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Essential Marvel Team-Up #3
Essential Marvel Team-Up, Vol. 3
The Man-Thing's Swamp, Murderworld, and the Moon are only a few battlefields on Spider-Man's agenda when he teams up with the X-Men, the entire original Avengers lineup, and more! Daredevil and the Black Widow! Power Man and Iron Fist! Captain America and the Falcon! Satana the Devil's Daughter and the Daughters of the Dragon! Captain Britain, Doctor Strange and Ms. Marvel! Opposed by such enemies as the Owl, the Super-Skrull, the Viper, and more miscreants who remain deadly to this day! Plus: Spider-favorites Electro and Kraven the Hunter! Also featuring Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., and the first appearance of X-adversary extraordinaire, Arcade! Collects Marvel Team-Up #52-73, #75-78, and #80-81; and Annual #1-2.
584 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1979
About the author
Chris Claremont
3,316 books909 followersChris Claremont is a writer of American comic books, best known for his 16-year (1975-1991) stint on Uncanny X-Men, during which the series became one of the comic book industry's most successful properties.
Claremont has written many stories for other publishers including the Star Trek Debt of Honor graphic novel, his creator-owned Sovereign Seven for DC Comics and Aliens vs Predator for Dark Horse Comics. He also wrote a few issues of the series WildC.A.T.s (volume 1, issues #10-13) at Image Comics, which introduced his creator-owned character, Huntsman.
Outside of comics, Claremont co-wrote the Chronicles of the Shadow War trilogy, Shadow Moon (1995), Shadow Dawn (1996), and Shadow Star (1999), with George Lucas. This trilogy continues the story of Elora Danan from the movie Willow. In the 1980s, he also wrote a science fiction trilogy about female starship pilot Nicole Shea, consisting of First Flight (1987), Grounded! (1991), and Sundowner (1994). Claremont was also a contributor to the Wild Cards anthology series.
Claremont has written many stories for other publishers including the Star Trek Debt of Honor graphic novel, his creator-owned Sovereign Seven for DC Comics and Aliens vs Predator for Dark Horse Comics. He also wrote a few issues of the series WildC.A.T.s (volume 1, issues #10-13) at Image Comics, which introduced his creator-owned character, Huntsman.
Outside of comics, Claremont co-wrote the Chronicles of the Shadow War trilogy, Shadow Moon (1995), Shadow Dawn (1996), and Shadow Star (1999), with George Lucas. This trilogy continues the story of Elora Danan from the movie Willow. In the 1980s, he also wrote a science fiction trilogy about female starship pilot Nicole Shea, consisting of First Flight (1987), Grounded! (1991), and Sundowner (1994). Claremont was also a contributor to the Wild Cards anthology series.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
March 5, 2023
From comic book Marvel Team-Up issue #57 newbie writer Chris Claremont, who would was quickly joined by the soon to be regular artist John Byrne. Thks duo that later went on to conquer the comic book reading world with the series that began with Essential X-Men, Vol. 1 were still fine-tuning their skills but still managed to create legends Murderworld, Arcade, Miss Ross, bring Captain Britain into the American Marvel Universe officially and give us D'Spayre! They wrote a lot of crap too, like Spider-Man teaming up with the Silver Samurai, the Saturday Night Live cast and Stan Lee! 5 out of 12, strong Two Stars overall. I read the comic books Marvel Team-Up #52-81 and Marvel Team-Up Annuals #1-2 which is more than what is collected in this volume.
2014 read
2014 read
June 8, 2024
3.5
There are always going to be some clunkers in these big volumes, and that is especially true for Marvel Team-Up. This one had its fair share, but there were also some real gems in here. Overall, this is an enjoyable volume, and a great look at some early Claremont/ Byrne collaborations.
There are always going to be some clunkers in these big volumes, and that is especially true for Marvel Team-Up. This one had its fair share, but there were also some real gems in here. Overall, this is an enjoyable volume, and a great look at some early Claremont/ Byrne collaborations.
March 22, 2021
There's a certain magic in the mid-70's MTU where they manage to make Spider-Man the central character in the universe who knows _EVERYBODY_ but at the same time keep the ragged outsider status that is (IMHO) essential to the character.
And this book covers half of the Chris Claremont's run (he wrote most of the issues of MTU from issues 57-89) where he used the book to tie up plot threads from old books (Iron Fist concludes here before the Power Man/Iron Fist series starts), advance plots for side characters from his other books (The Havok and Thor two-parter) or introduce characters he's going to use in those books later (Arcade in the Captain Britain two-parter) to great effect in making the world feel lived in and broad without the feeling of essential annual crossovers.
One thing i want to call out is trends in misogyny. : Claremont has a pretty well deserved rep as being progressive on these issues, writing the Ms. Marvel (personification of second wave feminism) book, introducing strong female characters in the mutant books and so on, and he has stories in this issue where Ms. Marvel and Black Widow get to be legit badass. But the Tigra team-up is just shudderingly bad, with Kraven having captured her months ago, slapping a collar on her that reduces her to the level of an animal and had her as a pet in his menagerie. When he captures Spider-Man he uses her to try to kill him, which of course doesn't work and Spidey breaks the collar, and then Kraven peats up Tigra again and has... a spare mind control collar! Just lying around! That Tigra needs Spidey to avoid! Yes, let's turn the cat girl into a pet/slave who needs someone to save her!
This jumps out at me because this issue may well have been the first comic book I ever read. It was almost certainly the first Spider-Man story i read. See, my parents bought my older brother and I comic subscriptions for Christmas and in December of 1977 this issue for him (along with Spidey Super-Stories for me) showed up in our mailbox (all mailed flat, natch!), and no one thought anything of it. But re-reading it today the questions pile up on the decisions that led to this story, and of Claremont not taking the logical step of... I dunno... Kraven putting the extra 'reduce to animal state' collar on his worst enemy to have a second pet to torment. But only the woman gets recued to pet status. I suppose i shouldn't complain - in the 21st century the name of "realism" would have included several descriptions of Kraven raping her while she's in animal state, so things have gotten both better and worse.
And this book covers half of the Chris Claremont's run (he wrote most of the issues of MTU from issues 57-89) where he used the book to tie up plot threads from old books (Iron Fist concludes here before the Power Man/Iron Fist series starts), advance plots for side characters from his other books (The Havok and Thor two-parter) or introduce characters he's going to use in those books later (Arcade in the Captain Britain two-parter) to great effect in making the world feel lived in and broad without the feeling of essential annual crossovers.
One thing i want to call out is trends in misogyny. : Claremont has a pretty well deserved rep as being progressive on these issues, writing the Ms. Marvel (personification of second wave feminism) book, introducing strong female characters in the mutant books and so on, and he has stories in this issue where Ms. Marvel and Black Widow get to be legit badass. But the Tigra team-up is just shudderingly bad, with Kraven having captured her months ago, slapping a collar on her that reduces her to the level of an animal and had her as a pet in his menagerie. When he captures Spider-Man he uses her to try to kill him, which of course doesn't work and Spidey breaks the collar, and then Kraven peats up Tigra again and has... a spare mind control collar! Just lying around! That Tigra needs Spidey to avoid! Yes, let's turn the cat girl into a pet/slave who needs someone to save her!
This jumps out at me because this issue may well have been the first comic book I ever read. It was almost certainly the first Spider-Man story i read. See, my parents bought my older brother and I comic subscriptions for Christmas and in December of 1977 this issue for him (along with Spidey Super-Stories for me) showed up in our mailbox (all mailed flat, natch!), and no one thought anything of it. But re-reading it today the questions pile up on the decisions that led to this story, and of Claremont not taking the logical step of... I dunno... Kraven putting the extra 'reduce to animal state' collar on his worst enemy to have a second pet to torment. But only the woman gets recued to pet status. I suppose i shouldn't complain - in the 21st century the name of "realism" would have included several descriptions of Kraven raping her while she's in animal state, so things have gotten both better and worse.
September 5, 2017
Another collection of Spider-man team-ups with some of the best, brightest, and most unusual characters in the Marvel Universe. (The Adam Warlock/ Strangers tale might be one of the best cosmic stories that I've ever read!) It may not seem like much, this volume. But, this is perhaps one of the most important collections of Marvel Team-Ups ever put together.
Volume 3 includes the some of the first ever appearances of Iron Fist, the Giant-Sized X-Men, and the first American appearance of Captain Britain. A number of these issues are the first ever pairing of writer Chris Claremont and artist John Byrne, right before their lengthy partnership on X-Men. If anything else, this book also opened me up to a slew of issues and reprints that I didn't know I wanted until now, including the ultra-rare Essential Marvel Team-Up Volume 4.
There's a wealth of great Spider-man stories in this volume. But there's one noticeable omission, Marvel Team-Up #74 in which Spidey teams up with the Cast of Saturday Night Life. Due to licensing agreements, that issue could not be reprinted. But that's okay, as a very long time ago I bit the bullet and bought that classic issue for about $15- and it was worth every penny!
Along with Claremont and Bryne, there's a ton of great talent in this book including Bill Mantlo (Rom: Spaceknight), Sal Buscema, and Ralph Macchio.
A collection that should not be overlooked just because it's in black and white.
Volume 3 includes the some of the first ever appearances of Iron Fist, the Giant-Sized X-Men, and the first American appearance of Captain Britain. A number of these issues are the first ever pairing of writer Chris Claremont and artist John Byrne, right before their lengthy partnership on X-Men. If anything else, this book also opened me up to a slew of issues and reprints that I didn't know I wanted until now, including the ultra-rare Essential Marvel Team-Up Volume 4.
There's a wealth of great Spider-man stories in this volume. But there's one noticeable omission, Marvel Team-Up #74 in which Spidey teams up with the Cast of Saturday Night Life. Due to licensing agreements, that issue could not be reprinted. But that's okay, as a very long time ago I bit the bullet and bought that classic issue for about $15- and it was worth every penny!
Along with Claremont and Bryne, there's a ton of great talent in this book including Bill Mantlo (Rom: Spaceknight), Sal Buscema, and Ralph Macchio.
A collection that should not be overlooked just because it's in black and white.
September 25, 2023
The one to two part team up story that DC did a lot of in the 60-80s is a format that when it works is GREAT and when it doesn't work, is kind of awful. As such, there are quite a number of stories in this volume that are truly enjoyable. For instance, Spider-Man and Captain Britain vs. Arcade. Or Spider-Man (along with Human Torch and Mrs. Marvel) vs. Super-Skrull. On the other hand you have stories that seem lazy and sorta rushed. Spider-Man and Man-Thing's team up reads like Claremont knew his time writing Man-Thing was nearing an end and if he was going to finish his story, he'd need one more issue than Marvel would give him. So he added Spider-Man to it so they could run it either in Man-Thing or MTU. It lacks some of the epic scope of the team-ups in the last volume and yet at the same time- one or two team ups aside- it tends to throw Peter Parker and real reason for Spidey to get involved to the wayside. Still it is mostly pretty good.
January 2, 2015
If you're familiar with Marvel Team-Up, it's a pretty solid and consistent thing of one issue storylines where Spider-Man meets another Marvel property, and they beat up a bad guy while talking to each other. It has the basic beats of Spider-Man humor and interesting storylines with heroes most Marvel fans like.
Highlights are the X-Men crossover in the annual, written about the same time the X-Men rebooted in the mid-70s, very good writing. Also, Spider-Man and Captain Britain meeting Arcade and his murderous game is pretty cool, mostly because Captain Britain is cool, as well as Arcade.
The rest are solid albeit a little shallow. The artwork is good and the writing is really good, simply by using people like Chris Claremont and other late 70s luminaries.
It's not a complicated storyline type of book, but it's a fun read, a nice diversion between brooding Wolverine essentials or some such. 5/5
Highlights are the X-Men crossover in the annual, written about the same time the X-Men rebooted in the mid-70s, very good writing. Also, Spider-Man and Captain Britain meeting Arcade and his murderous game is pretty cool, mostly because Captain Britain is cool, as well as Arcade.
The rest are solid albeit a little shallow. The artwork is good and the writing is really good, simply by using people like Chris Claremont and other late 70s luminaries.
It's not a complicated storyline type of book, but it's a fun read, a nice diversion between brooding Wolverine essentials or some such. 5/5
November 7, 2010
Reprints Marvel Team-Up #52-73, 75, and Annual #1. Spider-Man teams up with the X-Men and others to fight threats to Earth. Marvel Team-Up and Marvel Two-In-One were fun series that would never survive today in a more competative market. The stories were often one issue and involved characters with very limited fan bases (often it was used as a means to boost recognition since Spider-Man was at his height of popularity). This ends up giving strange stories involving Woodgod and other characters that rarely appear. They are fun stories to check out but sometimes they have very frustrating construction.
July 6, 2024
The creative team of Chris Claremont and John Byrne are akin to Lennon and McCartney or Simon and Garfunkel, in that together they created wonderful and memorable works but found it difficult to maintain their creative partnership. Their Marvel Team-Up run is fantastic. Iron Fist, Arcade, Captain Britain, the Living Monolith... this is such good stuff! It's almost criminal that Marvel only reprints this title in black and white phonebook format rather than the Masterworks format that it deserves.
February 27, 2014
This is a nice compilation of Marvel Team-ups. I read it for the Spider-Man Team-ups which these are all are so that makes me a happy camper. Sure, some of the issues can be a little corny but that was part of the comics.
Bottom line: Good one or two evening's read and a great way to fight off minor depression. A must for Spidey Fans to see who he teams up with and how they get along.
Bottom line: Good one or two evening's read and a great way to fight off minor depression. A must for Spidey Fans to see who he teams up with and how they get along.
March 13, 2011
Reading some of these as a part of a chronological X-Men read. Surprised to find a Claremont/Byrne team, the first appearance of Arcade, and Havok and Lorna shown away from the X-Men. Kinda curious about the rest of the collection.
The Byrne art is the best part so far.
The Byrne art is the best part so far.
May 20, 2012
I have to admit that my rating for this book is higher than it should be thanks to nostalgia. I had a subscription to Marvel Team-Up when I was a kid, and the issues that came in the mail are collected in this book. For someone without fond childhood memories of these comics, I'd rate this ***.
July 3, 2013
With these issues Team-up came of age and with the dream team of Claremount and Byrne, and the introduction of supporting characters such as Captain DeWolfe showed that a team up mag using well established characters need not be simply a means of increasing overall comic sales.
June 29, 2014
Meat and potatoes rack-filler comics, with the bulk of the entries here coming from Chris Claremont and John Byrne. Spider-Man does everything a Spider-Man can, in tandem with a variety of other heroes. Sadly, the Spider-Man/Saturday Night Live issue is not included in this collection.
November 21, 2014
Good old fashioned Silver age cheese at its finest! My only regret is that they didn't reprint the one with the Not Ready for Prime Time Players.
December 24, 2015
Annual #1, read as Marvel Tales #235 part 1 of 2 - own
#65 & #66: Spider-Man & Captain Britain, 3 stars
#69 & #70: Havok/The Living Monolith, 2 stars
#65 & #66: Spider-Man & Captain Britain, 3 stars
#69 & #70: Havok/The Living Monolith, 2 stars
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews