9. Conan and Elric in Giant-Size Conan #5
by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith
reprinted in Giant-Size Conan #5, 1975, Marvel Comics
originally published in Conan the Barbarian #14-15, 1973



I only occasionally sampled Conan comics when I began collecting. While Conan had plenty of the monsters that had drawn me into the hobby, I was more enamored of super-heroes. I don't think I even cracked open an issue in that first year of collecting, when Smith was still drawing the series. By the time I noticed, John Buscema was drawing it, and I wasn't especially impressed, because Buscema was already all over the place at Marvel.
This wasn't my first exposure to Smith's Conan, though, because I had gotten the King-Size reprint issue a while before this, and maybe one or two other reprints, and I realized this Smith guy was astounding.
This reprint further cemented my appreciation of Smith's Conan, but had the added bonus of a double length team-up with this Elric character. I'd seen mention of him before, and I think by this point I had a vague appreciation of the novelty of teaming up characters from separate publishing domains, like pulp/comics crossovers, inter-company crossovers, comics and movie or tv characters, or in this case, characters from the same genre but different authorial domains. It was something special, I was sure.
I thought I had a good handle on Conan (turns out I didn't--he was a little more complex than the fairly generic barbarian I took him for), but, like I said, Elric was something new. And Elric really appealed to me--he was a sword fighter who wasn't a brutal, capable brawler, but a sickly albino who just happened to wield a mystical weapon that compensated. I identified much more with the intelligent, slender and not-particularly-physically-formidable Elric, and the idea of a black, rune-carved sword that stole the souls of those it killed was just plain awesome. Smith's design for Elric, in a strange green outfit with a weird, cone-shaped hat was so novel and intriguing--this was surely my kind of sword and sorcery hero, even better than Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser over at DC. Why this guy didn't have an ongoing series of his own at Marvel I didn't understand!
With this, we got two very different takes on S&S heroes, in a universe-crossing team-up that sucked me in and left me wanting more. It would be a long time before I had a chance to buy new Elric comics, when First Comics got the license, so I had to make do with this. The content? Maybe not that much more special, if any more special, than the other Thomas/Smith Conan issues, but those were all pretty good comics, weren't they? It's just that these were the only ones with Moorcock's fascinating Elric.

Batman was a totally different character those days.

Yes, it's a totally irrational feeling on my part but I went with it. Objectively, that Swamp Thing issue is probably one of the very best comics that will appear in the entirety of this year's 12 Days.

9. Spider-Man/Red Sonja, "Sword of the She-Devil!", Marvel Team-Up #79 (Marvel, 1979)



As much as I enjoy team-up books, I do have to acknowledge the complaints made by some of the other posters: the stories are often inconsequential, the characterization is often off, one character is overshadowed, etc. However, despite all of that, I have to admit that I am a sucker for the oddball team-up: ateam-up between two character who shouldn't be teaming up at all, like Batman and Scalphunter (and, yeas, that is an actual team-up from TB&TB). If I see one of these, I just have to check it out, even if only to find out how they justify the crossover.

Often the justifications feel contrived and gimmicky, but it is possible to do this kind of team-up well. And my #9 pick is probably the finest example I've encountered. It shows that you can do this kind of story and have it feel natural (within the confines of comic book reality, of course ).

The story itself is simple enough. The proper confluence of mystic events allows the spirit of ancient sorcerer Kulan Gath to escape from the necklace where it is trapped, and possess a nightwatchman at the museum. Gath starts preparing a magical ritual to regain his full power. Peter Parker and reporter Charley Snow are called away from the Daily Bugle Christmas party to cover the strange goings on at the museum. MJ decides to tag along. At the museum, Peter sneaks inside to change into Spidey and find out what is going on. MJ thinks is trying to get a scoop and follows him inside. Once inside, a corroded sword in a display case reaches out to MJ's mind, compelling her to pick it up. When she does, MJ is transformed into a double of Red Sonja, and believes herself to be Sonja. Sonja and Spidey team-up to battle Kulan Gath, despite not being able to speak a common language (a nice touch). Eventually, Kulan Gath is defeated, and Spidey rips the necklace off his neck, causing his form to revert to that of the guard. With Gath banished, everything reverts to normal, and Sonja turns back to MJ, leaving MJ with no memory of what happened.

The credits list Claremont and Byrne as co-plotters, and Claremont as scripter. I wonder how much input Byrne actually had into the plot, as it feels very Claremont to me. Especially telling is that Claremont would later do a sequel to this story in Uncanny X-Men where Kulan gath returns and transforms Manhattan into a Hyperborean Age city.

The art is John Byrne at his finest, long before he disappeared up his own self-importance. It actually makes me wish he had down more work on Red Sonja, as he does a gorgeous version of the She-Devil with a Sword; seeming to channel Frank Thorne without actually imitating him.



So the odball team-up done right earns my #9 slot.

I can neither confirm nor deny whether this comic will be showing up again in 2 days time...

Such a weird " team-up" as It' s not really Red Sonja, is it?  The real team up is seeing Clark Kent in the Bugle newsroom.