Since it's a relatively quiet week, I thought I'd throw in Marvel Team-Up #19.  It stars Cable and Wolverine (plus Jubilee, for that matter), so it's virtually an X-book by default.

Marvel Team-Up is a strange title.  The original version of the book made a little more sense; it was an additional Spider-Man title, back in the day when Marvel thought a new Spider-Man title needed something unique to justify its existence.  Ah, innocent days.  The current version, in contrast, is just a vehicle for Robert Kirkman to write whatever he wants.  The sales haven't been particularly good, and the reason for the book's existence remains something of a mystery to me.  Of course, now that Kirkman's had a genuine hit with Marvel Zombies, a solo Robert Kirkman book makes a little more sense.  But still, it's hard to work out quite why this book exists.

One of the running storylines - if you can call it that - concerns a cosmic ring which the Ringmaster got hold of a while back.  It's evidently going to be the focus of the next storyline as well.  This issue's story, "1991", is a flashback showing where the ring came from.  The explanation isn't really that exciting - it's a shard of a Cosmic Cube that the Mandarin stole from HYDRA - and the real point of the story is to do a team-up of Wolverine and Cable as they stood in 1991.  (The in-story justification for the title, in case you're wondering, is that it's the name of the HYDRA base.)

Wolverine and Cable didn't like one another very much in the early nineties, although the whole thing was brushed under the carpet in the end.  So there's a lot of tension between the two of them.  And that's basically it.  I'm somewhat mystified as to what Kirkman's aiming for with this issue.  It doesn't read like a comic from 1991 - the art team are among Kirkman's regular collaborators from Invincible, and if they're copying anything from this period, it's the fill-in issue of X-Force by Mike Mignola.  Nicer to look at, I grant you, but not particularly 1991. 

HYDRA and the Mandarin weren't exactly big names during that period, either.  The setting allows Kirkman to play with the Wolverine/Jubilee duo, which seems to be a big attraction for him.  And, er, that's basically it.

A strange and confusing comic, in the "So what was the point of that?" sense.  A throwback story to 1991 which then proceeds to be nothing like anything published at that period.  It's not a homage, it's not a parody, it's not really much of a story... I don't honestly know what it is, other than a chance for Kirkman to do a long-abandoned Wolverine/Cable dynamic, and an opportunity to use Jubilee.  Mystifying, but pretty.

Rating: B-

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