The pages of Invincible were full of in-jokes about our favorite comics. Some of them blew up into something much more. Your Major Spoilers Retro Review of Marvel Team-Up #14 awaits!
MARVEL TEAM-UP #14
Writer: Robert Kirkman
Penciler: Cory Walker
Inker: Cory Walker
Colorist: Bill Crabtree
Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Cover Price: $2.99
Current Near-Mint Pricing: $80.00
Release Date: November 2, 2005
Previously In Marvel Team-Up Invincible: After a lab accident imbued him with the power to travel between alternate dimensions, Angstrom Levy began absorbing the knowledge and skills of all his alternate reality selves. An encounter with the superhero called Invincible left him horribly scarred and mutated, after which he vowed revenge on the son of Omni-Man. Tracking Invincible to his home, he held the hero’s mother and baby brother hostage, using his new power to create interdimensional warps to throw the hero into different realities, including one where we caught a glimpse of Invincible crashing into a man with metallic arms that resemble an octopus.
This is that story.
Doctor Octopus IS still dangerous, but Invincible makes short work of him with a single punch, then absconds with Spider-Man before the NYPD can question them. They find a safe rooftop, and the newest teen hero (by 2005 standards, anyway) sits down to catch his breath and talk to the proverbial gold standard of teen heroes.
As Invincible freaks out about his family’s safety, he trauma dumps to Spidey the first 30-odd issues of Image Comics’ Invincible, including the horror of finding out that his father was an alien conqueror. It’s a very well-done infodump, probably because this entire issue is the work of that book’s entire creative team, save for letterer Rus Wooton. This volume of MTU is writer Robert Kirkman’s love letter to the Marvel Comics of his youth, but that doesn’t mean that the trademark wit and snark of a Kirkman script are missing, as seen in the heroes’ introductions.
The best part of this exchange is that BOTH heroes actually have a point, in the grand scheme of things. Since Invincible choosing violence kept Spider-Man from being able to stick one of his tracers to Ock, the heroes head for Avengers Tower (Spider-Man was an active member of the team at this point, you might remember) to see if their communications arrays have any news. Of course, rather than Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, Mark and Peter find… an elderly woman and a smoking-hot model?
On the one hand, I love this exchange between Mssrs. Parker and Grayson showing off their similarities. On the other, it’s also an example of early-2000’s super-snarky dialogue, something that permeates this issue and the Invincible story that it’s crossing over with. Upon finding news of Doctor Octavius rampaging at the New York docks, Invincible and Spidey take off together, finding a badly wounded Otto Octavius facing down a squadron of police officers. Spidey wades in, dodging and weaving, as he battles his oldest foe, but an annoyed Invincible snarls, “I’m so SICK of this guy!”
In 2005, this was nothing more than a cute moment reminding us that the pseudo-Kryptonian powers of Invincible are leagues beyond those of Spidey. In hindsight, knowing what we know now, it’s a glimpse not only of things to come, but a reminder of how much Mark Grayson is like his violent alien dad. Probably the biggest failing of Marvel Team-Up #14 for me is that Cory Walker, for some reason, draws a very chunky Spider-Man throughout the issue, tied with a joke about Luke Cage that never sat right with me, earning 4 out of 5 stars overall. The story ends with Mark flying back through the portal to his native reality, where he will beat Angstrom Levy into a fine red mist, a sequence adapted for Netflix’s Invincible Season Two.
Perhaps most interesting to me is the indicia of the issue, which declares “all characters” to be legal trademarks of Marvel Characters, Inc., with no carve-out for Kirkman’s creator-owned hero. I’m not a law scholar, but… that seems like something that could cause an issue.
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MARVEL TEAM-UP #14
It's an issue that has aged pretty well, though Kirkman's dialogue feels a touch dated, and it features a classic "crossover that's awesome, even if not much of consequence happens" story, reminiscent of 'Marvel Vs. DC' and the '70s tabloid crossovers.
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Writing8
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Art9
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Coloring8
Once upon a time, there was a young nerd from the Midwest, who loved Matter-Eater Lad and the McKenzie Brothers... If pop culture were a maze, Matthew would be the Minotaur at its center. Were it a mall, he'd be the Food Court. Were it a parking lot, he’d be the distant Cart Corral where the weird kids gather to smoke, but that’s not important right now... Matthew enjoys body surfing (so long as the bodies are fresh), writing in the third person, and dark-eyed women. Amongst his weaponry are such diverse elements as: Fear! Surprise! Ruthless efficiency! An almost fanatical devotion to pop culture! And a nice red uniform.