Looking back at Gil Kane's career at Marvel, he never stayed on any series for a long time, unlike his long runs on DC Comics' Green Lantern and Atom. Probably his longest association was with Spider-Man and Marvel Team-up. He did many Team-Up covers, here are some of my favorites...
I've always enjoyed the dynamic figures of Captain America and Spider-Man on the cover to Marvel Team-Up #13. John Romita obviously inked this cover--the line work on Grey Gargoyle and the two heroes is unmistakable. The positioning of the characters and the camera angles are pure Kane.
Marvel Team-Up #3 featured Kane's co-creation Morbius, attempting to bite Spidey once again. Curses, foiled by the Human Torch! This was the first issue of a two part story. Spidey and the Torch subdue Morbius and take him to Professor Xavier's school, in search of a cure for the vampire.
Marvel Team-Up #4 was a landmark issue, because it featured the X-Men. You have to put this issue into historical context--the X-Men's own title was effectively cancelled with issue #66. The X-Men title was kept alive with reprints from issue #67 to 93. But the mutants had been missing from the Marvel Universe for a few years until the Beast appeared in Amazing Adventures and this guest spot in MTU #4. You had to be hardcore if your followed the X-Men at this point in time, and this issue was a real treat.
They tried something new to make the X-Men more exciting and dangerous--by putting them in street clothes instead of costumes! Cyclops wore a suit, Jean Grey wore a sweater, and Angel stripped off his shirt when he needed to spread his wings. They really did look cool and hip in the 1970s fashions, especially with Kane's art style--he did the interior art as well as the cover. Nuff said.
