Marvel Team-Up Annual #1, Marvel Comics, (December 1976)
Here we have the 1st new X-Men team appearance outside the X-Men title. Better yet they make this appearance in a great little title called Marvel Team-Up, a Spider-Man title. Correct me if I’m wrong but I think this is the 1st meeting between Spider-Man and Wolverine, these guys are perhaps the top 2 properties in Marvel’s stellar stable.
This is a very early New X-Men appearance by the way. I think it’s tied for 10th with X-Men #102.
Compare Marvel Team-Up Annual # 1’s $45 guide value to X-Men #102’s guide value of $135. That’s 3 times the value in the guide.
The markets are no kinder to Marvel Team-Up Annual #1. The last CGC 9.4 sale fetched $63. Compare that with the $172 the last CGC 9.4 copy of X-Men #102 got and you get the picture.
Yet our Team-Up Annual #1 is 3 times as rare on the census in high grade, there are only 115 graded at CGC 9.2 or above while a healthy 353 CGC 9.2 or better copies of X-Men #102 are out there floating around getting way better money!
I recognize that my pick is not in the main title but that won’t stop me from calling the book undervalued. This same type of reasoning can be seen with books like Strange Tales Annual #2, where Spidey’s early appearance is dwarfed in value by his next appearance in the character’s main title (in this case Amazing Spider-Man #3). Strange Tales Annual #2 was one of my earliest spotlights btw).
I think more education is needed here. If some of us are right about title runs becoming less and less important to collectors then perhaps we should all revisit books like this.
The New X-Men’s 1st x-over, their 10th appearance and the Amazing Spider-Man’s 1st meeting with the team are all good things this book brings to the table. And it’s fine dining at fast food prices with what the book is getting these days.
Pick up your bargain soon before the prices go up!
Great Dave Cockrum cover and some awesome Sal Buscema and Mike Esposito art in the 35 page “The Lords of Light and Darkness” story written by Chris Claremont, Bonnie Wilford and Bill Mantlo.
The 42nd edition of the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide shows $22/$34/$45 as the 8.0/9.0/9.2 price splits.
Strengths that make this comic book a good long-term investment are:
- 1st Spider-Man/Wolverine meeting
- 10th appearance of the New X-Men
- 1st New X-Men x-over
- way cheap these days
Good pick, Walt. Marvel Team-Up always seems to be the forgotten Spidey title, and the fact that it’s an annual probably makes it even more obscure for most collectors.
also in agreement here. no questions this is a great undervalued spotlight pick.
Also agree this is a good pick and undervalued by Overstreet. I think the low price in Overstreet contributes heavily to your low census numbers as well. Also agree with you and Odinson it gets the “Annual” treatment by collecters.
Have two NM copies of this one…never could understand why it’s only $45. Of course I paid $5 for mine almost 25 years ago, but that’s not the point. I also agree that Strange Tales Annual #2 is undervalued. The X-Men-Spidey Team Up is a classic in my opinion. Really needs to be worth more.
Thanks for the moral support guys.
Like Tom said, this comic is a 1970’s classic and it should be on more want lists!
Walt, this is a little off-topic, but I re-read your Strange Tales Annual #2 post after you mentioned it here. (I figured there’s no point in commenting over on that page, because it’s a four year-old post). I don’t own it, but I always liked that comic BECAUSE it’s relatively obscure. Also the primitiveness of the cover art, where, amazingly, Kirby neglected to draw the huge spider that’s supposed to go on Spidey’s chest! I never really liked Kirby’s take on Spider-Man, but I have to admit that this cover is cool looking. Obviously, as far as the very, very early Spideys go, while it’s as old as ASM#3 it just doesn’t have a marquee attraction like the 1st Doc Ock.
Anthony and I have talked before about how it would be kind of cool (and much, much more financially feasible) to concentrate on these early Spidey appearances (Avengers #11, Tales to Astonish #57, etc.). A high-grade collection of all of his Silver and Bronze Age guest spots would be fairly small, and relatively cheap, but still pretty impressive. (But by the ’80s and ’90s there are probably just too many…)
I’m not so sure about your “passing the torch” idea for the Strange Tales issue, though. It makes sense, but if you consider how many times the Human Torch made guest appearances in ASM — like 5 or 6 appearances in the first twenty issues — it seems more like they were trying to bump interest in Spidey’s comic by having a guest star from the higher-selling (at that time) FF. Kind of funny, in retrospect: since then Spider-Man has been used to boost sales of other titles more than any character, ever — and probably by a mile. Marvel Team-Up, a whole series devoted to matching Spider-Man with…whomever, is a testament to that.
Kirby designed the first Spiderman costume and character, and apparently this cover was done before Spiderman # 1,costume amendment and Ditkos influence. See Origin of Marvel comics where Stan admits as much. Stan’s creation story became more vague in later years. Kirby was the great genius. Stan dialogued better then Jack. Nuff said ?