John Byrne starts his MTU run, and the results are visually wonderful. This is his early work, but you can already see why he will be one of Marvel’s top artists of the 1980s (alongside Frank Miller and Mike Zeck). Also, this is the first time we get to see Byrne’s X-Men! They happen to be flying by a stranded Spider-Man, so they give him a ride home.
The X-Men stay in the story for over half of #53, but Hulk gets the cover billing as the team-up character for both #53 and #54. The gang fights Woodgod, who is supposed to be launched into space by the real villains. Instead, Spider-Man ends up on the rocket.
Issue #56 concludes the Spidey-on-a-rocket cliffhanger by sending him to the moon. It starts with him getting a little loopy during the ride, which serves as an excuse for John Byrne to draw a whole bunch of characters. What a terrific splash page!
Anyway, Spider-Man luckily lands in the Blue Area of the Moon, where there are plants and oxygen and whatnot, as well as…Adam Warlock!
The two of them then team up against The Stranger.
Stranger stories are never all that great, but this one introduces another Marvel cosmic character: The Gardener. He’s also got a soul gem, and he’s using it to cultivate the Blue Area. Gardener doesn’t interfere with the Warlock-Spidey-Stranger fight until Stranger accidentally blows up a plant, and then G is full on—he combines his soul gem with Warlock’s, and they beat Stranger.
The ending is confusing. Gardener removes his soul gem from his forehead and says that it has now been corrupted into a weapon, but it’s not clear what he does with it after that. Does he keep it? Throw it on the ground? Give it to Adam Warlock?
I can’t tell. And it seems like that might be important, later.
Warlock also leaves a metallic egg on the moon, which will be next seen in Champions #12.
There’s also a letter in #54 from Fred Hembeck, a cartoonist known for humorous takes on Marvel and DC characters.
My Dear Sir: If you truly, indeed, believe that “Stranger stories are never all that great”, then I heartily invite you to re-read ‘Silver Surfer’ #5, ( “……And Who Shall Mourn For Him……?” ) as I know you have, as I personally consider this ‘done-in-one’ issue to be one of the greatest Marvel Comics of All Time, and certainly a showcase issue of ‘The Silver Surfer’, ( along with issues #3, 4, 8,9, 12, and 13 ) and a showcase issue of Marvel Comics, in general. “The Champions” #11 and 12, featuring the Stranger, were pretty top-notch, as well, due in absolutely no small part to the awesome, rising artwork of soon-to-be superstar John Byrne. The Stranger’s appearance in ‘X-Men’ #11, ( 1965 ) was most welcome, as well, for giving us the sequence where the super-arrogant Magneto is totally humiliated by the omnipotent Stranger- big fun!! His brief appearance in 1970’s ‘The Mighty Thor’ #178 was interesting, as well, primarily by myself for having been the occasion where I noticed for the very first time that he looks like a twenty-foot high version of ‘Bewitched’s Larry Tate! He does! Thanks to Jumbo John Buscema’s powerful artistic rendition, which just also happens to be Jumbo John’s debut work on ‘The Mighty Thor’ series! ( although I am pretty sure that Jumbo John’s very first work on ‘Thor’ was 1968’s ‘Avengers’ #51, even though I will never stop wishing that we could say it was the aforementioned ‘Silver Surfer’#4! ) Speaking of John Byrne, his debut work on the ( at the time, “New” X-Men ) here in ‘Marvel Team-Up” # 53, is nothing short of mind-blowing. The double-page spread with Spidey riding on the hood of the ‘X-Shuttle’ ( did we ever see this vehicle, ever again? ) is just sooooooooooooooooo visually impressive, that it resides in a beautiful glass-frame, up on my study’s wall! Miss Storm, in particular, is X-ceptionally ravishing, and well-rendered, here, and, in contrast to the supernaturally-gorgeous Miss Phoenix- ( so saying because, the Phoenix, as we all well know by now, is not REALLY a human being, at all, but some kind of a freaky, weirdo, outer-space, supernatural cosmic ‘doppleganger’ of the convalescing Marvel Girl! ) As with a great many of my fellow comic-book cognoscenti, at the time, I knew that this artist and his artwork were harbingers of much greater things to come! I only wish that his career at Marvel had not had to come to such a miserable ending with the culmination of his super-too long-awaited dream project with 1999-2001’s ‘X-Men: The Hidden Years’. I understand that Byrne and Joe Quesada- the at-the-time Marvel Editor-in-Chief who was responsible for pulling the plug on that lauded and legendary series- don’t exactly share a great deal of lost love! ‘The Hidden Years’ was simply the best ‘X-Men’ product that Marvel had published in over two decades from that point in time, and Quesada’s “reasonings” for cancelling it were specious, at best! I will not go so far as to say that I hope Quesada burns in Hell, or anything, ( as I am sure that Byrne does! ) but he will not be in any of my kind thoughts, either. Even if, by some miraculous happenstance, Byrne were to be welcomed back to Marvel today, with a guaranteed-free hand in running a relaunch of ‘X-Men: The Hidden Years’ any damn way he damn well pleased, I just don’t think it would be the same, because, after twenty-four years- it’s been too long. I do not believe that Marveldom Assembled has any further appetite for any more Original X-Men content, at least not a further continuation of the ( MATCHLESS ) Thomas-Adams era. After twenty-four years- it’s just been too long. At this point in time, there are simply not enough cash-paying regular ‘X-Men’ readers to financially support it. It’s too bad, I would love nothing more than to see it return, especially under John Byrne’s matchless hand, but NOT if it would involve a compromise in quality. Byrne’s 1999-2001 ‘Hidden Years’ opus was an absolutely flawless continuation of the 1969 ‘X-Men’ comics, and if Marvel- and Byrne- could not give us that again, then I personally would rather that they not even try. But The Master’s debut work on the New X-Men here, in 1976’s ‘Marvel Team-Up’ #’s 53- Whoooooooo!!!! Along with the late, great Neal Adams, and Jumbo John Buscema- this is as good as comics gets!! X-Celsior!!