SPIDER-MAN: MARVEL TEAM-UP BY CLAREMONT & BYRNE (Marvel, 2011; Softcover)
Collects
Marvel
Team-Up
Nos.
59-70, 75 (cover
dates July, 1977- November, 1978)
Writers:
Chris Claremont with Ralph Macchio (co-writer, #75)
Artists:
Penciler- John Byrne; Inkers- Dave Hunt, Bob
Wiaceck, Ricardo Villamonte, Tony DeZuniga, and Al Gordon
Claremont
and Byrne are the Lennon and McCartney (or Simon and Garfunkel) of
comics. They brought out the best in each other and created memorable
comics that read great today. If space aliens landed on Earth and
asked me “What are comic books?”, I would give them
Lee/Kirby Fantastic Four, Lee/Ditko Spider-Man, and
Claremont/Byrne X-Men.
The
battle with the Super Skrull in #61-62 is the direct result of the
occurrences in #59-60. I love how Claremont and Byrne continually
feed ongoing plotlines, sneaking little seeds in there which bear
fruit down the road. They cleverly used #63-64 to tie up all of the
loose ends of the recently cancelled Iron Fist series which
they were working on. They give Captain Britain his first US
appearance in #65-66, where they also introduce the villain Arcade,
who goes on to appear in many different titles.
#69-70 feature the return of The Living Pharaoh from the Thomas/Adams run of The X-Men. The Living Pharaoh once again seeks to capture the mutant Havok in order to steal his power, only this time he succeeds and becomes the Living Monolith. His battle with Thor is incredible. #79 was omitted due to the fact that it featured Red Sonja, who Marvel no longer has the license for. Thankfully it was collected in the Spider-Man/ Red Sonja hardcover back in 2008.
I
had an absolute blast rereading this stuff and strongly recommend
this book...if you can find a copy. It is sadly out of print.
Junk
Food For Thought rating: 5 out of 5.
The
OCD zone- Nothing unusal to report here.
DVD-style
Extras included in this book: The front and
back cover of this book minus the trade dress. (2 pages)
Linework
and Color restoration rating: 4 out of 5. Everything looks good
except for #64, 65, and especially #68. The latter is in desperate
need of linework reconstruction. A few more volumes in the Marvel
Masterworks line should fix this.
Paper
rating: 5 out of 5. I love the paper that Marvel uses in these
books of classic material. Dull matte finish coated stock with
minimal sheen.
Binding
rating: 4 out of 5. Perfect bound trade paperback.
Cardstock
cover coating rating: 5 out of 5. The usual thick laminated cardstick that Marvel uses on all of their softcovers.
This
book is out of print but the same material is also spread across the
following books:
This was a really fun book. I could read stuff like this over and over and over again, and never get tired of it.
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