Essential Super-Villain Team-Up TPB (Marvel Heroes)

Classic Marvel from the 70s. Features Doctor Doom, Namor the Sub-Mariner, and the Red Skull. Great stories in one volume, delivered quickly, with product in excellent condition.

Included here are the solo Doctor Doom tales from Astonishing Tales, the first 17 issues of the Super Villain Team-Up series and some Avengers and Champions tie-ins.The solo Doom tales include the Red Skull, Black Panther and even Satan as well as introducing the android Doomsman. Doom is shown as having a well hidden sentimental side especially towards his dead mother and his lost love Valeria.With Namor he has a love-hate relationship which sees them as allies and enemies as they take on a number of Namor's foes, Attuma, Dr. Dorcas, Tiger Shark and later on Krang as Namor tries to rescue the people of Atlantis who are held in suspended animation.Back on dry land the Fantastic Four and the Avengers assist as does an odd Batman style creation The Shroud, the number of times characters switch allegiance is amazing and often confusing. The Red Skull appears in two great stories late on, one with Captain America and the other as he and the Hate Monger try to re-create the Cosmic Cube, with SHIELD putting an appearance in.There are even appearances by Henry Kissinger and Jimmy Carter which effectively helps to date these tales. These tales interlink with many other Marvel stories of that era, the flashbacks assist but new readers would be assisted by a little background research. The artwork is patchy in places with so many different artists used but by and large the complexity of these tales more than makes up for that.

Little problems but it was ok

The first 20 or so issues of this collection focus on Dr. Doom and Sub-Mariner. Collected are Dr. Doom's 8 issue run from Amazing Adventures with great artwork by legend Wally Wood and followed by Gene Colan (some excelent art story I think too). The book then reprints a reprint issue with original artwork by John Buscema from Giant Size Super-Villain team-up number 1 (which is a collection of a Doctor Doom vs. Sub-Mariner story pluse a reprint of a Doom story from the 60's). The rest of the book features Sub-Mariner (Namor) and Doom combining forces to defeat Namor's enemies. As the stories progress though Namor is more of a hero than villain and Doom is more the villain (of course). There are some issues where Doom fights the Avengers and Namor shows is true collars. You get the complete series ending with Dr. Doom vs. The Red Skull and that was a first too I think. All in all it is worth the ticket prices especially if you want to see a more "villain" side to Namor. And if you get it on sale like I did it is even more of a treat. A+

You get the 1st solo Dr. Doom stories. The Namor team up, and the Avenger cross -over. It is a really good collection.

Every now and then, you have to wonder how the bad guys in superhero books go about their lives from month to month? There were quite some interesting comic book features on the spinner rack which did showcase supervillains, for example; in DC Comics had House Of Mystery where there was Eclipso, they had Kobra, , The Joker had his own title for a spell, and Secret Society Of Supervillains Marvel had Sub-Mariner for a good while as a co-feature in Tales To Astonish transitioning into his own magazine, and Doctor Doom was a co-feature in Astonishing Tales. Although those two Marvel titles had a fan following, they just couldn't really hold it down sales wise at the newsstand? So I guess someone at Marvel Comics had decided to place these two characters together in a "team-up" magazine in the same manner as Marvel Team-Up (co-starring Spider-Man & the Human Torch) and Marvel Two In One (starring The Thing). The only problem with Marvel Supervillain Team-Up may have been the redundancy of having Doom and Namor star in almost every single issue always backstabbing and using one another within each and every issue? They could've mixed it up and had other characters guest star with both Doom and Namor in either connected or stand alone stories. When the magazine neared its end run, they began to do exactly that (too little too late). I don't exactly think that it was a great idea to have the Red Skull and Hate Monger (Adolf Hitler) share equal billing on the cover of the last two issues, I think even I would have skipped on it it. Can you say "awkward"?

There have been lots of Team-Up themed comics over the years. DC had "The Brave and the Bold". Marvel had "Marvel Team-Up" and "Marvel Two in One". But in the mid 70s, Marvel had the idea of doing a comic that was all about teaming up Super Villains. The concept was tried out in "Astonishing Tales" before finally graduating to its own title...Super-Villain Team-Up.Super-Villain Team-Up was basically centered on Dr. Doom. Most stories centered around his attempts at world domination naturally, but sometimes his efforts warranted his teaming up with villains such as Red Skull, Magneto, Hate Monger, Arnim Zola and others. The always angry anti hero Submariner also teamed up with the Latverian dictator when it suited his plans for his Atlantian kingdom. More often then not, one of these super villains would ultimately pull some sort of double cross and there would be a huge battle to destroy each other.They weren't exactly complex stories, most "team up" comics never were. They followed a predictable formula for the most part. But in the 70s, the idea of a comic book centered completely around and about nothing but villains was fresh and original and intriguing. When heroes fought villains, we knew basically who was going to win and what each characters motive was. But villains battling villains had an element of surprise to it. Even though the series centered around Dr. Doom, it wasn't always clear who would win if Doom battled Red Skull or Magneto. That's what made it interesting in spite of being formulaic. We also see the introduction and origin of a new superhero in this series, The Shroud. He was a mysterious figure clad all in black that seemed to be a perpetual wrench in the works in the plans of Doom and Submariner.Essential Super-Villain Team-Up contains Astonishing Tales 1 thru 8, Avengers 154 to 156, Champions #16 and Super-Villain Team-Up issues 1 thru 14 and 16-17. Issue #15 is not included as that is a reprint of Astonishing Tales issue 4. There is art by Wally Wood, Bill Everett, George Perez, Gene Colan and John Buscema. I'm rating it 3 out of 5 stars basically for the formula writing. They are fun stories albeit a little dated. However, the concept, the art and the fact that the entire series and all related issues are in one volume warrants purchasing this Essentials volume. It's a nice book for completists to have and an enjoyable read. It would make a nice addition for anyone's collection, but I can't suggest putting it at the top of your "to buy" list.