Classic Comics Cavalcade: Two Generations Collide In ‘Marvel Team-Up’ #1
by Tony Thornley
If there’s any concept Marvel has wanted to try to make work more than others, it’s Marvel Team-Up. Sometimes the series worked, other times it was just an obvious ploy to get another Spider-Man book on the stands. So just for fun we’re looking at the 1997 relaunch.
Tom Peyer, Pat Olliffe, Al Williamson, Tom Smith and Bill Oakley team up Spider-Man with some young upstarts called Generation X.
A mysterious newspaper ad has sent Spider-Man to central LA, the home neighborhood of Gen X’s Skin. When a brutal shadowy organization targets the neighborhood to cause chaos, Spider-Man teams with Generation X to save the day. But once the day is saved, is Peter going to realize that he’s being manipulated?
Some comics just need to be light fluff. That’s really been the biggest purpose of Marvel Team-Up all along. It doesn’t need to be a complex ongoing narrative. It just needs to be a story where Spider-Man and a guest hero (or heroes in this case) save the day.
Peyer doesn’t quite get the Gen X kids’ voices right (all three members that show up speak like 30-year olds). Otherwise this is light silly fun, that gets readers from point A to point B and is entertaining. The mystery of the manipulator is a fun little side detail that gives this launch a throughline, a draw for the next few issues, which isn’t totally necessary but helps it stick a bit. It’s better than just “we’ll throw random team-ups at the wall, see what sticks.”
Olliffe is a great artistt, particularly on Spider-Man. I have a lot of love for both his Untold Tales of Spider-Man and Spider-Girl. So the Spider-Man side of this story is great. His Generation X is about two-thirds right- Skin and Chamber are pitch perfect. Both of the boys feel like his take on the Chris Bachalo designs without the faults that too many artists have translating Bachalo designs into their style. Husk though doesn’t feel like a teenager. I’m not sure if that’s a problem with the inking or the pencils, since I have seen Olliffe draw teenagers well.
I’m incredibly bummed that this issue is the only one of this series on Marvel Unlimited. I’m curious how it progressed from this set-up, giving MTU an actual ongoing story for once. It was fun and a great bit of nostalgia for this Gen X fan.
