The Impact (or Lack thereof) of Marvel Team-Up

[Mister Mets]

There was an interesting question elsewhere but whether any Marvel Team-Up stories are acknowledged to be among the best/ greatest ever.

It does seem that there are two separate questions, although the answer to both might be no.

The first is whether there are any MTU stories that are widely regarded as among the character's best. This doesn't appear to be the case. Most "Best of" lists don't have anything from any of the runs. Hell, here's a Top 50.
https://www.cbr.com/50-greatest-spid...s-master-list/

That's still a bit different from whether any of the character's best stories are in MTU. Many of us might argue that there are one or two stories that deserve much higher reputations. It could be that these stories are more obscure so they don't get the attention necessary to be part of a critical consensus even if on a craft level your favorite MTU story might be on the level of the Harry Osborn drugs trilogy or the Alien Costume saga.

But it does seem that there's a lack of impact of Marvel Team-Up.

Do you guys agree? And why might this be so?

[Snoop Dogg]

the most significant mtu stories are the ones used to wrap up the plots of other books

and spider-man murdering the savior

[Hypestyle]

I've enjoyed the stories of the original run. At least they can be reprinted in Essential TPBs. Whether they are the most influential or impactful storylines-- well-- Editors set the tone, presumably. Obviously the title was kind of designed to not be super-directly connected to Amazing, because of the conceit of a monthly guest star, most of whom didn't continue for multiple issues. The main writer of Amazing probably didn't want MTU to have any impact on what was being done on the "flagship".

If you had a "superstar" writer and artist combo for a new MTU, you might get people to pay attention for as long as that writer lasts. But nowadays, when stuff gets canceled after the first arc, you may as well just brand it as a mini-series.

[Vegeta]

Well, I can't think of any must read stories, but the issues that stand out the most in my mind are: the one where the Wraith was revealed to be Jean DeWolfe's brother, the team up with Vision and Scarlet Witch where the 3 heroes ended up in the past and nearly burnt at the stake, and the first appearance of Arcade (along with Captain Britain's debut in the United States).

[comicscollector]

I agree that the stories of Marvel Team Up don´t apear in the list of the best Spider-Man stories.
Dunno why,MTU had some great stories that were as good as great Spider-Man stories from Amazing Spider-Man or Spectacular Spider-Man.
All of the Chris Clameront and John Byrne run in MTU is excellent and so was the Saga of the Wraith story arc (MTU#48-51) or the story arc with the team up of Spider-Man with Vision and Scarlet Witch,or many done in one stories as Spider-Man teaming up with the Ghost Rider against the Orb.

[Darthfury78]

I liked Spider-Man and Black Widow team-up adventures, as well as Spider-Man and Tigra adventures. What's disappointing is the fact that Marvel never integrated the characters who did well in MTU unto the Amazing Spider-Man, like Black Widow, Tigra, and Captain Britain. You would think that MTU could had been used as a testing ground to see which characters fit into the world of Spider-Man.

[SCOTTFREE]

I agree completely that MTU was not very well written stories with basically just throw away plots but there were some I really enjoyed. I enjoyed issue#56 with Daredevil where they face off against blizzard and electro. I also enjoyed the issues with black widow, especially the ones with her, Nick Fury, and Shang Chi vs Viper and silver samurai. But overall, just not very enjoyable. I remember having a subscription to this title when it came out and would be so disappointed at some if them I received because they weren't as good as the other Spider-man comics.

[Darthfury78]

I agree completely that MTU was not very well written stories with basically just throw away plots but there were some I really enjoyed. I enjoyed issue#56 with Daredevil where they face off against blizzard and electro. I also enjoyed the issues with black widow, especially the ones with her, Nick Fury, and Shang Chi vs Viper and silver samurai. But overall, just not very enjoyable. I remember having a subscription to this title when it came out and would be so disappointed at some if them I received because they weren't as good as the other Spider-man comics.

It's all on the writer as they never made Spider-Man their own to write about. Some of the writers never bothered to carryover some of the characters over to ASM or Spectacular Spider-Man, aside from Capt. Jean De Wolf.

[pageturner]

i ued to get MTU and MTIO all the time. IT introduced me to new characters and sometimes got me to read new books.

[Darthfury78]

i ued to get MTU and MTIO all the time. IT introduced me to new characters and sometimes got me to read new books.

The MTU should had been implemented into Spider-Man's world.

[Scott Taylor]

No, there aren't significant issues really. But that can also be said for the majority of ASM. Not every issue is life-changing. This is comics, and MTU was fast food.

[Immortal Weapon]

I liked the series that Robert Kirkman wrote. The issue with invincible was great.

[Mister Mets]

No, there aren't significant issues really. But that can also be said for the majority of ASM. Not every issue is life-changing. This is comics, and MTU was fast food.

The majority of ASM isn't significant, but there is some important stuff in the title, as well as some very well-regarded stories. So it's a bit weird for Marvel Team-Up's influence to be so limited.

You could compare it to Spectacular Spider-Man, which did have the Owl/ Octopus war, the Death of Jean Dewolff, the Harry Osborn Green Goblin saga and Chip Zdarsky's Eisner-winning last issue.

[Chubistian]

My brother has a lot of the stories done by Claremont and Byrne. I read them and found most of them to be pretty enjoyable and well done. It's true that many of them were the conclusion to plots that started in other series, and maybe the "problem" is that they're more important to the guest starring character than to Spider-Man himself. The first fight between Iron Fist and Steel Serpent was in an issue of MTU, but I can't think of any trascendental moment in Peter´s life that was done in MTU. And, I may be wrong because I read these stories long after they were originally published and I did it years ago, but they didn't follow events that were transpiring in ASM pretty closely, right? Didn't Peter had a girlfriend that was never mentioned in any other title?

[Scott Taylor]

My brother has a lot of the stories done by Claremont and Byrne. I read them and found most of them to be pretty enjoyable and well done. It's true that many of them were the conclusion to plots that started in other series, and maybe the "problem" is that they're more important to the guest starring character than to Spider-Man himself. The first fight between Iron Fist and Steel Serpent was in an issue of MTU, but I can't think of any trascendental moment in Peter´s life that was done in MTU. And, I may be wrong because I read these stories long after they were originally published and I did it years ago, but they didn't follow events that were transpiring in ASM pretty closely, right? Didn't Peter had a girlfriend that was never mentioned in any other title?

First obscure girlfriend that comes to mind if Debra Whitman. I know that she was covered in Spectacular, too, along with the other supporting cast at ESU. Pretty good span of story-telling there.

The odd thing is that Gwen was barely mentioned in any other title than ASM, after her death. But she was mentioned the most, as I recall, in MTU.