Well, I still think Mantlo was a good writer who on occasion could produce great stuff.

So...

I never really read Micronauts. I liked his Iron Man run when I was a kid, though when I read it in recent years it didn't hold up that well. But that one issue of SV Team-Up he did really stood out to me. I don't know if it was a serviceable writer rising to the occasion or a good writer who rarely had the time or inspiration to do his best work but did it there.

That was probably true of a number of writers back then. I think I heard an interview with Jim Shooter where he said Gerry Conway was taking on so much work that he was asking other people to write some of the books for him, including his wife who knew nothing about comics. I believe that's how Shooter ended up taking over Avengers, originally. Conway couldn't meet the deadlines. It also explains how the guy who could write one of the era's best stories with The Death of Gwen Stacy, could also write so many comics that just weren't very good.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, there's nothing wrong with Bill Mantlo's Howard the Duck. 

I don’t remember it happening. Perez left Marvel in 1980 and Palmer had regular assignments while Perez was still there.

Great artists both. I have to admit that I don't quite picture how their two styles would fit together, though. Who are your favourite Perez inkers and which penillers did you like best wit Tom Palmer?

Tom Palmer I enjoyed best on Gene Colan and Neal Adams. No one else worked so well with Colon, I feel. His Neal Adams Avengers work was sensational too- and if you look at the pencils he worked from, it was not an easy job!

He was such a tremendous inker, also bringing an extra layer to John and Sal Buscema's work, Walt Simonson, JRJR and many others. I personally liked it best when he didn't do all pen work- he made contradictory statements in interviews, saying he only ever used pen, but then saying he had to use a combination of pen and brush on Adams/Colan.

Favourite inkers on Perez? Maybe Dick Giordano and Al Vey. I didn't enjoy his art as much when he inked himself.

The reason I thought of the question- Palmer inked something like 100-200 issues of Avengers over the years, usually as a finisher over breakdowns, and was THE Avengers artist. I would have been curious to see what he would have brought to Perez's pencils. Perhaps, of course, at 55 rather than late 20s, he didn't have the same drive to do all that detail work that he did for Adams. Also, his epic run as finisher was interrupted by the awful Heroes Reborn debacle- it must have been a consideration to use him on the Heroes Return book a year later? He didn't seem to have a regular gig at that point. I would also have liked to have seen him paint over Perez's pencils on same covers!!