Marvel Team-Up #1 (2019)

I'm a sucker for team-up titles! From The Thing's adventures with friends and foes in the pages of Marvel Two-In-One to Batman's innovative run in the pages of The Brave and the Bold- if it pairs two (or more) characters on a monthly basis, I want it in my collection! So of course when it was announced that Marvel Team-Up was making another return to print, I was first in line!

The classic crossover series returns in time for Marvel's 80th anniversary! In this first issue, your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is paired with Kamala Kahn: Ms. Marvel. 

The villain for the premiers is the Jackal. I'm not very familiar with him. In fact, I was so out of my element in my knowledge of this character, that at first, I thought it was the Green Goblin. Immediately, I started thinking that the rumors are true- the artwork of the world famous Bullpen really is that sub-par! Instead, it's just a knock-off of one of Spidey's most famous foes!

MTU #1 has a gimmick. It's a flip-book! The premise is that the reader is supposed to notice the parallels of a day-in-the-life in both Peter Parker and Kamala Kahn's eyes. 

Things don't really seem to have changed that much for Ms. Marvel. She's still a high-schooler from Jersey in a Muslim family. And she's the ultimate Marvel fan girl! But man, has things fallen flat for Parker. No longer does Parker ride high as the founder of a multi-billion dollar company. Nor does Peter have his Ph.D, having been stripped for plagiarism. At least he's not back to living with Aunt May. (Oh God- is she dead? faux pas!?)

Back to the flip-book aspect. These type of stories are supposed to be perfectly balanced. Spidey's half is supposed to be perfectly reflected in Kamala's half. But Ms. Marvel's side of the story reveals more of the Jackal's motives for his reign of terror. Spider-Man's half of the book is more character heavy. I'm hoping this means that this version of Marvel Team-Up will be focusing on 'Spider-Man and...', instead of being a Ms. Marvel title.

While this wasn't a perfectly balanced story, it was still an enjoyable read. For now, I've informed my LCS to add this new monthly series to my pull list. Even if this turns out to be a Ms. Marvel vehicle, I'm going to stay with this volume of MTU. I just hope that the quality of this series goes up from here. 

Maybe just stay away from the flip-book gimmicks...

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.