop the ravening astral menace in ‘Whom Gods Destroy!’<\/em> by Claremont, Byrne & Tony DeZu\u00c3\u00b1iga\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

This epic clash signalled an end to the good times as MTU <\/strong>then downshifted to short filler tales but this collection of top-rate comics entertainment still end on a stellar high as Claremont, Ralph Macchio, Byrne & Al Gordon unite in tribute to the New York Fire Department with #75’s ‘The Smoke of That Great Burning!’<\/em> wherein Spider-Man and Hero for Hire Luke Cage<\/em> are caught up in a robbery and hostage crisis which soon turns into a major conflagration\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

There’s tons of great Fights ‘n’ Tights action here and younger readers will have a blast, so why not consider this tome for your \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Must-Have\u00e2\u20ac\u009d library\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6
\n\u00c2\u00a9 1977, 1978, 2011, 2018 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Chris Claremont, John Byrne, Ralph Macchio, Dave Hunt & various (Marvel) ISBN: 978-0-7851-5866-0 The concept of team-up books – an established A-lister joining or battling (usually both) less well-selling company co-stars – was not new when Marvel decided to award their most popular hero the lion’s share of a new title, but they wisely … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Spider-Man: Marvel Team-Up by Claremont & Byrne”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[79,39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marvel-superheroes","category-spider-man"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-4Kp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18253\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}