Marvel and DC team up books

[destro]

Marvel Team Up, Marvel Two In One, The Brave and the Bold, and DC comics presents. Four team up books put out by two companies that seem to share a few things in common.

All of them used one of thier more popular heroes in a team up format.

All four of them varied wildly in quality.

For Marvel Team UP, the highlight for me was the Byrne/Claremont issues. Marvel Two in One had the Perez issues, also Ron Wilson. Brave and the Bold had the Bob Haney/Jim Aparo stuff going on. DC Comics Presents didn't really have a long term standout team if I remember correctly, but there were some nice Curt Swan issues, also some neat things done by Giffen.

Do any of you have fond memories of any of these series? Despite their weak points at times, I always enjoyed seeing the "a list" charcters interact with more obscure characters.

[tangentman]

My favorite team-up title from Marvel was the Two-in-One series. Although I enjoyed the Claremont/Byrne work on the Spiderman equivalent, I thought that the overall stories of TiO seemed more connected. The "Project: Pegasus" and "Serpent Crown" stories seemed neatly inter-woven to me.

The "Brave and the Bold" title seemed vastly superior to the Superman team-up book. Overall, better art and stories, Batman appeared with more interesting selections and those characters seemed better in "Brave" than "Presents".

[T GUy]

I'd say my favourite team-up book by far is The Brave and the Bold, with Marvel Two-in-One in second place.

Destro: Marvel Two in One had the Perez issues, also Ron Wilson. Brave and the Bold had the Bob Haney/Jim Aparo stuff going on.

I'd say the best issues of Marvel Two-in-One are the Gerber ones (1 - 7), and on the B&B the brief stint by Cardy is well worthy of note.

All four of them varied wildly in qualityI'd say there's a solid chunk of quality in the B&B run from the start of the Cardy art era till at least No. 120. I've recently been reading through them, and Haney and Aparo are at the top of their forms at this time. Though obviously some issues are better tan others.

[Sean Dulaney]

I always had a soft spot for DC's SUPER-TEAM FAMILY.

*Starts out as a reprint book.
*Goes to new material/reprint mix (including a Hawkman/Flash team up inked by Wally Wood.)
*Back to all reprint (May have led to the New Doom Patrol try out in the revived SHOWCASE)
*New adventures of the Challengers of the Unknown with Swamp Thing and Deadman
*The Atom becomes the de facto lead of the book as he anchors a number of 3-way team ups to find a catatonic Jean as she bounces through dimensions

May have those last two flipped. Can't remember if STF led to a revived Chals book or if STF was being used to wrap up inventory stories.

[tilleycs]

I've only got a few issues left to finish a full run of MTIO. My plan is to sit down and read them all in order. I'll let you know how they are when I'm done. :)

[MWGallaher]

Then there's the oddball team-up books:
Super-Villain Team-Up: Didn't really follow the standard format (regular star + guest) for most of its run, and went completely out there for its last few issues.
Marvel Western Team-Up: This probably would have starred the Rawhide Kid in each issue, if it had gone longer than one!

And the trial-run team-up books:
World's Finest: This series had a couple of years as a functional precursor to DC Comics Presents.
Marvel Feature: Its last two issues were actually the first issues of MTIO.

And the team-up book that gave no such indication in its title:
Giant-Size Spider-Man: Every issue had a headlining co-star. Its quarterly appearance allowed Marvel to have monthly Spider-Man team-ups and also give the Human Torch the starring role in MTU four times a year.

And the non-team book that was also a team-up book:
Giant-Size Defenders: Each issue not only had our favorite non-team, but featured a special guest "member" (or two!)

[Rich L]

I'm reading through Two-In-One at the moment (and doing capsule reviews inmy column, plug plug);just past the Pegasus issues (fantastic) and in the middle of Perez's run.

More than Team-Up, Two-In-One seemed to be used to wrap up ongoing plotlines in the Marvel U from either supporting characters or cancelled books; for example Skull the Slayer, Scarecrow and the Golem.

These days these kind of things tend to happen off screen.

[Matches Malone]

I love me some old B&B's. Bob Haney is criminally underappreciated as a writer. He was the best Bat-writer for most of his tenure (and I know he overlapped with O'neil - Haney was better). Aparo of course was classic.

DCCP had its moments, too. The quality really wavered, but there are some old favorites there, too. The Superman/ Joker "team-up" from #41 is a personal favorite.

I've read very little MTU - just the Essential volume and #100 - but I liked what I read.

Team-up books were a great idea, sadly abandoned once both Marvel and DC got obsessed with "realism" and couldn't wrap their heads around the idea that these constant team-ups would occur.

[Reptisaurus!]

Team Up Books are my favorite "type" of superhero comics. I love 'em all.

My VERY Favorites, of the Four:

Marvel Team-Up: The Stegron the Dinosaur Man two-parter. Stegron is, (and I'm a little ashamed to admit this) my favorite Marvel character ever. And the two-page Sal Buscema spread of Dinosaurs rampaging through New Yawk might just be my favorite PANEL ever. (Runners Up: Karma and the Fantastic Four, Doc Savage in Giant Size, Daredevil and the Punisher by Bill Sienkiewicz in the recent Ultimate variant.)

Marvel Two In One: Much love to Steve Gerber (Who's sometimes my favorite comics writer ever) and the Project Pegasus/Serpent Crown stories, but my absolute favorite is the Thing and the Blue Diamond in 79. Probably the best story I've ever read about gettin' older in comics form.

Brave and the Bold: That Haney/Aparo Hundred Pager where the Atom's riding Batman around like a puppet. Awesome, vaguely nonsensical concept, that's still kinda chilling. (Runner's up: Deadman in Love, Mister Miracle in Egypt.)

DC Comics Presents: The Two Ambush Bug issues. Zanier than the Bug's later, darker solo series, but still hillarious.

[prince hal]

Loved B&B in particular, the non-Batman teamups as much as the ones with him.

Never was much of a fan of MTU, though.

I'll toss in a good word for teamups that occurred in non-teamup books, too. The Flash-GL issues started early on, then were followed by Adam Strange-Hawkman and Atom-Hawkman teamups (Julie knew a sales booster when he saw one, I guess). And of course, there were the Earth 1 and 2 teams: the Flashes, GLs and Atoms. And of course, thesearch for Zatara ran through several titles as various heroes met Zatanna.They were truly events (at least to me) way back when.

I also used to love when weird trios and pairs would hook up in JLA and the chapters would kick off with their logos (some invented for the occasion) atop the first panel. Like mini-BRAVE AND THE BOLDs!

From those same halcyon days when teamups were rare: Batman and Elongated Man fought the Phantom General in a book-length DETECTIVE, GA and Aquaman switched "venues" and fought crime in each other's bailiwicks in successive issues of WORLD's FINEST, and the Atom and Elongated Man dropped in to an issue of BATMAN to create that memorable cover with three different-sized Batmen.

How about when DC's war heroes met at various times? I can recall Rock teaming with Jeb Stuart and Johnny Cloud separately, and with those two and a "surprise guest star" in still another story. (That was in B&B, I think.)

Cloud and Stuart teamed up in GI COMBAT once that I can remember, too.

Now teamups are the rule rather than the sweet exception and the appetite is surfeited and so sickens. (Apologies to Shakespeare for the paraphrase.)

[T GUy]

How about when DC's war heroes met at various times? I can recall Rock teaming with Jeb Stuart and Johnny Cloud separately, and with those two and a "surprise guest star" in still another story. (That was in B&B, I think.)

You're correct, Your Highness - The Brave and the Bold 52, Feb.-Mar., 1964. Kanigher's war line tended to 'do' crossovers a la Stan Lee's Marvel super-heroes, though perhaps not to the same degree in terms of sheer number(s). It is perhaps surprising that Von Hammer and Steve Savage didn't get to meet in the killer skies of the First World War until the boisterous Bronze Age (a three-parter in the back of Star-Spangled War Stories at the time Archie Goodwin handed over to Joe Orlando).

[gentlesatirist]

...for team-up books and crossovers of almost every stripe. I think it's some kind of genetic failing tied in to my own cheapness. These comics make me feel like I'm getting more for my money.

A personal favorite of this genre is the Creeper/Wildcat team-up in Super-Team Family #2 (Jan. 1976) because of the oddness of the characters selected and the overall quality of the work.


- FE