Marvel Team-Up Annual #1
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeMarvel Team-Up Annual #1 holds a firm place in Bronze Age X-Men history as the first time the post-Giant-Size X-Men lineup — Wolverine, Storm, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Banshee, and Phoenix — appeared outside the pages of their own title, bringing Marvel's suddenly white-hot mutant franchise to a mainstream Spider-Man audience for the first time. It is also the first on-panel meeting between Spider-Man and Wolverine, a pairing that would become one of Marvel's most commercially and creatively durable relationships across decades of comics, animation, and film. The issue additionally stands as the second appearance of Jean Grey in her Phoenix identity, arriving just weeks after her transformation in Uncanny X-Men #101, giving Claremont an early opportunity to showcase the character's new cosmic power level in a high-visibility crossover format. As the debut installment of the Marvel Team-Up Annual line, it set an ambitious tone for the format — an oversized, four-chapter adventure that treated the annual as a genuine story event rather than a filler reprint vehicle.
In "The Lords of Light and Darkness!", Spider-Man teams up with the X-Men for a secret airborne summit on human mutation—only for their plane to crash after being attacked by scientists transformed into living embodiments of Hindu deities following a nuclear meltdown. Written by Chris Claremont, Bonnie Wilford, and Bill Mantlo, with dynamic art by Sal Buscema and Mike Esposito, this 1976 annual blends sci-fi intrigue with mythic spectacle, all under Dave Cockrum’s striking cover.
ComicBooks.com Value
Show all 20 grades ▾
This exact issue on ebay
CGC 8.5 ▾ $179–$200 2 listings
Raw — FN+ ▾ $34.95–$50.89 3 listings
Raw — FN ▾ $49.99–$141 3 listings
Raw / ungraded ▾ $14.88–$500 24 listings
More listings for this title
Read it digitally
Sell my copy
Have this issue — or a whole collection? Get a fair offer from us, skip the marketplace fees and the hassle.
We Buy Collections ▸History
Chris Claremont co-plotted the story alongside colorist Bonnie Wilford, with Bill Mantlo handling the scripting duties — a collaborative arrangement common in the Marvel bullpen of the mid-1970s. The interior art was penciled by Sal Buscema and inked by Mike Esposito, while Dave Cockrum — who had co-designed the new X-Men lineup with writer Len Wein and was the regular X-Men series artist at the time — contributed the cover. Archie Goodwin served as editor. The book carries a cover date of December 1976 and an on-sale date of October 19, 1976, and the Marvel Fandom wiki confirms it was the launch issue of the Marvel Team-Up Annual series, which ran through 1984. A notable editorial quirk documented by multiple continuity trackers is that the story could not plausibly fit into the X-Men's own publishing timeline at the date of release, since it depicts both Banshee and Jean Grey as Phoenix as active members — a combination that only became possible in X-Men continuity significantly later.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of the new (post-Giant-Size X-Men #1) X-Men lineup — Wolverine, Storm, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Banshee, and Phoenix — outside of their own title.
- First meeting and team-up of Spider-Man and Wolverine in Marvel continuity.
- Second appearance of Jean Grey in her Phoenix identity, shortly after her debut transformation in Uncanny X-Men #101 (October 1976).
- First appearance of the Lords of Light and Darkness (Agni Lord of Fire / Araman Nila and associates) as antagonists.
- Story titled 'The Lords of Light and Darkness!'; plot by Chris Claremont and Bonnie Wilford, script by Bill Mantlo, interior pencils by Sal Buscema, cover art by Dave Cockrum, edited by Archie Goodwin.
- Released October 19, 1976 (cover-dated December 1976) as the premiere issue of the Marvel Team-Up Annual series, which ran until 1984.
- The 35-page main story is structured in four named chapters across 52 total pages.
- Reprinted in Essential Marvel Team-Up Vol. 3 (2009), X-Men Epic Collection Vol. 5: Second Genesis (2017), X-Men: Children of the Atom — Bronze Age Vol. 1 (2019), and Marvel Masterworks: Marvel Team-Up Vol. 6 (2021).
Full credits
Reprints
Reprinted in Comic Reader #136 (1976), Spider-Man Annual #1979 (1978), L'Uomo Ragno [Collana Super-Eroi] #209 (1978), Marvel Tales #235 (1990), Marvel Tales #236 (1990), Spiderman #300 (1993), Spider-Man et les Héros Marvel #6 (2009), Essential Marvel Team-Up #3 (2009), X-Men Epic Collection #5 (2017), X-Men: Children of the Atom #[6] (2019), Marvel Masterworks: Marvel Team-Up #6 (2021), Marvel Comic-Stars #6, Σουπερ Σπαϊντερμαν [Super Spider-Man] #7
Key issues in Marvel Team-Up Annual
Reviews
Reader reviews
No reader reviews yet.