Marvel Team-Ups

Marvel has been around for quite a while and with time, comes new ideas, new characters, and new team-ups. The Avengers, SHIELD, The Sinister Six, the X-Men, X-Force, all teams that are well known within the Marvel comic book universe. But there were many team ups that go overlooked or at the very least underrated.

The first of the underrated is the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. A team that made its first appearance in the X-Men #4 in 1964 and was created by Magneto, other original members include Toad, Mastermind and of course his children Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants has undergone many changes in members. Wanda and Pietro joining only in times of severe emotional distress, Magneto uses the Brotherhood to fight his wars against both humans and the X-Men. The Brotherhood plays a part in several major storylines, their most well known being House of M.

Another lesser known team is Generation-X, who made their first appearance in the Marvel Annual Report #4 in 1994, this group was disbanded in Generation-X #75 after being involved in 625 issues. Unlike other X-Men offshoots Generation-X were not led by Professor X and they did not train at the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. Mentored by both Banshee and Emma Frost, Generation-X formed for mutants with hard to control powers and were considered outcasts even by the mutant community. They’ve also appeared in alternate realities, in Earth 295 during the Age of the Apocalypse Generation-X became Generation-Next, led by Colossus and Shadowcat and included Chamber, Husk, Mondo, and Skin as members.

The Imperial Guard first appeared in the X-Men #107 in 1977, this team was loosely based on DC Comics Legion of Superheroes. Scintilla bore a resemblance to Shrinking Violet, Hobgoblin was clearly based off of Chameleon Boy, Astra was strikingly similar to Phantom Girl, and Fang was Marvel’s answer to Timber Wolf. This was a team that fought on a more cosmic scale then the other, more earth-bound teams. Their most well known enemy was the Shi’ar Empire. The Imperial Guard also makes an appearance in the alternate earth storyline Age of the Apocalypse, as well as Earth 41001, X-Men The End.

The Avengers Unity Squad made their first appearance in Avengers V.S. X-Men #12 and was actually disbanded twice, the first time in Uncanny Avengers #15, and again in Avengers #690. In an attempt to help the mutants more than they had in the past, Captain America formed a group of Avengers and X-Men alike. The founding members were; Captain America, Havok, Wolverine, Thor, Scarlet Witch, and Rogue. This team's first major threat was the Red Skull. This new, enhanced version of the Red Skull had implanted part of the recently deceased Charles Xavier’s brain into his own and by doing so had gained Xavier’s powers. Red Skull had also formed the S-Men, a group of genetically modified humans that had all been harmed at the hands of mutants at one point or another. The forming of the Unity Squad caused an immediate fallout between the Avengers and the X-Men but as always Cap did what he felt was necessary to help.

There are many more smaller teams that didn’t last quite as long, mostly villain team ups. But what we’ve seen through the years is that the Mutant teams especially have taken many different forms. We know about different variations of the X-Men but many mutants exist out of the X-Teams. In Marvel’s long history teams are bound to grow and change but these were some of the longest running team ups that exist or existed in the Marvel Universe.