A mere six months after the Sub-Mariner's final issue, writer/editor (#1 Namor Fan) Roy Thomas found a way to bring our Prince of Atlantis out of the mothballs--and as usual, Roy came up with a unique way of doing it...
Ol' Groove can remember that dreary December Saturday morning in 1974, trucking out to the Ben Franklin's section of Mack's Superstore to get some paint for my Aurora Incredible Hulk model. Naturally, I had to stop by the ol' spinner rack and what would jump out and almost literally grab two quarters out of my stubby fingers? Giant-Size Super-Villain Team-Up #1! Subby was indeed back, teaming up with Marvel's #1 baddie, Doctor Doom! The first 68 page ish was made up of an extremely cool framing sequence by Thomas and artists supreme John Buscema and Joe Sinnott (and man, were they ever at the top of their game here!) with reprints (from Sub-Mariner #20 and Marvel Super-Heroes #20) featuring our extremely odd couple as background/explanation of why they should team up. Roy's ca-razee idea was a hit, with GSSVTU becoming plain old Super-Villain Team-Up after two issues, where it would run (under a variety of writers and artists like Mike Sekowsky, Tony Isabella, George Evans, Sal Buscema, Jim Shooter, Bill Mantlo, Herb Trimpe, Steve Englehart, Keith Giffen, and Bob Hall) for a solid 14 issues (May 1975-July 1977), plus three "special" issues in 1978/79.
The series ended quite differently than the first ish of GSSVTU would have lead you to expect. After Roy's departure from the title, Subby became almost a supporting character as Doom took the lead and many other characters from the F.F. to the Avengers to the Champions--and even a new character created just for the series, The Shroud, took turns trying to take down old Metal Mouth. Still, the sheer momentum of the series and the variety of creators made the mag a fun (if confusing) one to follow.
And now for your reading pleasure, here's the framing sequence from that fab first ish! Enjoy!
