Marvel Team-Up #42

This 1976 Marvel Team-Up pairs Spider-Man and the Vision against a threat that apparently laughs off their combined might — the cover's boastful speech bubble warns that the mysterious Dark Rider commands creatures that can destroy them "in an instant." Ed Hannigan and Mike Esposito's cover captures the chaos vividly: Spider-Man battles a flaming, bestial creature on the right while a dark, cloaked figure on horseback looms from the left, and the Vision stands coolly in the background, cape billowing, surveying the mayhem. Bill Mantlo's script, brought to life by Sal Buscema and inkers Esposito and Dave Hunt, promises exactly the kind of wild, anything-goes adventure that made Marvel Team-Up such a reliable thrill in its heyday.