Essential Super-Villain Team-Up: Volume 1 TPB
Posted: Wednesday, February 9
By: Shawn Hill

(excerpt)

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.

This and that
Saturday, October 9th, 2004 — 2:19 pm

(excerpt)

A friend of mine at Marvel -- hell, my only friend at Marvel -- graced us with a copy of the "Essential"...Super-Villain...Team-Up. Words fail me. Actually, no they don't. This, my friends, is an ass-thick collection of mind-numbingly half-assed overwritten and underdrawn ding-dong comics from my childhood. Essential? To whom? Tom Brevoort and Ralph Macchio already have all the original comics, in bags and boards, most likely. I'm only a third of the way through this, as I'm only reading this during bathroom stints (appropo, methinks), and if nothing else it's a prime example of why Roy Thomas absolutely stinks as a writer (a hackneyed overwrought style marked by grandiose Stan Leeisms that would cause the Man himself to wince, diarrhea of the descriptive caption, trite and dated SF homages and an overall patina of smug, pretentious fanboy horsehockey), and how childhood nostalgia makes people deify crappy comics.

...

The roster includes a burgeoning George Perez, early Marvel Jim Shooter scripting AND penciling (!), a faltering and out of place Mike Sekowsky, an interesting pairing of Johnny Craig inking John Buscema (with not too-shabby results), Wally Wood's pretty but stiff take on Doc Doom during his flirtation with the House of Ideas, fellow EC stablemate George Evans proving superheroes were not his forte, Gene Colan proving yet again that histrionic super-heroics wasn't his forte either, Marvel stalwarts like Herb Trimpe (inked by Jim Mooney in a style that can only be described as moribund), and George Tuska, perfunctory page-fillers like Jack Abel, Larry Leiber, Bob Hall, and Don Perlin, early Keith Giffen (his Kirby silly-puttying phase), Carmine Infantino looking plain wrong in a Marvel book, and the absolute horror men call Arvell Jones (a phantom creator whose sub-fanzine art I couldn't stand even when I was a kid).

Cover scan from fjor.

ESSENTIAL SUPER-VILLAIN TEAM-UP TPB (Sep 2004) Marvel Comics

Shipping This Week: September 9, 2004
Tuesday, September 07, 2004 9:47:59 AM

PLEASE NOTE: Due to the Labor Day holiday in the U.S., comics will arrive in stores on Thursday, September 9. The shipping lists for the week of September 6 will be posted on Tuesday, September 7.

The following products are expected to ship to comic book specialty stores this week. Note that this list is tentative and subject to change. Please check with your retailer for availability.

JUL042053 ESSENTIAL SUPER VILLAIN TEAM UP TP $16.99