|
Post by BrodietheSlayer on Sept 12, 2017 19:19:23 GMT -5
Marvel Two In One # 54"The Pegasus Project Part 2: Blood and Bionics"Cover Date: August, 1979 Writer(s): Mark Gruenwald & Ralph Macchio Artist: John Byrne Feature Character(s): The Thing and Quasar Villain(s): Deathlok, The Nth Command (Thomas Lightner), & The Grapplers (Letha, Poundcakes, Screaming Mimi, & Titana) Special Guests: Thundra, Bill Foster, Herkimer Oglethorpe, Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S. (Various Staff), and the corpse of Atom Smasher Official Plot: Continued from last issue.... The Thing is wandering the Project Pegasus complex when he is attacked by the Nth Command's agent, the cyborg known as Deathlok. The cyborg attacks Ben with lethal force and manages to injure his arm. When Ben tries to appeal to Luther Manning, the cyborg informs Ben that it has been culled of all it's organic components and is run completely by an artificial intelligence before resuming it's brutal assault on the Thing. When Quasar arrives with Pegasus security, Deathlok flees the scene. With Ben given into the care of Pegasus medical staff, Quasar goes after Deathlok to figure out what the cyborg is up to. The damaged cyborg meanwhile has travelled deep into the complex and has begun setting up a Nth Projector in the Radioactive Disposal Section of the facility. Quasar manages to track Deathlok there and resumes his attack (unaware of what Deathlok was doing in this area.) During the fight, the cyborg suffers severe damage to it's body, even more so when Pegsus security arrives along with a medically treated Ben Grimm. When Quasar hears that Deathlok has activated a self destruct device he uses his Quantum Bands to destroy it's body, leaving it's head intact for questining. However, the cyborg has forseen this possibility and causes it's head to self destruct leaving nothing behind to determine the cause of Deathlok's attack on the facility. While back in New York City, Thundra has began practicing for her new career as a female wrestler for Oglethorpe, and is pitted against a group of female wrestlers known as the Grapplers (Titania, Poundcakes, Letha, and Screaming Mimi) all of whom Titania manages to defeat easily. Back at Pegasus, Thomas Lightener has ventured down into the Radioactive Displosal section to check and see if the Nth Projector had been discovered. Finding it unmolseted, he calls his leader at Nth Command who demands that Lightner finish constructing the device himself and to initiate their contingency plan that they had organized in the event that Deathlok had failed in it's mission. As Ben and Quasar greet Bill Foster (who has come to bring the villain Atom Smasher into the Project's custody for study) Lightner sneaks into the cell of another radioactive menace: Nuklo, the mutant son of the Whizzer and Miss America. He awakens the child like creature and opens up his cell in the hopes that the mutant will cause enough destruction around the compound for him to finish his plan. This story is continued next issue.... Brodie's View:More Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S fun and games in this issue, as we start off with Ben and Quasar (who is a regular part of Pegasus, hence, will be kind of a regular player for the next several issues, as will Bill Foster AKA the second Giant Man, as he is renamed next issue) fighting what appears to be the cyborg from the future, Deathlok (although, as will be later reveal, this Deathlok was actually made by ROXXON, obviously inspired by the original), who gives them a hell of a fight, even injuring Ben, before our orange rocked hero and the young Quasar are able to take him out. With the heroes trying to figure out how the hell Deathlok was even able to penetrate the highly security conscious Pegasus, its secret saboteur, Thomas Lightner (the former super villain, Black Sun), who, undaunted by Deathlok's failure, looks to unleash more threats to distract the workers/defenders of Pegasus, while he tries to get something called the Nth Projector for the group he secretly works for. He next plans on unleashing the radioactive menace known as NUKLO!!! (Obviously, the writers of this, Mark Gruenwald and Ralph Macchio, are going to use their encyclopedic knowledge of the Marvel Universe to pepper this whole storyline with as many forgotten plot threads and characters as they can) We also get more movement on our "B Story," which involves the female amazon, Thundra, who has been recruited to work as a professional wrestler (bringing it all back home, Bay-Bay!!!). She has her try out with a group of female wrestlers/super villains known as The Grapplers, who she thumps without hardly breaking a sweat. Of course, her manager, the sleazy Herkimer Oglethorpe, realizes that he has to explain to Thundra that professional wrestling is a work. Of course, as we'll see next issue, a work can become a shoot very quickly at times....Brother. We'll also see more Project Pegasus mayhem, as our heroes (including one I mentioned above) will have to do battle with the recently released Nuklo, and, we get our last Byrne issue of this run. (However, as I mentioned in the last review, the guy that replaces him is no slouch, art-wise, either) GRADE: A
|
|
|
Post by BrodietheSlayer on Sept 13, 2017 22:53:47 GMT -5
Marvel Two In One # 55"The Pegasus Project Part 3: Giants in the Earth"Cover Date: September, 1979 Writer(s): Mark Gruenwald & Ralph Macchio Artist: John Byrne Feature Character(s): The Thing and Giant Man (II) Villain(s): Nuklo & Titana Special Guests: Quasar, Thundra, Herkimer Oglethorpe, Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S. (Jeannine O'Connell & Henri Sorel), and Wundarr Official Plot: Continued from last issue.... The Thing, Bill Foster, Quasar, and Jennine O'Connoll are enjoying a poker game when suddenly the alarm goes off. They all pair off to find out which prisoner has escaped, with Bill Foster tagging along with the Thing. Entering an elevator, they find it stopped (unknown to them by the radioactive mutant known as Nuklo) When Ben's injured arm prevents him from stopping them from being crushed, Bill exposes his identity as Black Goliath to Ben in order to save their lives. His added strength causes Nuklo to give up on the "game" he is playing and find fun elsewhere. As Ben and Bill continue their search for the escaped prisoner, Ben suggests to Bill to take on the identity of Giant-Man since the name isn't being used presently by any other heroe. As they continued their search, Quasar checks on the nuclear reactors and finds that they are going out of whack and realizes that only Nuklo could possibly be the cause, and goes out to try and find the creature. While back in New York, Thundra is preparing for her first big match against the Grappler known as Titania. Unknown to Thundra, Titania's employers have passed her a needle with a potent drug in it, which Titania uses in the ring on Thundra in order to weaken her enough to be defeated at her hands. Meanwhile, back at Project Pegasus, Giant-Man and the Thing have tracked down Nuklo who has been found by his keeper, Henri Sorel who has managed to talk Nuklo down. Unaware of this, and having his hands wrapped in metal to protect them from Nuklo's radioactive body, Giant-Man lashes out and beats the child-like creature into submission, knocking it into an anti-gravity device that renders it helpless. With the threat of Nuklo passed, Sorel berates the two heroes on beating the boy senseless. While in the room where Wundarr has been in a coma since his exposure to the Cosmic Cube, the man-boy from another world dreams about his past -- being the last survivor of his home world, his encounters with the Man-Thing and others and his eventual turn over to Project Pegasus. When he awakens, a voice in his head tells him that the power of the Cosmic Cube is his to harness and that when he wakes again he will be able to channel it's power. This story is continued next issue.... Brodie's View:Well, we reach our last John Byrne issue here (at least for a while ), but he does go out with a very solid issue, which ends up modernizing a character from the 70's, as well as retelling an origin story from early in the MTIO run. Of course, the first involves Bill Foster, who officially goes from the rather racist Black Goliath name (as, in the 60's/70's, almost every African American hero created had to have the word BLACK in front of their name....y'know, to make sure we knew) to just straight up being the new Giant Man, per Ben's advice. That's good, too, as the two heroes (Ben still being injured from last issue's tussle with Deathlok, which means that Giant Man has to do a lot of the heavy lifting, which works, though, as it allows him to REALLY establish himself) have to take on the child-like Nuklo, the radiation monster unleashed by that rat bastard saboteur, Thomas Lightener, last issue. We'll see more of Thomas next issue, as he'll be involved with the next major misfortune to occur in Pegasus. However, as for this issue, we see Ben and Bill take on Nuklo, who doesn't understand even why this fight is happening, and, after they manage to knock the creature senseless, they are berated by the scientist who is acting as Nuklo's father of sorts, bringing things all back home to Ben, as it concerns another major player in this whole storyline, Wundarr. Wundarr, who is, of course, the Superman stand in that crash landed to Earth as a fully formed (but completely infantile, at least where it relates to his mind) super human. After being under the care of various people (Ben and Namorita, among others), he ended up at Pegasus, who hoped to use his energy containing abilities to harness the power of the Cosmic Cube. Of course, things didn't go so well there either, as Wundarr was overloaded, shorting him out in a way. Since then, he's been comatose, but left with the ability of an energy dampener. However, this changes at the end of this issue, as he wakes up. Obviously, this is going to lead to big doings for Wundarr, but we'll get to that as it happens. The other major thing to happen in this issue is the female amazon, Thundra, having her first match. However, thanks to her opponent weakening her with a poison ring that she jabs the amazon with during the match, what started out as a shoot that was turned into a work, gets turned back into a shoot....Brother. Obviously, this is all leading to things as well....like, leading to the next issue type of things, as our two plots will converge. Oh, and we'll get a new artist as well, and, as I said before, one who isn't a slouch in the art department either. GRADE: A-
|
|
|
Post by BrodietheSlayer on Sept 14, 2017 19:09:32 GMT -5
Marvel Two In One # 56"The Pegasus Project Part 4: The Deadlier of the Species!" Cover Date: October, 1979 Writer(s): Mark Gruenwald & Ralph Macchio Artist: George Perez Feature Character(s): The Thing and Thundra Villain(s): The Grapplers (Titania, Poundcakes, Letha, & Screaming Mimi) & Nth Command (Thomas Lightener) Special Guests: Quasar, Giant Man II, Wundarr, and the staff of Project Pegasus Official Plot: Continued from last issue.... Following her defeat at the hands of Titania, Thundra has been forced into aiding the Grapplers in reaking into Project Pegasus for their employers Nth Command, a subsection of a private company. As they break into the facility, elsewhere in the Pegasus compound, Ben visits the seemingly unconcious Wundarr to express his guilty at letting the people at Project Pegasus experiment on him. Feeling tearful, the Thing leaves the room unaware that Wundarr has revived and forgives Ben for what happened. Returning to his quarters, Ben runs into Thundra who uses force to try to prevent the Thing from stopping her. Their subsequent battle leads to the alarm going off, which brings Quasar and Giant-Man to investigate the situation. Quasar runs into Letha, and Screaming Mimi first, and is at first put on the defensive by Mimi's sonic scream, however he manages to overcome the scream's hallucinigenic effects and defeat the three women with his Quantum Bands. Giant-Man meanwhile finds Titania and Poundcakes in the research centre. His giant size working against him, Giant-Man is easily taken off guard, however Giant-Man manages to turn things to his advantage and easily knocks out the two over confident Amazons. As this is happening, Ben is losing his fight against Thundra, however he manages to turn the battle around on her and defeats her as easily as her comrades. With Thundra and the other Grapplers subdued, the Thing, Giant-Man and Quasar attempt to question them. The Grapplers refuse to speak, and Thundra regrets that she cannot talk either because she had been honor-sworn not to reveal what their plan was. Elsewhere in the facility within the Nuclear Research Module, Thomas Lightener has taken the payload brought by the Grapplers and is busy completing the assembly of a Nth Projector, a device that he intends to use to destroy the Pegasus Project. This story is continued next issue.... Brodie's View:So, with this issue, John Byrne is gone ( ), as he was most likely gearing up for what would be the most important era of his run on the main book he was penciling at the time, UNCANNY X-MEN. However, as I've said for the last few reviews, we're not being left out in the cold, art wise, as we welcome the always great George Perez (THE NEW TEEN TITANS, THE AVENGERS, among others) to the artist's chair. He'll be sticking around for a while too. Anyways, the main plot of Ben and various others dealing with the craziness taking place inside Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S, and our side plot with Thundra and the female wrestling group she's become involved in, finally collide in this issue, as Thundra and the group (henceforth known as The Grapplers, which also contains the future Thunderbolt and Avengers, Songbird AKA Screaming Mimi) invade Pegasus on orders from the company that's financing them, the mysterious Nth Command; the group also responsible for the saboteur that has been wreaking havoc within Pegasus for the last few issues, the former Black Sun, Thomas Lightener. The Grapplers and Thundra end up fighting our heroes, with Ben taking the amazon, and Quasar and Giant Man taking the rest. Both small groups of heroes are put on the ropes by the powered women wrestlers, with their reluctance to hit women kind of playing into that (as well as Ben's injured arm on his side of things), however, they eventually bring down The Grapplers. As always in this storyline so far, though, the heroes aren't able to get any answers as to what has just happened and why, with all of the women pledging silence. They did serve their main purpose though, distraction, which allows Nth's main operative in this, Thomas Lightener, to go about his plans, unobserved, and he completes work on a device known as the Nth Projector, which he hopes will take down Pegasus once and for all(!!!). Of course, this all starts coming to a head in the next issue, as we'll see our good guys start to put the pieces together as to what has been happening. We'll also see more development on the Wundarr front, as we saw last issue (and a bit in this one), that the catatonic superhuman, who has been the reason Ben become involved in this whole deal in the first place, is no longer catatonic. Whether that will be a good thing or a bad one (no pun intended), we'll soon see, but I will say this, things are about to get even crazier. GRADE: A-
|
|
|
Post by BrodietheSlayer on Sept 16, 2017 0:03:56 GMT -5
Marvel Two In One # 57"The Pegasus Project Part 5: When Walks Wundarr!"Cover Date: November, 1979 Writer(s): Mark Gruenwald & Ralph Macchio Artist: George Perez Feature Character(s): The Thing and Wundarr Villain(s): Thomas Lightener, Klaw, Solar, & Electro Special Guests: Quasar, Giant Man II, Thundra, and the staff of Project Pegasus (Dr. Anson Harkov, Dr. Margaret Mayfair, & Myron Wilburn) Official Plot: Continued from last issue.... Following attacks on Project Pegasus by Deathlok, the release of Nuklo and most recently the attack by Thundra and the Grapplers, Quasar, Giant-Man and the Thing believe that someone within Pegasus must be helping with these attacks and put the base on alert. Thing goes off to try and question Thundra again, hoping to be able to talk her into explaining what exactly happened. As the Thing questions Thundra, Wundarr has once more awaken and has begun walking the halls of Project Pegasus. The alien man-childs energy dampening powers absorb the nearby power sources he passes and he unwittingly frees Solarr from his cell. When Solarr finds his powers cannot harm Wundarr, he decides to free some of the other criminal captives and try to find a way out. He first tries to recruit Electro, but finds that the villain is all bandaged up following his last battle with Spider-Man and leaves the electricity based villain. As Solarr continues to look for a ideal ally, Quasar and the other heroes have the computer logs sifted through and the computer determines that the only Pegasus employee that has been seen in the areas of all the attacks is Thomas Lightner, which does not surprise the Thing. Meanwhile, Solarr busts into Klaw's holding cell and is furious to find only Klaw's sonic claw and furiously throws it against a wall. This causes Klaw's body to reconstitute and regain consciousness. As Solarr and Klaw plan their escape, Quasar, Giant-Man and the Thing go looking for Lightner. Lightner himself has finished the Nth Projector, however instead of using it to destroy Project Pegasus like his masters intended, he hopes to restore his Blacksun powers and targets on himself, with unexpected results. The heroes end up running into Solarr and Klaw and a brawl happens between the two groups. Solarr attempts to fight Quasar one on one but finds himself hopelessly over-powered. Meanwhile, Wundarr has made his way to the room where the Cosmic Cube has been stored, while at the same time the Thing and Giant-Man manage to overpower and defeat Klaw. After the villains defeat the three super-heroes begin to contemplate how the two crooks managed to escape from their cells. Unfortunately they fail to notice Klaw reviving, and the master of sound manages to knock them all out with a powerful sonic blast. With the three heroes knocked out, Klaw aims his sonic claw up against the Things temple hoping to fire at point blank range and destroy his long time nemesis once and for all. This story is concluded next issue.... Brodie's View:Things really start to come to a head in this issue, as our heroes finally figure out, or at least start to figure out, who has been causing all the problems at Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S, former Black Sun, Thomas Lightener. Of course, it's kind of funny that they do, as the main threats for this issue (Solarr and Klaw) are actually set free by our Guest Star, and the other major player for this whole storyline, Wundarr, who as he's walking past Solarr's cell, accidentally frees him with his energy dampening powers. Solarr tries to find a buddy villain to escape with, but after realizing that his first choice, Electro, isn't going to be any help (as he is still recovering after being messed up during his last fight with Spider-Man), he happens across the former blaster used by the Master of Sound, Klaw. Fortunately for Solarr (and Klaw), there is enough sound created to cause the villain to reconstruct himself, and the escape is on. They fight our main three heroes (Ben, Quasar, and Giant Man II), who are able to get the initial upper hand on the bad guys, before Klaw is able to play possum long enough to use the heroes' own words as juice to be able to blast them down, and at the end of the issue, he looks to use his sound blaster thingee to liquefy the star of our book's brain into rocky jelly! That's the main story that happens, but there are some interesting side things that happen, which leads into our huge blowout in the next ish. For one, Wundarr, who as I said before, accidentally frees Solarr (What is it with the characters with an extra 'R' in their name in this one?) from his cell, was oblivious to this (even as Solarr is fruitlessly trying to attack him), as he is being drawn to where Pegasus is keeping the Cosmic Cube that caused this alteration in his abilities to begin with. We see the culmination of that in the next issue. We also will see what happens to our main saboteur himself, Thomas Lightener, who finishes the Nth Projector, but decides to use it on himself, rather than delivering it to the shadow organization that sent him, the Nth Command, hoping to cause him to gain his Black Sun powers back. However, things don't quite work that way, but we only see a bit of that in this issue. Obviously, in the next issue, we'll find out what happened to him as well. Finally, next issue, we will enter what could truly be called....The Age of Aquarian. Don't get what I'm talking about? Tune in for the next review, and find out. GRADE: A-
|
|
|
Post by BrodietheSlayer on Sept 17, 2017 0:48:59 GMT -5
Marvel Two In One # 58"The Pegasus Project Part 6: To the Nth Power!"Cover Date: December, 1979 Writer(s): Mark Gruenwald & Ralph Macchio Artist: George Perez Feature Character(s): The Thing and Aquarian Villain(s): Nth Man, Klaw, & The Nth Command/Roxxon Oil Special Guests: Quasar, Giant Man II, Thundra, and the staff of Project Pegasus (Jeannine O'Connell & Myron Wilburn) Official Plot: Continued from last issue.... Klaw has the Thing, Quasar and Giant-Man at his mercy and is about to blast the Thing at point blank range when he suddenly discorporates and is shunted back into his sonic claw. This has been caused by Wundarr who has now achieved a normal intellect and is calling himself Aquarian. When the Thing revives, Aquarian explains to Ben that he has undergone this change after a second exposure to the Cosmic Cube. With the help of the Project Pegasus security staff Ben and Wundarr take Giant-Man and Quasar back to the infirmary. There Aquarian explains to Ben that he has detected a disturbance in the very fabric of reality. Taking the Thing down to the lower levels of the Pegasus complex, they find that Thomas Lightner has transformed into the nebulous Nth Man, a human shaped sentient void that is literally sucking all reality into itself. Nth Man explains his plot to the two of them and his intention to absorb all reality. Aquarian then tries to stop Lightner by using his energy dampening powers, which succeeds only in turning off all the power in Project Pegasus, including the energy bars of Thundra's holding cell. As Wundarr continues to try and stop Nth Man, Quasar and Giant-Man revive and meet up with Ben to see what they can do, they are soon also joined by Thundra. Quasar tries first to stop the creature with his Quantum Bands, however they have no effect as Nth Man can absorb even it's massive energies. Giant-Man then decides that he is going to sacrifice himself to save the universe hoping that his size powers can "plug" the Nth Man. When the others try to stop them, Giant-Man reveals that he had contracted terminal cancer from his encounter with Atom Smasher, and that he is doomed to die anyway and jumps into the Nth Man. This ploy also does not work, and in a desperate measure Aquarian jumps into the Nth Man hoping his powers can work from the inside. This works in the heroes favour, and Aquarian and Giant-Man are pulled out of Nth Man, as Aquarians very own powers causes Nth Man's absorption to reverse shunting the menace off to another reality. Although they are victorious, Quasar grimly wonders if their victory over the Nth Man has doomed some other reality in the Multiverse. With the battle over, Ben decides to return to the Fantastic Four and bids farewell to everyone, including Wundarr who decides to venture on his own and try to bring peace on Earth. The Thing departs leaving Bill to try and find a cure for his illness, Quasar resuming security detail at the Project and Thundra going to investigate who her mysterious employers were. Unknown to all, the masterminds behind the attacks on Project Pegasus is none other than the Roxxon Oil company, hoping to stop the project in order to prevent a discovery of a perpetual fuel source that might cut into their oil profits. However, the CEO of Roxxon writes off this failure as his organization has more lucrative measures in place that will soon come to fruition. Brodie's View:We end our little Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S story arc (and the 70's end of this run) with this slam bang issue that ends up with the fall out of two transformations. First, there is our Guest Star, who is the same Guest Star as last issue, although, with a brand new look and name, as Wundarr has evolved into The Aquarian. No longer possessing a child's intelligence, this new being has used the power of the Cosmic Cube to reach his peak form, although, now resembling Jesus more than Superman (and the eventual beard he'll grow really adds to that). It's a good thing that this happens too, as our other transformation involves Thomas Lightener, who has become the all consuming NTH MAN, and is in the process up pulling reality into himself. Ben and Aquarian try to take him on, but end up backing off, as Aquarian's powers are causing all of Pegasus' power to fail, including those providing oxygen to its inhabitants. Eventually, all the heroes try to attack Nth Man, including Thundra, who joins the fray after Aquarian accidentally frees her from her cell (he has a habit of doing that, doesn't he? ). Eventually, Giant Man, after revealing that he's slowly dying from cancer received after fighting a villain known as the Atom Smasher, sacrifices himself to try and stop Nth Man, and is sucked inside him. Not willing to let Bill go, the heroes, led by Aquarian, form a bond, which allows the alien superhuman to enter Nthy, and retrieve Giant Man back. As they pass back through, Aquarian's powers cause Nth's man to reverse, and he is sucked out of this reality and into another. In time, we'll find out that he landed on the Squadron Supreme's world, becoming a threat to them. At the end of this very exciting (and emotional) issue, we see Aquarian leave to try to bring peace on Earth, Ben return to the FF, and the other heroes deciding to stick around to try and fix all the damage Lightener/Nth Man caused. We also see the people who sent Lightener in the first place, the so called Nth Command, which is really just a puppet organization ran by our real big bads, Roxxon Oil, who aren't done with trying to destroy Pegasus one way or another. However, it'll be a bit of time before we see the full ramifications of that, as the next few reviews will be Annuals and Fill Ins before shunting us off on the next multi-part story, which will see Ben going cosmic. GRADE: A
|
|
|
Post by BrodietheSlayer on Sept 17, 2017 23:02:50 GMT -5
Marvel Two In One Annual # 4"A Mission of Gravity!"Cover Date: December, 1979 Writer(s): Allyn Brodsky & David Michelinie Artist: Jim Craig Feature Character(s): The Thing and Black Bolt Villain(s): Graviton Special Guests: Medusa, Lockjaw, S.H.I.E.L.D (Nick Fury & Clay Quartermain), Jimmy Carter, Edwin Jarvis, Alicia Masters, & Judy Parks Official Plot: Medusa and Black Bolt are teleported into the Baxter Building by Lockjaw to seek out the aid of the Fantastic Four, however they find the heroes headquarters deserted. The Hidden Land has been plagued by "air quakes" recently and the Inhumans have come to seek the FF's aid in determining their cause. With nobody present, Black Bolt sends Medusa and Lockjaw back to the Hidden Land while he searches for the Fantastic Four. Remembering that the Thing is in a relationship with Alicia Masters, Black Bolt disguises himself and goes seeking out her home. Finding her home, in spite of the communication barrier between Black Bolt's self-imposed muteness and Alicia's blindness, Black Bolt is able to communicate to her that he is seeking out the Thing. Knowing that Ben had gone to renew his driver's license that day, Alicia agrees to help Black Bolt find him. At the local DMV, the Thing is impatiently waiting in a cue, unaware that both Edwin Jarvis and his lady friend Judy are waiting in the line as well as Jarvis had just gotten his American drivers license. Outside, Judy is recognized by the amnestic Graviton who grabs her and freezes Jarvis in place with his gravity powers. When the cab driver tells Alicia and Black Bolt of the commotion in the street, Blot grabs Alicia and runs out of the cab. This is just as Ben is exiting the DMV himself and when he sees some disguised person running off with his girl Alicia, he unthinkingly attacks the person realizing too late that it's his old ally Black Bolt. The confusion allows Graviton to escape with Judy, however, Jarvis is freed from the excess gravity locking in place and he asks Thing and Black Bolt for help rescuing the girl. Graviton reveals himself to the girl in an alley and explains that he doesn't remember who he is. Just then the Thing and Black Bolt catch up and attack the villain, who defends himself with his Gravity powers. With Black Bolt distracting Graviton, Judy explains to Ben of Graviton's origins and his battle against the Avengers which left everyone believing that he had been killed. After Judy finishes explaining her story, Graviton remembers who he really is and absorbing a much mass as possible he mutates into a living black-hole. Realizing that he has gone too far, Graviton asks Black Bolt for sanctuary and a chance to redeem himself, a request which the king of the Inhumans denies. Furious at this rejection, Graviton uses his powers to extract a part of the sun and send it hurtling toward Attilan. As this is happening he unleashes an onslaught of miniature black holes against the two heroes, which Black Bolt's powers easily deflect. Graviton then goes on a rampage through the city. Ben sends Alicia and Judy back to Avengers Mansion with Jarvis while Black Bolt goes into space and destroys the portion of the sun hurtling towards Earth before rejoining Ben in New York to continue their battle against Graviton. With the help of a physicist, who translates an idea that Black Bolt has come up with, they heroes determine that Graviton is a representation of a negative universe and that a chunk of anti-matter would be enough to destroy the foe. Converting a chunk of concrete into anti-matter, the two heroes take it to Graviton who has fought his way to the United Nations building. However, when Ben throws the chunk of Anti-Matter at Graviton, Black Bolt -- realizing that Graviton has regained his sanity knocks it away. Graviton explains to Ben what the leader of the Inhumans had seen, and disgusted with what he has become Graviton seemingly destroys himself. Brodie's View:I'll start off by saying that I've never been that big of a fan of Black Bolt (who the Guest Star for this Annual) or the Inhumans. Don't get me wrong; they work fine as little one off's in the FANTASTIC FOUR or whatever, but on the whole, never been much of a fan (and my dislike of them has grown in recent years, as Marvel, being petty asses, have tried to replace the X-Men with them as their "strange" team). Saying all that, though, this turned out to be a decent little story that just kind of involved Black Bolt and the Inhumans as a side thing to the main conflict, as, let's face it, you could have easily teamed Ben up with a number of super powerful heroes for this, and the same story could have been told. Long story short, Graviton, who was thought to be dead, returns, but lacking his memory. However, he remembers enough to grab his ex, who has been under the care of Jarvis (The Avengers' butler), who has cared for her since that team last fought Graviton (AVENGERS #159). This is all happening as Black Bolt is trying to seek out Ben's (and the rest of the FF's) help with Inhuman business. The two heroes meet, and after a very brief conflict (as the whole hero mix up happens), the two give chase to Graviton, who eventually releases the woman, however, after being reminded who he is, he starts to transform into a giant monster, laying waste to the city. The rest of the issue is pretty much the two heroes fighting the crazed monster Graviton, who in his rage (part of which stemming from Black Bolt refusing to allow him to come back to Attilan with him), threatens to use his powers to wipe out everything. Eventually, Graviton somewhat regains his sanity, ending the battle and his life (apparently), as he "commits suicide." Of course, my quotes should let you know that, like most villains, Graviton's death would not last, and he would be back to battling Marvel's heroes before too long. Once again, though, this was a pretty solid Annual. Not as good as the last six issues have been, but not too bad either. Next up, we have a fill in issue before our writing/art team of the last few issues return, and things get GREAT again. GRADE: B+
|
|
|
Post by BrodietheSlayer on Sept 19, 2017 0:06:59 GMT -5
Marvel Two In One # 59"Trial and Error"Cover Date: January, 1980 Writer(s): Marv Wolfman & Ralph Macchio Artist: Chic Stone Feature Character(s): The Thing and The Human Torch Villain(s): None Special Guests: Norman Dunsell (First appearance), Deena Jasper (First appearance), & the FDNY Official Plot: As the Thing reads through the daily newspaper he is interrupted by the Human Torch who has just finished modifying his latest sports car and wants to know if the Thing wants to go out for a spin. When Ben tries to pass Johnny off, the Torch engages in his usual prankish torments on the Thing. After the mood has lightened up, Ben decides to take Johnny out for hamburgers and the two leave the Baxter Building. While they are walking they streets they witness a young bespectacled man trying to ride a horse with little success. When this stunt causes a car to crash, Ben goes to the aid of the drive while Johnny stops the wild horse. When the two confront the young man, they are soon joined by his fiancée Deena Jasper. Deena scolds Norman Dunsell (her husband to be) for pulling such a stupid stunt. Norman tries to explain to the two FF members that all he is trying to do is accomplish a list of things he wanted to do before turning 30, this being a week away it is also coincidentally the date in which he and Deena are to be wed, and storms off. Deena tells Ben and Johnny that it's unlikely that Norman will stop his foolish quest and asks for their help and two decide to keep an eye on Norman. When Norman manages to hop aboard a speeding fire truck and put on a uniform, he manages to fool the fire fighters into thinking that he is one of them. Unfortunately for poor Norman, he has to help them put out a fire at the World Trade Center. This leads to Norman putting himself in danger along with the people he is trying to save, however he is rescued by the Thing and Human Torch who manage to track him down and lend a helping hand. When Deena once more tries to get him to stop his foolish crusade, he refuses and storms off again. Norman finds his next opportunity -- to be a detective -- when he happens upon a museum robbery. Taking the bound night watchman's gun and tries to stop the crooks. He is once more assisted by the timely arrival of Ben and Johnny, who manage to fight off the crooks until one of them grabs Norman. Through dumb luck and his natural clumsiness Norman manages to trip up the crooks and turn the tables on them allowing Ben and Johnny to round them up for the police. This time when Deena asks Norman to stop his foolish quest and just marry her, he agrees and leaves, dropping his crumpled list of things he wanted to accomplish before turning 30. When Ben picks it up and checks out the list, he finds that the last item on the list was to be a husband. Ben jokingly wishes Norman the best on the last point, figuring he won't survive it and he and Johnny depart to get a bite to eat. Brodie's View:Our first MTIO of the 1980's is kind of a cute little one off that really doesn't have much of a barring on anything, but is an all right story. It starts off with Ben and our Guest Star, Ben's FF teammate, Johnny Storm, The Human Torch, doing their usual half friendly bickering/fighting, when Johnny suggests they hit of Micky D's for a bite (with Ben paying, of course). It's on the way there when our story really starts, as they encounter a nerdy guy riding a horse. His name is Norman, and he is trying to achieve certain things on his bucket list (before he turns 30), and Ben and Johnny end up getting caught up in the mess made when Norman tries to achieve these things. First, being a cowboy, which Ben and Johnny are able to get under control. Then, he tries to be a firefighter, disguising himself as one of the firefighters of New York City, as they try to rescue people from a burning building. He is brave, but definitely out of his depth, but, luckily, Ben and Johnny are there to save the day again. He then sneaks off to try and stop a group of generic crooks that are trying to steal art from a museum. Once again, Norman finds himself out of his depth, but his bungling actually ends up stopping the crooks, with Ben and Johnny playing clean up. With all that said and done, Norman goes off with his wife, and as she wonders what could be the last item on his list, he crumples it up, and tells her that the last thing will be easy to accomplish (it's being a Husband....Awwww ). Anyways, like I said, a pretty cute little story that wouldn't make one difference or another if it were read, but is a pretty painless one to get through, so, I'll give it that at least. The next issue will actually give us more comedy, but will reunite our writing/art team from the last 3 parts of the Project Pegasus saga, and while this story won't deal with that, it will involve a level of mischief that one could almost call....Impossible. GRADE: B
|
|
|
Post by BrodietheSlayer on Sept 20, 2017 23:06:16 GMT -5
Marvel Two In One # 60"Happiness is a Warm Alien"Cover Date: February, 1980 Writer(s): Marc Gruenwald & Ralph Macchio Artist: George Perez Feature Character(s): The Thing and The Impossible Man Villain(s): The Terrible Trio (Bull Brogin, "Handsome" Harry Phillips, & Yogi Dakor) Special Guests: Reed Richards, Alicia Masters, The Yancy Street Gang, The Puppet Master, Marv Wolfman, Ralph Macchio, George Perez, and The Impossible Woman (1st Appearance of the last)) Official Plot: With Ben due for an art show of Alicia's most recent sculptures, Reed Richards finds the Thing working away in the exercise room. He reminds Ben of the show before departing to go out on a date with Sue. After spending time reflecting on his life before becoming the Thing and once more wondering what Alicia sees in him, Ben decides to get ready for the art show and hops into the shower. It is interrupted by the Impossible Man who is bored and wants to follow Ben about. When Ben gets ready for the show, the Impossible Man turns into a top hat for Ben to wear and promises that he won't be a nuisance, although Ben knows better he resigns and allows the alien from planet Popup to follow along. Along the way, the Impossible Man grows bored and changes his form into various other kind of hats for his own amusement. When Ben goes to pick up Alicia, Impossible Man attempts to present himself to her almost accidentally blowing his cover. However, Imp is unaware that Alicia is blind and Ben manages to quietly convince him to change back into his hat. Later, as the couple are walking down Yancy Street, the Impossible Man protects Ben from a prank launched by the Yancy Street Gang. As Alicia and Ben attend the function, Alicia hob-nobbing with the art community and the Thing dealing with their snooty attitudes and the Impossible Man's antics, they are unaware that Ben's old foes the Terrible Trio are acting as the events caterers in order to get revenge against the Thing. Using his special mental talents, Yogi Dakor allows himself and his comrades to take possession of statues of their choice. Harry taking possession of a statue of Dr. Doom, Bull a statue of Blastarr, and Dakor a statue of Diablo. Ben is attacked by the Dr. Doom and Blastarr statues, and when he he is forced to smash them to bits, the resulting destruction knocks both Bull and Harry out, allowing Ben to realize what is going on. However, he is too late to stop Yogi Dakor's statue, which grabs Alicia and takes her hostage. However, Dakor is defeated when Impossible Man turns into a water balloon and bursts on the mystic, distracting him enough for Ben to get close enough to easily knock his old foe out. With the battle over, the Impossible Man observes the love that Ben and Alicia have for each other and feels inspired. Wanting to learn more about human relationships, Impossible Man creates an Impossible Woman, and the two decide to travel the world to learn how human relationships work. Brodie's View:This is a fun little fill in issue that reunites our writing/art team from the second half of the Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S storyline, and teams Ben with long time alien nuisance, the shape changing Impossible Man. Anyways, this story has Ben (and Impy) going to Alicia Masters' art exhibit (filled with statues of various super villains), where Ben is having to deal with the various freaky people (Including our writers/artist team) who would be interested in such an exhibit. Of course, three of those "freaky people" are criminals that Ben busted years back, who are out, and are looking for revenge. They end up possessing the statues of three of the villains (Dr. Doom, Blastarr, and Diablo), and they attack Ben. Luckily, Ben is able to take two of the three out pretty quickly, and although the leader is able to take Alicia hostage, Impy turns into a water balloon and quickly takes him out as well, bringing us to a happy ending. This was a fun little story (with good art) that is really kind of open and shut, much like last issue. However, one minor important thing does happen at the very end, as Impy, sad at the fact that he doesn't have anyone to love (after watching Ben and Alicia), decides to fix that situation, and splits himself in two, making a female version of himself called The Impossible Woman. She'll make sporadic appearances over the years, usually with The Impossible Man. Anyways, back to serious matters, in the next issue we'll start a new multi part story that will involve a character that died in one of the early Annuals. GRADE: A-
|
|
|
Post by BrodietheSlayer on Sept 21, 2017 22:28:15 GMT -5
Marvel Two In One # 61"The Coming of Her!"Cover Date: March, 1980 Writer(s): Marc Gruenwald Artist: Jerry Bingham Feature Character(s): The Thing and Starhawk Villain(s): Her Special Guests: Alicia Masters, Moondragon, & Edwin Jarvis Official Plot: A bunch of dock workers on New York's Pier 17 pull a strange cocoon out from the water and are shocked when it suddenly bursts open and a blazing female figure rises from it and flies off into the sky. The figure bursts into Alicia Masters apartment where she is having a candle lit dinner with the Thing. Introducing herself as Her, the female being attacks Ben when he tries to approach her. Confronting Alicia, she explains that she has sought Alicia out in order to find Him, and when Ben tries to stop her from taking Alicia away, the powerful Her blasts the Thing away and leaves with Alicia. Taking Alicia to Central Park, Her explains that she is an artificial being created by the Enclave, and how she originally was formed in a male body called Paragon. Following the Enclave's battle with Dr. Strange and the Hulk, Paragon (learning of the creation of Adam Warlock, aka Him, previously) formed a cocoon that entered the ocean, where Paragon began a metamorphosis into Her, so that it may be the perfect mate for Him. She further explains that since Alicia had previous contact with Him, that she may help Her find her intended mate. Meanwhile, Ben returns to the Baxter Building to find the rest of the Fantastic Four are nowhere to be found. Ben then calls the Avengers and only finds Jarvis on duty, and cancels the communication before the Avengers butler could make another suggestion. Ben then decides to try and use one of Reed cosmic energy readers but reaches a dead end. He is then visited by Starhawk, a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy who have been staying at Avengers Mansion during their visit to the 20th Century, and explains that he was dispatched to help Ben by Jarvis. Starhawk explains that he has the power to help Ben track down Her and save Alicia. Back in Central Park, Her and Alicia are approached by Moondragon, who after a brief struggle with Her explains that she had been waiting long for the artificial beings coming. Moondragon then explains how Adam Warlock had perished during a battle against Thanos, sacrificing his life to save the universe from the tyrant and that after the defeat of Thanos, the Avengers, Thing, Captain Marvel and Spider-Man buried Adam's body on an Counter-Earth. Believing that she has the power to resurrect Adam Warlock, Her asks Moondragon to take her to the Counter-Earth, Alicia asks to be taken along with them as well so that she may experience the adventure as well. At that moment, the Thing and Starhawk arrive to try and save Alicia, unaware of what is going on. The two attack Moondragon and Her, however they are easily over powered and fail to stop Moondragon from raising her ship from out of a lake. Before they can escape though, Starhawk tries once more to stop them and takes a point blank burst of energy fired from Her and crashes into the lake. Ben is forced to let the women escape in order to save Starkhawk from drowning. Reviving Starkhawk, the two men regroup and Ben vows to rescue Alicia no matter what it takes. This story is continued next issue.... Brodie's View:All right! Now we're back to seriousness after two mostly goofy fill ins, and the coming of HER! Basically, Her is kind of genetic spin off of the late Adam Warlock, who died in MTIO Annual #2, bringing things full circle in a way that this story should continue here. Like Adam, Her (seems weird calling her that, when I guess I should be calling her She in certain instances) busts out of a strange cocoon at the beginning of the story, and goes looking for one that she (or Her) feels might be able to aid her on her quest to find a pre destined soul mate. She busts in on a candle lit dinner for Ben and Alicia Masters, and we assume at first that she is looking for the former, but she is looking for the latter, and takes Alicia with her, of course, making our orange hero a man on a mission. After trying to locate the rest of the FF and The Avengers (I guess he probably could have called the X-Men, but they were having their own problems at the moment with cosmically powered females ), he winds up falling in with our Guest Star for this issue, Starhawk (from the original Guardians of the Galaxy), and the two go off after Her and Alicia. Meanwhile, Her and Alicia end up running into the arrogant telepath, Moondragon, who wishes to aid Her on her quest (as she has connections to Warlock). Alicia also offers to willingly help Her on her quest, but unfortunately (or maybe fortunately long term) Ben doesn't realize this until next issue, as he still thinks she's a kidnap victim. The two heroes end up coming after Her, but she is able to handle them with very little problem, and she/Her ends up taking off with Moondragon and Alicia, heading for deep space, and after Ben and Starhawk recover from their ass kickings, they vow to go after them. Of course, we'll see that in the next issue, as we will enter the second part of our three part story. In that part, we will find out a little more information about what happened to Adam Warlock in the lead up to his death, and we will try to answer questions left unanswered by that demise. GRADE: A-
|
|
|
Post by BrodietheSlayer on Sept 23, 2017 2:16:12 GMT -5
Marvel Two In One # 62"The Taking of Counter-Earth!"Cover Date: April, 1980 Writer(s): Marc Gruenwald Artist: Jerry Bingham Feature Character(s): The Thing and Moondragon Villain(s): The High Evolutionary Special Guests: Alicia Masters, Starhawk/Aleta, & Her Official Plot: Continued from last issue... Following their defeat at the hands of Her and Moondragon, the Thing and Starhawk retreat to the Baxter Building so that they can get a space ship to follow after them so that Ben can rescue Alicia. Inside the Fantastic Four's hangar, they decide to take the Skrull flying saucer that the FF have had in their possession since their first encounter with the Skrulls and follow after the three women who have left Earth in Moondragon's space ship. Meanwhile, the three women are on their way to find Adam Warlock's body, which was buried on Counter-Earth following his death. However, upon their arrival they have found that Counter-Earth has gone missing, however it's moon is still intact. Providing Alicia with a space suit, the three women land on the artificial moon and enter the High Evolutionary's secret complex. There they find the inert body of the High Evolutionary himself, but before they can investigate further they are confronted by the Thing and Starhawk who attack Moondragon and Her. During the battle, Thing battles Moondragon and finds himself woefully outmatched, while Starhawk battles Her. During the fight, Starhawk is unable to stop his wife Aleta's personality coming to the fore of their shared body and take over -- causing the body they share change into it's female form who attacks Her with even more ferocity. The battle is soon stopped however when Alicia calls at all the combatants to stop and explains to Ben that she came with the two women under her own free will. With the misunderstanding sorted out the the quartet of heroes then decide to band together to help find Counter-Earth and revive Adam Warlock. Moondragon uses her mental powers to revive the High Evolutionary, however finds that his life force has left his body. Detecting that the High Evolutionary has become a higher being, Her uses her powers to brings his life force back into his body, reviving the geneticist and restoring him to his previous form. The High Evolutionary explains what had happened to him: That Adam Warlock, thinking that Counter-Earth had been destroyed (even though that it clearly had not and something was making Warlock unable to see the world) struck out at the High Evolutionary with a blast of his Soul Gem. However, before it could strike him, the High Evolutionary advanced his evolution into a god like form and his life force left his body before the Soul Gem could steal his soul. After explaining about Adam Warlock's fate, the High Evolutionary is shocked to learn that his artificially created world has been stolen. Scanning space, the Evolutionary finds a unique radiation trail that they can track to Counter-Earth's location, and so they set a course to find the missing world. This story is continued next issue.... Brodie's View:Okay, so, in Part Two of our little Three Part-er concerning the dead Adam Warlock, and the female spin off of Him known as Her, we get the previously named female cosmic being and her two tag alongs (Alicia Masters and this issue's Guest Star, Moondragon) trying to find the body of Warlock, so Her can reanimate him and make golden cosmic nookie. However, in fast pursuit is our rocky hero and last issue's Guest Star, Starhawk, and all parties eventually find themselves aboard the ship of that wacky cosmic scientist, The High Evolutionary, who appears to be dead. The women find him first, and the men, arriving shortly after, assume that Her and Moondragon offed the H.E, and the battle is once again joined. Moondragon attempts to take down Ben, who ends up putting her over his knee and spanking her , while Starhawk, who it is revealed shares a body with his wife, Aleta, transforms into his female form so Starhawk doesn't have to hold back while fighting a female (Rampant Sexism....Yay!!!!). Anyways, Alicia eventually stops the battle by telling Ben that she accompanied Her willingly, and eventually they all try to figure out what really did happen to the Evolutionary. Her is able to reanimate the H.E, who wasn't really dead, but upon potentially being killed by a somewhat berserk Adam Warlock (shortly before he died), he made his soul leave his body, making his body appear to be dead. The reason Warlock was so enraged is because he thought the Evolutionary had done something with his beloved Counter-Earth (an Earth copy that Warlock would eventually be buried on), but at the time, the H.E was able to see through the illusion that it had vanished. Now, however, it appears that someone really did do something with Counter-Earth, as it is no longer there. Of course, this will lead into the next issue, and the wrap up of this little story, as we will find out what exactly happened to Counter-Earth, which will solve the whole Her/Adam Warlock situation once and for all. GRADE: B+
|
|
|
Post by BrodietheSlayer on Sept 24, 2017 0:22:50 GMT -5
Marvel Two In One # 63"Suffer Not a Warlock a Live!"Cover Date: May, 1980 Writer(s): Marc Gruenwald Artist: Jerry Bingham Feature Character(s): The Thing and the corpse of Adam Warlock Villain(s): Prime Movers of Tarkus Special Guests: Alicia Masters, Starhawk/Aleta, Moondragon, The High Evolutionary, The Beyonder/s, & Her Official Plot: Continued from last issue.... The Thing, Starhawk/Aleta, Alicia Masters, Moondragon, Her, and the High Evolutionary are tracking down Counter-Earth, the Evolutionary's artificially created world that has recently been stolen by being unknown. They have finally tracked down the captors who are currently transporting the world in a special world moving ship. When selecting a party to confront these world-captors, Ben refuses to let Alicia out of his sight, let alone have her face danger with him and stays aboard the High Evolutionary's ship while Starhawk, Her and Moondragon are teleported aboard the alien vessel. There they are confronted by members of the gigantic Tarkus alien race and find that in spite of the aliens superior size, the heroes are easily able to defeat them. They are however, unaware that Sphinxor, captain of the vessel, has a special surprise lined up for the invaders. He catches Ben, Alicia and the Evolutionary by surprise when he teleports them aboard his ship and confronts them. The High Evolutionary then grows to gigantic proportions so that he may communicate with Sphinxor better. Sphinxor explains that there is a big misunderstanding and the High Evolutionary calls off the battle in order to hear the explanation that Sphinxor has for them. Sphinxor explains that his people were contracted by the mysterious Beyonders to observe Counter-Earth and subtly manipulated Warlock which led to the events where Warlock seemingly killed the High Evolutionary. Believing the High Evolutionary to be dead, Sphinxor and his crew decided to take Counter-Earth to their masters. With his explanation completed, Sphinxor explains that now that the High Evolutionary is clearly alive again, that he should take the matter up with the Beyonders as to what they are planning on doing with Counter-Earth. Intrigued at the proposition of meeting the Beyonders and figuring that perhaps they can solve the problems that plague Counter-Earth, the High Evolutionary agrees to accompany Sphinxor and his crew back to their employers, much to the Things chagrin. However, Sphinxor allows the heroes to try and resurrect Adam Warlock and transport Her, Moondragon, Starhawk, Ben and Alicia to Counter-Earth's surface. There, they try to resurrect Adam Warlock from his grave, however while Her's power is sufficient enough to rise Warlock's body from the grave, because his soul is trapped in the Soul Gem, the body is nothing but a soulless shell. Heartbroken, Her returns the body of Adam Warlock to it's grave, and shrugs off Ben's attempt to console her before flying off into space for points unknown, leaving the remaining heroes to ponder Her's plight before returning back to Earth. Brodie's View:We come to the end of our little three parter involving Her and the late Adam Warlock, but also the High Evolutionary and the copy of Earth that the Evolutionary made (which is also where Warlock was buried), which has been stolen. We quickly find out that Counter-Earth has been stolen by a group of aliens known as the Tarkus, who have a great knowledge of various things around the universe, but whose entire knowledge of Earth is taken from its sitcoms, hence, they explain all this using the slang from a typical person growing up during the time (I could imagine Steve Gerber coming up with something like this ). They eventually give up the location of Counter-Earth, but not before introducing a group of Godlike beings known as The Beyonders (one of which will later set in motion the duo of Marvel events known as The Secret Wars). That's really the most important thing that happens in this issue, but definitely doesn't tell the entire story of what happens. The main thing that happens, at least for this story, is the fact that Her and the others do find the grave of Adam Warlock. However, despite Her's claim to the otherwise, she is not able to unite with her chosen partner, well, not really. She is able to resurrect him, but since his soul has departed, all that is left is an empty husk. Upset at this, Her flies into space, ending her story (at least on our end of things). As for Warlock, he will return, but not for several years. Anyways, we'll be going from this three parter to another one starting next issue; one that will go back to an open threat made by Roxxon Oil, but will go far beyond just the normal nastiness that an evil oil company could cook up. Plus, we get our Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S writing/art team reunited for the last few times (at least in this book). / GRADE: A-
|
|
|
Post by BrodietheSlayer on Sept 24, 2017 23:31:20 GMT -5
Marvel Two In One # 64"The Serpent Crown Affair Part 1: From the Depths!"Cover Date: June, 1980 Writer(s): Marc Gruenwald & Ralph Macchio Artist: George Perez Feature Character(s): The Thing & Stingray Villain(s): Roxxon Oil & The Serpent Squad (Sidewinder, Anaconda, Black Mamba, & Death Adder) Special Guests: Alicia Masters, Reed Richards, Thundera, Aquarian, Hyperion, Herkimer Oglethorpe, & Henry Croft Official Plot: Fearing that he is constantly putting Alicia in danger, Ben decides that it's best that they break-up so that Alicia is no longer in any danger from any of the Fantastic Four's villains. This upsets Alicia who tearfully, and angrily accepts it, and Ben regrets the suggestion right after she slams her door on his face but decides to stick with his decision. Returning to the Baxter Building, where he helps Reed Richards out in the lab, they are interrupted by the arrival of Walter Newell (aka Stingray) and his colleague Henry Croft. The two men have come seeking Reed Richard's aid, as Henry and a group of people living on Hydro-Base had been turned into amphibians by the villain Dr. Hydro and all their attempts to restore everyone on Hydro-Base to normal have to date failed. After hearing about how Dr. Hydro changed all the people of Hydro-Base into amphibians Reed agrees to help. Meanwhile, Thundra has gone back to the gym where she was tricked into helping the Grapplers in invading Project Pegasus on the behalf of Roxxon Oil. Inside she confronts her former manager Herkimer Oglethorpe, however before she can get information out of him she is confronted by his bodyguard and sometime wrestler, Hyperion. While out on the New York/New Jersey highway, Aquarian wanders the streets and saves a deer from being struck by a car. Back at the Baxter Building, Ben is roused from a dull exercise session by Reed Richards, who informs Ben that he found similarities between Dr. Hydro's formula and the Inhuman's Terrigen Mists. Having contacted the Inhumans, they had agreed to give Reed a sample, and so Reed sends Ben, Walter and Henry to meet Triton in California to pick up the Terrigen Mist sample. Arriving on the California coast, Walter notices a suspicious looking Roxxon Oil rig, and comments on how it's in a location where there are no oil deposits, Ben simply dismisses it as they land the Pogo Plane in the ocean and wait for Triton's arrival. With some time to kill, Ben and Walter decide to investigate the strange oil rig, Walter changing into his Stingray costume. When they approach the Roxxon Oil Rig they are asked to leave by the workers, when suddenly an underwater explosion damages and destabilizes the rig's ability to stay afloat. As Ben keeps the rig upright, Stingray jumps into the water and tries to find out the cause of the explosion. To the Thing's surprise, he is attacked by the rig workers, and Stingray finds himself attacked by a bunch of under water divers. As the two heroes manage to fight off their attackers, they are suddenly brought to the attention of an approaching submarine. When the sub rises from the water, from it's exit hatch comes a new group of costumed super-villains: The Serpent Squad. This story is continued next issue... Brodie's View:Wow! We get the reunion of our writer/artist team from the second half of the Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S storyline, and you can instantly tell, as it seems like they want to hit a home run off of the momentum of that storyline for sure. For one, the "Opening Page Credits" don't happen until mid-way through the issue, which was definitely interesting. For two, we're back to having multiple plot lines going, as not only are we dealing with our main story (Ben and our Guest Star, the part time superhero known as Stingray investigating how normal people were transformed into amphibious beings by what appears to be the Terrigan Mists that created The Inhumans), but we're also checking on two major players from the Pegasus storyline: Thundra & Aquarian. The former is trying to investigate the wrestling company that she was talked into working for (which allows for some wrestling references ), only to find out that her former manager has managed to recruit another superhuman, Hyperion (from the Squadron Supreme ), which, as stated in the story, ends up offering more questions than answers. The second side plot involves Aqaurian (who is the process of growing his Jesus beard), who saves a deer from being run down by a car, as he is walking the Earth like Cain from Kung Fu. Obviously, we'll be checking back with both of these side plots in future issues, and like before, they'll most likely intersect with our main story. Of course, that, as I said earlier, concerns a man brought in to Reed Richards (and Ben); one who had been transformed into an amphibious being in the pages of Sub Mariner, one in which Namor had teamed with Stingray, hence, his involvement here. Ben, Stingray, and the guy (Henry Croft) are en route to meet up with the Inhuman Triton when they come across a suspicious looking Roxxon oil rig; one that quickly merits their direct involvement, as an underwater explosion starts to topple it. The two heroes manage to save the rig, but there is more to this than meets the eye, as both are attacked (Ben by Roxxon workers, and Stingray by...well, I'll get to that after the parentheses) by the super villain team known as The Serpent Squad (!!!). Of course, this will all be continued in the next issue, but, man, what a kick ass beginning to this new three part story. Hopefully, the rest of this story will be as cool as this first part was. GRADE: A
|
|
|
Post by BrodietheSlayer on Sept 25, 2017 21:30:08 GMT -5
Marvel Two In One # 65"The Serpent Crown Affair Part 2: Serpents From the Sea!"Cover Date: July, 1980 Writer(s): Marc Gruenwald & Ralph Macchio Artist: George Perez Feature Character(s): The Thing & Triton Villain(s): The Serpent Squad (Sidewinder, Anaconda, Black Mamba, & Death Adder) Special Guests: Stingray, Thundera, Hyperion, Herkimer Oglethorpe, & Henry Croft Official Plot: Continued from last issue.... While investigating a Roxxon Oil rig, while waiting on a rendezvous with the Inhuman named Triton, the Thing and Stringray end up in a battle against the Serpent Squad, a group of costumed super-villains who have come seeking the Serpent Crown for their employers at Roxxon Oil. With the unconscious Stingray taken captive by the Squad, the Thing stops his fight and the two are tied to the compromised rig while the Serpent Squad and the workers escape, leaving the heroes to die when the rig ultimately collapses into the ocean. Worried about the length of time it's taken the heroes to come back, and unaware of the battle that has just occurred, Dr. Henry Croft uses the Pogo-Planes radio to call for help. Meanwhile, back in New York City, Thundra gets into a fight with Hyperion but agrees to help her manager and teams up with Hyperion for a new job, unaware that she is once more being manipulated as a pawn for Roxxon Oil. Back on the California coast, the oil rig collapses, and the Thing manages to break himself and Stingray free before they can drown. They are given a helping hand from Triton who has just arrived with his sample of the Terrigen Mists for Reed Richards to examine. Telling Triton about his encounter with the Serpent Squad and how they are searching for something under the water, the aquatic Inhuman agrees to travel under water with the Thing to try and figure out what it is they are looking for. The Serpent Squad uncovers the long lost Serpent Crown, and soon engages in a fight with the two heroes. At first, the heroes (especially the Thing, who is attacked with visions of Alicia by Black Mamba) are overpowered by their serpentine foes. However, they are soon joined by Stingray who has revived and come to lend them a helping hand. Although they are able to over-power the Serpent Squad, the villains manage to escape along with the Serpent Crown, using an exploding depth charge to cover their escape. With the Serpent Squad defeated, the three heroes return to the Pogo-Plan and advise Henry Croft of the situation and decide what they are going to do about he Squad's procurement of the Serpent Crown. This story is concluded next issue.... Brodie's View:Okay, I will say that while this issue, which is the cream in the middle of a three part-er sandwich isn't as great as last issue was, with way too much time spent recapping that issue, as if the writers knew they were kind of stretching things by making it a three parter rather than an issue and an Annual perhaps, but it isn't bad either. Basically a good chunk of this issue is Ben, Stingray (who is unconscious for the first half of the issue, after having his ass kicked by our villains of this issue), and our Guest Star, who doesn't actually show up until the mid point of this issue as well, Triton from the Inhumans, fighting the Serpent Squad, who has been hired by Roxxon Oil to get the mystical Serpent Crown. The whole oil rig explosion was merely a way to dislodge the crown from its hiding place, and the heroes being involved an inconvenience, one the Squad tries to deal with by chaining Ben and Stingray on opposite sides of the rig, forcing Ben to have to use his smarts rather than his strength (although, he ends up using that as well), for using his strength would end up ripping the unconscious Stingray's arms off. Finally, the two heroes do get free, and after hooking up with Triton, the three try to stop the Squad from getting the Serpent Crown, kicking off a nice little fight between the two groups. The heroes end up getting the better of the fight, but soon realize they've been played for dupes, as they allowed the non fighting members of the group to escape with the crown, which is obviously leading to some bad badness. Oh, and I will also mention that we get a bit on one of our side stories, as Thundra ends up fighting with Hyperion over the managerial services of the slimy Herkimer Oglethorpe, who ends up stopping the fight by offering to manage Both of them. They both agree, with Hyperion, who is secretly working for Roxxon, hoping to manipulate Thundra into once again doing the evil oil company's bidding, as, she's obviously as dumb as she is strong, oh, and he also plans on nailing her. Of course, this will all be continuing over the next few issues, with the Serpent Crown thing ending (for now) in the very next one. Sadly, one person who won't be there (besides providing a cool cover) is artist George Perez, who departs after this issue . This is around the time that he would end up splitting Marvel for a while, and heading to DC, where with Marv Wolfman, he would end up creating one of the great books/runs for that company in the 1980's, THE NEW TEEN TITANS. Anyways, that won't stop the train rolling here, as the next issue will see what Roxxon plans on doing with the Serpent Crown, well, unless Ben and company can stop them. Oh, and we'll have a couple of Avengers showing up as well. GRADE: A-
|
|
|
Post by BrodietheSlayer on Sept 27, 2017 0:51:37 GMT -5
Marvel Two In One # 66"The Serpent Crown Affair Part 3: A Congress of Crowns!"Cover Date: August, 1980 Writer(s): Marc Gruenwald & Ralph Macchio Artist: Jerry Bringham Feature Character(s): The Thing & Scarlet Witch Villain(s): The Serpent Squad (Sidewinder, Anaconda, Black Mamba, & Death Adder), Hugh Jones, & Set Special Guests: Stingray, Triton, Agatha Harkness, & Henry Croft Official Plot: Continued from last issue... Following their failure to stop the Serpent Squad from stealing the Serpent Crown, the Thing and Stingray decide to go after the villains, sending Triton and Henry Croft back to the Baxter Building with a sample of the the Hidden Land so that they may hope to cure the amphibians of Hydro-Base. Flying back to New York in the Pogo-Plane, Ben tries to radio Reed to get some help, however only Agatha Harkness is present to answer the call. Explaining to Ben the origins of the Serpent Crown, she offers to contact her former pupil, the Scarlet Witch to aid the Thing and Stingray in recapturing the Serpent Crown. Contacting the Scarlet Witch telepathically, the mutant sorceress uses the combination of her mutant hex powers and magical training to pinpoint the location of the Serpent Crown: Washington D.C. With this information at hand, Agatha sends the Scarlet Witch there and advises Ben and Stingray to meet the Witch in D.C. In Washington, Sidewinder turns the Serpent Crown over to Roxxon Oil owner Hugh Jones. Jones surprises Sidewinder by revealing that he already has as Serpent Crown, and explains that the one on his head is from another reality, and that the one that he had the Serpent Squad recover was native to this one. Sending Sidewinder away, Jones then prepares to merge the two crowns together. Elsewhere in the capital, Thing, Stingray and the Scarlet Witch meet up and begin tracking down the location of the Serpent Crown. Finding everyone in Washington frozen in some kind of trance, they track the Serpent Crown to the Capital Building. There in the assembly hall they find the Set possessed Jones, who has used the combined power of the Serpent crown to create duplicates of all who have worn the crown previously. As Ben and Stingray battle the Serpent Crown created simulacrums, the Scarlet Witch is locked in a mystic battle against Jones, when suddenly two snake heads from the crown lash out and bit her, linking her directly with Set and battling the demon in the astral plane. As the simulacrums are destroyed, Ben notices what is happening and tries to pull the Serpent Crown off of Hugh Jones' head, in order to try and stop him the crown turns Thing back into his human form. When the Scarlet Witch loses her battle with Set she passes out, causing the psychic battle to end, and also creates enough distraction for Ben to pull the Serpent Crown off of Hugh Jones' head. Changing back into the Thing, Ben feels compelled to put the Serpent Crown on his head. However, because it cannot penetrate his rocky form, Ben quickly snaps out of it's control and tosses it away. Gathering up the Serpent Crown and the unconscious Hugh Jones, the three heroes depart so that they may dispose of the Crown once and for all. Brodie's View:No sideplots in this, the third part of the Serpent Squad storyline, but that's okay, as this issue delivers more than enough story in itself. Basically, Sidewinder of the Serpent Squad delivers the Serpent Crown they stole last issue to the man who hired them, Hugh Jones, the man in charge of Roxxon Oil, who then reveals that he already was in possession of one, and wanted the other because with their power combined, he can control reality itself through the power of Set. On the other end of things, Ben and Stingray (with last issue's Guest Star, Triton, taking off with the transformed Henry Croft, hoping to be able to cure him of his amphibious affliction) put together what has happened, and take off to try and stop the Serpent Squad from doing whatever they plan on doing with the crown. Ben tries to call his teammates in the FF to help, but the witch Agatha Harkness (who is the babysitter for Reed and Susan's mutant son, Franklin) answers instead, as the rest of the team are off doing stuff. It's fortunate, though, for Ben that he got a hold of Agatha instead, as she has a better way to find the crown, and that is contacting our Guest Star for this issue, The Scarlet Witch, who once wore the crown, and can thereby track its location. Unfortunately, she finds that the location of the crown is none other than Washington D.C , and the three heroes converge on the city to try and stop Jones and the crown. Soon after arriving, they find that Jones has already used the crown to freeze everyone in place, and when they go to confront Jones, they find him waiting with construct "ghosts" of all of the other people who have worn the Serpent Crown, and the fight is on! While Ben and Stingray fight the very physical constructs, Wanda attempts to fight Jones and the crown on more of a psychic plane, allowing the crown to once again bond with her. However, she starts to lose the battle, and seeing this, Ben attempts to wrench the crown from Jones' head. The crown tries to fight back, transforming Ben back to his human form, but knowing Ben needs a more solid in to get the crown off, Wanda momentarily gives in to Set, allowing Ben to tear the crown off Jones' head. The crown then tries to bond with Ben, but his rocky head keeps the crown from bonding with him, as it would a normal human, and the day is officially won! This was a pretty kick ass little story with a cool ending. It's sad George Perez wasn't able to stick around to pencil the whole thing, but the fill in artist, Jerry Bringham, didn't do such a bad job with the wrap up. Speaking of wrap ups, in the next issue, we start to deal with the sideplots that were set up in the first couple parts of the "Serpent Crown Saga," but were left out of this one. In particular, the Thundra/Hyperion subplot, as well as the whole Alicia Masters breakup. Long story short, we'll find out that Ben's love life kind of sucks balls at the current time. Join us tomorrow for the heartache. GRADE: A
|
|
|
Post by BrodietheSlayer on Sept 27, 2017 23:18:33 GMT -5
Marvel Two In One # 67"Passport to Oblivion"Cover Date: September, 1980 Writer(s): Marc Gruenwald & Ralph Macchio Artist: Ron Wilson Feature Character(s): The Thing & Hyperion Villain(s): Nth Command Special Guests: Thundra, Quasar, Giant-Man, Reed Richards, & Alicia Masters Official Plot: Needing a place to dispose of the Serpent Crown, the Thing brings it to Project Pegasus, where he is reunited briefly with his old allies Quasar and Giant-Man. He tosses the Serpent Crown into a containment field, and then joins the two other heroes for lunch, and learns that so far nobody has been able to find a cure for Giant-Man's cancer. Meanwhile, in New York City, Hyperion takes Thundra to the secret headquarters of Nth Command, which is disguised as a bank. There, she meets the commander of Nth Command, where she is shown their Nth Projectors devices that can open portals to parallel worlds, and is surprised when they are able to open a portal to her own world. Returning to the Baxter Building, Ben consoles in Reed that he made a mistake in breaking up with Alicia and after the pep-talk with Reed decides to try and make up with her. However, when Ben arrives at Alicia's apartment with flowers, she spots him leaving her home with another man, and assumes that she has moved on and walks away without approaching her. Back at Nth Command, after Thundra has been shown how the Nth Projector works, she betrays the Nth Command members by stealing the device and making a break for it. The Nth Command sends Hyperion after her to try and recapture the device, however, having developed feelings for Thundra, Hyperion decides to aid her in escaping wishing to go wherever she goes. This leads to an armed group of Nth Commandos to chase after them in a hover car. When their battle ends up on the streets of New York, Thundra and Hyperion run into the Thing, who believes that Hyperion is attacking her and rushes to her "aid". As Hyperion and Thing battle, the Nth Command members try to recover both Thundra and the Nth Projector. Although they manage to snare her in a net, Thundra manages to break free and smash their hover car and send them running. Briefly knocked into Thundra's vicinity, she explains to Ben what is going on and activates the Nth Projector and admits that she loved Ben. Ben contemplates going with her to her world but has only moments to decide because the Projector is set to destruct after it's use. Ben decides to stay behind when Hyperion rushes in to join Thundra in her world, and the portal closes as he is passing through, destroying the Nth Projector and leaving Ben all alone. Brodie's View:After a brief follow up to the Serpent Crown storyline, where Ben delivers the Crown to Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S (Bad idea, as we'll see in a later MARVEL TEAM UP Annual), the rest of this issue concerns our rocky hero trying to pick up the shambles of his love life, only to find that in both cases, at least appearing so to Ben, that his decisions kind of ended up screwing him over with both women. First, with Alicia, who Ben goes to make up with (after getting a bit of a pep talk by fellow FFer, Reed Richards), only to observe her getting chummy with another guy . The second, Thundra, is the focus of this issue, as we follow up on side plots laid down a couple of issues ago. Hyperion, the Superman clone from another dimension (Marvel does seem obsessed with making their own versions of Superman, don't they?), takes Thundra to the people he works for (and Thundra briefly was manipulated into working for), the nefarious Nth Command, to try and convince her to work for them again. The amazon briefly does consider this (or appears to), especially when it is promised that they could send her back to an alternate version of the world she came from. However, Thundra proves to be smarter than I gave her credit for, and actually double crosses the Nth scientists, sending them to her world with the dimensional transport device they created, and then splitting with the device. Both Hyperion and the Nth Command guards pursue her into the city, where they stumble across Ben, who instantly starts a throw down with the Superman clone. Meanwhile, Thundra fights off the Nth Command, but one of the guards reveals that the device has a self destruct function, and will shortly dissolve completely. Thundra uses this opportunity to use the device on herself (and Hyperion apparently), but not before telling Ben that she loved him. This is a huge bummer for our hero, as he was planning to ask her out, but like the Pokey Little Puppy, not making that choice ended up costing him both women . Ah well. In the next issue, we'll see Ben going Disco-ing with an X-Man, as he tries to hook up with a rebound girl. Of course, I doubt that'll go too well, as they never seem to do long term for poor Benjy. GRADE: B+
|
|
|
Post by BrodietheSlayer on Sept 28, 2017 20:50:13 GMT -5
Marvel Two In One # 68"Discos and Dungeons"Cover Date: October, 1980 Writer(s): Marc Gruenwald & Ralph Macchio Artist: Ron Wilson Feature Character(s): The Thing & The Angel Villain(s): Toad Special Guests: The Human Torch & Candy Southern Official Plot: In order to take the Thing's mind off of Alicia Masters, Johnny Storm takes Ben out to a disco to dance it up, however Ben is not in the mood for doing so. Returning to the bar they run into Warren Worthington III, aka the Angel, and Johnny leaves Ben with the X-Man while he dances Candy Southern. When Warren drinks a bad drink, Ben takes him to the mens room, unaware that they are walking into a trap and find themselves gassed and secreted out of the dance club. When Ben revives, he finds that he and the Angel are inside a castle and have been suspended over a vat of acid. When Angel revives the two use team work to get out of their trap and are greeted by a robot designed to resemble Magneto. The robot advises them that they have been brought to the castle by his master to see if they can get out of his castle which has been rigged with deathtraps. Fighting their way through the castle and breaking through all the traps, Thing and the Angel soon enter the throne room and find that it's been designed to look like a mechanical swamp. Greeting them is Toad, who advises them that he has gotten into the business of assassinations and that he sought to use it against one of his old X-Men foes to test it out. Attacking the Toad, the two heroes are once more forced to go on the defences against the various devices and death traps in the castle. During the battle, Toad gets a call from his mysterious benefactor, Mr. A, who demands payment for all the devices as soon as possible and becomes mortified because he doesn't have the money. Fighting off the death traps and seeing the pathetic Toad crumpled up in a sobbing ball, Angel feels sorry for Toad's plight and offers to pay off his debts, and in return the Toad would have to agree to work for the Angel. A few weeks later, Angel takes Thing and Candy back to the castle which Warren has converted into an amusement park called Toadland, which he hopes will encourage the Toad to turn his life around. Brodie's View:Ah, 1980, where we still could have a comic issue set in a disco (with the star of our book, The Thing, busting Travolta like moves on the dance floor) without seeming really corny. Of course, a year or so later, disco would be as dead as....well, pretty much the careers of most of the acts popular during the disco era, but for now, still somewhat cool. Anyways, this issue starts with Johnny Storm (Ben's fellow FF member) taking Ben out to the disco to take his mind off of losing Alicia. They end up running into our Guest Star for this issue, The Angel, and his main squeeze, Candy Southern. While Candy and Johnny go back on to the dance floor to bust a move, Warren and Ben share a drink. However, the booze hits Warren so badly, that Ben has to rush him to the bathroom. Bad move, as they are soon gassed into unconsciousness, as it was an obvious trap. The next thing they know, they awaken to find themselves in Dr. Doom's old castles, and fighting their way through various traps (ala Murderworld). Meanwhile, they are taunted by a midget robot fashioned after one of Angel's old foes, Magneto, and a bunch of frogs . Eventually, they find their way to the person behind all of this, The Toad, who has made some sort of deal with Arcade to make him his own Murderworld, which the Toad plans on using to take out everyone who was mean to him, the Angel being his first target. However, Ben and Warren are quickly able to defeat him, and after receiving a phone call from a person who is highly implied to be our favorite carnival loving assassin for hire, Toad realizes his plans have gone to complete shit. However, Warren and Ben take pity on him, and allow him the chance to pay Arcade back for his fun and games by turning the former Murdercastle into an amusement attraction (can only imagine what Doom thought of that ), and everything ends well for everyone....well, for a little while, as Toad would eventually be back to his evil ways. Regardless, this was a cute little one off that was pretty harmless, and surprisingly, Ben and The Angel actually made a pretty fun team for two characters that really haven't crossed paths a ton. As for the next issue, well, we'll be having two teams involved in the story for this one; one, the original incarnation of a team that has become a HUGE deal due to a couple of movies made about them, and, the other team being one who have had a few different movies made about them...all disappointing. GRADE: B+
|
|
|
Post by BrodietheSlayer on Oct 2, 2017 22:49:54 GMT -5
Marvel Two In One # 69"Homecoming!"Cover Date: November, 1980 Writer(s): Marc Gruenwald & Ralph Macchio Artist: Ron Wilson Feature Character(s): The Thing & The Guardians of the Galaxy (Starhawk, Vance Astro, Charlie-27, Yondu, Martinex, Nikki Gold) Villain(s): None Special Guests: The Fantastic Four, Vance Astrovik, Franklin Richards, Arnold/Nora Astrovik, Avengers (Captain America, Iron Man, & The Vision), Storm, Spider-Man, Daredevil, Aquarian, & Captain MarVel (From the Avengers on is all cameos) Official Plot: While making breakfast for Sue and Franklin, Ben and Sue talk about the man that Ben saw Alicia previously and Sue tries to get him to consider the idea that Alicia might not have found a new man in her life. They are suddenly interrupted by the arrival of Starhawk of the Guardians of the Galaxy, who tells Ben that their leader Vance Astro has gone AWOL and they fear that he has gone to confront his past self and try to alter history so that his younger self doesn't become an astronaut and lost in space until the 30th Century like he did. Starhawk warns that this may have grave consequence on the fabric of time and asks for Ben's help, Ben and Sue agree to get the rest of the Fantastic Four to help and leave to rendezvous with the Guardians. Meanwhile, in Saugerties, New York, young Vance Astrovik (Vance Astro's younger self) is on his way to school when he is confronted by Vance Astro. Astro convinces the boy to follow him and begins explaining about his future, as he does so a strange fog begins to swirl and envelop the town. Back at the Baxter Building, one of Mr. Fantastic's devices picks up the strange mist and the Fantastic Four head off to investigate, splitting the Fantasticar into it's component parts to explore the fog separately. As the FF explore the fog, Vance Astro desperately tries to warn his younger self about his future, however his frantic behaviour scares the boy who flees. Astro ends up running into the Thing who tries to talk Vance out of trying to change history, explaining that his past experience doing so did nothing more but create an alternate reality, instead of changing his future. When Vance explains that he doesn't care, so long as at least one version of himself doesn't endure the Hell he's lived, Ben agrees to help him find young Vance. They try the Astrovik home first, where they run into the other Guardians of the Galaxy, who easily over power the Thing and take Vance prisoner, bringing their errant leader back to their space station, Drydock. Back aboard the ship, the heroes realize the cause of the fog was not their leaders encounter with his past self, but the manifestation of young Vance Astrovik's latent mutant powers. Realizing the mistake, the Guardians return to Earth where Vance uses his powers to stabilize the abilities in his younger self. However, this causes the young Vance to lash out uncontrollably, however Ben manages to talk the boy into controlling his powers and suggests that perhaps with is newfound abilities the young man could some day be a super-hero. When Vance's father has stern words about the Guardians of the Galaxy's involvement in their sons life, Arnold Astrovik is in for a shock when Vance Astro briefly removes his mask revealing that he is his son, all grown up, before the Guardians depart back for their space station. As Vance Astro tells his crew members that he is content that he saved at least one version of himself, Ben is reunited with Reed and the rest of the Fantastic Four and introduces them to the "newest super-hero on the block." Brodie's View:This is actually a pretty emotional issue, and one that has some decently far reaching effects that have sprung out from it. Basically, Vance Astro from the Guardians, has snuck back in time to try and warn his young self to not follow the chain of events that led to where he is now, which is basically a person stuck inside their costume, as he'll die without it. When he meets his younger self, he ends up creating a temporal fog, which is where the above mentioned cameos come into play (as they basically do that great "BIG EVENT HAPPENES, and we see at least brief shots of other characters experiencing this" thing). The other members of the Fantastic Four do have a pretty big part in the first part of the issue, which is nice to see every once in a while here (and I don't mean that sarcastically), as sometimes it seems as if the MTIO stories are happening in some strange alternate timeline, which doesn't much to do with Ben in the FF. Once Ben gets separated, though, it does very much come down to Ben teaming with Astro (after first warning him that messing with time can have interesting results, and not the one Vance is trying for, referencing the events in MTIO # 50) to fight off the rest of the Guardians, while Vance does his thing. At first it seems as if the fog is a result of a time disruption caused by the two Vances meeting, but it's revealed that the younger Vance, who has started to manifest mutant powers, is the cause of the fog, and once that is discovered, Ben is able to talk young Vance down. Little did the writers know, or maybe they did, and they were planning to do something with young Vance all along, that young Vance would return to the Marvel Universe later, as a teen hero named Marvel Boy, who would later go on to be named Justice (during his time with the team of misfit heroes/sidekick characters, The New Warriors). He would then go on to become an Avenger during the Kurt Busiek run, so, a pretty major future character introduced right here. Good little issue that I wasn't expecting. In the next issue, we'll see Ben teaming up with a long time nemesis/s, and, no, I don't mean The Hulk (although, Ole Greenskin will show up soon) . GRADE: A-
|
|
|
Post by BrodietheSlayer on Oct 4, 2017 22:32:40 GMT -5
Marvel Two In One # 70"A Moving Experience"Cover Date: December, 1980 Writer(s): Marc Gruenwald & Ralph Macchio Artist: Mike Nasser Feature Character(s): The Thing & The Yancy Street Gang Villain(s): Shellshock & Livewire Special Guests: The Fantastic Four & Alicia Masters Official Plot: The Thing has finally decided to approach Alicia Masters and try and make up with her after breaking things off due to his fear of Alicia constantly being at risk as long as she's associated with the Fantastic Four. After a slight altercation with some boys playing baseball, Ben arrives at Alicia's apartment and learns that she has missed him and that the man that he thought she was dating was someone interested in her sculptures. With their romance rekindled, Ben asks Alicia to move in with him to the Baxter Building, because it is the place that he believes that she will be the safest if their relationship is to work out. The two head off to the Baxter Building to confirm the arrangements with Reed and the rest of the Fantastic Four, however they are unaware that Ben's old rivals Live Wire and Shellshock are stalking them in the hopes of stealing Alicia's priceless sculptures. Going to the Baxter Building, Ben announces his decision to have Alicia live with him to the rest of the Fantastic Four, who agree with Ben's idea and welcome their longtime friend into their home. Ben then quickly arranges for movers to move Alicia's things from her apartment to the Baxter Building. The movers however are knocked out and replaced by Live Wire and Shellshock, who intend on making off with the moving truck full of statues. There is one slight complication however: When all of Alicia's items are loaded into the truck, the Thing insists that he rides shotgun to make sure that nothing gets damaged. However, the two villains manage to shake Ben off the truck by taking a sharp turn and speeding off to a pre-arranged warehouse where they have the moving truck repainted. Upset about he theft, Ben and Alicia try to find it, which takes them to Yancy Street. There Ben spots the moving truck, noticing that it's dripping wet paint. Attacking the truck, he forces Shellshock and Live Wire to stop and engage him in a fight. Ben at first finds himself out matched against the crooks high tech weapons, however he is given a helping hand from the Yancy Street gang who believes that nobody should mess with the Thing -- except for them. With the Yancy Street Gangs help, Ben makes short work of the two crooks and turns them over to the police. When Ben thanks the gang for their help, they spout their usual string of epitaphs about the Thing being a dumb clod and tell him to get out of Yancy Street. Ben however, believes that the gang is finally warming up to him and he and Alicia leave in their moving truck, unaware of the fact that the Yancy Streeters painted "The Thing is a Butt-Head" on the back of the moving truck. Brodie's View:We get a kind of a return to the status quo, at least as it relates to Ben's love life in this one, as Ben and Alicia officially make up and reunite as a couple. Ben then talks her into moving into the Baxter Building with the rest of the FF (which they seem to be okay with), which kind of kicks the main part of our story into being. See, there were two thugs that were given weaponry by the FF villain known as The Psycho Man, and even though Psycho is thought to be dead, these two thugs, Livewire and Shellshock (they sound more like TMNT villains, don't they?), decide to get revenge on at least one of the FF members by stealing his girlfriend's sculptures. They take out the actual movers, who were hired to move Alicia's stuff, and end up taking off with the moving truck. However, they do a rush job with the repainting of the truck, and Ben spots them, taking out the truck easily with a manhole cover. The two thugs then distract our orange hero long enough to get the drop on him with their weapons. However, Ben has a group of Guardian Devils looking out for him, as his long time nemesis, and our Guest Stars this issue (although, we still never see their identities), The Yancy Street Gang, end up kind of playing their pranks on Shellshock and Livewire, which allows Ben to get the upper hand on the two goons. Ben and Alicia end up driving off into the sunset with the repaired moving truck, but not without getting a bit of a going away present from the YSG, as they have spray painted "The Thing is a Butt Head" on the back of the truck. As you can probably tell by my summation, this was a cute little issue that wasn't really important other than seeing Alicia and Ben get back together (and Alicia moving into the Baxter Building for a short time). They would have a few more years of happiness before the lead up to SECRET WARS, which would see them break up as a couple for a long time. Their relationship would never be what it was after that. Ah well. Anyways, we'll be addressing a few side plots thought forgotten in the next issue, as we'll see faces both familiar and new popping up in the pages of MTIO. GRADE: B
|
|
|
Post by BrodietheSlayer on Oct 6, 2017 0:20:58 GMT -5
Marvel Two In One # 71"The Cure!"Cover Date: Janurary, 1981 Writer(s): Marc Gruenwald & Ralph Macchio Artist: Ron Wilson Feature Character(s): The Thing & Mister Fantastic Villain(s): Malestrom, Gronk, Helio, & Phobius (1st appearance of all) Special Guests: Henry Croft, Stingray, Quicksilver, The Inhumans (Triton, Gorgon, Karnak, Crystal, & Nadar), & Joseph Jennings Official Plot: The Thing has accompanied Reed Richards to the Great Refuge of the Inhumans where Reed and the Inhuman's scientists are busy working on a cure for Henry Croft and the other amphibians of Hydro-Base. Reed and the Inhumans have come to the conclusion that the gas used to mutate the amphibians was similar to that of the Inhuman's own Terrigen Mists. During their continued research Attilan is hit by another earthquake, and Ben saves Reed and the Inhuman scientists from being crushed to death by a falling device. After saving Reed, Ben decides to go and visit his other Inhuman allies, briefly visiting the now pregnant Crystal (and her husband the mutant Quicksilver) before letting off some steam by playing Interia-Ball with Triton, Gorgon and Karnak, a sport that Ben takes to very quickly. As they play on, Reed Richards and the Inhuman scientists manage to create a gas to counteract the mutations in the amphibians, however the Inhumans are concerned that such a cure could be used to decimate the Inhuman race as well. These prove to be foreboding words, as a being known as Maelstrom has been spying on the Inhumans and sends his agents Phobius, Gronk and Helio to collect it for just such as use. Accompanied by the Thing and the Inhumans, Reed Richards and Dr. Croft fly to Hydro-Base where they reveal to everyone there that they have developed a cure and begin setting up a means to administer it by a special gas chamber, Ben, the Inhumans and Stingray are put on security detail while the curative process is put underway. Growing bored with the lack of action they decide to play another game of Interia-Ball. As they are playing this sport they fail to spot Maelstrom's minions sneaking onto the island. The trio of mutates use a combination of their powers to steal a sample of the curative mists and try to make their escape. Spotted by Reed Richards, the alarm is raise and Ben, Stingray and the Inhumans engage the creatures in combat outside of the main complex. During the fight, they are overpowered at first, however develop a strategy to defeat their foes. While the heroes manage to knock out the invaders and take them into custody, the cannister is knocked into the ocean where Maelstrom activates a self-propulsion unit inside the cannister to bring it to his lair where he waits for his previous cargo to be delivered. This story is continued next issue... Brodie's View:We begin the beginning of the end of the Gruenwald and Macchio era with this two parter, which goes back to the sideplot concerning Harry Croft and the Hydro People (normal humans who were transformed by the Terrigan Mist into amphibious beings). When we last saw Harry, he had been left with Triton of the Inhumans, hoping that the royal family would be able to find a cure for his condition. As we find out in this issue, while some possible cures were kicked around, the Inhumans needed the brain power of our Guest Star, (and Ben's fellow FF'er) Reed Richards, AKA Mr. Fantastic. While Reed and the Inhuman scientists try to test a cure, Ben and some of the other Inhumans (joined by others, such as Stingray and Quicksilver, who is married to another of the Inhumans, Crystal) try to waste time while Reed and the others do their business. They end up playing sports game against each other; first kind of an Inhuman version of table hockey, and then good old fashioned Football, which Ben teaches them to play. Meanwhile, all of this is being observed by a villain making his first appearance here, Malestrom, who send three of his powered flunkies to steal the cure Reed and the scientists are able to devise, as he plans on using it to wipe out the Inhumans. They sneak in while Ben and the others are playing football, and interrupt Reed and the others, as they are in the process of curing the Hydro People (Harry is the first one cured, BTW). While Ben and the other heroes are able to take down Malestrom's flunkies, they are unable to stop Malestrom from getting the cure, as our villains put a self propulsion unit on the canister. Needless to say, this is going to lead to our second part, as Ben and some of the others try to stop Malestrom from using Reed's cure to take out the Inhumans. BTW, I want to say one more time that I dig Ron Wilson's art work, as one can definitely tell he was inspired by Jack Kirby with his art, especially when drawing certain characters. GRADE: B+
|
|
|
Post by BrodietheSlayer on Oct 9, 2017 0:41:12 GMT -5
Marvel Two In One # 72"The Might of Malestrom"Cover Date: February, 1981 Writer(s): Marc Gruenwald & Ralph Macchio Artist: Ron Wilson Feature Character(s): The Thing & The Inhumans (Black Bolt, Karnak, & Triton) Villain(s): Malestrom, Gronk, Helio, Phobius, and Deathurge (1st appearance of last) Guest Star/s: Mr. Fantastic & The Inhumans (Phaeder & Nadar) Official Plot: Continued from last issue... Mr. Fantastic, the Thing, and the Inhumans have captured Maelstrom's Minions however failed to stop them from collecting a sample of the gas they invented to reverse the mutated states of the amphibians of Hydro-Base. This sample, by means of self propulsion travels to Maelstrom's undersea base. With the sample in his possession, Maelstrom sends his agent Deathurge to kill his failed minions. When Deathurge arrives at Hydro-Base, the creature easily kills its masters minions and is able to evade capture from the Thing, Karnak and Gorgon before escaping. Examining the dead creatures more closely, the Inhuman scientist Nadar realizes that they bear similar characteristics to Inhumans exposed to the Terrigen Mists. When they deduce the only possible place that the mists could be utilized is the original location of Attilan out in the Atlantic Ocean. Curious, Reed sends Ben, Gorgon and Karnak to investigate. They travel by sub and find Maelstrom's underwater base and find themselves easily captured and shackled. When Reed reports to Black Bolt about what has happened, the leader of the Inhumans goes after Ben and the others. While back at Maelstrom's base of operations, Maelstrom visits his father, the aged Phaeder and recounts about how his fathers experiments got him exiled from Attilan and how with the anti-Terrigen Mist compound he intends to get revenge on the Inhuman nation for abandoning them for so long. He then goes to boast in front his captives when Karnak breaks free and attacks him. During their brief struggle, Black Bolt also arrives and frees the others who all join the fight against Maelstrom. Locked in a one-on-one battle with Maelstrom, Black Bolt is told that a missile filled with the anti-Terrigen Mists was just launched at Attilan with the intent of wiping out the Inhuman race. Black Bolt then breaks off his fight to chase after the missile and destroys it before it could cause any harm to his people. As the battle rages on, Ben is knocked into a canister of the anti-Terrigen Mists, and in an ironic twist tosses it at Maelstrom, neutralizing the villains powers. Fleeing the scene, he sets his base to self destruct and has Deathurge kill him. The heroes flee the collapsing base, leaving Maelstrom and his secrets (including cloning chambers for himself and his minions) to be buried under tons of rock. Brodie's View:We finish up with both our two parter involving Malestrom and the Gruenwald/Macchio writing era; each will take turns writing the next two issues solo, and then, over . For now, though, let's get to our story, as we deal with the fallout from last issue, where Malestrom's (who gets his origin story in this issue) goons helped to steal the cure for the Terrigan Mists (which last issue's Guest Star, Mr. Fantastic, helped create to cure the transformed humans known as the Hydro Men/People) right underneath the noses of Ben, Various Inhumans (who are the Guest Stars this issue), Quicksilver, and Stingray (the last two being strangely absent in this story). On the other hand, the heroes do end up capturing the three goons, but Malestrom (not liking failure) sends another goon, a wrath known as Deathurge, to take them out, which he does. Of course, with that being settled, Ben and a couple of the other Inhumans (Triton and Karnak) take off in the direction of where they think Malestrom is holding up at. They find him, but he quickly takes the three out, and shackles them up (it's here where we get our origin recap). Meanwhile, Reed Richards, realizing that the three heroes have been captured, enlists the leader of the Inhumans, Black Bolt, into rescuing them, which he does. The four heroes end up fighting and defeating Malestrom, who apparently goes to his death, as he's not willing to tolerate even his own failure. Of course, Malestrom and his cronies will all be back, as, why waste a perfectly good villain, and Malestrom was a pretty cool (and cool looking) one. Nevertheless, we're going to be moving on to another left over sideplot in the next issue, as Ben and our Guest Star try to take down one of the evil organizations responsible for a lot of the bad badness that has taken place since #53. After that, we get a Christmas story. GRADE: B+
|
|