Fred Van Lente’s back with another not-at-all facetious clash of the titans…
By FRED VAN LENTE
Hey gang, welcome to Part Two of a slugfest between the premier Big Two team-up books, The Brave and the Bold and Marvel Team-Up. A commenter in Part One complained that I was pitting mostly average issues of MTU versus superlative issues of B&B, and if I went out and sought better examples of the former, the latter wouldn’t have run the table last time.
While I appreciate the urge for fairness, due to strict COMIC BOOK DEATH MATCH regulations (regulations which I, as Commissioner and sole member of the North American Comic Book Death Match Association, totally made up) I can only pit issues against each other that came out in the same month (thanks to pub data provided by the fine folks at Mike’s Amazing World of Comics), so if I pick one comic that might be interesting or amusing to discuss, I’m forced to pick that month’s counterpart from the opposing title, regardless of its relative quality.
I’d also argue that having read more than 100 issues of Marvel Team-Up at this point, there are only “average” issues of Marvel Team-Up! Sorry/not sorry.
Bob Haney and Jim Aparo had something special going on in their B&B run, while across Midtown at Marvel nobody else yet clicked. (Bill Mantlo and Sal Buscema are terrific creators, but their Team-Ups never reached the heights of their, well, incredible run on Hulk.) But now that we’ve reached ’76 in our re-read, something interesting is happening, as John Byrne joins MTU as main series penciller and Chris Claremont as main series writer not long thereafter.
Will that alter the outcome of this round at all? Let’s find out—ring that bell!!
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The Brave and the Bold #132: “Batman—Dragon Slayer??”
Richard Dragon, DC’s Chuck Norris ripoff answer to Marvel’s Bruce Lee ripoff Shang-Chi, is visiting a friend’s Gotham City dojo when he gets challenged to a kung fu duel in the park, which, for Dragon, I assume is just a regular Tuesday. Batman, who seems to think Gotham’s real name is Bat City, doesn’t like people who aren’t him fighting on his turf; he and Dragon battle to a standstill, and he grudgingly agrees to figure out who put a killer on Dragon’s tail.
As soon as you start thinking this is way too straightforward to be a Bob Haney plot, we learn that a year ago Dragon saved some random old man from getting beat up by evil hippies (yes, really). He turns out to have been an eccentric billionaire who may have left Dragon his entire fortune. The rich weirdo’s gangster business partner is trying to off Dragon so he’ll inherit the dough instead. Dragon and Batman track this guy to Mexico — do they fly the Batplane to the Yucatan? Does Bruce Wayne use his private jet?
Oh, my sweet summer child: You know not the ways of the Haneyverse. No, of course not: Bats and Drags fly commercial, squeezed next to each other in coach, en route to a wonderful Aparo-drawn martial arts showdown.
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Marvel Team-Up #54: “Spider in the Middle!”
Byrne took over as semi-regular penciller of this title last issue, with Bill Mantlo remaining as writer. I believe that ish is also the first time Byrne ever drew the X-Men, as they were still hanging around from their appearance in MTU Annual #1. (I would have featured #53 in this column except there was no issue of B&B that month. Curse you, bimonthly schedules!)
Spider-Man and Hulk have found themselves stuck with Top 13 Oddest Marvel Oddity Woodgod, whom I couldn’t begin explaining to you if I tried (or wanted to try). They’re trapped in “Tranquility Base,” a US government facility run by a looney tunes named Del Tremens, if that is his real name. They escape and trash the place, with terrific Byrne-drawn action, but fail to keep Spider-Man from getting blasted to the moon! Bummer.
The kids would call this comic “mid.”
WINNER: BRAVE & THE BOLD
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The Brave and the Bold #139: “Requiem for a Top Cop!”
Somebody tries to gun down Commissioner Gordon while walking with Batman in broad daylight — in the Haveyverse, Batman is less “Darknight Detective” and more “Sunshine Superman”— down a crowded Gotham street, which takes real balls. Extraterrestrial balls, that is. Vorgan is a bounty hunter from the planet Daxx that Hawkman knows about from his cop days on Thanagar, and Jim Gordon is his latest target.
Because no Bob Haney plot would be complete without layer upon layer of torturous sub-conditions, not only can no intergalactic lawmen interfere with Vorgan because he only kills “bad people” (yeah, right, where have I heard that before), anyone who tries gets an interstellar bounty put on their head too, hamstringing Bats and Hawks quite a bit. The one thing working in Gordon’s favor is that Vorgan is a pretentious space tourist who only uses local weapons in his kills, which on Earth means firearms and Cadillacs, so at least the commissioner doesn’t have to worry about getting zapped by a death ray or something.
Turns out that as a young cop, Gordon “accidentally” shot and killed a mobster who was really an alien, hence Vorgan’s contract. But when the alien is revealed to have been an intergalactic crook with accomplices still on Earth, Vorgan changes his mind because it violates his “only kill bad people” rule and everyone goes home happy.
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Marvel Team-Up #65: “Introducing, Captain Britain”
This issue’s title is somewhat misleading: Brian Braddock had already premiered in his own Marvel UK title across the pond a year before, making this his US introduction. London-born Chris Claremont and John Byrne bring us a tale of Empire State University student Peter Parker being asked to house Thames University exchange student Braddock at his pad (I was not aware that colleges had exchange programs). Peter and Brian change into their respective costumes to respond to a fire, meet each other outside, and, by the logic of the superhero genre, decide the other one is evil and start beating on each other.
Alas, the European mob has hired funhouse enthusiast Arcade to kill Captain Britain, so as soon as he’s done telling Spidey that he got his powers from Merlin at Stonehenge, as one does, they’re promptly captured, setting up a great second act next issue. This is Arcade’s actual first appearance, and he has made something of a specialty of team-up book premieres, since I am just now realizing I used him as the villain in the first issue of Deadpool Team-Up (which numbered backwards from Deadpool #900, because Deadpool).
WINNER: MARVEL TEAM-UP
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The Brave and the Bold #148: “The Night the Mob Stole Xmas!”
Joe Staton does a great job backing up Aparo as Batman tackles a problem taken very seriously by America’s children: the hijacking of cigarette trucks, or “buttlegging,” as it’s called on practically every page of this comic book. Because I am permanently 13 years old, I went to Urban Dictionary to see if they had their own definition of “buttlegging” and discovered it “is the conjunction of the butt and the leg and is a term that is used when one cannot identify an area that is all butt or all leg,” which I had never heard of before either.
“This buttlegging is bad… real bad,” Batman internal-monologues right before he discovers a broke Plastic Man working as a Salvation Army Santa (hate to break it to Plas, but I am pretty sure they don’t get paid). When Plas’s entire Christmas display gets Nativity-napped in a semi, Bats gives chase.
I don’t mean to shock you, but these thieves turn out to be the buttleggers, who, being evil, don’t go to Party City to get X-Mas decorations for their boss’s holiday party, oh no. Instead they hijack an entire display from Gotham City and drive it several hundred miles south to Florida and I hope you don’t think I’m kidding about this, because I can assure you that I am not.
Even though it is extremely amusing to see a captured Batman hang as the star on a gangster’s stolen X-Mas tree, Bob Haney’s utter contempt for story logic is becoming less “fun” and more “exhausting” for this graying adolescent.
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Marvel Team-Up #79: “Sword of the She-Devil”
A few years ago, I went longbox diving at a con I was signing at and it reawakened my love of comics collecting. I have a deeply weird collection that is comprised primarily of properties that publishers have lost the rights to, like Marvel’s John Carter of Mars and DC’s The Shadow and the like.
So I was perfectly happy to order this issue off eBay to complete this column as it makes the perfect fit. You won’t find it on Marvel Unlimited or in any reprint any time soon since Dynamite Entertainment has had exclusive comics rights to Red Sonja for the last couple decades. Check her out in my and Marco Finnegan’s Die!namite: Blood Red series, Issue #1 on sale October 22!
Issue #3 Will Robson variant
This is also a holiday story, courtesy of Claremont and Byrne: News of trouble down at the Metropolitan Museum of Art interrupts the Daily Bugle Christmas party where, amusingly, Clark Kent is also in attendance. (This is Byrne’s first professional pre-Man of Steel Kent I’d wager, for you completists out there).
Less explicable (in that, it is never explained) is Mary Jane’s attendance; she tags along with Peter Parker to the Met, where she grabs an ancient sword and is possessed by the spirit and chainmail bikini of Red Sonja. (Robbie Robertson says he sends Peter and another reporter because they’re “the only two non-drinkers on the staff.” Too much spiked egg nog for you, Kent!) Sonja’s returned to stop Hyborian sorcerer Kulan Gath, who has possessed a night watchman via a cursed artifact and is of course up to black magic shenanigans.
You know, now that intercompany crossovers are back, maybe I should try and talk Dynamite into bringing back Red MJ, because this is a super fun story. I might even be so bold to say it’s the best Team-Up so far — and I’m not just saying that because its Byrne splash of an attacking Sonja no doubt inflamed many pre- and post-pubescent hormones.
WINNER: MARVEL TEAM-UP
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The Brave and the Bold #150: “Today Gotham… Tomorrow, the World!”
In 1979, The Brave and the Bold goes monthly, which I am sure thrilled many fans, but at the same time, sadly, this year marks Bob Haney’s last stories. This anniversary issue is one of his final efforts, and it is fittingly bonkers.
The opening is terrific, in which a phony wedding party, complete with gun-toting bride and groom, snatch a businessman out from under Batman’s nose in broad daylight (when else?). These same terrorists kidnap Bruce Wayne next and keep him under lock and key in an isolated farmhouse watched over by a hulking goon, “Keeper” Karns, strong enough to keep Wayne at bay. He even seems to know Bruce is Batman!
Though numerous suitably insane clues are sprinkled throughout the story, even I was surprised to see that Karns is this month’s mystery guest, Superman, who has infiltrated the terrorists because they’ve also kidnapped snooping cub reporter Jimmy Olsen. The World’s Finest team joins forces to thwart the villains’ attempt to blow up Gotham with an atom bomb. There’s a lot going on here, is what I’m saying.
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Marvel Team-Up #81: “Last Rites”
Chris Claremont stuck around as the main MTU writer for a spell after John Byrne’s departure for The X-Men, and here Mike Vosburg ably provides pencils for Act Two of a tale that has seen Doctor Strange turn into a werewolf. Satana, the Devil’s daughter, shows up to cure him — or kill him if she fails.
Spider-Man tracks Werewizard to a hospital where Peter Parker’s date from last ish is recuperating from a lycanthropic attack, providing some emotional oomph to their throwdown. Spidey brings the subdued Strange back to Satana, and she conducts the ritual to regain the sorcerer’s soul. Demons launch an assault to stop them, and the Devil’s Daughter sacrifices herself rather perfunctorily to save everyone. (Fear not, Satana fans, she does not stay Comic Book Dead for long.)
Vosberg draws the Hell (pun intended) out of Satana, but there’s something about Jim Aparo having Superman smack Bruce Wayne around in disguise that tickles me more.
WINNER: BRAVE & THE BOLD
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The Brave and the Bold #169: “Angel of Mercy, Angel of Death!”
Bob Haney’s last few B&B issues were co-written by Mike W. Barr, whom I’ve already subjected to a TOP 13 list, and he joins Aparo as a primary series writer until the title is replaced by Batman and the Outsiders after #200.
Batman is investigating who he believes is a crooked faith healer, friend to a disappointingly un-fishnetted Zatanna. A mobster is mad at her late faith-healer husband for failing to cure his ailments and holds everybody hostage in hubby’s tomb. Batman escapes and the mobster dies of a fear-induced heart attack at the sight of him, truly a superstitious, cowardly lot.
Aparo is as great as ever, and Barr is trying, but he just doesn’t have Haney’s kamikaze lack of story self-preservation. Bob would gleefully defenestrate any and all plot and characterization in service to a colorfully gonzo premise. This is just a story about Zatanna and Batman solving a mystery: competent—but unmemorable. The Cary Burkett/Dan Spiegle Nemesis back-up is always a welcome additional treat, though.
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Marvel Team-Up #100: “And Introducing—Karma! She Possesses People!”
Talk about a dynamite team-up — Chris Claremont provides one of his last scripts on this title with art by his Wolverine collaborator Frank Miller. The title of this tale is no lie: It introduces the soon-to-be New Mutant Karma, and she does, in fact, possess people. As she reads way too much J. Jonah Jameson, Karma possesses Spider-Man “because he’s bad” (hm, where have I heard that before) to attack her evil uncle, a South Vietnamese general who is keeping other members of her family hostage. Just her luck, said uncle is at a party with the Fantastic Four, and a fracas ensues.
It’s interesting to see early Miller do conventional superheroics; it’s not really his thing, but even this early in his career his talent for layout and acting shines through like the sun. At his best, Miller’s Spider-Man might be the closest I can think of to compare to Steve Ditko’s, which is the highest praise a Spider-Fan like me can muster.
The backup is the first encounter between future newlyweds Storm and Black Panther, by Claremont, Byrne and friends, and is also quite good.
WINNER: MARVEL TEAM-UP
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MTU would chug along for another half-century, issues-wise, until it was also replaced by another title featuring its main hero, Web of Spider-Man, which, come to think of it, is a title I used to write. My first-ever letter to a comic book was published in Marvel Team-Up #125, halfway between the two, and I ended up writing its successor title approximately two decades later. What are the odds?
You’d think that would leave me biased in favor of MTU but, I gotta say, looking over nearly eight years of these titles, I remain convinced there is a clear winner here, with a 7-3 record across two bouts:
OVERALL WINNER: THE BRAVE & THE BOLD
Bob Haney, I can’t write like you, but I sure as hell can enjoy reading you, by gum.
Any new COMIC BOOK DEATH MATCHES you’d like to see? Let me know in the comments!
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MORE
— The Complete COMIC BOOK DEATH MATCH Index. Click here.
— COMIC BOOK DEATH MATCH: Brave and the Bold vs. Marvel Team-Up, 1971-1976. Click here.
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Comics writer/playwright/bon vivant Fred Van Lente is a funny guy. Sign up for updates on his upcoming projects and check out the trailer for his comics-writing course at his web site, fredvanlente.com.
October 11, 2025
I love both books, Fred, but you’re not wrong in your wrap-up. B&B seeing you!
October 11, 2025
I guess I’m just biased because I was a huge Spider-Man fan as a kid in the Bronze Age. But I rate the Byrne-Claremont era on MTU as top notch. I was a fan of B&B, make no mistake. But in retrospect, Haney’s lack of interest in DC Universe continuity annoys me.
October 11, 2025
If you were comparing exclusively Byrne’s run to B&B I’d give it to MTU (man oh man that Tigra issue), you picked right using the issues that you used here.