Super-Villain Team-Up

Super-Villain Team-Up
Cover of Giant-Size Super-Villain Team-Up #2.
Art by Gil Kane and Al Milgrom.
Publication information
PublisherMarvel Comics
ScheduleGiant-Size Super-Villain Team-Up: Quarterly
Super-Villain Team-Up: Bimonthly (#1–14)
Irregularly (#15–17)
Super-Villain Team-Up: MODOK's 11: Monthly
FormatSuper-Villain Team-Up: Ongoing series
Super-Villain Team-Up: MODOK's 11: Mini-series
Publication dateGiant-Size Super-Villain Team-Up: March 1975 – June 1975
Super-Villain Team-Up: August 1975 – June 1980
Super-Villain Team-Up: MODOK's 11: July 2007 – November 2007
No. of issuesGiant-Size Super-Villain Team-Up: 2
Super-Villain Team-Up: 17
Super-Villain Team-Up: MODOK's 11: 5
Main character(s)
List
Creative team
Written by
List
Penciller(s)
List
Inker(s)
List
Collected editions
Essential Super-Villain Team-UpISBN 978-0785115458
Super-Villain Team-Up: MODOK's 11ISBN 978-0785119920

Super-Villain Team-Up is the name of two American comic book series published by Marvel Comics. Both series featured supervillains as the protagonists.

Publication history

The first series started in 1975 with two giant-size issues[1] before launching as a regular series,[2][3] and was mostly bi-monthly during its existence. It initially teamed up Doctor Doom and the Sub-Mariner, who had lost his own series, from which it picked up the unresolved plots, especially that of the comatose Atlanteans. After a succession of writers and artists and a crossover with The Avengers, the plot gets resolved in issue #13 when Doctor Doom revives the Atlanteans, thus dissolving his alliance with the Sub-Mariner.

Issue #14 (Oct. 1977), which featured Magneto and Doctor Doom, was billed as the final issue of the series[4] and its plotline was resolved in The Champions #16. The following year, SVTU continued with issue #15 (Nov. 1978), a reprint of Astonishing Tales #4–5. Issues #16 (May 1979) and #17 (June 1980) featured the Red Skull and the Hate-Monger. The irregular publishing frequency of the final three issues was due to a legal maneuver to prevent DC Comics from trademarking the term "super-villain".[5]

The series saw the death of the Sub-Mariner's 1940s sweetheart Betty Dean and the death of her murderer, Doctor Dorcas. Steve Englehart created The Shroud,[6] a character partly inspired by Batman,[7] shortly before he started to work for DC Comics on Detective Comics.[8]

Issues

Issue Cover date Character Character Notes
Giant–Size #1 March 1975 Doctor Doom Sub-Mariner new framing story by writer Roy Thomas and artists John Buscema and Joe Sinnott. Reprints Sub-Mariner #20 (December 1969) and Marvel Super-Heroes #20 (May 1969).
Giant–Size #2 June 1975 vs. the Doomsman
#1 August 1975 vs. Attuma, Doctor Dorcas, and Tiger Shark
#2 October 1975
#3 December 1975
#4 February 1976
#5 April 1976 vs. the Fantastic Four
#6 June 1976 vs. the Fantastic Four and the Shroud
#7 August 1976 vs. the Shroud
#8 October 1976 vs. the Ringmaster
#9 December 1976 vs. Attuma. Crossover with The Avengers #154–156 (Dec. 1976–Feb. 1977)
#10 February 1977 vs. the Red Skull
#11 April 1977 Red Skull
#12 June 1977
#13 August 1977 Sub-Mariner vs. Warlord Krang
#14 October 1977 Magneto crossover with The Champions #16 (November 1977)
#15 November 1978 Red Skull reprints Astonishing Tales #4 (February 1971) and #5 (April 1971)
#16 May 1979 Red Skull Hate-Monger
#17 June 1980 also featuring Arnim Zola

Super-Villain Team-Up: MODOK's 11

In 2007 Marvel published Super-Villain Team-Up: MODOK's 11, a five-issue miniseries featuring 11 supervillains in the manner of the movie Ocean's Eleven.

Doctor Doom and the Masters of Evil

This 2009 miniseries features Doctor Doom working with other villains.

Collected editions

  • Essential Super-Villain Team-Up collects Giant-Size Super-Villain Team-Up #1–2 and Super-Villain Team-Up #1–17, 552 pages, September 2004, ISBN 978-0785115458
  • Super-Villain Team-Up: MODOK's 11 collects Super-Villain Team-Up: MODOK's 11 #1–5, 120 pages, February 2008, ISBN 978-0785119920
  • Doctor Doom and the Masters of Evil collects Doctor Doom and the Masters of Evil #1–4, 120 pages, July 2009, ISBN 978-0785138440
  • Super-Villains Unite: The Complete Super-Villain Team-Up collects Giant-Size Super-Villain Team-Up #1–2; Super-Villain Team-Up #1–14, 16–17; The Avengers #154–156; Champions #16, 464 pages, March 2015, ISBN 978-0785194064

References

  1. ^ Giant-Size Super-Villain Team-Up at the Grand Comics Database
  2. ^ Sanderson, Peter; Gilbert, Laura (2008). "1970s". Marvel Chronicle A Year by Year History. London, United Kingdom: Dorling Kindersley. p. 168. ISBN 978-0756641238. After two giant-size issues, Super-Villain Team-Up switched to a thirty-two-page format in August [1975].
  3. ^ Super-Villain Team-Up at the Grand Comics Database
  4. ^ Mantlo, Bill. "Bad Tidings," Super-Villain Team-Up #14 (Marvel Comics, October 1977).
  5. ^ Carson, Lex (August 2013). "Bring Together the Bad Guys: Super-Villain Team-Up". Back Issue! (66). Raleigh, North Carolina: TwoMorrows Publishing: 41. The revival and annual publication of SVTU was part of the legal maneuvering on Marvel's part to keep DC from trademarking the term 'Super Villain' as in 'Secret Society of'. For that, annual publication was enough, and by the second year, the legal tussle was resolved.
  6. ^ Englehart, Steve (w), Trimpe, Herb (p), Perlin, Don (i). "...And Be a Villain!" Super-Villain Team-Up, no. 5 (April 1976).
  7. ^ Cronin, Brian (October 30, 2008). "Comic Book Legends Revealed #179". Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on July 31, 2013.
  8. ^ Englehart, Steve (n.d.). "Super-Villain Team-Up". SteveEnglehart.com. Archived from the original on August 28, 2013. Retrieved July 30, 2013. My creation of the Shroud in #6, to be a third force somewhere between the villains and the heroes. He was a combination of the Shadow and the Batman, both favorites of mine, and since I was a Marvel writer I was never going to get a chance at the real Batman...