The Invaders!
SUPER-VILLAIN TEAM-UP — Issue no. 15, August 1978
Book: Super-Villain Team-Up
Issue No.: 15
Published: August 1, 1978
Title: “The Invaders!” (reprint of Astonishing Tales nos. 4 and 5)
Cover Price: 35¢
Format: Original paper copy
When I started Marvel Time Warp, my plan was to take advantage of Marvel’s vast digital archives and just read digital versions of the comic books that came out in the year I started reading comics, 1978. But I enjoyed the digital comics so much I started hitting comic shops and cons and picking up original paper copies of whatever cheap Marvel books from 1978 I could find. Since then, I’ve filled up almost three short boxes with comics from 1978.
I have mostly stuck with my inital cheap-comics-only plan. Initially I had set a limit of five dollars per book, because I was just looking for reading copies, not expensive, high-grade collectible comics. But I have broken the five dollar rule on occasion. Mainly to get some of the harder-to-find issues of Godzilla, King of the Monsters and Devil Dinosaur, because I am particularly fond of those books, and key issues of those books are pricey. But not Uncanny X-Men pricey. (Of all the books I’ve looked for, Uncanny X-Men is the one I almost never find affordable issues of. Which is underdatandable, as that book was beginning its legendary Chris Claremont/John Byrne era in 1978.)
This past weekend Stacey and I attended a nice little comic con in Huntsville, Alabama. There were several comic book vendors there, so I spent almost all of my time at the con digging through back issues.
Of course, as I find and read more 1978 comics, my shopping list gets shorter. So finding what I’m looking for gets harder. If you hit a con looking for a hundred specific Bronze Age comic books, you’re bound to find a few of those. If you hit a con looking for ten specific books, your odds aren’t as good.
One book I’ve had my eye out for since I started back issue shopping is Super-Villain Team-Up no. 15. I didn’t know much about the book — I thought it was a reprint book. But I did know (according to the ever helpful fandom.com Marvel wiki) that Marvel only published one issue of Super-Villain Team-Up in 1978. Even though I’m not trying to collect all of these books, I do like it when I am able to get a complete 1978 run of a given title. And since the complete 1978 run of Super-Villain Team-Up is one book, how hard could it be?
Pretty hard, it turns out.
For one thing Super-Villain Team-Up doesn’t have its own section with most comics sellers. The book only ran seventeen issues. So if you are going to find it, you have to dig around somewhere past all of the many Superman books. Unless you’re in a Marvel-only section, then you’re looking at whatever is after Spider-Woman and before Thor.
The other thing is I just couldn’t find issue no 15. Looking at different dealers’ tables at the Huntsville con, I found several issues of Super-Villain Team-Up. But no issue no. 15.
I was starting to wonder if this issue was particularly collectible or rare for some weird reason. Like there is an issue of John Carter, Warlord of Mars I had trouble finding because Frank Miller did the artwork for that issue, and collectors apparently still like early Miller Marvel stuff. (I did find a somewhat affordable copy of that one eventually.)
But! As the day dragged on and I started thinking about leaving the con for (a late) lunch, I finally found a copy of Super-Villain Team-Up no. 15! It didn’t look like it was in super great condition or anything, but I was still kind of afraid to look at the price. Was I gonna have to leave this book behind after finally finding it, due to lack of funds?
Turns out it was three dollars.
Three. Dollars.
I’ve never been happier to pull out the debit card.
The indicia on page one of this issue of Super-Villain Team-Up states the book was published quarterly. But, like I said, it’s apparently the only issue that came out in 1978. I guess the publishing schedule listed in the indicia is more of a guideline than a rule. Page one also makes it clear that this issue is a reprint, specifically of a story from Astonishing Tales issues 4 and 5 (from 1971). But, while doing some additional research on Super-Villain Team-Up on the Fandom Marvel wiki, I found out that this issue is the exception — Super-Villain Team-Up usually featured new Doctor Doom/Red Skull team-up stories. This issue seems to be the only one that is a reprint.
I wonder what the behind-the-scenes story is there. Maybe the creative team was running very late getting the next issue of Super-Villain Team-Up finished, and Marvel had to publish something during the calendar year of 1978 to keep the title alive, so they did a reprint? Marvel did manage to release one issue of Super-Villain Team-Up with original material in 1979, and then another original issue in 1980, but the 1980 issue (no. 17) was the last.
As for the actual story, it’s less of a super-villain team-up and more of a super-villain clash. It’s the first battle, according to a blurb on the cover, between Marvel baddies Doctor Doom and the Red Skull. Doom is the dictator of the country of Latveria. He goes on vacation in the Riviera while his minions rebuild his castle. The Red Skull and his band of Nazi goons (called the Exiles) decide to take over Latveria while Doom is away. Their plan is to start a Fourth Reich with Latveria as its power base. (You know how it is with these Nazis, always trying to start a Fourth Reich.)
Doctor Doom returns home and quickly sends the Red Skull and his Exiles packing, even though the Skull’s team obviously has Doom outnumbered. It’s such a lopsided conflict, and Doom has such contempt for the Skull, I kind of want to read some of the non-reprint Super-Villain Team-Up stories and see how these two end up working together. (I am assuming that the two bad guys actually team up at some point in Super-Villain Team-Up.)
Next time — Foolhardy cowboys fight Godzilla!
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