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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Oct 13, 2017 1:54:51 GMT -5
Marvel Two In One # 73"Pipeline Through Infinity"Cover Date: March, 1981 Writer(s): Ralph Macchio Artist: Ron Wilson Feature Character(s): The Thing & Quasar Villain(s): Nth Command (Xavier "Bennett" Pittman) Guest Star/s: Chief Tonah & Dinosaurs Official Plot: When Project Pegasus asked Quasar to investigate the former base controlled by the Nth Command, he asks the Thing to tag along with him. Travelling down the tunnel that leads to Nth Commands former base, the duo are ambushed by members of the Command who blast the two heroes with a Nth Projector, transporting them to parallel world. Ben and Quasar find themselves on a world still in the early development, where primitive humans and dinosaurs live side by side. However, in this primitive land there is the taint of evil: Roxxon Oil has been using the Nth Projector technology in order to harvest crude oil and other resources from alternate realities and have enslaved the primitives of this world to do their hard work. The duo are attacked by some of Roxxon Oil's guards, and Quasar is injured and left for dead in the jungle while the Thing is subdued and taken back to Roxxon's head base for questioning. Quasar is rescued by some of the locals who nurse him back to health, learning what Roxxon has done to this world and witnessing their most recent "recruitment drive" for slaves, Quasar agrees to help the tribal chief lead a rebellion to save this world and drive Roxxon out. Meanwhile, Ben is brought to Bennett Pittman, the head of the Roxxon oil project who offers Ben a position within the company. Ben, upon learning that Roxxon is exploiting this world for their own financial gain refuses and is set to be executed. Just then, Quasars rebellion attacks the oil plant, and during the confusion the Thing breaks free and reunites with Quasar. When they try to stop the Roxxon members from escaping, they fail to prevent them from using their Nth Projector to escape back to their native reality leaving the two heroes stranded. Realizing that the oil pipeline is connected to a Nth Projector bringing oil to their Earth, Ben and Quasar help the primitives of this world finish smashing Roxxon's operation before using the pipeline to return to their own world. There they cause a huge flood of oil in the Roxxon complex, and manage to round up the Roxxon employees and smash the operation. Brodie's View:We get a bit of storyline wrap up in this one, at least where it concerns the mysterious Nth Command (an evil splinter group of Roxxon Oil, who caused a lot of the crappy things to take place during #53-58, and after), as Ben and our Guest Star, Quasar, are on the hunt to make this group pay for what they tried to do to Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S during those issues. However, they end up getting more than they bargained for in this deal, as they end up getting shuttled off to an alternate dimension (where man and dinosaur co-exist) that Nth/Roxxon are using to harness their natural resources, while also enslaving the human populace (a primitive tribe that they have taught English to). Ben is quickly captured, while Quasar ends up being found by the tribe, who fix him up and agree to help him save Ben/kick the Roxxon guys out of their world. With this small army (and a bunch of dinosaurs), they are able to do so, however, the main Nth/Roxxon baddies escape, seemingly leaving our heroes stuck in this alternate dimension. Ben and Quasar are able to quickly able to find an alternate way back, however, and soon end up on the doorsteps of Nth Command, where they kick ass and finally take these Crum Bums down. The leader of the group tries to commit suicide to prevent capture, but Ben stops him in his tracks, as, at least at the end of the story, it seems the Nth Command will finally face justice for their various acts. That's all well that ends well there, but we'll be seeing more of Quasar (and Ben) in a future MARVEL TEAM UP ANNUAL, which will involve a certain scaly Crown that Ben left at Pegasus. Sadly, I don't have that Annual, so, I won't be reviewing it...at least, not in this run. That being said, in our next review, we'll be getting a Christmas story involving Ben and a long time enemy, and then, an Annual involving Ben and a Ally-emy. GRADE: B
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Oct 16, 2017 1:58:53 GMT -5
Marvel Two In One # 74"A Christmas Peril!"Cover Date: April, 1981 Writer(s): Ralph Macchio Artist: Marc Gruenwald Feature Character(s): The Thing & The Puppet Master Villain(s): Modred Guest Star/s: Alicia Masters, Bova, The Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Girl/Woman, The Human Torch), Franklin Richards, Wendell Vaughn, Jeannine O'Connell, Willie Lumpkin, Aquarian, Bob Landers, Carol Landers, Lorrie Melton, Namorita, Walter Newell, Diane Newell, & Annie Christopher Official Plot: After finishing some last minute Christmas shopping with the Fantastic Four, Alicia manages to convince Ben to send a Christmas card to her step-father the Puppet Master in the hopes of making peace between the FF and their old foe. However, things are anything but when the vengeful Puppet Master is released from prison. Coincidentally this is also when he is delivered the Christmas card sent by Ben. Returning to his secret hide out, the Puppet Master opens his safe filled with his special radioactive clay to begin a new revenge scheme only to find that the clay has decomposed and is useless. Needing to go to his home village in the Balkan mountains, the Puppet Master remembers the letter he got and wonders if it's from his old associate the Mad Thinker. When he finds that it's from his old foe the Thing, the Puppet Master believes that Ben is mocking him, however he is inspired to try and facilitate a bold plan. That Christmas Eve, the Puppet Master pays a visit to the Baxter Building during the FF's annual Christmas party with all their closest friends. Alicia is delighted that her seemingly reformed step-father has come to bring them glad tidings and welcomes him in with open arms, Ben, naturally suspicious decides to give Phillip the benefit of the doubt and welcome him as well. When Franklin selflessly offers the Puppet Master one of his presents upon realizing that the Puppet Master has no gifts, Phillip tells Franklin about how he'd want nothing more to be able to visit his home land. Franklin relays this to Reed who is convinced by his son to allow Alicia and Ben take Phillip in the Pogo-Plane to his home country. Arriving in the small Balkan village, the trio get rooms for the night, and later that evening the Puppet Master sneaks out to the wooded area where he originally found his clay. His dig is interrupted however when he is suddenly captured by giant toy soldiers. The next morning, Alicia and Ben awaken and check on Phillip to find him missing. They canvass to town trying to see if anyone has seen the Puppet Master. Nobody is able to help them, and they decide to check out a lonely cabin outside of town that the locals seem to fear. There they find that the home is owned by Bova, an artificially evolved cow that was created by the High Evolutionary, who has taken up residence in the cabin following the departure of the High Evolutionary and the New Men, where she takes care of the now infantile Modred the Mystic. The child like Modred believes that the Thing is a bad man, however Bova invites the couple in to stay the night, willing to help them try and find Phillip the next day. The Puppet Master awakens to find himself shrunken down to size and inside of Modred's toy box. Escaping and seeking aid, the Puppet Master awakens the Thing and finds that his old foe has also been shrunk down to size as well. They soon find themselves attacked by an army of animated toys. Realizing that Modred is the cause everything they attempt to get him to reverse the spell. While Ben fights off the toys Phillip attempts to make a puppet of Modred out of some of the clay he obtained the night before, however he fails to get it to work. When Ben wakes up Modred, the man-child causes enough racket to rouse both Alicia and Bova who enter the room. Continually shrinking and becoming harder and harder to hear, Ben finally manages to tell Alicia what happened by getting close to her ear for her to hear him. When Alicia begins to cry over the impending loss of Ben and her step-father, Modred restores them back to normal. Afterword, Phillip shows Modred how to consciously animate his toys in order to keep himself company in the future. After the episode, Phillip explains to Ben and Alicia that he's realized the errors of controlling people like puppets having experienced the sensation himself and vows to reform, and the trio return to New York. Brodie's View:It's Christmas time, and we get a star studded beginning to this issue, as most of our cameos occur during the holiday party thrown by the Fantastic Four. It also sets up our Guest Star for this issue, The Puppet Master, who is a long time FF foe, but due to his also being the father of Ben's main squeeze, Alicia Masters, and due to the fact that it's Christmas time, Ben is convinced to try to give Phillip Masters a second chance. Little does he know that Phil, despite being set free from prison, hasn't turned over a new leaf at all, and is planning to use his puppet making ability to exact revenge on the FF. Unfortunately, he's out of the radioactive clay he uses to make said super powered puppets, and there's only one place that one can find that clay; Phil's home village in the Balkan mountains, so, he cons Ben and Alicia into taking him there. However, soon after they arrive, and soon after Phil takes advantage of Ben and Alicia falling out to go out and get his clay, he is abducted by giant toy soldiers. This is where things get kind of interesting, as Ben and Alicia, while trying to find the lost Puppet-less Master, they comes across a strange (yet kind) female who is covered from head to toe. The female, who ends up being a cow that was evolved (by The High Evolutionary) into being a human cow hybrid named Bova, takes the two to her home, where they find she is also taking care of a former mystic named Modred (who Ben and Alicia actually met in MTIO #33, but he wiped their memories of it in the end of that issue), who after being possessed by a evil demon in the pages of the AVENGERS comic, had been regressed to the point of a child, mentally. However, Modred's powers remain, and seeing Ben as a threat, he ends up magically shrinking him down to the size of a bug (as we find out he had Phil), and our orange hero and his former enemy must join forces to run from/fight Modred's toys, who are now giant sized to them....and deadly. Finally, Alicia is able to convince Modred to return them to normal, and Phil, seemingly changed by the experience, decides to turn a new leaf. Of course, like The Toad a few issues ago, that doesn't last too long, but for now, it's a decent little story and issue. Sadly, it's the very last of our Marc Gruenwald/Ralph Macchio issues, but hopefully that doesn't totally sink us for the rest of the run. However, in the next review, we will be dealing with a stand alone story with the writer and artist being the same person, so, we won't be able to judge based on that. However, it will team Ben with a long time foe/ally, so, we should be for a pretty interesting time. GRADE: B
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Oct 18, 2017 22:24:00 GMT -5
Marvel Two In One Annual # 5"Chapter One: Skirmish With Death!"Cover Date: September, 1980 Writer(s): Alan Kupperberg Artist: Alan Kupperberg Feature Character(s): The Thing & The Hulk Villain(s): The Stranger & Pluto Guest Star/s: The Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Girl/Woman, The Human Torch), Betty Ross, & General Ross Official Plot: The Fantastic Four are on their way to the New York City Mayor's office to help promote the "I Love New York" campaign when the Fantasticar is suddenly struck by a mysterious bolt of energy that puts Reed, Sue, and Johnny into a death-like state. Avoiding a near crash, Ben takes his comrades back to the Baxter Building and puts them in life pods and runs an examination machine. He learns that they have been bombarded with Gamma radiation, and figured that in a situation like this Reed would seek out the aid of Bruce Banner, a.k.a. the Hulk. While in the New Mexico desert, the Hulk bounds through the desert, finding peace in the solitude. Not far away, Betty Ross and her father General Ross go to the site of the Gamma bomb test where Bruce Banner was transformed into the Hulk. When the Hulk happens upon them, he becomes furious and tries to attack when the trio are all struck down by another energy bolt. While Betty and the General are also put in a death-like state the energy causes the Hulk to transform back into Bruce Banner. Banner takes Betty and the General to one of his secret labs where he determines that they have been bombarded with cosmic rays and that he should seek out Reed Richards' aid in saving his loved ones. Meanwhile, in deep space aboard his personal planetoid, the Stranger prepares to deal with a cosmic threat that threatens the entire universe and must swallow his pride when he realizes the only beings that will be able to help him accomplish his goals are the Thing and the Hulk. He then straps himself into a device that sends him in a beam speeding toward the two beings he seeks. Back on Earth, Banner notices that Ben is on his way in the Pogo-Plane and prepares to meet him outside. Just then the Stranger materializes on Earth causing Ben's plane to crash and upsetting Banner enough to trigger another transformation into the Hulk. The two recognized the Stranger as a menace from their previous encounters both the Thing and the Hulk try to attack the cosmic being and find themselves woefully overpowered. The Stranger freezes the two brutes and explains that he has come seeking their aid in stopping a universal menace. The Thing easily understands and agrees and then manages to convince the Hulk to join them as well. The Stranger transports them to Hades, the Olympian underworld where it's ruler, Pluto, has devised a device that fires hellish energy into the heart of a black hole in the hopes of destroying the universe so that Pluto might rule over a universe of eternal darkness. When the Hulk attempts to attack straight on, both the Thing and Stranger try to get the simple-minded monster to exercise restraint and form a strategy, which leads to the Thing and the Hulk coming to blows and forcing the Stranger to attack Pluto head on. During the fight, Pluto manages to over power the Stranger and unleashes a horde of demons on the Thing and the Hulk. Pluto then threatens to throw the Stranger's body into the device (thereby speeding up its process of destroying the universe) however the Hulk becomes furious and uses his strength to destroy the device itself, leaving the Thing to save the Stranger while Pluto falls into the device of his own making. Pluto's spirit is fired up into the black hole where it is seemingly destroyed, ending his threat. With the machine also destroyed, the revived Stranger returns them to Earth where he thanks the two brutes before departing. When Ben wonders what he is to do about their unconscious friends, he is surprised when General Ross and Betty emerge from the cave alive and well. The Hulk departs not wanting to be hassled by the military once more, and Ben rushes back to the Pogo-Plane where he finds that his fellow FF members have similarly been revived following Pluto's defeat. Ben promises to tell his bewildered teammates about what happened as they hitch a ride back with General Ross. Brodie's View:Another Annual here, but this one teams Ben up with his kind of ally-emy, The Incredible Hulk, who is still in his childlike "Hulk Smash" phase. These two characters are brought together by the galactic entity known as The Stranger, who arranges the two characters to come together by blasting each of their main side characters (In Ben's case, the rest of the FF; in the Hulk's case, Betty Ross and her father, General Ross) with radiation, giving all poisoning that coincides with the radiation that created the opposite character (Gamma for Ben's people, Cosmic for Banner's). Anyways, they come together, actually as allies, and both have a go at The Stranger, who eventually explains that he needs the two of them as allies against a greater threat- Pluto, lord of the underworld. The Stranger and the two heroes make their way to Pluto's world, where they start to do battle with Pluto's minions, and the Underworld Master reveals his grand plot; to basically cause a black hole to fall in on itself, destroying the whole universe. Needless to say, this doesn't sit well with our heroes, who try their best to stop Pluto's plan. The Stranger takes the lead attack, but is quickly felled by Pluto. Meanwhile, The Hulk ends up getting pissed at Benjy, and the two briefly fight before Ben reminds Ole' Greenskin that Pluto is the guy they need to stop. Eventually they combine their powers and stagger Pluto enough for The Stranger to stop him. With all said and done, the alien returns our two heroes to Earth, where they are able to bring their friends back from their radiation induced comas (As The Stranger undoes his actions), before the Hulk decides to split, fearing that General Ross will sic the army on him again. All's well that ends well. This was a pretty cool Annual, as The Thing and The Hulk always make a great pairing, either as allies or enemies. Our next issue will be a Double Sized barn burner that will team Ben with an Avenging group of heroes. It's a good thing that he'll have all those Guest Stars, though, as they will all be doing battle against the main threats from Negative Zone!!!! GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Oct 26, 2017 0:16:11 GMT -5
Marvel Two In One # 75"By Blastarr....Betrayed!"Cover Date: May, 1981 Writer(s): Tom DeFalco Artist: Alan Kupperberg Feature Character(s): The Thing & The Avengers (Captain America, Iron Man, The Wasp, Hawkeye, & The Beast) Villain(s): Blastarr, Annihilus, & The Super Adaptoid Guest Star/s: The Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Girl/Woman, The Human Torch), Franklin Richards, Edwin Jarvis, & Nyglar Official Plot: After an exercise routine, the Thing bids farewell to his fellow Fantastic Four members who are heading off on vacation for the weekend. Pulling Reed out of his lab, Ben takes note that Reed has been monitoring the Negative Zone for any activity. Coincidentally, this comes at a time when Annihilus, now armed with the Super-Adaptoid robot (which he has been working to revive since it was banished to the Negative Zone by Captain Marvel) begins his plot to destroy all life in the Zone in order to preserve his own continued existence. The creatures work is disturbed by an attack from Blastarr, who is blasting Annihilus' base with his powers, leading to a brief altercation between the two. When Blastarr reveals he merely wishes to speak with Annihilus. Blastarr explains that he is an exiled royalty, and if Annihilus were to ally with him in regaining his throne, he would aid Annihilus in conquest of the rest of the Negative Zone. The two make a pact, however both secretly intend to betray each other for their own ends. Taking Blastarr back to his planetoid where they watch a gladiatorial battle, Blastarr is shocked to find his lover Nyglar in the pens as well. Blastarr then jumps into the arena and sends the monster they were being forced to fight into the void of the Negative Zone. Furious at being denied to watch a slaughter, Annihilus kills all the other combatants but spares Nyglar and allows Blastarr to let her accompany him when Annihilus shows him the Super-Adaptoid. When Nyglar realizes her love has changed and become more violent and blood thirsty, she sneaks away and tries to call for help. Meanwhile, back on Earth, the Avengers Captain America, Beast, Hawkeye, Iron Man, Wasp and their butler Jarvis have joined Ben at the Baxter Building for one of Ben's roving poker games. Their game is interrupted when Nyglar's distress signal sets off the Negative Zone alarms in Reed's lab. Deciding to go to Nyglar's aid, Ben and the Avengers enter into the Negative Zone, leaving Jarvis behind to watch over the equipment and advising the butler that they can only operate in the Zone for seven hours time. As the Thing and the Avengers traverse the Negative Zone, Annihilus has revived the Super-Adaptoid, who's adaption of Captain Marvel's cosmic consciousness alerts the two Negative Zone despots of the heroes presence in their realm. In response to this invasion, Annihilus and Blastarr lead an entire army against the heroes. In the initial strike, while the heroes manage to hold their own they are soon overpowered and the Beast, Wasp and Hawkeye are captured by Blastarr and taken back aboard Annihilus' flag ship. While in the Negative Zone debris, the Thing, Captain America and Iron Man regroup and prepare for another attack on Annihilus and his forces. As Blastarr leads an attack on his home world of Baluuur, Nyglar -- still aboard Annihilus' ship -- overhears the creature advise the Super-Adaptoid that once they have taken over Baluuur, he intends to eliminate Blastarr. As the Thing, Captain America, and Iron Man are forced to battle the Super-Adaptoid, Nyglar frees the captured Avengers. Witnessing this betrayal, Annihilus kills Nyglar before Blastarr, who "agrees" to continue their assault on Baluuur. The escaped Avengers reunite with their comrades to witness the Thing single handedly beat the Super-Adaptoid into submission. Meanwhile, in an unforeseen twist, the warriors of Baluuur turn the tables against Annihilus' invasion fleet, and Blastarr reveals that this was all nothing more than a cunning ruse, and that he was always in command of his world and that he orchestrated the entire episode in order to destroy his only competition for ruler-ship of the Negative Zone. The Avengers and the Thing however, with the Super-Adaptoid secured and Annihilus quelled return to Earth just in the nick of time and tell Jarvis all about their amazing adventure. Brodie's View:We welcome our last semi-regular writer for this run, Tom DeFalco, to MARVEL TWO IN ONE, which lands just in time for our big 75th issue. DeFalco doesn't waste either opportunity, as he comes out guns a blazing for this issue, as we have Ben teaming up with a handful of Avengers (Cap, Iron Man, Hawkeye, Wasp, and The Beast), and taking on the triple threat of Annihulus, Blastarr (THE LIVING BOMB BURST!!!!!), and The Super Adaptoid....in the Negative Zone no less . We also get to see yet another of Ben's floating poker games, which, in this case, is where our Guest Stars come into play in the first place. Little do they know, crazy things are happening in The Negative Zone (which a portal exists to in The Baxter Building, which is both the HQ of the Fantastic Four, and the place where our poker game is happening), as Annihilus ends up forming a dubious partnership with Blastarr, as both are wanting to claim their respective places as ruler of that subatomic world. Eventually, Nyglar, a female Blastarr looking alien, who has feelings for ole' Blasty, sounds the alarms, which brings our heroes into play. Of course, the villains are ready, as the Avengers (and Ben) have more than their hands full with three threats that would be rough on their own. However, the two main villains' scummy dispositions wind up winning the day, as Blastarr ends up waiting for the exact moment Annihulus has his guard down, and steals the buglike alien's cosmic rod, making Blasty the one true ruler of The Negative Zone (well, at least in his eyes). Taking that cue, the Avengers and Ben split (with the beaten Super Adaptoid), leaving the two monsters to battle it out for themselves over who is really in charge. Of course, both threats would end up returning to threaten Earth again, but this wasn't meant to be a story that would end either character's threat. This was a fun cosmic "comic book" story, that while not be on the level of someone like Jim Starlin's stuff, it's definitely not too shabby either. In the next review, we'll see Ben teaming with another former X-Man, and facing the villain/s we last saw (at least in these reviews) getting their asses kicked by Howard the Duck . Needless to say, I don't think Ben or our Guest will have much trouble with them, but I could be wrong. (An ad for this issue) GRADE: A-
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Oct 31, 2017 1:41:44 GMT -5
Marvel Two In One # 76"The Big Top Bandits"Cover Date: June, 1981 Writer(s): Tom DeFalco & David Michelinie Artist: Jerry Bringham Feature Character(s): The Thing & Ice Man Villain(s): The Ringmaster and his Circus of Crime (Princess Python, Clown, The Great Gambonnos, Human Cannonball, Fire Eater, Tarrax the Tamer, Iron Jack Baker, and others) Guest Star/s: Giant Man, Alicia Masters, & Terri Sue Bottoms Official Plot: The Thing, his girlfriend Alicia Masters and William Foster are out enjoying the circus, unaware that it's a front for the recently freed Circus of Crime. When the Clown spots the Thing he goes and warns the Ringmaster, who is putting in the final touches of a new giant sized version of his hypno-disc that can put an entire city under his thrall. The Ringmaster is furious that super-heroes have once more wandered into his business to cause trouble, however is confident that he can stop these apparent meddlers. Elsewhere in the city, Bobby Drake hitches a ride to his dates house as the Ice Man before meeting up with her in his civilian guise to take her to the circus as well. Back at the Circus, the Ringmaster uses his hypnotic hat on the crowd and begins robbing the people. However, he doesn't account for the fact that Alicia's blindness makes her immune to the device, and she manages to rouse the Thing out of his trance and instantly starts fighting the Circus of Crime. While outside, Bobby Drake and his date find that they have been barred admission, figuring that there is something wrong, he sends Terri to call for help while he goes into action as Ice Man to investigate the situation further. With the added assistance of Ice Man, the Thing is able to fight off the various members of the Circus of Crime. The Ringmaster, not wishing to get caught comes up with an escape plan by grabbing Alicia and then releasing the crowd from his hypnotic control and causing a panic by releasing all the circus animals to cover their escape. However, they do not account for the fact hat William Foster is secretly the hero Giant-Man, who changes into his costumed identity. With Giant-Man's added muscle, the three heroes manage to put the animals back to safety and fight off the Circus of Crime members. However the Ringmaster attempts to use his giant hypno-device, however Ice Man manages to resist it's control long enough to use his ice powers on it causing the device to explode. Trying to flee the scene in their truck, the Circus of Crime are easily defeated and rounded up for the police to take into custody. With the battle over, Ice Man changes back to his civilian guise and meets up with his date, and Ben is reunited with Alicia, only the terminally ill Giant-Man has nobody close to him and he briefly broods over this fact before leaving with Ben and Alicia. Brodie's ViewTime for a trip to the circus! Of course long time comic fans know what this means, at least villain-wise. The group of villains we last saw getting their asses kicked by Howard the Duck now have to pit their skills against Ben, Giant Man, and Iceman....lol. Yeah, needless to say, this doesn't go very well for our bad guys, but then again, this was kind of meant to be a squash match of an issue after last issue's blockbuster villains. To add to that, this issue was also helpful in furthering the whole Bill Foster (this new Giant Man) dealing with the fact that he's slowly dying from cancer (which was revealed during the Project Pegasus storyline) as he's third wheeling it with Ben and Alicia at the circus. Needless to say, The Thing's presence is noticed by a member of the CoC, and as soon as the two lovebirds are watching their show, the Ringmaster ends up putting our orange bricked hero under his mental control. Unfortunately, this doesn't last too long, as first Iceman, who just happened to be attending the circus, ends up helping Ben (along with Bill) fight the circus, after Alicia, who, being blind, wasn't affected by The Ringmaster's Hypno Hat, is able to snap her man out of Ringo's control pretty quickly. And, yeah, they kick the CoC's asses, and ends up wrecking the circus completely. I guess getting socked in the face by a cigar smoking duck kind of paled in comparison to that, right? Anyways, our heroes go off on their merry way, with Iceman getting to flex his hero muscles after a while of inactivity (he'd soon join the New Defenders, then X-Factor, and then eventually rejoin his first team, The X-Men, so, this break wouldn't last very long) and Bill coming to terms with the fact that he can still do quite a bit of good before he passes away. Luckily, that wouldn't be for quite a while, and it wouldn't be from cancer , but let's not go into that. This was a decent issue that wasn't great, but wasn't too bad either. In our next issue, we get Ben teaming with the character he teamed up with in the first issue of MTIO, and we also get a flashback involving a certain group of Howling Commandos. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Nov 9, 2017 2:38:19 GMT -5
Marvel Two In One # 77"Only The Swamp Survives!"Cover Date: July, 1981 Writer(s): Tom DeFalco Artist: Ron Wilson Feature Character(s): The Thing & Man Thing Villain(s): The Nazis Guest Star/s: The Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Girl/Woman, The Human Torch), Alicia Masters, Nick Fury & The Howling Commandos (Dum Dum Duggan, Gabe Jones, Dino Manelli, Reb Ralston, Izzy Cohen, & Sam Sawyer) Official Plot: After a failed test of a new fitness device for Ben, the Fantastic Four are visited by Nick Fury and scientist Dr. Hansdor. He has come to ask Ben to help test out a new super-jet the FX-24 that would be able to travel at speeds of Mach-6, and they believe that Ben is the only oen skill and endurance to fly the device without any ill effects, unlike the previous test pilots. Although there is a risk of death, Ben agrees to test the jet out after he has a tearful time alone with Alicia. After rigorous training, Ben goes to Florida to test out the new jet. As the test begins, in the swamps near Citrusville, some hunters come across the shambling muck-monster known as the Man-Thing, that is drawn by their fear and burns them at it's touch. While up in the sky, the FX-24 has a jet failure and crashes in the swamp. At the air field all assume the worse and begin trying to track Ben down, while Alicia hopes and prays the man that she loves is still alive. The Man-Thing, meanwhile, is drawn to the sound of the crash, leaving the two hunters to flee the scene. It witnesses the Thing emerge from the jet, and even though he is practically on deaths door forces himself to move through the swamp and find help. As Ben wanders through the swamps he reflects back to the days when he was a soldier during World War II and about a mission he once had with Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos. In this memory, he was assigned to pilot the Commandos into the mountains where the Nazi's were hiding out. They would get shot out of the sky and Dum Dum Dugan would be taken hostage, the young Ben Grimm would aid the Howling Commandos in smashing the Nazi base and freeing Dugan from captivity. During his recollection, Ben would be spotted by the two hunters previously encountered by the Man-Thing, who would mistake the appearance of both monsters as an invasion of some sort and begin shooting at Ben, however the Man-Thing would rescue the Thing. Meanwhile, the Fantastic Four and Nick Fury would begin tracking Ben through the swamp, the Torch mostly upset due to his previous chiding of Ben to accept the mission. The Thing finally collapses in the swamp and with the fear of approaching death causes the Man-Thing to attack him. Surprisingly, the Man-Thing's burning touch startles Ben out of his fear and makes him continue his struggle to survive. With no more fear in the area and the arrival of the Fantastic Four and Fury, the Man-Thing slinks away unseen into the swamps. Ben is taken to a hospital where he is given immediate medical attention and is expected to make a full recovery. Brodie's ViewIn one of our more unusual Team Ups, at least in the sense that the Team Up is more circumstantial than two characters meeting, fighting (or sometimes not fighting), and than teaming up to fight the real villain. In fact, in this case, neither of the characters even register the Team Up happening, as one is concussed massively and in a daze, and the other is....well, mindless. Heck, the actual Team Up itself is a flashback, but we'll get to that in a second. First, I'll say that in this story, Ben is sought out by S.H.I.E.L.D and a top scientist to test out an experimental jet. This doesn't go so well, and Ben crashes the jet into the Florida swamp, and makes it out of the wreckage, but massively concussed. The rest of the FF and S.H.I.E.L.D try to reach Ben before he ends up passing out (and therefor dying) from his injuries. Meanwhile, Ben is staggering through the swamp, trying not to pass out. Little does he know, he is being followed by our Guest Star, the Macabre Man Thing, who is curious about what is happening. However, in Ben's mind, he's back in World War II, as he ends up teaming up with Nick Fury and his Howling Commandos, as they fight the Nazi's. We see this story in little blurbs in between checking up on present day Ben's situation in the swamp. Towards the end of the story, Ben starts to fear his potential death, and, of course, Whoever Knows Fear BURNS At The Man Thing's Touch!!!! Of course, this brief physical interaction is enough to wake Ben up enough to last a little longer, long enough to run into The Human Torch, who helps flag down the others. We then see Ben in the hospital, and on his way to a complete recovery.....Awwwwww. <3 This was a decent little story that gave a bit of background of Ben being a hero even before becoming The Thing, also while showing why Nick Fury trusts and relies on Ben as much as he does (and has even within this book). Plus, we also get The Man Thing, which, while he doesn't do too much in this story, other than inadvertently giving Ben his second wind, but it's still always cool to have ole' Manny guest star. For our next review....well, I'll be honest. With this issue, I'm done with the 3rd Marvel Essential of MTIO, but I don't have the 4th. So, if I am able to get the next book by next week, we'll continue on with our last 20 or so issues of this book. If not, I have a fun fill in I'll start doing to kill time until I can get Book #4. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Nov 11, 2017 2:43:03 GMT -5
Web of Spider-Man # 31"The Coffin"Cover Date: October, 1987 Writer(s): J.M. DeMatteis Artist: Mike Zech Feature Character(s): Spider-Man Villain(s): Kraven the Hunter (& his men) Guest Star/s: The late Joe Face, and various goons/mourners Official Plot: Kraven battles a beast and beheads it with his bare hands. He digs a grave and goes to a coffin, realizing that he "must die soon," and picks up a replica of Spider-Man's costume. Meanwhile, Spider-Man visits the funeral of the two-bit gangster, Joe Face at the Jimmy's Corner bar, even though he is not exactly sure why he should care. The funeral goers try to scatter when Spider-Man arrives, but the masked hero stops them, saying he has only come to say goodbye. Spider-Man leaves a donation before going back to his apartment. He realizes that, like many of his loved ones, he too is going to die. But not yet. That night, Peter Parker has a nightmare that he is turning into Kraven. Unable to rest, Peter changes into Spider-Man to websling around the city. Kraven drops onto a nearby building from a helicopter and fires two darts at the "Spider," the second one hitting its target. Spider-Man starts hallucinating that Kraven is the ghost of Joe Face. Kraven knocks Spider-Man down with a pole and captures him in a net. Kraven shoots Spider-Man with a rifle and triumphantly buries him in a mock funeral. Brodie's View1987. I remember being 11, and picking this bad boy up at a nearby grocery store (back when you could find comics everywhere ). This is one of those issues (and through that, story-lines) that blew my little pre-pubescent mind. Spider-Man...seemingly being killed and buried by what had before been nothing more than a C List Villain in the form of Kraven the Hunter?!? Insane. This was one of those truly shocking issues that pretty much rocked the status quo, when it came to Spider-Man stories. Never had any of them, even while dealing with darker material, gotten so thoroughly DARK (and we've only just started delving into how dark this story will get). It's insane to think that around the same time this story was coming out, the writer of it, J.M. DeMatteis, was over at DC doing slapstick comedy with the (then) recently relaunched JUSTICE LEAGUE book. Bwaaaahahahahahaha, and all that, but there was NONE of that to be found in this story. None at all. Basically, Kraven, driven somewhat insane by both his various defeats at the hands of Spider-Man and the realization of his mortality, decides to both destroy "The Spider," but also to become him. He does this symbolically mid-way through the issue in a very disturbing sequence that sees him being immersed in spiders, and then his escaping by devouring them (done very abstractly by artist Mike Zech, who does his career best work, imo, during this story). Meanwhile, Spider-Man, who is both distracted by the various deaths that have filled his life recently (including Joe Face, an informant he would pump for information, and long time Daily Bugle employee Ned Leads, who was thought at the time to be the Hobgoblin), and the fact that he is starting to get sick. Of course, he's about to have a bit of time to rest, as Kraven gets the drop on him, shoots him with tranquilizers, and then, as is left very open ended, seemingly kills him with a rifle, and then buries him in a cemetery. Needless to say, Kraven's master plan is only beginning, as his "becoming the Spider" by consuming him becomes very literal in the next part. We also bring a new player into this story, a minor Captain America villain that adds another touch of horror to this already macabre tale. GRADE: A
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Nov 15, 2017 2:27:12 GMT -5
Amazing Spider-Man # 293"Crawling"Cover Date: October, 1987 Writer(s): J.M. DeMatteis Artist: Mike Zech Feature Character(s): Kraven The Hunter/The Spider Villain(s): Vermin & a couple of thugs Guest Star/s: Mary Jane Watson Official Plot: After burying Spider-Man in the ground, Kraven dons a copy of Spider-Man's costume. On the rainy streets of New York, Vermin claims the life of a young woman. Mary Jane waits for her newlywed husband and becomes worried. Kraven, calling himself "the Spider," jumps across the buildings of New York, seeking to become a "better" Spider-Man. To complete his metamorphosis with the Spider, Kraven drinks from a "sacred essence" of herbs and roots. Vermin sees a picture of Spider-Man on the newspaper and starts to remember how the masked vigilante humiliated him. Vermin decides to come out of hiding, but retreats at the sight of a spider. Mary Jane goes out to search for her husband. Two men street call her names and run after her. The Spider saves her by brutally attacking the two men, although MJ realizes this "Spider-Man" is not Peter. Brodie's ViewIn the last part of this Six Part storyline, Kraven The Hunter appeared to have killed his long time nemesis, Spider-Man, and at the very end of that issue, buried him. That's pretty much where this issue starts, as Kraven gloats over his deeds (while still feeling mournful at the same time, the dueling parts of Kraven's mind increasingly plays a role in this story, especially the more psychotic "The Hunter" gets). However, this doesn't satisfy Kraven, as he seeks to not only destroy "The Spider," but also to become him. After a trippy sequence that involves Kraven hallucinating being overwhelmed by an army of spiders (after taking "herbs and roots" to help with his transition), he sees fit to dress up as Spider-Man (in a copy of his black costume), and "fight crime." This leads us to the other two major players in this particular story. The first is Mary Jane Watson, who had recently married the real Spider-Man, and spends most of the issue wondering where her hubby could be. Along the way, she is catcalled by two douche bags, who she promptly tells to go f**k themselves. Needless to say, they don't like that, and after following her, they attempt to assault/rape her, but that doesn't go well at all for them, as a figure that appears to be Spider-Man attacks them. However, as Mary Jane quickly realizes, this Spider-Man is most certainly NOT Peter Parker, as he ends up almost beating the two thugs to death before MJ screams for him to stop. This leaves a very confused (and frightened) Mary Jane to wonder what the hell has exactly happened to her husband. The truth would probably cause her to never allow Peter to go out and fight crime again, if he ever were to return. The other major player is a creature named Vermin; a man who has been genetically merged with a rat by the villainous Baron Zemo, into, well, a rat man. He had recently encountered Spider-Man and Captain America, who had defeated Zola, and sent Vermin scurrying into the sewer, where his rat persona had pretty much taken over, and made him a murderer and cannibal. However, he has a deep seeded fear of Spider-Man, mostly from the beating Spidey handed him the last time they fought. His fears aren't going to get any better, as in our next issue, we'll see the rat man being stalked by the deranged Spider-Kraven, who is obsessed with being a "Superior Spider-Man," and thus will go way beyond what the real wall crawler would do. And speaking of our web slinging hero, we finally get to see (or start to see) what really happened to him between the events of last issue and this one. It isn't pretty. In fact, it still goes down as one of the darkest things a villain has ever done to him. GRADE: A
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Nov 18, 2017 3:22:04 GMT -5
Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man # 131"Descent"Cover Date: October, 1987 Writer(s): J.M. DeMatteis Artist: Mike Zech Feature Character(s): Kraven The Hunter/The Spider Villain(s): Vermin & a group of heroin dealers Guest Star/s: Mary Jane Watson/Parker, Joe "Robbie" Robertson, Spider-Man/Peter Parker (cameo), and various NYPD cops Official Plot: Kraven continues his masquerade as the Spider, wearing Spider-Man's costume. He attacks men involved in a heroin operation. The police arrive and unsuccessfully try to stop "Spider-Man". The policemen say that Spider-Man has sent fifteen men to the hospital. One officer pronounces one of "Spider-Man"'s victims to be dead. Vermin claims another victim and attacks two officers in a police car. Mary Jane tries telling Robbie Robertson about her worries, but realizes she can not tell him about her worries with Peter. The Spider confronts Vermin in the New York sewers and tells Vermin that he cheated the last time they met by teaming up with Captain America. During the ensuing fight, the Spider overpowers Vermin and brings the rat-man to the surface. At Spider-Man's grave, a hand emerges from underground. Brodie's ViewWe have dueling psychos in this issue, as, other than a brief segment where Mary Jane attempts to discuss her fears with one of the few people that may very well know that Peter Parker and Spider-Man are the same person, one of Pete's bosses at the Daily Bugle, Joe "Robbie" Robertson, only to slink away, as she doesn't want to ruin Peter's secret identity in case Robbie doesn't know, the rest of the issue (other than the final panel) belongs to both a man made creature (Vermin) and a psychosis created one (Kraven The Spider). We see the viciousness of both throughout the issue, as the Kraven Spider ends up sending a group of heroin dealers to the hospital (and one to the morgue) at the beginning of the issue. He quickly realizes that his true test as "The Spider" would be bringing down the deranged Vermin, who attacks and kills a few different people throughout the issue. The second half of this issue is the lead up to, and then the fight itself, which is pretty damn brutal, as neither are holding back. Vermin gets a few lucky slashes and bites in, which causes Kraven to go ballistic, and beat the Man Rat into unconsciousness. The end of the issue has the battle damaged (but victorious) Kraven bringing Vermin up from the sewers.....okay, that's not quite the end. See, throughout the issue, we keep seeing panel flashes to the real Spider-Man/Peter Parker's grave, which is at one point covered with spiders. Finally, at the very end of the issue, a hand shoots up from beneath the Earth, which strongly hints that the real fate of Peter Parker is far more horrifying than we originally thought. Of course, we don't know the half of it, but in the next part of this story, we will, as we enter the greatest two parts of this fantastic story, as Peter Parker fights his way out of an early grave. GRADE: A
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Post by Joe Neglia on Nov 18, 2017 3:49:26 GMT -5
Marvel Two In One # 77However, in Ben's mind, he's back in World War II, as he ends up teaming up with Nick Fury and his Howling Commandos, as they fight the Nazi's. We see this story in little blurbs in between checking up on present day Ben's situation in the swamp. Towards the end of the story, Ben starts to fear his potential death, and, of course, Whoever Knows Fear BURNS At The Man Thing's Touch!!!! Of course, this brief physical interaction is enough to wake Ben up enough to last a little longer, long enough to run into The Human Torch, who helps flag down the others. We then see Ben in the hospital, and on his way to a complete recovery.....Awwwwww. <3 This was a decent little story that gave a bit of background of Ben being a hero even before becoming The Thing, also while showing why Nick Fury trusts and relies on Ben as much as he does (and has even within this book). Plus, we also get The Man Thing, which, while he doesn't do too much in this story, other than inadvertently giving Ben his second wing, but it's still always cool to have ole' Manny. For our next review....well, I'll be honest. With this issue, I'm done with the 3rd Marvel Essential of MTIO, but I don't have the 4th. So, if I am able to get the next book by next week, we'll continue on with our last 20 or so issues of this book. If not, I have a fun fill in I'll start doing to kill time until I can get Book #4. GRADE: B+ I don't have my Handbooks handy, they went into storage a couple of years ago, but I seem to recall we had to officially retcon this whole thing due to the sliding timescale issue. I think we ended up just making the whole flashback a delusion the Thing was having, as he and Reed are canonically no long WWII vets.
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Nov 19, 2017 3:05:21 GMT -5
Marvel Two In One # 77However, in Ben's mind, he's back in World War II, as he ends up teaming up with Nick Fury and his Howling Commandos, as they fight the Nazi's. We see this story in little blurbs in between checking up on present day Ben's situation in the swamp. Towards the end of the story, Ben starts to fear his potential death, and, of course, Whoever Knows Fear BURNS At The Man Thing's Touch!!!! Of course, this brief physical interaction is enough to wake Ben up enough to last a little longer, long enough to run into The Human Torch, who helps flag down the others. We then see Ben in the hospital, and on his way to a complete recovery.....Awwwwww. <3 This was a decent little story that gave a bit of background of Ben being a hero even before becoming The Thing, also while showing why Nick Fury trusts and relies on Ben as much as he does (and has even within this book). Plus, we also get The Man Thing, which, while he doesn't do too much in this story, other than inadvertently giving Ben his second wing, but it's still always cool to have ole' Manny. For our next review....well, I'll be honest. With this issue, I'm done with the 3rd Marvel Essential of MTIO, but I don't have the 4th. So, if I am able to get the next book by next week, we'll continue on with our last 20 or so issues of this book. If not, I have a fun fill in I'll start doing to kill time until I can get Book #4. GRADE: B+ I don't have my Handbooks handy, they went into storage a couple of years ago, but I seem to recall we had to officially retcon this whole thing due to the sliding timescale issue. I think we ended up just making the whole flashback a delusion the Thing was having, as he and Reed are canonically no long WWII vets. Yeah, I'm sure they did, and if for some reason it was mentioned, it would probably be something like "Ben and I served together in The War" to keep it open ended, time-wise.
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Nov 24, 2017 1:27:25 GMT -5
Web of Spider-Man # 32"Resurrection" Cover Date: November, 1987 Writer(s): J.M. DeMatteis Artist: Mike Zech Feature Character(s): Spider-Man Villain(s): Kraven the Hunter & Vermin Guest Star/s: Mary Jane Watson/Parker & Ned Leeds (The last in a vision/dream/hallucination) Official Plot: Peter Parker imagines himself curled up in fetal position. He sees Ned Leeds, but the figure disappears once Peter reminds him that he is dead. Peter transforms into a blue spider, but shadowy figures attack it. Peter crawls out of the spider's body and claws at the ceiling. Spider-Man emerges from his grave and stumbles into Kraven's mansion. From the newspapers scattered on the ground, Spider-Man learns that one of his impersonators has been attacking the town for two weeks. Spider-Man visits Mary Jane at their apartment for a while before going after Kraven and finding him wearing a Spider-Man costume. Brodie's ViewWell, as you can tell by the awesome cover (and my favorite cover image of this whole deal, although, the next part's cover takes close second), we're at the turning point of this whole story, and things get a bit....surreal. The beginning part of this issue takes us into the mind of Peter Parker, who has been put into kind of a (voodoo) zombie state (and buried alive) by Kraven, and he sees this internally as being at perfect peace. This peace is ruined by the vision of Ned Leeds (who had recently died), who, upon being reminded that he's supposed to be dead, quickly decomposes and falls apart. Peter tries to go back to his light covered peace, but that is eroded (literally) by the darkness of "reality" seeping in, as Peter envisions himself as a literal spider in a vision, which is set upon and killed by various creatures. Peter bursts out of the body of the spider, and then sees himself trying to crawl upward through blackness. In reality, it's Peter crawling out of his grave, but reality doesn't impose itself fully until he crawls out of the ground, with rain falling all around him. It's a fantastic image. Once he somewhat gets his bearings, he walks into the "funeral home," which is part of Kraven's mansion. Peter/Spider-Man realizes that he's been buried for two weeks (as Kraven has left a newspaper for him to find, the interesting twist being that Kraven's plan was never to kill Spider-Man at all), he frightens the info of Kraven's whereabouts out of two guys that work for The Hunter. Spidey then takes off after Kraven, but first, he pays a visit to his wife, Mary Jane, and assumingly makes love to her. Afterwards, though, it's back to business, as Peter tells MJ that he HAS to take care of Kraven himself, but promises her he will return. He then easily finds Kraven, who has been waiting for him. Of course he has (as he also, as we are shown in a cutaway, the mutate man rat, Vermin, locked away somewhere), and we will get to see Kraven lay out his whole plan and motivation to Spidey next issue, and I will say that this whole thing doesn't quite go down like our web slinging hero imagined it would. This story isn't over yet. GRADE: A+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Nov 30, 2017 2:38:13 GMT -5
Amazing Spider-Man # 294"Thunder"Cover Date: November, 1987 Writer(s): J.M. DeMatteis Artist: Mike Zech Feature Character(s): Spider-Man Villain(s): Kraven The Hunter & Vermin Guest Star/s: None Official Plot: Spider-Man has emerged from his grave, discovering that Kraven's drug kept him immobilized there for two weeks. Spider-Man arrives and confronts the Hunter. Kraven refuses to fight, saying that by "killing" and impersonating the web-slinger, he has proven his superiority. Re-donning his own costume, he leads Spider-Man to the caged Vermin, then releases him, goading him into attacking Spider-Man. At first Spider-Man fights back but then backs off, refusing to play Kraven's game. However Vermin overwhelms him. Kraven forces Vermin off Spider-Man and lets him flee. Promising to never hunt again. Kraven helps the wounded Spider-Man up, urging him to follow Vermin. Feeling release, Kraven shoots himself with a hunting rifle, falling back into a coffin, dead. Brodie's ViewThe big confrontation happens in this issue, as Spider-Man finally comes face to face with the man that shot him, had him buried alive, and spent the last couple of weeks impersonating him, dragging what little reputation he had into the gutter...Kraven The Hunter. However, Kraven was waiting for him, and Spidey gets far from the cathartic confrontation he was imagining this whole deal would be. In fact, he probably leaves more confused than satisfied, as all of the catharsis that happens is within Kraven himself. At first, Kraven feels victorious, as his plan has succeeded far better than he could have planned; by "Killing" the Spider and "Replacing" him, he feels he has finally proven himself to be the better man. He tries to prove this by having Spidey fight the captured Man Rat, Vermin, which our hero doesn't prove as effective as the Hunter, due to his feeling sorry for the mutate. However, there is the part of Kraven that represents sanity, that basically tells him that this whole scheme has been futile, that the reason Spider-Man always defeated him was because his cause was just, and Kraven's wasn't. Finally, Kraven comes to accept this, and after letting both Vermin and Spider-Man free, he promises that Spidey will never have to deal with his "hunts" again. Of course, Spidey leaves not realizing how true this is, as shortly after, Kraven takes his hunting rifle and blows his brains out with it, ending this issue in a very abrupt, but poetic fashion. This issue was right up there with the last one, as while not being as visceral as Peter Parker's ascent from the grave, this issue most certainly gave Kraven the Hunter a core and a soul he had not really had before. One could almost admire Kraven in his last moments, which is more depth than most other writers had given, who up to that point had been, a C List Villain. That leaves one more piece of business to take care of, and we'll see that in our next review, the last part of what has come to be known as "Kraven's Last Hunt." Spider-Man must track down the murderous Man Rat, Vermin, while trying to deal with the crazy fall out from what has happened to him throughout this story. And then....we finally finish up MARVEL TWO IN ONE. GRADE: A+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Dec 8, 2017 2:19:22 GMT -5
Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man # 132"Ascending"Cover Date: November, 1987 Writer(s): J.M. DeMatteis Artist: Mike Zech Feature Character(s): Spider-Man Villain(s): Vermin & his rats Guest Star/s: Mary Jane Watson/Parker and various NYPD cops Official Plot: Spider-Man enters the sewers to find Vermin. Rats swarm Spider-Man, who shakes them off in fright. At Kraven's townhouse, police officers discover Kraven's corpse and his confession saying the he impersonated Spider-Man for the past two weeks. Vermin attacks Spider-Man and the two fight. Spider-Man wonders if Kraven really did kill him and he actually was not drugged. Spider-Man lures Vermin out of the sewers and into traffic. Spider-Man hands Vermin over to the police, saying he will call Reed Richards to help him. Peter reunites with Mary Jane and they embrace. At a funeral, Kraven's men bury their former boss's coffin next to Spider-Man's mock grave. Brodie's ViewThe final part of "Kraven's Last Hunt" involves Spider-Man having to clean up the mess created by the Late Kraven the Hunter, while dealing with the psychic trauma caused by "The Hunter's" scheme. What makes this worse is that our web slinging hero has to sludge his way through the sewers (which reminds Spidey a bit too much of being in the grave), looking for the Man Rat, Vermin. Finally, Spidey finds Vermin, and the fight is on. Spidey ends up holding back a bit too much for Vermin, allowing the humanoid rat to inflict a bit of damage on poor old Pete. Spidey is finally able to shake himself mentally clean enough to come up with a plan to stop Vermin, and he does that by luring the rat man out into the New York streets in broad daylight, rendering the creature nearly harmless. Spider-Man leaves Vermin for the police (with instructions to send Vermin to Reed Richards for help), and swings on back to Mary Jane, ending our story...well, almost. Throughout the issue, we see glimpses of a man digging a grave for an unknown body. Finally, we see at the end of the issue that it is Kraven's grave, as, yes, the Hunter is indeed dead (and as far as I know, he's remained dead to this day). This was a good issue, that, while not a great as the last two issues were (of course, how could they be?), still was a very solid ending to this story that reaffirmed Spider-Man's heroic nature, even when he REALLY wasn't feeling it at all. Well, that's it. Kraven's Last Hunt. I know they did a trade paperback of this story, but it's also in the 3rd WEB OF SPIDER-MAN Marvel Essentials. Speaking of ME, I finally have the last MTIO Essential, which means that for the next review, it's back to orange rocky goodness all the way to its 100th (and final) issue. GRADE: A
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Dec 14, 2017 1:33:52 GMT -5
Marvel Two In One # 78"Monster Man!"Cover Date: August, 1981 Writer(s): Tom DeFalco Artist: Ron Wilson Feature Character(s): The Thing & Wonder Man Villain(s): Xemnu Guest Star/s: Alicia Masters, Franklin Richards, The Beast, Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Girl/Woman, & The Human Torch), Matt Murdock, Foggy Nelson, & Becky Blake Official Plot: The Thing is upset to hear about a new television show called Monster Man that has adapted his likeness. Adding insult to injury, it is also his godson Frankin's favorite show. Ben decides to sit down and watch it with the Fantastic Four to see just how awful the television series is. Between the hockey villain called Captain Chlorophyll, Monster Man's sidekick Kid Monstro and other hack gimmicks, the Thing loses his temper. Noting that the lead role is played by the Avenger known as Wonder Man, Ben decides to pay a visit to the television studio and takes off on a sky-cycle. At that moment in Queens, the studio that produces Monster Man is deep in production. When the directors of photography remark on the strange camera they are using, one of them recalls how the camera is specially made by the producer Ted Silverberg. Silverberg catches the two men slacking off and tells them to get back to work. Elsewhere, Wonder Man goes over what he sees as plot contrivances with the current episode they are shooting. Suddenly the entire production is interrupted by the arrival of the Thing who easily bustles past security and confronts Silverberg, telling him that he is going to consult his lawyers to have production halted. To punctuate his point, Ben crushes a film camera into a ball. When Wonder Man comes to greet Ben, he remarks about how Williams has stabbed him in the back and tosses the crumpled camera at him before storming out. After this scene, Silverberg goes to the trailer of his backer, Amos Moses who designed his specially made camera. When Silverberg tells Amos about the possibility of having production shut down, Moses tells him not to worry and sees him out. Nobody is the wiser to the fact that Amos Moses is not who he sees and his plans will have dire repercussions on the human race. The next day at Avengers Mansion, Wonder Man is in a training session with his teammate the Beast. As he hits a massive punching bag, Simon explains how awful he feels for what Monster Man is doing to the Thing. Letting off some steam by smashing the punching back, Simon thanks the Beast for being his sounding board in order to make up his mind on what to do about the current situation. While at the law office of Nelson and Murdock, the Thing meets with his lawyers Matt Murdock and Foggy Nelson to get their legal advice. After looking over the transcripts of the legal documents, Matt regretfully informs Ben that there is nothing they can legally do to halt production. Disappointed, Ben is shocked when he goes outside and is swarmed by children who want to get "Monster Man's" autograph. He brushes the kids off quickly and takes off on his Sky-Cycle. While back at the studio, Simon has gone to tell Silverberg that he is quitting the production. Silverberg reminds Williams that he is under contract. With nothing he can do about the situation, Wonder Man agrees to honor his current contract until he has shot all the episodes, then quit. When this is reported to Amos Moses, he decides to take matters into his own hands. Alone in his trailer, "Amos" reverts to his original form -- that of Xemnu the Titan. The alien recalls how he is the last survivor of his world and that he is seeking to repopulate his planet. Although he has been defeated by the Defenders in the past, he vows that with his special camera he will enthrall everyone who watches the Monster Man show in order to send them to his planet. Watching Wonder Man through a one-sided mirror, Xemnu exerts his telepathic powers on the hero, forcing him to change his mind about leaving the show so that Williams does not quit. Later that day while Ben and Alicia are watching Franklin, the Monster Man show comes on again. Noticing how en-rapt that Franklin is, Ben finds his attention being drawn to the television as well. When an advertisement comes on, Ben snaps out of it and realizes that there is something strange going on. The Thing decides to pay the television studio another visit and goes there on his Sky-Cycle. Smashing his way in, Ben begins to examine the camera used to film Monster Man and discovers a device that appears to be altering the film. His investigation is interrupted by Wonder Man, who is still under Xemnu's control and attacks Ben before he can talk sense into him. Xemnu makes his presence known and has both Wonder Man and actors dressed up as gun-toting vegetables to attack the Thing. As the battle rages, Mister Fantastic console Alicia Masters, who is concerned about how this television show is upsetting him. Back at the studio, the thing tries to lift a massive barbell to use as a weapon, but Xemnu uses his power over inanimate objects to cause it to wrap around him. Wonder Man then knocks Ben outside and the two continue their brawl, sending them crashing through other sets on the studio lot. As they duke it out on the set of a game show, the mental control that Xemnu holds over Wonder Man begins to wear off. When Xemnu realizes this, he then flees back to his trailer, which has a spacecraft hidden inside that allows him to escape. Silverberg scolds the two heroes for the damages done, but suddenly gets inspiration and allows them to leave. When Ben arrives home, Franklin tells Ben that he is in time for his favorite new television show: The Xemnu the Titan Show. Brodie's ViewIt seems crazy to go from the darkness of "Kraven's Last Hunt" to the old school comic book-ness of MARVEL TWO IN ONE, but here we are, and we're on that non stop path to the end of this series. In this issue, we go back to Hollywood, as this issue kind of starts like one from earlier in this run. Ben gets pissed off at the fact that Hollywood has somewhat taken his likeness and made a television show ("Monster Man") out of it, and decides to head off to La La Land to give the producers of MM a piece of his mind. Once there, he finds out that MM is being played by none other than our Guest Star for this issue, the Ionic Avenger, Wonder Man. After having it out with Ben over his betrayal, WM decides to quit playing MM, only to suddenly have a change of heart. Of course, there is more to all this than meets the eye, as the Monster Man show is revealed as merely being a front for our villain of the issue, Xemnu The Titan (a "scary" alien that always looked way too cute to really be threatening), who plans on using alien tech to use the show to hypnotize its viewers. Needless to say, Xemu eventually sends a brainwashed WM after Ben, and we get a nice little fight between the two. That is, until Ben realizes that destroying Xemnu's alien camera is the key to stopping all of this, which he does. Xemnu then splits before he/it can face his/its comeuppance, but gets his/its last laugh in a way, as we discover at the end of the issue that Monster Man has been replaced by a brand new show.....XEMNU THE TITAN! Anyways, this was a fun little issue that really doesn't link to anything else, and can be enjoyed for what it is. Heck, the fact that Xemnu The Titan is your villain kind of says it all, as Xemnu is the very definition of a disposable villain. The next review will bring us to our next Annual, which will introduce a character that didn't mean much at the time, but becomes a somewhat important character (or at least featured more) years down the line. GRADE: B
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Dec 15, 2017 1:33:11 GMT -5
Marvel Two In One Annual # 6"An Eagle From America!"Cover Date: September, 1981 Writer(s): Doug Moench Artist: Ron Wilson Feature Character(s): The Thing & American Eagle (1st Appearance of) Villain(s): Klaw & Ward Strongbow Guest Star/s: Wyatt Wingfoot, Ka-Zar, Zabu, the Navajo, & various dinosaurs Official Plot: The Thing finds himself pacing around the Baxter Building trying to find something to quash the feelings of loneliness that he is feeling. Deciding to lift some weights, Ben finds that this cannot him get over his feelings. Checking the security monitors he notices that the Fantastic Four's long time ally Wyatt Wingfoot is making his way up to the team's headquarters in their private elevator. Wyatt tells Ben that he has come seeking the aid of the Fantastic Four, but Ben informs Wyatt that he is the only one around. Wyatt admits what he is about to tell is steeped in superstition and myth, but he tells Ben about a legend that is told among the tribe that neighbors his people. The tale involves a group of Native Americans who were fighting against white settlers during the days of the American Frontier. With their chief wounded and dying, with his two sons fighting over who should lead, the dying chief ordered his sons to enter a nearby cave where the spirits reside and they will choose who will be the new leader of the tribe. The two brothers waited in the cave until they were visited by a great spirit who asked which of the two men could lead their tribe. When the spirit could not decide himself, he endowed the two brothers with the strength of truth and set them into a battle across the wilderness to see who was the greater champion. One of the brothers was the victor and crowned chief of the tribe. They then fought off the white settlers from their area. After celebrating their victory the tribe was shocked when their leader suddenly departed in a wisp of smoke to return to the great spirits. Hearing this story, Ben finds it hard to believe and hopes that Wyatt doesn't believe it either. However, Wingfoot is not too sure, as this legend relates to recent activities that have been happening on the land of the tribe of which the legend came from. Recently a mining company had come to try and remove minerals from the land, creating a dispute between two brothers, Ward and Jason Strongbow. While Ward wanted to mine the land and reap the benefits, Jason refused to allow outsiders defile their ancestral land. While Ward allowed the miners in, Jason organized protests and tried to get the law to intervene, but nothing worked. Things got worse when one of the protesters was shot. Instead of allowing a riot, Jason Strongbow decided to go into the cave and find the killer and bring him to justice. Down below Jason came across his brother Ward and the two began to argue. While they were down below there was a sudden explosion and only Jason managed to emerge from the ruins, using his newly gained strength to burst free. With Jason glowing in the night and an eagle passing overhead, the tribe now believe that Jason Stronbow is the embodiment of the legend. Jason then went after his killers, and after learning this story Wyatt decided to try and find Jason and lend him a hand. This brings Wyatt to why he has come to get help from the Fantastic Four: He needs to get to Antarctica because the murderer Jason is looking for is in the Savage Land. Without further consideration, the Thing agrees to take Wyatt and the pair are soon blasting off in the Pogo Plane. Deep in the Savage Land, Jason Strongbow is stalking his foes in his newly crafted costumed identity of the American Eagle. As American Eagle walks through the jungle looking for his prey, he is unaware that he is being tracked by Ka-Zar, Lord of the Savage Land. Not far away are a group of men with the mining operation who are hunting for something to eat. As American Eagle fires his crossbow, the arrow narrowly avoids a unicorn that the men are hunting and barely misses them as well. As the men flee, American Eagle tries to chase after them but is jumped by Ka-Zar who believes that the strangely garbed man was hunting the sacred animal. The two trade blows until American Eagle's superior strength overpowers Ka-Zar. When the two begin arguing with one another about American Eagle's presence in the Savage Land, they both learn that they have a mutual enemy in the miners who are exploiting the region here as well. As they track their enemies, American Eagle tells Ka-Zar of his origins, and the two are later joined by Ka-Zar's faithful ally Zabu. That evening as the pair camp out for the night they suddenly spot the Fantastic Four's Pogo Plane coming in for a landing and head to it. There they meet with Wyatt and the Thing. When everyone compares notes they decide to camp out for the night. Later that evening, while the Thing and American Eagle arm wrestle, the Thing asks Eagle what really happened in the mine before the explosion. He says that while he and his father Ward were fighting, they were interrupted by the mining operations leader: Klaw. Ben finds this incredible because the last he saw of Klaw was when the villain was dissipated during a fight at the Project PEGASUS facility. Eagle continues his story, saying that he was blasted by Klaw's sonic weapon and was sent flying into one of the burning machines and that the two forms of radiation were what endowed him with his great strength. With the tale finished, the four heroes decide to press on. Later that, Klaw is continuing his Vibranium extraction, staging their operation from within a Dinosaur grave yard where they have set up massive cages to contain live dinosaurs. The heroes soon arrive and begin scaling the bowl shaped mountains around the grave yard. The Thing manages to confront Klaw first and wants to know how Klaw managed to escape their last encounter. Klaw explains that he was freed when a cleaning lady at Project PEGASUS foolishly reactivated his sonic blaster, allowing himself to become free. While Ben and Klaw battle it out on the ridge, both Ka-Zar and American Eagle confront Jason's brother Ward. While the two brothers fight it out, Wyatt lends Ben a hand by throwing a rock at Klaw's sonic blaster, spoiling his aim. When the Thing tackles Klaw, they land in the graveyard, smashing open the cages holding the dinosaurs. While Ben, Ka-Zar and Zabu try to contain the dinosaurs and Klaw, American Eagle continues to fight with his brother. During the struggle, one of the minors tries to take a shot at American Eagle with his rifle, but instead strikes and kills Ward. At that moment, the Thing has defeated Klaw in battle and removed his sonic blaster. With the dinosaurs quelled, the Thing and his allies are preparing to leave with their prisoners. When Ben apologizes for the trouble brought to Ka-Zar's land, Ka-Zar tells him that he should instead be offering his pity to American Eagle, who mourns the loss of his brother. Brodie's View:In this Annual, we get the introduction of a character that I think many (and I would have been one of those people) would have thought would have been and one and done appearance (well, until Marvel needed to do a "Hey, remember THIS guy?!?" group shot, ala the original CONTEST OF CHAMPIONS), American Eagle. However, they, and I, would have been wrong, as the Eagle has become more of a reoccurring character in recent years. Anyways, this oversized story definitely gives one AE's origin story in full, as our mystically powered Native American hero ends up teaming up with Ben and everyone's favorite Tarzan rip off character, Ka-Zar (with his pet saber-tooth tiger, Zabu), as they try to stop the master of sound, Klaw, and a group of miners (who secretly are being aided by the Eagle's brother, who has equal powers to our Guest Star) from stealing Vibranium from Ka-Zar's beloved Savage Land. Of course, this leads to an all out fight between the heroes and the villains: Ben/Klaw (who for some reason is written speaking in Ben's dialect....I swear that Klaw has to be one of the most inconsistently written characters, at least speech-wise, in the Marvel Universe), the Eagle and his brother (who is accidentally killed by one of the miners), and Ka-Zar and the miners (who end up being trampled and killed by dinosaurs). The story ends with the bad guys stopped, but the American Eagle getting his tragic origin story fully completed with the death of his brother. This was an OK story, but being that I wasn't really invested in any of the characters (other than Ben, who was just kind of there because it's his book), this story was kind of a chore to get through. It wasn't a bad story, though (well, other than Klaw being written like some common thug from the Bronx), and if you ARE a fan of any of the characters involved in the story, you might be more of a fan of it than I was. Ah well. I'm not sure how much more I'm going to like the next issue I'll be reviewing, as I'll be dealing with a character so obscure that it makes American Eagle look like Wolverine. At least it'll be shorter. GRADE: B-
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Dec 16, 2017 1:52:38 GMT -5
Marvel Two In One # 79"Shanga, the Star Dancer!"Cover Date: September, 1981 Writer(s): Tom DeFalco Artist: Ron Wilson Feature Character(s): The Thing & Blue Diamond Villain(s): Star-Dancer (1st Appearance) Guest Star/s: Alicia Masters & Zhalla'Klans Official Plot: In the depths of space Shanga, the Star-Dancer dances across the stars on her seemingly endless quest to return to her homeworld of Zhalla'kla. She recalls how she foolishly left her world without taking a care to mark her passage and eventually became lost. With her natural talent to detect when events will prove fortuitous for members of her race, the Sky-Dancer reaches out with this ability and she feels it directing her toward the planet Earth. Although the probe of the planet leaves her to believe that it is a primitive backwater world, she decides to heed her abilities anyway. At that moment in the town of Harsdale, Massachusetts the Thing is on vacation with his girlfriend Alicia Masters. After hearing a street vendor scolding Alicia for trying to touch his wood carvings, Ben angrily uproots a tree and leaves it out front of the vendors stall. Since Alicia wants to stay at the craft fair, Ben decides to knock off and do some fishing. As he walks down to the water, he passes by a house where a seemingly innocuous old man watches from his window. The old man is Elton Morrow, who was secretly the World War II hero known as the Blue Diamond. He recalls the accidental explosion of a blue diamond from space that gave him his powers and how he became the Blue Diamond, fighting crime and the Axis Powers alike. However when the war ended the Blue Diamond retired and Elton married his high school sweetheart and settled down. Unfortunately, the happy marriage was not destined to last when his wife later died. Now in high twilight years, the Blue Diamond realizes that the only thing that would have made him happy again was not giving up on being a super-hero. As he cuts a line across his vanity mirror with his finger, Morrow remarks that while his powers still work, he has grown old and become very bitter. At that moment the Star-Dancer arrives over the town and after seeing the humans on the island, she decides that perhaps her goal is to toy with their genetics, she then uses her powers to erect a transparent dome around Hartsdale. With the dome over the town the locals begin to panic, and they believe that Alicia might be responsible since she was seen with the Thing earlier. As the mob attacks the helpless blind woman, she begins to wonder where her boyfriend is. Not far away, Ben continues to fish until he becomes aware of the strange dome that has appeared over the town. Rushing to it, Ben begins striking it and finds that his blows are having little effect. While from within, Elton Morrow watches what is happening from his window and decides that the time for sitting on the sidelines is over and that he must act. While the locals drag Alicia to the Star-Dancer to try and get her to make their attacker stop, the Sky-Dancer considers who to use as her test subject. While outside, the Thing continues to pound on the dome until it finally starts beginning to crack under his assault. While Ben smashes through, the Blue Diamond rushes in and stops the locals before they can shoot Alicia. However, this act of heroics is too much for the elderly heroes hart and he begins suffering a heart attack on the spot. By this point, the Star-Dancer has chosen her subject and entraps Alicia in an energy sphere. By this point, the Thing has arrived and he begins attacking the Sky-Dancer in the hopes that she will free Alicia. As the two duke it out, the Blue Diamond recovers from his attack and wonders what a has-been like him could do to help the Thing. Eventually, the Diamond comes up with a solution and suggests that the Thing throw him like a projectile at the Sky-Dancer. The Thing does just that, and the blow is enough to knock Sky-Danger from the sky. Ben rushes to Alicia's side now that she is free but the Star-Dancer revives and blasts Ben in return for throwing the Blue Diamond at him. Instead of destroying the Thing, the Sky-Dancer turns her attention to the Blue Diamond, fascinated by him. Her foresight abilities begin kicking in and Sky-Dancer realizes that the Blue Diamond is the one that she has been drawn too and that they are destined to be together. Seeing that he is old and frail, she then uses her powers to restore Morrow to his prime and changes him into a being made of living diamond. Telling the Blue Diamond that he is her destined mate, he agrees to accompany her into the stars and the newly formed couple fly off into the sky, leaving the Thing more than a little confused about what happened in the end. Brodie's ViewOkay, I was all ready to shit on this issue, as Blue Diamond was probably one of the most obscure Guest Stars this book has had since the days of Mordred the Mystic, but this turned out to be a surprisingly decent story that transforms a hero from the past into basically a new cosmic character. Long story short, a cosmic entity known as The Star-Dancer comes to Earth and imprisons the small town Ben and Alicia are visiting under a dome. The Blue Diamond, who was a hero during World War II, but is now an old man with super powers, lives in that town, and after the townspeople blindly turn on Alicia (while Ben is off fishing, which ends up shutting him out of the town for a brief moment, before Ben is able to break the dome), thinking that she (because she was seen with Ben earlier) is responsible for their town being attacked. However, this leads to the Diamond almost expiring from a heart attack for his heroics. To make things worse, the Star-Dancer is about to kidnap Alicia (in order to evolve what she feels is an inferior species), which, needless to say, Ben isn't too happy with, and a fight breaks out between the two (with Blue Diamond trying to help where he can). Surprisingly, Ben gets the better of this cosmic entity, but this just ends up pissing her off, and she threatens to destroy Earth in response. However, Blue Diamond ends up being the hero he was desperate to be, as he offers to be the human the Star-Dancer tests her "evolution" idea on, and she turns him into a literal human diamond. The two then take off to the stars, leaving Ben and Alicia to try and piece together exactly what happened. Once again, this was a solid story that actually took a older, forgotten hero, and turned them into a brand new, even more powerful character, which makes this definitely more important than the last few issues have been. The next issue will actually play into drama going on in our Guest Star's (which is actually one of my favorite characters) book, which, as we will see, actually reflects on Ben himself somewhat. I would go into more detail, but I'm trying to all vague and mysterious here. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Dec 17, 2017 1:22:17 GMT -5
Marvel Two In One # 80"Call Him....Monster!"Cover Date: October, 1981 Writer(s): Tom DeFalco Artist: Ron Wilson Feature Character(s): The Thing & Ghost Rider Villain(s): None (Unless you count GR him/itself) Guest Star/s: Alicia Masters, Franklin Richards, and the Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Girl/Woman, & The Human Torch) Official Plot: From her studio within the Baxter Building, Alicia Masters is suddenly jostled from vibrations that are powerful enough to shatter her sculptures. Seeking her boyfriend Ben to find out what is going on, she stumbles into the exercise room next door where Ben has been pounding on an automatic punching block. Seeing Alicia walking into its path the Thing watches in horror as it speeds towards her, but she is saved at the last minute thanks to the stretching arm of Mister Fantastic, who pulls her to safety. Realizing that Alicia almost got hurt because of him, Ben wanders out of the room blaming himself for forgetting how dangerous he can be. Watching this is Reed, and when Alicia asks where Ben went, he tells her that he blames himself for what almost happened. When Alicia wonders why he can't realize that it's not his fault, Reed tells her he doesn't know. Moments later, Johnny, Sue, and Franklin are helping Alicia clean up the rubble of her shattered statues. As Alicia assesses the damage she realizes how much of her work has been destroyed but tells the others that nothing matters without Ben. Sue then pulls her aside and assures Alicia that Ben will be back. Meanwhile, in the Bronx, the Thing has parked his Sky-Cycle on the roof of an abandoned tenement. There he is chastising himself for almost hurting Alicia and in a fit of rage strikes the side of the building, causing it to shatter all the way down one side. Realizing the damage his fit of rage caused, Ben realizes that he'll be a freak until the day he dies. With his self-worth completely diminished, Ben gets back on his Sky-Cycle and flies off. As he flies over the city, the Thing hears police sirens and decides to check it out. Down in the streets below the police are in a hot pursuit with the Ghost Rider who is racing through the city. Recklessly riding around the Ghost Rider warns everyone around him that he cannot be stopped. To punctuate this point the Spirit of Vengeance whips his motorcycle around and drives head-on toward the police car in pursuit. He then lunges his motorcycle off the car like a ramp and rebounds on the second squad car behind it, causing both police cruisers to crash. The Ghost Rider then speeds up an IRT platform and speeds across the elevated track. When he starts approaching an oncoming subway train, the Ghost Rider then smashes through the guardrail onto the roof of a building. There the Ghost Rider gloats about his victory before dissipating his Hell-Fire motorcycle and reverting back to his human form of Johnny Blaze. Completely drained from the experience, Johnny remarks about how much energy it is taking him to change back and forth and how he is slowly losing more and more control as the Ghost Rider. His thoughts are quickly interrupted by the arrival of the Thing who lands his Sky-Cycle on the roof. Reminding Johnny that they had met before, he offers to help Blaze get away before the police show up. The two take off and they land outside Johnny's hotel which is a total slum. When Ben asks what happened to his fame and fortune, Johnny Blaze explains that the Ghost Rider happened to him, and talks about the horror being possessed by it and its effect on his life. However, Johnny is grateful for the help and in thanks gives Ben two tickets for his show in Queens. Johnny's struggle with being the Ghost Rider puts Ben's thoughts into a different perspective and so he decides to return home to the Baxter Building where Alicia is still waiting for him. When Ben tries to apologize for what happened, Alicia tells him to shut up and hold her. Soon the Thing and Alicia are attending Johnny Blaze's next performance at an auto show in Queens. There Blaze is going to attempt to jump over fifteen cars. Among the attendees are two teenage boys who are eyeing one of the cars in the arena, one of them begins suggesting that they should steal it. Elsewhere, a bald guy and his girlfriend sit in seats closer to the front of the arena floor. When the girl asks what they will do if the actual ticket holders show up, her date tells her that nobody will cause him trouble. However, the muscled man did not expect that he had stolen the seats that belong to the Thing and Alicia Masters. When Ben comes to tap on his shoulder, the man brushes him off without looking until Ben forces the guy to turn around. Realizing who he is dealing with the man grabs his date and runs off, leaving Ben and Alicia their seats. When Johnny's stunt performance begins, he impresses the audience by doing somersaults on the back of his motorcycle before he makes his way toward the ramp where he is going to attempt his jump. As he begins speeding toward the ramp, the two teens decide it is time to steal the car and jump onto the arena floor. Meanwhile, Johnny manages to complete his jump while also doing a loop-de-loop in the air. However, when he is back on solid ground, he barely avoids crashing head-on into the teens in the stolen car. Johnny does a safe bailout and watches as the kids make a break for it into the parking lot. Angered at almost getting killed, Johnny suddenly turns into the Ghost Rider and creates a new bike out of Hell-Fire and chases after them. Seeing that there will be trouble, Ben tells Alicia to stay put and makes a break for his Sky-Cycle so he can follow after the Ghost Rider. Not far away the teens think they have made a clean break when suddenly they realize they are being chased by the Ghost Rider. The Spirit of Vengeance is too fast for them and manages to shoot hell-fire into the road ahead of them, forcing the youths to swerve off the road and crash. As they make a run for it, the Ghost Rider stops and lifts the stolen car over his head and throws it in front of the boys forcing them to stop when it explodes. When the Thing finally arrives on the scene he watches in horror as the Ghost Rider burns the boys hands with his hell-fire. Ben tells the Ghost Rider to let them go, and when it refuses, Ben strikes Ghost Rider with a blow. After checking on the teens, who are no worse for wear he then engages the Ghost Rider again. As Ben begins throwing his full strength into fighting the Ghost Rider, he refuses to give in and be a monster like his foe. This allows the Ghost Rider to gain the upper hand in a fight, however just as the Ghost Rider is about to skewer Ben with a lamp post, Johnny Blaze reasserts control because he is unable to take an innocent life. This allows Blaze to change back to human form, but the feat completely wipes him out and he falls into Ben's arms. Later back at the Baxter Building, Alicia tells Ben that the two teens will be okay but the police are still looking for Johnny Blaze. Ben tells her that Blaze took off hours ago, and tells her that fighting the Ghost Rider made him appreciate all the things that he has even though he does look like a monster, because there are others out there with a heavier burden than his own. Brodie's ViewOh yeah! Two of my top 10 favorite Marvel heroes team up (well, if you can call this a team up) in this issue; The Thing, of course, and Johnny Blaze, the F'N (Real...yeah, I said it) Ghost Rider(!!!). Of course, things have changed quite a bit since these two last teamed up in this book (In MTIO #08....how fitting). For one, it's most certainly not Christmas in this issue, so, no touchy feel-y "Spirit of Christmas" message here, as we're most definitely dealing with a different GR here than we were there. See, this is the period where Johnny Blaze was losing control of the demon (Zarathos) he had, up until recently, lived in somewhat harmony with, making Ghost Rider now less of a supernatural hero, and increasingly more an out of control Spirit of Vengeance, whose thirst for vengeance is growing more unquenchable by the day. Eventually this comes to a head in GR's own book (actually, it's the end of that book), but this is most certainly an example of the lead up to that final conflict. Of course, since the star of our book is kind of a monster (at least on the outside) himself, the plight of Johnny Blaze is paralleled with Ben's own struggles with his monstrous form and strength, especially after his getting a little too overzealous with a strength testing machine almost ends up killing his main squeeze, Alicia Masters. Ben ends up wallowing in self pity after this, which leads to his first encounter with GR, who is trying to generally scare the shit out of the populace. GR eventually transforms back to Blaze, and Ben helps the weakened host for Zarathos back to his dive hotel room (but not before Johnny gives him tickets to his upcoming stunt show, setting up the main confrontation). This first meeting kind of sets up in Ben's mind that while he's been busy feeling sorry for himself, some people have it much worse (which is deepened by the end of this issue), which of course reunites our orange rocked hero with his main squeeze, and sends the two love birds off to see Johnny Blaze's stunt show. The show goes well until a group of punks steal one of the vehicles Johnny was jumping over, which almost results in a fatal wreck between the two parties. Needless to say, this ends up summoning the Spirit of Vengeance, who is more than willing to make said punks suffer the torments of the damned. This, of course, leads to a nice kick ass little fight between Ben and GR, with neither side giving an inch in their attack. Finally, however, Blaze is able to regain control, and takes off on the run, making Ben, once again, realize how good he has it compared to some. A pretty cool little story, that while never reaches the point of greatness it perhaps could have, is still a solid enough story that makes great use of both characters. The next review will bring us our first multi-parter for a while, as we will see the involvement of one of my favorite villains, as well as setting up the resolving of a story thread that has been dangling for about 30 issues. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Dec 18, 2017 1:00:18 GMT -5
Marvel Two In One # 81"No Home for Heroes!"Cover Date: November, 1981 Writer(s): Tom DeFalco Artist: Ron Wilson Feature Character(s): The Thing & The Sub-Mariner Villain(s): A.I.M & M.O.D.O.K Guest Star/s: Alicia Masters, The Invisible Girl/Woman, & Project Pegasus (Quasar & Giant Man II) Official Plot: The Sub-Mariner emerges from the Atlantic Ocean and heads for New York City as he needs a break from his royal duties. Arriving in Manhattan, the Prince of Atlantis goes into a shop and demands the most expensive clothing. The shopkeep humors him until Namor has selected an outfit and is about to leave. When the shopkeep demands payment, Namor hands him a handful of pearls that more than cover the cost of the clothing. Meanwhile, in the SoHo district, the Thing is helping Alicia Masters move into a new apartment after her short stay at the Baxter Building, having realized that it is too dangerous for her to continue living at the Fantastic Four's headquarters. When Ben asks again why she has decided to move out, Alicia reiterates how dangerous it was for her to continue living at the Baxter Building and offers that perhaps they acted too quickly when they decided to move in together. She tries to reinforce to him that she does love him for who he is, but Ben is going through one of his bouts of self-doubt and excuses himself to get some fresh air. As the Thing walks down the street he continues to brood over his appearance and how looking like a monster has affected his chances of finding true love. However, his thoughts are interrupted when he hears someone screaming for help. He finds a homeless man in an alley being attacked by an AIM Synthoid. The artificial creature is able to knock Ben over with a single punch and then knock him out by emitting gas from its fingertips. With the Thing subdued, the Synthoid reports back to its masters to inform them that it has captured a new subject. At that moment in the Bowery, the Sub-Mariner has returned to the neighborhood where he spent decades with amnesia. He recalls how his memory was awoken by the Human Torch who found him in a Bowery flop-house and helped revive his memory. With the locals watching him with suspicion, the Sub-Mariner approaches on man and asks about a homeless woman he remembers from his past -- Sunshine Mary. The man tells Namor that he can show him to her but it will cost him, Namor informs the man if he helps he will be rewarded. Elsewhere at the Project PEGASUS facility in Upstate New York, Quasar is summoned by alarm where he finds that his colleague Giant-Man has collapsed. Although Giant-Man brushes off the fainting spell, Quasar realizes that this is just a symptom of the rapidly spreading cancer in his system. Back in the Bowery, the man leads Namor into a ruined building where he claims Sunshine Mary is hanging out. However inside, Namor is jumped by a throng of homeless men. Pulling off his disguise, the Sub-Mariner is easily able to fight off his attackers. With the fight quickly quashed, Namor demands answers. He learns that homeless people have been vanishing from the streets recently including Sunshine Mary and the police are doing nothing about it. Suddenly the man who was saved by Ben arrives and tells the others what happened and how he managed to follow the Thing's captor back to a warehouse on the waterfront. Taking command of the situation, Namor demands to be taken to that location. Not far away, the Thing awakens inside a glass dome next to a bunch of captive homeless and realizes that he is a prisoner of MODOK and his faction of AIM. MODOK explains to Ben that he has set up this operation to test out the effects of his new creation: a biological weapon he calls Virus X. Ben is horrified by the fact that MODOK has been experimenting on innocent people and decides to not let himself become a test subject either. He smashes free from his imprisonment, but MODOK's Synthoids are quickly upon him. With Ben subdued, MODOK has him enveloped in a cloud of Virus X, infecting him with the disease. Just then the Sub-Mariner and his homeless army come crashing through the doors. While they press on the attack, Ben breaks free from his bonds just as MODOK activates his new Super-Synthoids. With the Synthoids being destroyed by the Thing and Namor, MODOK and his minions flee with their sample of Virus X. Once inside their escape ship MODOK is horrified to find that the canister has been ruptured and is leaking the virus into their ship, but they still escape anyway. With AIM defeated, the homeless prisoners are freed. Finally, face to face with Sunshine Mary, Namor is disheartened when she is afraid of him, having heard of all the times he had menaced humanity since getting his memories back. As the homeless people leave, Ben tries to sympathize with Namor but she brushes him off asking Ben what he knows about loneliness. Before Ben can answer, Namor flies off and heads back to Atlantis. As he watches Namor go, Ben suddenly feels dizzy and collapses on the floor. He then remembers that he was infected with Virus X and if he doesn't do something quick, he will die. Brodie's ViewWe finally move out of one shot stories with this issue, which is the first part of a multi-part story that concerns Ben suffering the long term effects of a gas (Known as Virus X) he is exposed to 3/4 of the way through this story. The group that exposes him to that gas is the villainous group of rogue scientists known collectively as Advanced Idea Mechanics (or AIM), which currently was being ran by one of their former experiments (and one of my favorite villains), M.O.D.O.K ( I love his giant head/little arms and legs having ass....seriously). This all occurs because AIM was snatching up homeless people to test Virus X on, which is how Ben got captured in the first place, as he was trying to stop one of AIM's androids from stealing a random homeless guy. This is also how our Guest Star for this issue, Namor, the Sub-Mariner, gets involved, as during a period where he had been stripped of his memory, he was living as a homeless man, and had been curious as to what had happened to the homeless woman that had taken him under her wing at the time. Of course, this is where our plots dovetail, as Namor and the homeless people team up to try and rescue the various homeless people (including the woman Namor was looking for) AIM had kidnapped. This all comes to a head just as Ben busts out of the containment until he had been locked up in (but not before being exposed to Virus X), and the various good guys end up sending MODOK and AIM packing. Namor departs, and seconds later, Ben collapses, the Virus starting to take its horrible (and we'll find out in the next issue how bad things will get) effect. A few other notable things happen in this issue. First off, we have Alicia Masters moving out of the Baxter Building after almost getting crushed last issue, which sends Ben into the self pity walk that leads him into the main plot. Little do we know that the Ben/Alicia relationship is kind of in its dying days, as the writer/artist of the main FANTASTIC FOUR book, John Byrne, would officially drive a stake through the relationship by the time we get to 1984 and the SECRET WARS crossover, but for now, even though the couple is kind of running on fumes, the relationship will continue on for a bit longer. The other major thing to happen (and something that will dovetail into the whole Virus X storyline), is the whole Bill Foster/Giant Man II's steadily progressing cancer, which, as we see, is starting to show a major effect in the scientist turned superhero. In the next issue, however, we'll be seeing the more (at least momentarily) important downfall of our orange rocked hero, which will cause quite a few people to step up to try and aid him. Will they be successful? Well, yeah, as Ben is still alive and kicking today, but we'll see exactly how he gets better in the next story. GRADE: B
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Post by Joe Neglia on Dec 18, 2017 4:50:27 GMT -5
Marvel Two-in-One was great for utilizing lesser known characters and even greater for taking dangling plotlines from other (usually cancelled) books and wrapping them up. Loved that book.
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