Essential Super-Villain Team-Up: Volume 1 TPB

Posted: Wednesday, February 9, 2005
By: Shawn Hill

Contains: Super-Villain Team-Up #1-14, 16, 17; Giant-Size Super-Villain Team-Up #1,2; Avengers #154-156; Champions #16 and excerpts of Astonishing Tales #1-8.

Writers: Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, Steve Englehart, Gerry Conway, Bill Mantlo
Artists: Wally Wood, John Buscema, Gene Colan, George Perez, Sal Buscema, Keith Giffen, Carmine Infantino, Mike Sekowsky, Herb Trimpe, et al.

Publisher: Marvel Comics

Plot: Imagine Dr. Doom, the Red Skull, and the Sub-Mariner in an unholy alliance to dominate the world. Throw in Magneto, Attuma, Tiger Shark, and, oh why not, Hitler too! Let’s get irrational Ambition is all!

Comments: First just try and roll that title off your tongue. Could there have been any more of a boardroom, cobbled together attempt to use some dormant properties all at once? This high-concept smorgasbord is a relic of the 1970s, a charming throwback to a Marvel Universe in major transition. Spanning most of the decade, Essential Super-Villain Team-Up captures that “Make Mine Marvel!” period when Stan had moved on from the writing chores on most books, and the next generation of scribes was trying to keep that vibrant 1960s spirit alive. It’s interesting to think that books like Emma Frost and Rogue had antecedents in books like this, or DC’s similar Secret Society of Super Villains. Telling the story from the antagonist’s point of view isn’t a new idea after all; and though challenging, sometimes it even works.

The difficulty (as later writers of Magneto would discover) is that in making your villain sympathetic, you risk muting his or her charisma. This tome presents some of Dr. Doom’s personal demons (literally; his mom’s soul is trapped in Hell), but thankfully few of his foibles. When Sub-mariner shows up he quickly becomes the focal character, interacting with the other creeps against his will and under duress.

What a slice of the 1970s Bullpen we get here. This volume takes one back to the era when artists were viewed as assembly line workers; when frequent fill-ins and reprints occurred in every title, and writers were juggled around even as they were hitting their stride. It’s a real hodgepodge, with some creators at the top of their game, others fading before our eyes, still others in their awkward early years.

The Astonishing Tales shorts feature wonderful work by Wally Wood, and end on a high note with a moody Gene Colan masterpiece. Buscema amazes in Giant-Size #1, and who dominates #2 but Justice League great Mike Sekowsky? Herb Trimpe and Carmine Infantino had seen better days, but Sal Buscema never looked better than he did under Pablo Marcos’s inks in the three-part Avengers crossover (where he follows early Perez admirably). A baby Keith Giffen did two issues of the titular book, several months apart, with the first amateurish and rough, the second hinting at the complexity to come. Bill Mantlo’s issues are uninspired, but at that point guest stars galore still offered some amazing moments, like the entire world (including the Champions and the Avengers) bowing down at Doom’s feet, and Magneto (fresh off his revival in Uncanny X-men) coming up with some creative ways of dealing with his enemies.

Aside from the Conway/Colan Doom story (“And Some Call it Magic”), I wouldn’t call one of these stories classic. Marvel was straining to keep on going, and that grab-bag approach shows very clearly. Nonetheless, this collection is chock-full of action, characterization and intrigue, from an ultimately fertile and experimental period.