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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Jan 8, 2018 23:54:02 GMT -5
Marvel Two In One Annual # 7"And They Shall Call Him...Champion!"Cover Date: October, 1982 Writer(s): Tom DeFalco Artist: Ron Wilson Feature Character(s): The Thing & Thor, Wonder Man, Sub Mariner, Sasquatch, The Hulk, Colossus, & Doc.Sampson Villain(s): The Champion Guest Star/s: Alicia Masters, The Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Girl/Woman, The Human Torch), The Avengers (Captain America, Hawkeye, Iron Man, She Hulk, & The Wasp), The X-Men (Cyclops, Wolverine, Professor X, Nightcrawler, Storm, & Sprite/Kitty Pryde), The Vision, Scarlet Witch, & Spider-Man (Whew... ![???](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/huh.png) ) Official Plot: The Thing is posing for a sculpture for his girlfriend Alicia Masters in her apartment when suddenly they are interrupted by the arrival of an alien being calling himself Proja. He explains that he has come to examine the Thing and determine his strength. Impressed by Ben's physical shape, Proja explains that he is seeking combatants to fight his master, the cosmic being known as the Champion. Ben is upset by this intrusion into his life and is uninterested in the offer and tells Proja to leave. However, Proja teleports away with the Thing when he tricks Ben into shaking his hand. In Chicago, Donald Blake climbs to the roof of his practice in order to change into his alter ego, the Asgardian thunder god known as Thor. Soaring across the city, Thor is also approached by Proja. In Washington, D.C., Doc Samson is interrupted during a session with a patient. Proja later also recruits the Hulk, the X-Man known as Colossus, the Sub-Mariner, Wonder Man, and Alpha Flight's Sasquatch. While at the Plaza Hotel, the Vision and the Scarlet Witch are interrupted by the arrival of Proja. Proja is about to recruit the Vision into this battle royale until he discovers that the Vision is an artificial being, disqualifying him from being selected to battle the Champion. Proja then teleports away before the Scarlet Witch can stop him with a hex bolt. Elsewhere, those forced into being taken by Proja find themselves materialize in a strange alien gym. While the assembled heroes try to make sense of their situation, the Sub-Mariner attempts to break free. Smashing through the wall he quickly discovers that they are within a massive ship that is suspended in an empty void. Suddenly they are joined by the Champion who teleports into the room and announces that they will all have a chance to battle him in the arena. The Champion explains how he goes from world to world battling the strongest beings on a given planet for the thrill of the fight and prove himself as the undisputed champion of the universe, boasting that none have survived to fight a second round against him. When the assembled heroes try to rush the Champion all at once, he is able to deflect them back with the Power Primordial, the source of his strength. The Champion then informs them that they will begin training and summons personal trainers for each of the combatants. Meanwhile back on Earth, Alicia has summoned Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Girl to help her rescue Ben. Reed examines Alicia's apartment for residual energy left over from Ben's abduction and is troubled to learn that the energy levels involved are on par with Galactus. While at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, the X-Men return to their leader Professor X after their search for Colossus proved unsuccessful. When Cyclops suggests that the disappearance could be tied into some kind of anti-super-hero conspiracy, Xavier believes that the disappearances of heroes of great strength is something more than that. Back aboard the Champion's ship, the training has begun. While both the Hulk and Thor excel in training, Doc Samson fails in a basic test and is returned to Earth, as is the Sub-Mariner when he refuses to comply. Also doing well in their training are Colossus, Wonder Man, Sasquatch and the Thing. As the training continues, Proja appears at the Daily Bugle and other news media outlets to spread the word of the coming battle, generating plenty of buzz world wide. The match is organized to take place at Madison Square Garden. Tickets sell out quickly and soon bets are placed on who will win the match, while at Avengers Mansion the gathered members of the Fantastic Four and the Avengers debate on how to handle the situation. Soon it is time for the big match and the remaining competitors are teleported to the ring, which is contained under a protective dome surrounded by a sold out audience. The first battle is between Thor and Champion. As the battle is about to begin, Cyclops and Wolverine attempt to penetrate the barrier to free Colossus, but find that neither of their abilities can breach it. Soon the battle begins, but when Thor attempts to use Mjolnir in battle he is disqualified and teleported away. Next is the Hulk, who rips through his gloves and tries to attack the Champion with his bare hands. Dismissed as a savage, the Champion also teleports the Hulk away. Next up is the Sasquatch, who is the first combatant to play by the Champion's rules, but is knocked out only after a few blows. The next match is Colossus who tries to put all his effort into battling the Champion is beaten so badly he needs to be taken away on a stretcher. This is followed by a match against Wonder Man who quickly loses his temper and tries to subdue the Champion by ripping up the floor of the arena floor, only to be disqualified and teleported away. With the fate of the world hanging in the balance, the Thing is the last combatant left. Ben refuses to give up, no matter how many times the Champion knocks him down, the Thing just continues getting up. Battered and bleeding the Thing begins to earn the respect of the Champion for not giving up. When Ben later charges at the Champion and grabs him around the waist, the Champion decides to continue the fight despite this being against the rules. Although the Thing manages to land some good punches in, he is knocked aside by the Champion and cannot get back up within the ten count. As the Champion is awarded his belt he is about to determine the fate of the Earth when he notices that the Thing is still struggling to get to his feet and continue the fight. Seeing that his opponent is willing to crawl on his hands and knees to continue the fight impresses the Champion so much that he decides to spare the Earth, suggesting that in time perhaps it will create a warrior that can defeat him in the ring. After the Champion teleports away the Thing collapses to the floor again, but he is still pulled up to his feet by his friends and allies who are celebrating Ben's apparent victory against the Champion. Brodie's ViewThis would probably be one of the Top 3 stories of this entire run, if not the best (I'd say only the Thanos one gives it a run for its money). There are few greater examples of what is so great about Ben Grimm as a character than this story, and the DeFalco/Wilson team definitely gives it a great build, with pretty much all of the major Marvel heroes being represented here, or at least the 3 major super teams (Avengers, X-Men, and, of course, the Fantastic Four), as each have team members that are directly involved with the story. Basically, a representative of one of the Elder Members of the Universe, known here as The Champions, comes to Earth in search of the strongest super humans (or at least on the hero side of things) to face The Champion in a boxing match for the sake of the planet. What makes things worse is that for all the various beings that The Champion has faced, no one has lasted past the second round. The characters selected are: The Thing (of course), The Hulk, Thor, Colossus, Namor, Wonder Man, Sasquatch, & Doc. Sampson, who after getting their asses kicked by The Champion in a display of his cosmic power, are introduced to alien trainers in order to get them ready for the fight. The training process ends up eliminating two of that group, as Namor refuses to participate, and Doc. Sampson....gets his ass kicked by an alien training machine (poor Doc. Sampson ![(rofl)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/rofl.png) ). Eventually, we get to the main event, which is held at MSG. The various heroes of the world watch in the stands, helpless to do anything, as the ring area is surrounded by an impenetrable shield. One by one, the remaining heroes end up facing The Champion, and one by one they lose. Thor, Hulk, & Wonder Man are DQ'ed for various reasons, and Sasquatch and Colossus end up getting their asses beat (although, Colossus ends up getting some props for hanging in for a little bit). Finally, it comes down to Ben, who does manage to get a few nice shots in, but gets his ass beat in the process. The Champion keeps knocking Ben down, but being the hero he is, he refuses to stay down, rising to take more punishment. Finally, after Three Rounds(!!!), the referee has to call it, as he doubts Ben would survive a Fourth. The Champion, therefore, wins, and is about to declare Earth to be unfit for continued existence, when Ben rises again, stating that The Champion only beat him on a technicality. He states that The Champion would never beat him, because he's too ugly and stupid to stay down, earning The Champion's respect, and saving Earth in the process. Wow! ![:o](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/shocked.png) I mean, what can you say about that? Once again, a finer example of the heroic nature of our rocky hero has rarely been presented. In the next actual issue of MTIO, we see the fall out from this Annual, as Ben suffers the physical fall out from the beating he took, and once again, we get a CRAPton of Guest Stars....and the last effort from the DeFalco/Wilson team. GRADE: A+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Jan 10, 2018 1:58:43 GMT -5
Marvel Two In One # 96"Visiting Hours!"Cover Date: February, 1983 Writer(s): Tom DeFalco Artist: Ron Wilson Feature Character(s): The Thing & (No One, but a LOT of Guest Stars) Villain(s): Beetle, Backlash, Doctor Doom, The Grapplers (Titana, Letha, Screaming Mimi, & Poundcakes), The Hijacker, The Mad Thinker, Mecho Marauder, Melter, Mirage, MODOK, The Mole Man, Moloids, The Rhino, Shellshock, Constrictor, & Dark-Crawler Guest Star/s: Alicia Masters, The Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Girl/Woman, & The Human Torch), Franklin Richards, The Avengers (Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Hawkeye, She-Hulk, The Wasp), The X-Men (Cyclops, Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, Nightcrawler, & Sprite/Kitty Pryde), Ant-Man, Spider-Man, Daredevil, Bill Foster, Celia Jackson, The Hulk, The Sub Mariner, Sasquatch, The Scarlet Witch, The Vision, Wonder Man, & The Sandman Official Plot: Following his battles against both the Shi'ar's Gladiator and the Champion of the Universe, the Thing has been hospitalized for his injuries. There he is visited by his girlfriend Alicia Masters, his teammates in the Fantastic Four, his godson Franklin, and Captain America and Iron Man of the Avengers. As he gripes over not having anything good to watch on television and not being allowed to smoke any cigars, he is also visited by his pal Bill Foster and his girlfriend Celia Jackson. Suddenly the visit is interrupted by Ben's nurse who tells those gathered that visiting hours are over and that her patient needs his rest. As they leave the room, the Invisible Girl asks her husband what he seems so grim about, and Mister Fantastic points out that Ben's admission to the hospital is public knowledge and he fears that one of their many foes may attack him here. Just as Reed expresses these fears, the Mad Thinker is plotting the demise of the Thing from his secret lair. Running data through his computers he has determined that one of the Thing's foes will manage to get into his hospital room, however, there is insufficient data to determine who that person might be, much to his frustration. However, the Mad Thinker is convinced that at least one super-villain will be successful in destroying the Thing. Meanwhile, Spider-Man has gotten some flowers and decides to pay a visit to the Thing at the hospital. His arrival coincides with an attack by the Mecho Marauder. Jamming the villain's weapon systems with his webbing, Spider-Man causes the Marauder's armor to implode and leaving the villain defenseless while Spider-Man webs him up for the authorities. Spider-Man joins the others who have regathered in Ben's room. When the nurse enters she is upset that someone has given Ben a cigar and orders everyone out and confiscates the stogie as well. Not long after this, the villain known as Mirage enters the hospital content he will get past whatever security may stop him thanks to the multiple illusions of himself. However, he does not account for Daredevil being on the scene, who is able to easily detect the real Mirage with his radar sense and knock the villain out. While up in his room, the Thing is unaware of the attack. Trying to catch the baseball game he is upset to hear reports that it has been canceled due to rain. While down below, Doctor Donald Blake has come into the hospital to oversee the Thing's recovery. Coming back from examining x-rays he is a witness as the Mole Man and an army of his Moloids burst through the floor. Tapping his cane twice on the floor causes Blake to transform into Thor, who then uses Mjolnir to summon a storm in the basement of the hospital to drive the Mole Man and his minions back. While Ben fusses over getting his temperature taken, Shellshock attacks the hospital only to be ambushed and knocked out by Ant-Man. The Grapplers also arrive on the scene and try to gain access only to be repelled by Captain America with an assist from the X-Men. When the Hijacker tries to ram the hospital in his massive tank, his vehicle is incapacitated by Iron Man. While the Thing struggles to fight boredom, his condition becomes privy to Doctor Doom in Latveria, and he begins plotting a fitting response to this news. Meanwhile, the waiting room of the hospital is filled with Ben's friends within the super-hero community. The Human Torch then warns everyone that an army of super-villains have amassed and are heading toward the hospital. This leads to a massive brawl between the heroes and those seeking to harm Ben. While back at his hideout the Mad Thinker gloats that that brawl is the distraction that will allow one of the Thing's enemies to slip by and is convinced that his death will soon follow. What the Mad Thinker doesn't realize is that villain is the recently reformed Sandman, who has sneaked into Ben's room to thank him for giving him a second chance and has come to see how he is doing. Seeing that the Sandman has brought a six pack of beer and some cigars, he believes that this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Brodie's ViewWe get a wonderful fall out issue that pays homage to the Reed/Sue Wedding Issue from FANTASTIC FOUR Annual #3, while also being a worthy continuation of The Thing's story, especially coming off of the events of both the recent Annual and FANTASTIC FOUR #249, where Ben ended up getting beat almost to death by the alien Superman, Gladiator. He spends the entire issue in the hospital, bored to tears (and having to deal with a Nazi of a nurse, who won't allow him any fun or amusement ![:D](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/grin.png) ), oblivious to the fact that there is a small army of villains that are trying to take him out. Of course, luckily for Ben, he has a LOT of friends (which allows us even more Super Hero Guest Stars than the last review), and we get to see these heroes take out/fight every villain that tries to take our orange rocked hero out (well, other than Doctor Doom, who displays his strange sense of honor by refusing to attack The Thing in his weakened condition, and...well, one other "villain," but I'll get to that character in a second). This allows for some fun fights we've never really gotten to see, like Spider-Man taking out Avengers annoyance, The Mecho-Marauder, or Captain America and The X-Men taking out The Grapplers. Finally, it breaks down into just a massive battle outside the hospital, as all the heroes fight all the villains. Well, except for one, who manages to sneak into Ben's room. However, things aren't what they seem, as this "villain" is the former super villain who started a face turn about 10 issues ago, and that's The Sandman, who repays Ben's generosity (and the willingness to give him a second chance) by bringing him a pack of brews and his beloved stogies. This ends the issue off in a nice manner, as you can tell that these two characters are quickly becoming friends/allies, as well as furthering the Sandman face turn. There are a few other things to note about this issue. For one, we get to check in on Bill Foster, who dips in with his lady love, Celia Jackson, looking quite a bit healthier than the last time we saw him. This is a nice follow up to the events of about ten issues ago as well, as we hadn't seen Foster since the events during that time. The last thing to note is that this, sadly, is the last DeFalco/Wilson issue ( ![:(](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/sad.png) ), as we'll be dealing with other writers for the last 4 issues of this series. However, they go out on a great note, as this is a really fun issue that is old school Marvel at its best, and Wilson will be back as the artist for a few more issues. Speaking of which, the next issue will be written by a MTIO writer from the past, and will feature Ben teaming up with one of the heroes from this issue, and one of the first characters he teamed with to start this whole MTIO deal to begin with. ![;)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/wink.png) GRADE: A
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Post by Joe Neglia on Jan 10, 2018 2:08:10 GMT -5
One of my favorite issues of all time. Extremely cheesy, but it introduced to me to so many minor characters in the MU for the first time, it has a special place in my memories.
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,858
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Jan 10, 2018 3:23:51 GMT -5
2 in 1 really hit a nice peak right before it ended.
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Jan 10, 2018 3:46:18 GMT -5
2 in 1 really hit a nice peak right before it ended. Other than the David Kraft issues, I'd definitely agree. He wasn't a very good writer at all.
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Jan 10, 2018 23:56:41 GMT -5
Marvel Two In One # 97"Yesterdaze!"Cover Date: March, 1983 Writer(s): David Michelinie Artist: Ron Wilson Feature Character(s): The Thing & Iron Man Villain(s): Ted Silverberg Guest Star/s: Alicia Masters, The Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Girl/Woman, & The Human Torch), Franklin Richards, & Dinosaurs Official Plot: The Thing has agreed to star in a science fiction film called "Mechagrub Meets Goddangit" a film produced by Silver Screen Productions with the proceeds going to the local children's hospital. The Thing is excited about the prospect and tells his teammates in the Fantastic Four and Alicia all about it over breakfast. Reed is suspicious, but after looking over the contract it appears to be legitimate to him. Elsewhere on the set of Silver Screen Productions, producer Ted Silverberg is struggling to finish his latest production "Sump Thing", however, the low budget and clumsy actors are leaving prospects looking grim, even for drive-in fodder. Silverberg recalls how he had a great production going on until it was ruined when the Thing interfered with it, however, he believes that he has a means of making up for it. He has called in inventor Professor Frankheimer who has produced a new Holoflex projector that can project realistic holograms of objects it views from past eras. To demonstrate the device, Frankheimer uses the special projector to make a prehistoric lizard appear on Silverberg's desk. Impressed by the invention, Silverberg agrees to purchase it. Before leaving the professor warns Silverberg not to leave the projector running too long as it might overheat. After the elderly scientist has left, Silverberg explains to his assistant that he intends to use the device to make the Thing look foolish on camera by tricking him into attacking fake threats, and because Ben Grimm signed off on a release form, nothing can stop Silverberg from releasing the damaging footage after the fact. After marveling at his plan, Silverberg notices that the lizard from the projection has disappeared from their vantage point, but dismisses it as nothing important, unaware that the projector has been left on too long and the lizard has been pulled forward in time. The following day the Thing has arrived at the set of Silver Screen Pictures dressed to the nines and acting like a Hollywood star, spooking the security guard from his morning paper. While not far away Iron Man flies onto the set and changed into Tony Stark under the cover of bushes. On his way out he runs into actress Bo Drip who asks him if he is the lead in the film "The Ape Man Gets a Hicky". When Stark tells her he is not Tony is spotted by the Thing. The two are happy to meet each other and Ben learns that Stark is on set because his investors at Stark International suggested he put some money into the production company and he has come to check on his investment. As the two walk off for Ben's make-up call, they are unaware that they are being observed by Silverberg who is looking forward to getting the last laugh against the Thing. After being put through make-up, the Thing is brought to a set designed to resemble Tokyo for his first scene. In order to try and humiliate the Thing, Silverberg uses the Holoflex to summon the images of Dinosaurs. When a scene calls for the Thing to jump on the back of a pterodactyl, he passes through the Holoflex image and smashes through a billboard. He is later tricked into charging a triceratops and ends up crashing into another set piece, a noodle shop, getting covered in noodles in the process. Hearing the producer laughing his head off, the Thing is shocked to find that he has been working for Ted Silverberg the whole time. The Thing is furious to realize that this entire shoot was a set up to make him look bad. When Ben gets into Silverberg's face, Ted reminds him of the contract he signed and that Silverberg has full rights to any footage captured for the production. When the Thing tries to take his frustrations out on a Holoflex generated tyrannosaurus rex, Silverberg, and his assistant are surprised when the Thing's kick actually strike the dinosaur instead of passing harmlessly through it. Quickly they come to the realization that because the camera has been on too long the dinosaurs have been transported to the present and are now running amok across the studio. Hearing the ensuing chaos, Tony Stark slips into a trailer in order to secretly change into Iron Man and lend a hand to the Thing. The two heroes work together to try and contain the rampaging dinosaurs, but they end up wrecking many of the other productions before they realize that the creatures are unacceptable to the cold. Tricking them onto the set of John Carpentry's The Mess, they use the sets snow cannons to freeze the dinosaurs. With the creatures rendered inert, Tony Stark arranges to have the dinosaurs transported to the Savage Land. With his studio in ruins and nothing to show for his revenge, Silverberg is forced to hand over the footage of the Thing to Tony Stark he would consider making everything a tax write off. With no other choice, Silverberg hands over the footage. As Tony and Ben walk away, they destroy the footage, leaving Silverberg to wonder if filmmaker Steven Speilberg ever had days like this. Brodie's ViewWell, we're down to our last four MTIO issues ( ![:(](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/sad.png) ), and it seems that we're just kind of down to fun little one shots, tie ins to other books, and, well, the last issue, which will be a call back to Issue #50. This is kind of a callback to #78, but really is just the last "Ben Goes to Hollywood" issue (and the most fun of the ones we've had so far), which allows for former MTIO regular writer, David Michelinie, to make a ton of in jokes about the popular movies at the time (E.T. & The Thing stand out as particular favorites). Basically, Ben gets an offer to make a small appearance in a movie known as "Mechagrub Meets Goddangit" ( ![(rofl)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/rofl.png) ), which our hero takes as being perhaps the first step to a long term Hollywood career. However, this whole offer is a plan by the director/producer that Ben kind of screwed over back in #78, Ted Silverberg, to make Ben look like a goof as a way of paying him back for ruining the "Monster Man" show he was producing at the time. See, Ted has come into the possession of a hologram projector of sorts, one that can project things from past eras, but little does he know that if the device overheats, then the holograms will become real. This, of course, comes into play later in our story. As Ben arrives on the set, he meets up with our Guest Star this issue, The Invincible Iron Man, who is sans armor at that particular time, as it is revealed that Stark Industries is bankrolling Silverberg's production. Speaking of Silverberg, his plan works for a bit, as Ben does indeed look like a goof, passing through holograms of attacking dinosaurs. However, they soon become real, which brings Tony's alter ego into play, and the two end up having to wrangle the rampaging dinosaurs, finally using Freon cannons (taken from a sci-fi horror film being shot on that set, John Carpentry's THE MESS ![:D](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/grin.png) ) to freeze the dinosaurs to the point where they go into hibernation. Once this is done, Stark makes his return, and blackmails Silverberg into giving him the reel of film depicting Ben looking like a goof, which, of course, they then destroy, leaving Silverberg without his payback or film footage. I would say that Ted tries again to get payback at some point, but this is his last appearance, so, he evidently just chalks it up as a loss at this point. Once again, a pretty fun (and funny) issue that works perfectly for what it was, a little one shot as we move towards The End. In the next issue, we move one more step before that with yet another One Shot that will once again see Ben teaming up with his kinda sorta nephew, Franklin, and once again dealing with (at times) the greatest antagonist of all.....Video Games! ![:o](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/shocked.png) GRADE: A-
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Jan 12, 2018 1:53:21 GMT -5
Marvel Two In One # 98"Vid Wars!"Cover Date: April, 1983 Writer(s): David Michelinie Artist: Ron Wilson Feature Character(s): The Thing & Franklin Richards Villain(s): Gh'runjians Guest Star/s: The Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic & Invisible Girl/Woman), Franklin Richards, K'rithians (Sharilla), & Dr. Giles Neven Official Plot: The Thing is spending time with his godson, Franklin Richards, at a video arcade in Times Square. After the boy has had his fill they head on back to the Baxter Building. There they find a scientist named D.r Giles Neven who is attempting to get an audience with Mister Fantastic but is being denied by security. Ben is curious and learns that the man is trying to show Richards his new video game design in the hopes that Reed might invest in it. Thinking this might be of interest to Franklin, Ben decides to invite the bespectacled scientist into their home. On the elevator ride up, Neven explains that he creates video games to fund his true passion: trying to build a device strong enough to pick up signals that are being sent by a distant galaxy. Setting up his computer in Reed's lab, Neven explains that his latest game creation is a game called "Space Saver". The object of the game is to pilot a "Space Saver" around a maze and destroy alien creatures called Gungy Gobblers. Catching the Thing's interest, Ben asks if he could play the game. When the Thing presses the start button, however, the trio are suddenly teleported away. They are shocked to discover themselves on the alien world of K'rith. They are greeted by a tall green skinned woman named Sharilla who explains that her people -- the K'rithians are under siege from the Gh'unji. Much to their surprise, the K'rith were responsible for beaming the messages to Earth. Having influenced Neven into creating his Space Saver game, they tested him and deemed him to be the greatest of the Space Savers and have asked for him to assist in stopping the massive Gh'unji's before they consume their world. Regardless of the fact that the entire scenario is ridiculous, both the Thing and Franklin agree to help. Piloting one of K'rith ships they engage one of the Gh'unji's but they prove nearly indestructible. Learning that the creature goes to a massive device for some unknown reason, the four travel to its location where the Thing determines that it is some sort of power generator. Fending off the Gh'unji's attack, the Thing manages to destroy the generator and with the Gh'unji now cut off from his energy source he becomes inert and fades away. In the aftermath of the battle, Sharilla offers Giles to stay and be celebrated as a hero, an offer that Neven agrees to. Ben and Franklin are then returned home where they tell Reed and Sue about the entire episode. Reed decides to invest in Neven's game in the hopes the income generated from its sale can be used to finance a fund in Neven's name. Brodie's ViewIt's The Thing vs. Pac Man (or an alien version of the legendary, and at the point this story was written, hugely popular video game character) in this fun little one shot, which has Ben, (Guest Star) Franklin Richards, and a video game designer, transported to the far side of the universe, in order to act out a real life version of the video game the before mentioned designer had created. Most of this has Ben fighting a scary giant Pac Man (and his little Pac Drones, which Ben must defeat in order to face Daddy Pac), which threatens a planet full of pacifist aliens. Luckily, Ben is able to use the help of his kinda sorta nephew, who is a video game nut, in order to finally defeat the Pac creature. The video game designer then decides to stay behind on the alien planet, as the leader, a tall humanoid female, has taken a liking to him. Ben and Franklin come back to Earth, but as we find, our orange hero's live action fighting abilities still hasn't given him the ability to beat 5 year old Franklin at the arcades. ![;)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/wink.png) Once again, this was another fun little one shot, that while not as good as the issue before (and certainly not as good as the two before that), it was pretty cool if one ever had the desire to see The Thing fighting a giant Pac Man creature. It definitely is dated, but it was the attempt to jump on the cool trend of the moment, and hey, it did MUCH more with the concept than #94 did, despite having the cooler cover. Ah well....one more down, and two to go. Our next issue will be a straight up tie in with another book (complete with the issue being written by the writer of that book, who also did a little MTIO stretch early on), and is the one issue missing from my MARVEL ESSENTIALS, which means I'm going to have to go out and actually buy that issue somewhere ![:(](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/sad.png) . Once I get that, I'll do #99's review, and then...the end (well, for MTIO at least) (Double ![:(](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/sad.png) ). GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Jan 18, 2018 3:18:08 GMT -5
(Okay, I've had no luck finding issue #99, at least not without paying $7 for it, which the cheapskate in me just won't allow. So, you're getting a Two for One ( ![;)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/wink.png) ) here, at least as synopsis's go. Only one review, though. Sorry. Marvel Two In One # 99"Ghost Stories for a Rainy Night"Cover Date: May, 1983 Writer(s): Bill Mantlo Artist: Bob Hall Feature Character(s): The Thing & ROM Villain(s): Dire Wraiths, Firefall Armor Guest Star/s: None Official Plot: Late one stormy evening, Ben Grimm is alone in the Baxter Building reading ghost stories when a strange hissing sound begins to spook him. Soon after he goes to investigate, the building loses all power. He manually opens the roof hatch and a comatose Rom falls on top of him. Ben takes the scalding hot Spaceknight to the medical lab where Rom's armor releases energy activating the equipment and reviving him. Rom tells the Thing about what has transpired since they last met and the history of the Firefall armor that the Dire Wraiths have reanimated. He enlists Ben's help in battling the enemy Wraiths while he confronts the Firefall armor. Ben Grimm finds the Wraith horde who attack him with imagery of his nightmares. He is able to mentally overcome the assault and comes out swinging. In the skies above, Rom is reluctantly forced to neutralize the Firefall armor and when he returns to the park is confronted by the Dire Wraiths and the Thing who has been bewitched by them. Ben Grimm then attacks Rom who is once again reluctantly forced to turn his Neutralizer on a friend. To the amazement of all, the neutralizer does not kill the Thing but reverts Ben Grimm to his normal human form. This also broke the Wraith enchantment and Ben and Rom immediately take out the Wraiths. As Ben laments his regained humanity to the incredulity of Rom who wishes to regain his own; Ben begins once again to revert to The Thing. Rom realizes and explains that so powerful are the cosmic rays ingrained in Ben's cells that the Neutralizer was only able to temporarily negate them. Brodie's ViewSo, no review, of course, but I will note a few things. First, the writer, Bill Mantlo, who was the regular writer for ROM at the time, and thus, I guess due to his past stint on the book in its earlier days, was allowed to basically make #99 a straight up tie in to his book, as Ben teams up with ROM to fight his main enemies, The Dire Wraiths. Long time review readers will remember that the Wraiths became somewhat major villains in late 84/early 85, turning up in the X-MEN book for a small arc, as well as an issue of Byrne's FANTASTIC FOUR. Anyways, I guess this issue is, in a small way, setting things up for the future, as Ben references this issue, when confronted with a dying Wraith in that FF issue. ![](http://cdn1us.denofgeek.com/sites/denofgeekus/files/styles/article_width/public/21rom.jpg?itok=IYKFqMpZ) OK....onto the full on review. Marvel Two In One # 100"Aftermath!"Cover Date: June, 1983 Writer(s): John Byrne Artist: Ron Wilson Feature Character(s): The Thing & Ben Grimm (From Earth 7940--an Alternate World/Time Line) Villain(s): The Red Skull (Galactus, Dr. Doom, Mole Man, & Moloids in Flashback)(All from Alternate Time Line) Guest Star/s: The Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic & Invisible Girl/Woman), Alicia Masters (From Alternate Time Line), (Various Heroic Cameos---Various X-Men, Various Avengers, a different Fantastic Four, comprising of the three remaining once that Ben was cured, and replaced by Spider-Man) Official Plot: Mister Fantastic shows Ben the recorded footage of his recent attempt at trying to cure himself wherein he attempted to travel into the past and administer a cure made by Reed on his past self during an earlier stage in his mutation. Reed explains that while he originally believed that Ben created a divergent reality in going into the past, he has found evidence that actually supports that Ben really traveled to the past of a parallel dimension. When Ben doesn't understand, Reed goes over the footage, taking the time to zoom in on the headline of a nearby newspaper box that was visible during the battle between Ben and his "past self". Instead of being the New York Daily Bugle, the newspaper identifies itself as the New Amsterdam Daily Bugle. Soon after explaining the implications caused by this, Reed is then called away by his wife Sue who tells Reed that he needs to spend time with his son. Left to his own devices, Ben decides to check in on his alternate self to see how he has been doing since the Thing cured him. Going to the time platform, Ben programs it to return him to that reality, but in the present day. As he does so he wonders if his previous ventures into the past had no effect on history. Ben then activates the time platform and finds himself in the ruins of New Amsterdam of this alternate world. The moment he arrives he quickly realizes that it is a world that has been ravaged by Galactus. Climbing down the ruins of the Baxter Building and into the decimated city, the Thing is soon attacked by a band of locals, forcing him to fight them off. Suddenly he is met by his alternate self, still in his human form. Promising to tell the Thing everything, Ben Grimm leads him to a camp in a long-abandoned subway tunnel. Ben explains that after he was cured, he decided to quit the Fantastic Four and opened his own bar. The group endured, however, taking on Spider-Man as a member of their team taking on such foes as Doctor Doom and the Mole Man. Then one day Galactus came and the Fantastic Four were the first line of defense but were easily slain by Galactus. The rest of Earth's heroes then tried to stop Galactus, but they too fell under his power. Galactus then fed upon the Earth, draining it of all its resources, leaving it a nearly lifeless husk for the remaining survivors. Ben is about to explain who has been cutting a swath of terror across the Earth since then, but they are interrupted when the subway is invaded by an army of muscle-bound androids. The Thing tries to fight them off, but they overpower him and take him prisoner. When the Thing revives sometime later he finds himself a prisoner of the Red Skull. Meanwhile, Ben Grimm helps the survivors get out of the subway tunnels and convinces them to rise up against the Skull in order to free the Thing. They then head to the Red Skull's headquarters in the ruins of the World Trade Center. En route they are confronted by Nazi soldiers who tell them that they are in a restricted area. Back in the Red Skull's lab, the maniac begins to question the Thing. Ben has realized what's going on: because he cured this world's Ben Grimm, the spat that caused the Torch to temporarily leave the group early on in their career never happened. This, in turn, prevented the Sub-Mariner from being revived and thus Captain America was not revived in this era. When Galactus later consumed the Earth it somehow freed the Skull. Explaining all this to the Red Skull is met with skepticism and the Skull decides that he must torture his prisoner in order to learn the "real truth". Meanwhile, this world's Ben Grimm and his allies have jumped the guards and stolen their weapons and uniforms. With them, they manage to smuggle themselves into the Nazi camp. When Grimm witnesses a blind woman named Alicia Masters getting pushed around, he doesn't care since in this reality they do not have a relationship together and he has more important concerns. When Grimm and his troops launch their surprise attack it distracts the Red Skull long enough for the Thing to break free. The Thing then helps Ben and his comrades defeat the Skull's soldiers and android. When the Red Skull later tries to employ his dust of death on Ben Grimm, the Thing blows it back in the Skull's face, killing him instantly. With the battle over, Ben Grimm thanks the Thing for helping liberate his world and both suspect this will be the last time they will see each other. When the Thing returns to his own reality and reflects on his meeting, he comes to realize that perhaps if he were to be changed back into Ben Grimm he would not have things as good as he's had them since his transformation. Brodie's ViewIn many ways, this issue marks the end of an era. Not just because it's the end of MARVEL TWO IN ONE, although, that is also important. It's what I like to call the end period for what was known as Classic Marvel. I think Jim Shooter decided in 82/early 83, to really modernize the characters, to fit what was happening in the mid 80's, rather than focusing on continuing in the mold Stan, Jack, Steve, and the others cast back in the 60's. For many books, this meant a darkening of both the lead character/s, but also the world they lived in. Of course, this didn't bode well for fun Team Up books like MARVEL TEAM UP and TWO IN ONE, as they most certainly represented that "Classic Style." Actually, a few books from "The Older Era" met their ends in this very month: SPIDER-WOMAN and GHOST RIDER being the two biggest. Anyways, this last issue of MTIO ends up being both a call back to #50, (where Ben traveled back to the past, fought an earlier version of himself, which because it was so early on in his existence as The Thing, Ben was able to cure this other Ben Grimm) and the bridge to what would end up replacing MTIO; a THING solo book. This works well, as the writing/art team (John Byrne, who also was writing the main FF book, and, of course, the MVP of this series, Mr. Ron Wilson) would be the writer/artist team of the THING ongoing for its first 14 issues. Anyways, after doing a bit of research, Reed Richards reveals to Ben that the time Machine Ben used to cure the "Past Ben" was merely sending them to alternate realities, as there were differences in certain things even before Ben traveled back. Once Reed leaves on a date with Sue, Ben goes back to that reality to find it in ruins. He ends up finding the human Ben Grimm, who leads a group of survivors from the "World Ending Event" that had happened. Basically, Galactus had come to that Earth, much in the way he did in "ours," but with no Thing in the FF (and to be fair, no Silver Surfer either), the heroes are unable to stop Galactus from sucking that Earth's life force dry, as well as killing all the other super heroes. Once the Big G left, the pickings were snatched up by a returning Red Skull (this is the point we also reveal that without a Thing, Johnny Storm never stormed off after one of their sparring sessions, and ended up discovering an amnesiac Namor. Thus, Namor never ended up freeing the one person that almost always has The Skull's number, Captain America), which I must add that Wilson does a GREAT job at drawing. Very Kirby-esque. Anyways, Ben, Ben, and the remaining rebels end up taking out The Skull and his army, and our Ben ends up going back on a bitter sweet note, as he realizes that the Ben from that world, in many ways, has a rougher road ahead than he does, even being human. This gives us one last "others have it worse" issues in this run, as well as being....Gulp....the Last Issue. However, they do go out pretty well, as this is a fun little story. Plus, I love Post Apocalyptic stories as well, and this was a solid one. As for my next review, which will come pretty soon. I'm going to do a trade of four stories, but four very special ones. The fourth one will be a repeat if you've been reading these from the beginning, but if you haven't....well, then the next four reviews (or at least the issues themselves) are going to be pretty damn great. GRADE: B+
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,858
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Jan 18, 2018 10:00:20 GMT -5
I think the local comic shop might still have a beat but complete copy of 2 in 1 99 in their dollar bins. Will look on my next trip. Sucks you couldn't find it for cheap. I guess maybe the Rom reboot has raised his profile and prices.
Did you ever read the 36 or so issue Thing solo series that was a sequel to 2 in 1? Bryne wrote it and it is worth grabbing if you find the issues cheap.
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Jan 18, 2018 20:35:53 GMT -5
I think the local comic shop might still have a beat but complete copy of 2 in 1 99 in their dollar bins. Will look on my next trip. Sucks you couldn't find it for cheap. I guess maybe the Rom reboot has raised his profile and prices. Did you ever read the 36 or so issue Thing solo series that was a sequel to 2 in 1? Bryne wrote it and it is worth grabbing if you find the issues cheap. I have read a good chunk of The Thing's solo series. Good stuff. Hate the way it ended, though, especially when the state Ben was in at the end of that series pretty much got No Sold once he went back to the main FF book.
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Jan 19, 2018 1:55:05 GMT -5
So, the next four reviews on here will all be coming from one of my trades. ![](https://d1466nnw0ex81e.cloudfront.net/n_iv/600/921929.jpg) Needless to say, a lot of fun is on the way. These are the four main crossovers Marvel and DC did in a period that lasted from the late 70's until the early 80's. I also will say, once again, that the last story in this trade will be a repeat of an earlier review. You can probably guess which one, but if you don't feel like looking for it, that review will be re-pasted in a few days. For now, let's head back to 1976. Superman Vs. The Amazing Spider-Man"The Battle of the Century!"Cover Date: January, 1976 Writer(s): Gerry Conway Artist: Ross Andru Feature Character(s): Superman & Spider-Man Villain(s): Lex Luthor & Doctor Octopus Guest Star/s: Lois Lane, Mary Jane Watson, Perry White, Morgan Edge, Steve Lombard, Jimmy Olson, & workers from the Daily Bugle (J. Jonah Jameson, Betty Brant, Ned Leads, Robbie Robertson, & Camody) Official Plot: Superman and Spider-Man meet for the first time and must work together to prevent Luthor and Dr. Octopus's nefarious plans for world domination. In Metropolis, Superman has an encounter with a stories-tall robot controlled by Lex Luthor. After a short battle, Lex, in his robot steals a small programming circuit from S.T.A.R. Laboratories and then escapes. After thinking about his fight with Lex, Superman traces the path of the robot to the Metropolis Bay. After locating and entering Lex's underwater lab, Superman and Lex battle again. While Superman is disabled by a red sun-based laser blast to his eyes, Lex places the stolen programming circuit in a tube which is then transported to a hidden location. After he recovers, Superman captures Lex Luthor and has him imprisoned. In New York, Spider-Man comes across a gang, working for Dr. Octopus, burglarizing the Metropolitan Museum. After his ground crew is beaten, Dr. Octopus steps in to fight Spider-Man. After a considerable fight between the two, Spider-Man is knocked out by a strike from the Flying Octopus. Spider-Man and Ock have a second encounter when Spider-Man's spider-sense detects trouble from a passing blimp. After falling through the blimp's false surface, Spider-Man discovers the Flying Octopus inside. After the fight, an unconscious Dr. Octopus is taken into custody by the police. The villains from these two encounters meet when Lex and Ock wind up in a prison in Deming, New Mexico. The two escape the prison after Lex puts his plan into action. The heroes from those two encounters cross paths at the World News Conference. Clark Kent, Lois Lane, Peter Parker, Mary Jane and their coworkers all attend the conference. It is during a discussion between Lois Lane and Peter Parker that a fake Superman shows up and abducts Lois and Mary Jane. Both Peter and the real Clark Kent are surprised by the abduction and both change to their hero identities. The heroes confront one another and Spider-Man, after receiving a red sun radiation blast from the hidden Lex is able to knock Superman around with very little effort. Even though Spider-Man realizes he's stronger than he used to be he decides his success is due to Superman's overstated reputation. After the radiation wears off and Spider-Man is unable to do anything more than injure himself in his attempt to subdue Superman the two heroes speak and realize they've been tricked. The heroes track the villains first to a warehouse then to a village near Mount Kilimanjaro and finally to a satellite that was used by the Injustice Gang. It is from this satellite that Luthor takes over Comlab--which has an on board high-intensity laser probe--by using the S.T.A.R. programming element he stole. Both heroes are beaten and brought aboard the satellite by Lex and Doc Ock. Luthor reveals he wants to set off a chain reaction weather system as a way to extort 10 billion dollars from the U.S. government. After a brawl between the four, Superman leaves to battle the tidal wave created by Luthor while Spider-Man remains on the satellite to fight the two villains. After Ock understands Luthor's plan will destroy the planet he destroys a control panel. With his use of superspeed, Superman is able to counter the energy of the tidal wave and prevents it from destroying the coastline. Each hero carries off his villain to a prison. Brodie's ViewSo here it is. The first major team up between Marvel and DC characters, and make no mistake, this was a huge deal at the time. The two companies had previously worked together to co-published an oversized "Treasury Edition" (which is also what this is considered, as it, too, was oversized) of the Wizard of Oz, which was a huge success, and obviously paved the way for this story. Even with that being said, though, I imagine there was quite a bit of arguing on this behind the scenes over how this would play out, as neither company wanted their character/s looking bad. The result, written by long time Spidey writer, Gerry Conway, are about as evenly laid out as a crossover story could be, even ending the main character/conflict introductions with little one page character bios from the major players of the story. The art work, rendered in that big bombastic style that was perfect for a story like this, by another legend in Ross Andru, was also a great decision, as Ross was able to mix the artistic styles of classic Marvel and classic DC (well, 70's style of both) pretty flawlessly. We also get a nice cross section of both Spidey's and Supes' supporting cast showing up, with the kidnapping of each hero's "main squeeze" (Lois Lane and Mary Jane Watson, respectively) playing the event that kicks the first meeting/confrontation of our heroes into high gear. It's interesting to note that while Peter Parker is, as ever, employed as a photographer of the Daily Bugle (although, not for a little while in this story, as he quits about mid way through the book, only to be rehired back at the end), Clark Kent was a reporter for a television station at this point in the 70's. The supporting cast for both characters, at least work wise, also show up. The main story has Lex Luthor and Doc Ock becoming partners, and taking control of a satellite, using it to make the weather go crazy on Earth. They also kidnap Lois Lane and Mary Jane, hoping to draw each's arch nemesis into the fray, so they could destroy them once and for all. They use trickery to steer our heroes towards attacking other, which they do, with Spidey secretly being given a blast of red sun radiation, which makes him be able to thump Superman at first. Eventually, though, and luckily for Spidey, right after the radiation wears off, the heroes are able to figure out that the other is on the up and up, and they decide to team up to take down the baddies. This leads them various places, which allows the two heroes to shine at what they do best (plus banter), but eventually leads to the former Injustice Gang satellite, which Luthor and Ock have commandeered for their own usages. The heroes are captured, but quickly break lose, fighting the bad guys on the satellite. Luthor tries to use the captured satellite to destroy most of Earth, but Doc Ock is the one who actually stops him, as he realizes that any wealth or power he would gain by doing this would be useless on a destroyed Earth. This basically ends the issue, as Supes and Spidey take off with their respective villains, ending the issue off as allies. Then we get a nice little epilogue, as we see Peter Parker and Clark Kent meeting the next day, and taking off with their respective ladies to bond, becoming potential friends as well (we see a similar "bonding moment" with Jameson and Morgan Edge (Clark's boss at the time) discussing how worthless their "star" employees (Parker and Kent) are over drinks. Very cool. This was a pretty kick ass little story, which starts this off well. Definitely one worth checking out for fans of both classic Spidey and classic (well, 70's era) Supes. We will jump ahead for our next review, to 1981, as we will see a re-teaming of these two character, but with some new villains (one being the Perfect villain to use for a story like this), and some very cool Guest Stars. GRADE: A
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Jan 20, 2018 1:29:35 GMT -5
Marvel Treasury Series # 28: Superman & Spider-Man"The Heroes and the Holocaust!"Cover Date: July, 1981 Writer(s): Jim Shooter & Marv Wolfman Artist: John Buscema Feature Character(s): Superman & Spider-Man Villain(s): Dr. Doom (& Minions/Robot), The Parasite, Joel McGinnis, Nel, Danny, & Creddick Guest Star/s: Lois Lane, Mary Jane Watson, Perry White, Lana Lang, Morgan Edge, Steve Lombard, Jimmy Olson, workers from the Daily Bugle (J. Jonah Jameson, Glory Grant, & Robbie Robertson), Wonder Woman, & The Hulk Official Plot: The story begins in Manhattan, where Spider-Man foils a bank robbery. Easily dispatching the criminals, his Spider-sense alerts him about a nearby construction site, but unable to determine any immediate danger, he moves on. The reader learns, however, that the site camouflages an elaborate base of the Latverian monarch Doctor Doom, connected with a years-long plot of his known as "Project Omega." Doom initiates Omega by luring the Hulk to Superman's hometown of Metropolis using a special micro-transmitter. Spider-Man's alter-ego of Peter Parker is assigned by The Daily Bugle to cover The Hulk's advance towards Metropolis. Parker arrives in Metropolis just in time to witness the confrontation between Superman and the Hulk. Parker changes into Spider-Man, but is outclassed and unable to help. Battling the Hulk, Superman discovers the beacon and destroys it, calming the Hulk and winning his trust. The Hulk reverts to his Bruce Banner form, but Doom's plan has worked: the damage Hulk caused released the Parasite from a special underground cell. S.T.A.R. Labs takes custody of Banner, hoping to find a cure for his condition. Doom, monitoring everything, still needs Banner for his plan, and now he knows exactly where to find him. Peter Parker goes to work for The Daily Planet while Superman's alter-ego of Clark Kent takes a leave and joins the staff of the Bugle in New York City, each seeking to investigate the crisis from a different end. Superman has realized that the Hulk's rampage was designed to free the Parasite, and reasons that, as Luthor is behind bars, only Dr. Doom could be behind the scheme. Superman visits the monarch of Latveria at its New York embassy, where Doom freely admits he's plotting world domination. Ironically, Superman is sworn to uphold the laws of men, and on Latverian soil, Doom is the law. He even makes an attempt to capture the Man of Steel, but Superman uses the lead-lined everything room of Doom's headquarters to his advantage. When Doom releases some kryptonite, Superman rolls himself in the lead-lining and blocks the lethal radiation. Nonetheless, Doom remains untouchable. While Clark Kent works his mild-mannered charm on the Bugle's cantankerous publisher J. Jonah Jameson, Peter Parker has to deal with Steve Lombard, the jock sportscaster who harassed Kent throughout the 1970s. Soon enough, Parker stumbles onto the Metropolis division of Doom's Project Omega, around the same time as Wonder Woman, who has also been following this case. (Actually Doom planted evidence in order to lure Wonder Woman; her capture is also part of his master plan.) Spider-Man and Wonder Woman fall into fighting under false pretenses, but quickly realize they're on the same side and join forces. Doom captures Wonder Woman before they can accomplish anything, however, while Spider-Man escapes and trails her captors to their destination, finally learning the truth about Project Omega. The Omega installations, positioned all across the world, will go online and emit a particular radiation which will render most forms of fuel useless. Only a special generator — built by Doom, of course — will provide the energy the world needs; he will step in and make himself absolute monarch. In exchange for making him Doom's privileged enforcer, Doom enhances the Parasite's abilities with the absorbed powers of Wonder Woman, the Hulk, and Superman. The Parasite likes the idea, but only because he intends to turn on Doom. Of course, he won't get that chance; Doom knows that all that power will burn out the Parasite, turning his body into a unique kind of crystal with unique energy-absorbing properties that will allow Doom to use it to control the power of his super-reactor. The story comes to a climax as our heroes battle the Parasite, Doom and his henchmen, and a giant robot. Fortunately, Doom and the Parasite turn on each other after Parasite absorbs some of Spider-Man's powers during the fight and his spider-sense alerts him to the danger of Doom's plan. Superman and Spider-Man use their respective abilities to foil Doom's plot, Spider-Man using his webbing as an improvised 'lint brush' to 'clean' Superman of the kryptonite dust Doom used to immobilize him, and Superman subsequently taking Doom's gauntlet to knock out the parasite (correctly deducing that Doom would have developed an armour that would prevent the Parasite from absorbing him). They also prevent the accidental world-destroying explosion of Doom's super-reactor after the controls are damaged in the fight; Superman contains the reactor from the inside long enough for Spider-Man to use his spider-sense to find the lever necessary to fully turn the reactor off. The Hulk wanders off when the stasis tube in which he was imprisoned cracks, while the Parasite is recaptured and Wonder Woman released after the crisis is over. Doom manages to make it back to the Latverian Embassy, where he enjoys diplomatic immunity, seconds before Superman catches up with him. Brodie's ViewSo, this issue starts kind of a brief back and forth game of creative handball between Marvel and DC during 1981 and 82. This would end up producing our last three reviews, but fell apart before they could get to their next project....Avengers vs. Justice League (as well as a second X-MEN/TEEN TITANS crossover done by the then art/writing team of Marv Wolfman (who also co-writes this issue) and George Perez). The Avengers/JLA crossover wouldn't happen for another twenty or so years. Anyways, getting back to THIS issue, which is re-teaming of each company's "Top Guy," Superman and The Amazing Spider-Man. This one would pretty much be Marvel produced, with then Editor in Chief Jim Shooter taking on the main writing duties. I'm assuming Wolfman was there to make sure the DC part of things got their moments in the sun. He/they shouldn't have worried, as Shooter's story, if anything, makes Spidey look like kind of a loser for most of the issue, only giving him "The Big Save" at the end. I suppose Shooter kind of did this to win DC's trust, as trying to play in any kind of way that Superman and Spider-Man were equals, as the first Team Up most definitely tried to do, was probably going to lead to more headaches than collaboration, and you can definitely tell that this is a Shooter written issue. I mean that both in a Good and Bad way. I will say that one great thing that Shooter's love of certain characters gives us is Dr. Doom (the main Marvel villain) as a Superman villain. The one thing I will say that absolutely works about this story is making one wish Doctor Doom could somehow become a regular Supes villain, as the two characters are custom made for each other. Doom uses Superman's strict adherence to the law to escape capture twice, and there was nothing Superman (or Spidey later) to do but pout about it. ![:D](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/grin.png) Anyways, the other major villain, DC's Parasite, is really kind of more of a plot device than an important villain, as Doom secretly plans to overload the energy vampire with the energies of Superman, Wonder Woman, and The Hulk (we'll get to the second two in a minute), which Doom theorizes will overload him/it, causing Parasite to break down into the type of crystal he needs to cool his super reactor (which he's planning to rule the planet with, after taking away their fossil fuels). Nice guy, huh? ![;)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/wink.png) Anyways, betrayal once again happens, which allows our heroes to save the day (by stopping Doom's set into motion Armageddon). That all being said, I want to go briefly into the two extra guest stars for this issue, Wonder Woman and The Hulk. The first makes most of her appearances in the middle of the book, as Spider-Man happens upon her while investigating what he later discovers is part of Doom's underground lair. The two briefly look as if they might fight (egged on by Doom), but Spidey is able to calm the situation. They don't get to do much together, as WW is quickly captured shortly after. The Hulk's appearance is much better, as we get a nice little Supes/Hulk fight early on in the book, as the Man of Steel tries to stop a rampaging Hulk from destroying a huge part of Metropolis. This, and any of the Doom stuff are the highlights of this story. This, as a whole, wasn't as good as the first Supes/Spidey Team Up, but I don't think it could have been under the circumstances this was probably made through. It's pretty cool for what it is. Solid art by John Buscema. Going back to our large green Guest Star, he will be one of the heroes involved in our next review, along with DC's #2 hero (which would certainly change as the 80's wore on) at the time. ![:)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/smiley.png) GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Jan 20, 2018 19:03:51 GMT -5
DC Special Series # 27: Batman vs. The Incredible Hulk"The Monster and the Madman"Cover Date: September, 1981 Writer(s): Len Wein Artist: José Luis García-López Feature Character(s): Batman & The Hulk Villain(s): The Joker (w/ Kennie, Elmo, & Orville), The Shaper of Worlds (with "dream creations" of The Leader, Two Face, The Abomination, The Scarecrow, The Rhino, & Killer Moth), Stoogie, & Sidney Guest Star/s: Alfred Pennyworth, General Ross, Doc. Sampson, & the GCPD (Jim Gordon) Official Plot: Bruce Banner is working at a division of Wayne Research, assisting in the development of a gamma-gun, designed to cure diseases. Banner hopes it may provide a cure for him - from periodically turning into the Hulk. Unfortunately, the Joker has allied himself with a powerful force and he needs to steal the gamma-gun for his grand goal. The Joker's stealing attempt of the gamma-gun causes Banner to transform into the Hulk and the commotion created draws the attention of Batman. Joker takes the chance to convince Hulk that Batman is his enemy and the green brute attacks Batman, who fights back with all his might, to no avail. Batman then uses knockout gas from his Utility Belt and manages to subdue the Hulk, but the Joker has escaped with the gamma-gun while Batman was busy fighting Hulk. A few moments later, the Hulk reverts to Banner and Bruce Wayne arrives at the scene, offering Banner a proper job, supervising the gun's replacement. The Joker then takes the gun on and uses it on the Shaper-of-Worlds, who is losing his ability to absorb the dreams of others, denying himself an outlet for his powers, and potentially driving him insane. He is responsible for the Joker's activities as he has promised the mad clown unlimited power once his powers are restored. However, the gun doesn't work properly and The Shaper tells Joker to get Bruce Banner in order to fix the gun. As Banner works on a Wayne research ship in international waters, an army team appears demanding he accompany them. It turns out they aren't the army, and Banner is not pleased, transforming into the Hulk. As the fake General wishes there was a bigger monster to defeat the Hulk, a monster indeed appears - courtesy of the Shaper. When Hulk is taken to the Shaper, the latter feels his powers returning when Hulk comes close to him and The Shaper realizes that Hulk's radiation can restore his powers. Refusing to fight the Shaper, Hulk decides to leave the place and Shaper commands the Joker to find Hulk and bring him back. Without a clue of the Hulk's whereabouts, Joker decides to contact Batman to help him locate the green monster. Using the Bat-Signal to summon the Dark Knight, Joker and Batman make a temporary truce at the roof of the GCPD Headquarters. After an extensive search for the Hulk across Gotham, they finally find him and at first, Hulk tries to escape, but Batman follows him closely by attaching his Batrope to the Hulk's leg. When Hulk realizes Batman has followed him, he turns violent and attacks Batman, who relies on his speed and reflexes to avoid damage. After all their attempts have failed, Batman and Joker decide to try another approach. Disguised as an old man, Batman convinces Hulk to go with the Joker in a passive manner and a mild Hulk obeys. Joker takes Hulk back to the Shaper, but after learning Joker's true intentions, Batman tries to stop Hulk from going into the warehouse The Shaper is located. The Shaper uses his remaining powers to create illusions of some of Hulk and Batman's enemies and the heroes work together to defeat the illusions. However, the confrontation turns Hulk angry again and he attacks The Shaper with his full force. The impact cures Shaper and restores his abilities. Finally, Shaper decides to leave Earth, but first he grants Joker the omnipotent powers that they agreed upon. With his new powers, Joker is free to shape the world around him at will and there is nothing that can stop him. Batman knows this and he challenges the Joker's newfound power to create everything that was, is and will be. The strain is too much for Joker's mind to handle and the Clown Prince of Crime faints as his powers leave his body. In the aftermath, Joker is locked away for good with his mind still in a catatonic state, but Bruce Banner has lost hope once again of curing himself from his living nightmare. Brodie's ViewOn first look, this looks like the most lopsided "battle," at least as far as having a Marvel vs. DC fight, one could make. I mean, let's be real here; in a straight up fight, the Hulk would tear Batman apart, literally. However, something like this does actually work if there is a good story surrounding the fight, and luckily, this one most certainly delivers. Written by legendary Marvel and DC writer Len Wein, and rendered beautifully by José Luis García-López, this is a great issue that brings the two heroes at their best, while not skimping on the two of them actually fighting. Like the second SUPERMAN/SPIDER-MAN, one villain is kind of given the lion's share of the attention, while the other acts as more of a plot device than equal partner (well, until the end). Luckily, though, the first villain is The Joker, who has more than enough personality to make up for a lack of a Marvel villain to truly "Team" with. For the record, the Marvel villain is a minor Hulk villain (but with major power) known as The Shaper of Worlds, who can make any dream somewhat of a reality. However, the Shaper is losing that ability, causing him to go insane. This sets the story in motion, as he enlists The Joker and his crew to steal an experimental gamma radiation gun from Wayne Tech (where Bruce Banner is secretly working). Needless to say, this all leads to Bruce transforming into his green alter ego, just as Batman shows up. Thinking quick, the Joker is able to trick the Hulk into thinking Batman is his enemy, leading to our advertised fight. I will say that it was cool of DC to make the fight between Bats and the Hulk a believable one, as it's never questioned that The Hulk could destroy Batman. In fact, at one point the Hulk gets Batman in a bear hug, and almost beats Bane in "breaking the Bat-Man" by a decade. However, Batman uses his skills to avoid this, while using his (wonderful) toys, in particular sleeping gas bombs, in order to calm the Hulk and transform him back to being Banner. Later, the Joker has his thugs dress us as the army, in order to kidnap Banner, which once again transforms him back into the Hulk. The Hulk ends up being encased in a huge creature that looks like it could have been cloned from Clayface, and taken to the Shaper, where it is learned that the Hulk's gamma radiation is the one thing that can cure the alien being's madness. However, the Hulk escapes once again, forcing the Joker to have to enlist Batman (who is also looking for the monstrous hero) to try and find him. Eventually, they do, and they manipulate the Hulk into going back to the Shaper. However, Batman realizes too late that the Joker cut a deal with the Shaper, and once the deal has been done, the Shaper comes through with his part of the bargain, giving the Clown Prince of Crime the ability to make his thoughts reality. It's here that Garcia-Lopez's art is at its best, as one could imagine the Joker being able to alter reality to what he wants would end up turning out pretty crazy, and it does. Over a few pages, we see the Joker turning everything into a Alice in Wonderland type scenario, and then on Batman's egging, into more surreal art. Finally, the Joker isn't able to imagine anymore, and the experience ends up breaking him mentally (well, more than he was before), bringing this whole story to a close. This was such a great little crossover that in some ways was better than even the first SUPERMAN/SPIDER-MAN, as it delivered a much better story (with great art), while not selling either of its two heroes short at all. Plus, I love that the Joker was the main villain, as he was the perfect choice for it. Okay, we have one more team up to go, and I will once again tell you that it will be a repeat of a review I did earlier. One involving the two top hip young teams Marvel and DC had at the time, and some pretty heavy hitters, as it relates to the villain side of things. ![:)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/smiley.png) GRADE: A
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Jan 21, 2018 1:57:40 GMT -5
![](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-A5tnxQstEyw/UDZKhUOUQQI/AAAAAAAAKyE/ujR3tJtNKUM/s1600/Cover.jpg) The Uncanny X-Men and The New Teen Titans "Apokolips... Now!"Cover Date: January, 1982 Writer: Chris Claremont Artist: Walt Simonson Team: (X-Men) Storm, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Kitty Pryde/Sprite, and Cyclops (Charles Xaiver) (Teen Titans) Robin, Raven, Starfire, Changeling (Beast Boy), Kid Flash, Wonder Girl, Cyborg Villain/s: Darkseid, Dark Phoenix/The Phoenix Force, Deathstroke (The Terminator), Ravok the Ravager, Parademons Guest Star: Metron Official Plot:The image of their late teammate, Phoenix, appears in dreams to the X-Men, and to Raven of the New Teen Titans, seeming to warn of a coming catastrophe. At the same time, Robin encounters the Terminator working in partnership with one of Darkseid's Para-Demons. When Starfire reveals the history of the Dark Phoenix to her comrades, the Titans investigate the connection between Phoenix and the X-Men. They are mistaken for the mutant heroes by attacking Para-Demons and captured, along with Professor X, by Darkseid, the demonic lord of Apokolips. Meanwhile, the Terminator, sent by Darkseid to gather Phoenix's residual energies from locales where she had expended a great deal of power, is able to defeat and capture the real X-Men. Drawing on their memories of their deceased partner-in-peril, Darkseid is able to use the gathered energies to bring Dark Phoenix back to life, after which he intends to use her power to transform Earth into a second Apokolips. Freed of their bonds with the evil god's departure, the Teen Titans and the X-Men meet for the first time, and discover the abandoned Mobius Chair of Metron of the New Gods, which they use to travel back to New York to fight a return match against the Terminator. They are then attacked in turn by Darkseid and Dark Phoenix, and in the ensuing battle, Raven and Professor X psychically weaken the Phoenix-entity so that she it is forced to possess the body of Cyclops to survive. Reunion with her former lover returns Phoenix's memory of her life as Jean Grey, and she turns on Darkseid in revenge for his having reawakened her from death. In a mammoth explosion, both Darkseid and Dark Phoenix vanish, and Metron regains the Mobius Chair. Brodie's View: Wow, where to start with this one? This would end up being the last in a series of crossovers that Marvel and DC would undertake during the late 70's to 1982, and sadly, it wasn't even due to this. In fact, there was a follow up to this particular crossover planned, with the NEW TEEN TITANS creative team (Marv Wolfman & George Perez) doing the honors, which would have been an awesome follow up indeed. However, due to the pissed off feelings at both companies due to the next intended crossover, The Avengers and the Justice League (which Perez had actually drawn 21 pages to before the plug was pulled ![:'(](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/cry.png) ), any kind of X-Men/Teen Titans follow up would never happen, leaving this as the only meeting between the two teams, but what a meeting it would be. In fact, out of all of the early Marvel/DC crossovers that took place, this is definitely my favorite, as one can tell that Claremont really GETS the characters he's writing, and one never feels like any of the characters are being shortchanged. In short, Darkseid wants the Phoenix Force to use for his own horrendous usage, and he enlists both his various minions and the mercenary, Deathstroke, to capture the X-Men to reform the Phoenix using the memories of all that knew Jean Grey, namely, the X-Men (and Jean Grey's parents). The X-Men kind of get wind of this, as they are tormented by dreams of the Phoenix, as is Raven of the Titans. She warns the other Titans about this possible coming evil, but Starfire already knows of the Phoenix and the death she brings. They figure out that Phoenix was an X-Man, so, they try to investigate, only to come face to face with Professor X (as the rest of the team are gone), whom they take out. They, in turn, are taken out by Darkseid's parademons, who think they are the X-Men (who at that moment are being taken down and captured by Deathstroke), and soon both teams find themselves at the mercy of Darkseid, who uses the memories of the X-Men to revive Dark Phoenix. The villains depart, and the heroes free themselves, and after a bit of bonding, they take off after the bad guys as one force (with the help of Metron's chair, which has been apparently abandoned for them to find). By teaming up, they are able to weaken the Phoenix enough to be forced to possess Cyclops, who then launches her at Darkseid, and after a huge explosion, the heroes are left victorious, and we end with the team watching literal fireworks back on Earth, and it is revealed to us that Metron leaving his chair was no accident, as he ponders that Darkseid has been merged into the wall of Apokolips. What a boffo crossover, as, once again, Claremont definitely showed he was a fan of the DC characters as much as the Marvel ones, and he's able to weave the two company's histories together almost seemingly. Before I did this review, I kind of wondered whether or not they purposely set this crossover before Terra joined the team. I was surprised to find that the unstable character wouldn't join the team until a year or more after this crossover came out, and that the team that was at the time was the Titans depicted here. One does kind of wonder what would have happened, had that follow up came out once Terra had joined the team. The whole Judas Contract thing would have had to have happened there, as I don't see either Xaiver or Wolverine being fooled by Terra's facade. That all being said, this was a KICK ASS crossover that I would definitely put in my Top 5 of the best Marvel/DC crossovers ever done. It really is THAT good, Folks. GRADE: A
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Jan 21, 2018 22:19:09 GMT -5
The Incredible Hulk #331"Inconstant Moon"Cover Date: May, 1987 Writer: Peter David Artist: Todd McFarlane Featured Character(s): The Hulk Villain/s: The Leader (in human form) Guest Star: Rick Jones (in a Hulk form), Betty Banner, Clay Quartermain, Hulkbusters (John LaRoquette, Craig Saunders, Armand Martel, & Hideko Takata), Ramon Morales, & various S.H.I.E.L.D agents Official Plot:Following his battle with the Nevermind, Rick Jones -- in his Hulk form -- has fled Gamma Base and now rages in the night. When the Hulkbusters begin mobilizing to chase after the Hulk, Bruce Banner offers to expose himself to gamma rays and become the Hulk again so that he can help capture his successor. His wife Betty is shocked by this suggestion and tells him that it is an insane idea. Bruce quickly agrees with her, saying that it is indeed a bad idea. They then turn their attentions to the body of Thaddeus Ross, who sacrificed his life to stop the Nevermind. Clay Quartermain decides to call a local morgue in order to deal with the body, fearing reprisals from his handlers at SHIELD. Clay then sends off the Hulkbusters to hunt down the new Hulk, although Armand is disturbed with LaRoquette's obsession with destroying the creature. Quartermain then puts in a call to a local morgue and after some debate, they agree to pick up the body from Gamma Base. The man in charge of the morgue tells his driver to bring their newest employee, Sterns. The driver is upset by this, because Sterns acts strangely. Overhearing this while sweeping, Sterns begins to grin a sinister smile. At that moment, the Hulkbusters are searching for the Hulk in one-man fighter craft. They all check in with Gamma Base and report no sightings yet. At the monitor is Banner, who is once more being pressed by his wife to take some time away from Hulk-hunting so they can have some time alone. When Bruce brings up the idea of willingly transforming himself into the Hulk again, Betty is shocked when she learns that Bruce has done this to himself in the past. Betty is upset to hear that the man who claims that his life as the Hulk was such a nightmare would willingly inflict the transformation upon himself, regardless of the circumstances. Before they can argue about this anymore, the Hulkbusters radio in as they are engaged by the Hulk. The gamma-spawned monster attaches himself to Hideko's ship who uses some fancy flying to shake the Hulk off. In a panic, Bruce accidentally lets slip that this Hulk is really Rick Jones, tipping off LaRoquette. When the morgue technicians arrive at Gamma Base, Bruce returns his attention to his wife who is still mourning the loss of her father. When Bruce tries to console Betty, she angrily tells him to stay away from her. His assurances that things will get better between them are met with skepticism. Seeing the Hulk on a monitor, the man named Sterns believes that it has the power he needs. However, he is soon told by his co-worker to get moving. Sterns complies, but when they get into the ambulance with the cadaver, Sterns bludgeons his co-worker to death with a wrench. With his co-worker dead, Sterns starts up the ambulance and drives off. Meanwhile, in town, Betty Ross' old flame, Ramon, is at the local police station looking for Betty. When he shows her picture, the desk sergeant tells him that she is recently married, Bruce Banner. When the officer asks Ramon who he is to this woman, Ramon says that he is her husband. Back in the middle of the desert, the Hulk continues his battle with his pursuers. During the clash, the Hulk jumps up and rips his hand through LaRoquette's ship and crushes his ankle. The Hulk is then shot loose by Craig and sent crashing to the ground. Refusing to let his colleagues kill the Hulk, Armand tries to incapacitate the Hulk with an electrified net. The Hulk quickly whips the net into Saunder's ship and then allowing the Hulk to hit it as hard as can, sending it flying towards a butte. Saunders manages to bail out, but he is too low to the ground for his parachute to be effective and lands hard. As the Hulk leaps away, Armande convinces LaRoquette to give up the fight and return to base. Meanwhile, Bruce Banner has sneaked off to his secret lab in the desert. Having convinced himself that he needs to become the Hulk again in order to reign in Rick Jones, he uses a Gamma Ray Projector to bombard himself with gamma rays once more. The radiation causes him to transform into the gray Hulk once again. Not wishing to be silenced again, the Hulk smashes the device. Seeing his salvation being destroyed, the man known as Sterns protests the destruction of the device. The Hulk grabs the intruder and demands to know who he is and what he is doing. The man reveals that he is actually the Leader and that he has come to restore his lost powers, promising that if the Hulk helps resetore them, he will assist in curing Rick Jones of the Hulk's curse as well. Brodie's View: Okay, so, I know I'm going to lose at least one reader for a few by doing this next run, but I have the trades for it, so, I'm-a going for it (Sorry Ultimo Gallos). Anyways, the next run we'll be looking at will be the first section of Peter David's ten year plus run on THE INCREDIBLE HULK; specifically the series of issues where he was teamed up with a young artist that would soon go on to become one of the "Rockstar Artists" of the early 1990's, Todd McFarlane. This will mostly deal with the Grey Hulk, who would later (actually RIGHT after my run of reviews will end) go on to be known as Joe Fixit, in his guise as a Vegas strong arm guy. However, in these first few issues, there is another Hulk in play, which I'll get to in a second, but first, it's important to kind of bridge the gap between the point where I last reviewed a HULK comic (#300), and this issue. As we saw in issue #300, the formerly Banner controlled Hulk completely lost his shit, becoming nothing more than a mindless destroying machine. At the end of that issue, Dr. Strange would send him off into a sort of Limbo dimension; a Crossroads of infinite realities. The Hulk would spend a year's worth of issues there having adventures and slowly gaining his intelligence back to the point of at least being the Child-like Hulk that was before Banner gained control. In the issue before he came back to the main Earth (#312), we saw Bruce Banner's childhood, and the various abuses he suffered from an unbalanced father (who killed Bruce's mother). This will become more and more important as we go further into David's run. Anyways, in issue #313, the Hulk would return to Earth due to a mistake made by Alpha Flight (the crossover marked the end of Bill Mantlo's long run on INCREDIBLE, as he would switch places with then ALPHA FLIGHT writer/artist, John Byrne). Byrne's run, while pretty cool, would only last several issues, as a disagreement with management would cause the artist to jump to DC to relaunch SUPERMAN. However, since a lot of the story left overs David inherits were mostly Byrne's (and to be fair, the bridge between Byrne's run and David's, Al Milgrom), I'm going to go into a bit more detail on it. Byrne's run had the Hulk being captured, and then force-ably separated from Banner, physically. Of course, the Hulk, now mindless once again, escapes, and Banner puts together a team of scientists and heavy hitters (known as The Hulkbusters)(and also finally marries his long time love, Betty Ross), to try and capture/kill the monster. Doc Sampson and both teams of Avengers end up battling the Hulk as part of this. Eventually, it is discovered that since Bruce and the Hulk are one in the same, each is breaking down in their own way due to the other's absence. So, to save Banner, he and the Hulk are once again rejoined in a Nutrient Bath, but, of course, things don't go according to plan, and the Hulk, now grey, ends up busting out of the bath. Rick Jones is caught up in that bath, and winds up becoming a Hulk-ed out version of his normal self. The Grey Hulk then transforms back to Banner, seemingly cured. The rest of this I'll get into as we talk about #331. So we start this issue with the Rick Jones Hulk on the run, being pursued by The Hulkbusters (a few of who seem more intent on killing the Jones Hulk, rather than capturing him). Bruce knows that this new Hulk is Rick (and accidentally ends up revealing that mid way through the issue), and offers to purposely transform himself into THE Hulk (with the gamma gun he used to cause his transformations in the early days), in order to capture him. Needless to say, this causes strife between he and Betty, who is pissed that Bruce wants to become the very thing he was recently (and seemingly) cured of being. Of course, she is also recovering from the trauma of her father, General Ross, appearing to die (he was bonded with Zzzax, and gave his life to stop a parasitic creature known as the Nevermind) in the last issue (which was actually Todd's first issue as artist). To make things worse for Bruce and Betty's romantic future, we get the side plot introduced that involves a man named Ramon (no, not Razor Ramon, although, like Razor, this guy does seem to Ooze Machismo), who claims to be Betty's husband ( ![:o](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/shocked.png) ). Speaking of side plots, well, things that start out as side plots, but develop into being part of the story at the end, we are introduced to a sinister man with a plan named Samuel Sterns (who long time HULK readers will recognize as being The Lethal Leader). He ends up following Banner, who, despite Betty's protests, ends up transforming himself into the Grey Hulk. We learn that this Hulk is MUCH smarter than the Childlike Hulk, and much more devious. However, there are certain things he can't do, due to the fact that he will transform back to Banner once the sun comes up, so, he begrudgingly agrees to help the now human Leader. Wow! Talk about setting up a hell of a lot in one's first issue (well, first issue as a regular writer on the book; David did write #328 as a fill in). Not too ambitious, huh? In the next issue, we'll get some explanations, some developments on the plot threads laid down in this issue, and also the trading in of one gamma spawned threat for another. ![:)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/smiley.png) GRADE: B+
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,858
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Jan 22, 2018 13:07:31 GMT -5
Yep never been a Peter David fan. I need to find Gary Groth's speech about David.
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Jan 23, 2018 1:32:02 GMT -5
The Incredible Hulk #332"Dance With The Devil!"Cover Date: June, 1987 Writer: Peter David Artist: Todd McFarlane Featured Character(s): The Hulk Villain/s: The Leader (in human form...mostly) Guest Star: Rick Jones (& in a Hulk form), Betty Banner, Doc Sampson, Clay Quartermain, Hulkbusters (John LaRoquette, Armand Martel, & Hideko Takata), Ramon Morales, & various S.H.I.E.L.D agents Official Plot:After smashing the device that brought his return, the Hulk now has made a deal with the Leader to restore his powers in exchange for curing Rick Jones of his own transformations. The gray-skinned monster begins to rail against the mind of Bruce Banner, trapped inside his consciousness, demanding that the scientist allow the Hulk's access to his knowledge in order to repair the damaged device. Samuel Sterns, formally the Leader, tells the Hulk that his current rage isn't helping their mutual problems. The Hulk grabs Sterns and asks why he should help, considering their past history. Sterns points out that it is because the Hulk has failed to completely submerge his Bruce Banner persona and he plans on helping him achieve it. The Hulk then asks what happened to Sterns to cause him to change back to human form. Samuel tells him that eventually, the gamma radiation that turned him into the Leader began wearing off and so to was his massive intellect changing. Racing against time, the Leader attempts to find a cure to his problem. However, eventually, his intelligence faded to the point where he couldn't figure out how to cure himself and he forgot how to gain access to his secret laboratories. With his powers completely gone, Sterns became a homeless drifter until he decided to travel to the town closest to Gamma Base until he could get Bruce Banner to help him. Now he threatens to force the Hulk to help, which makes the Hulk begin to laugh out loud. Meanwhile, back at Gamma Base, Ramon, Betty Banner's former boyfriend demands to be let in to see her. However, the guard at the gate refuses to let him through even though Ramon claims that he is really Betty's husband. When Ramon tries to pull a switchblade on the soldier, he is easily tossed out. Inside, John LaRoquette has been outfitted in a hover chair after Rick Jones crushed his leg. Still wanting to go into action and stop the Hulk, John is told by his teammates Amand Martel and Hideko Takata that he needs to recover from his injuries. However, John is not willing to listen to them and when Martel tries to restrain John, he pulls a gun and threatens that if they interfere with him again, he will kill them. Martel and Takata then check on Doc Samson who is recovering from injuries sustained while possessed by the Nevermind. They tell him about how LaRoquette is going off to find the Hulk again. Seeing that LaRoquette has become unhinged, Samson pulls himself out of his bed, determined to stop him before it is too late. However, Samson is too late as LaRoquette has convinced on the SHIELD agents on guard to let him leave in a massive highly technological tank. Elsewhere in the desert, Rick Jones is trekking across the desert after his nightime battle with the Hulkbusters. Now in his human form he isn't sure where he is, or where he's going. Recalling what he can of the Hulk's battle, Rick is disturbed that his Hulk persona is starting to become more savage. While at Banner's secret lab, the dawn has saw the return of Bruce Banner, but Bruce is now trapped in the holding cell that he constructed to contain the Hulk so many years ago. Unable to free himself, Bruce assesses the situation from what little he can remember from his time as the Hulk and hopes that Rick Jones comes back and rescues him. However, Bruce's hopes appear to be close to getting dashed as Rick Jones is found by LaRoquette who is willing to kill him in the daylight when he is not the Hulk. As Jones runs for his life, LaRoquette is impeded by the arrival of Doc Samson. Samson easily rips the tanks to shreds, telling John that he will not stand by and watch him kill a harmless young man. As the sun begins to set, Bruce Banner begins to feel the change into the Hulk and tries to struggle against it. Inside his mind, this struggled represents itself as the Hulk absorbing Banner's body into his. The Hulk seeks to gain Banner's knowledge on the gamma ray device. Although Bruce struggles the best that he can, he cannot stop the transformation, nor prevent the Hulk from learning what he knows. He is then freed by Sterns and the two get down to work. While back at Gamma Base, while Doc Samson continues to chastise John LaRoquette, Betty is told that she has a phone call. She thinks that it is her husband Bruce, but instead she is upset to learn that it's actually her ex-boyfriend Ramon. Betty tells him never to call her again and hangs up, but Ramon refuses to accept defeat so easily. Later, in the early hours of the morning, the gray Hulk crosses paths with the Rick Jones green Hulk. The Banner-Hulk instigates a fight in order to lure the Jones-Hulk back to the secret lab. There, Sam Sterns is strapped into the device they have made in preparation for their experiment. The gray Hulk manages to subdue his green counterpart and strap him into the machine. He then activates the gamma device which then begins to transfer the gamma radiation in Rick Jones' body and transfer it over to Sam Sterns. While Rick begins to revert back to human form, Sterns begins to transform back into the Leader, but now in a more hideously than ever before. Before the process can complete itself, the Hulk is caught in some energy feedback and before the device can be turned off the entire lab suddenly explodes. Brodie's View: Some Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes happen in this issue, as, like I said at the end of the last review, we trade in one gamma spawned threat for another by the end of this issue, as Peter David quickly wraps up one of the sillier plot devices Al Milgrom introduced during his brief run (the Rick Jones Hulk). Also, speaking of changes, let's not forget the great scene that depicts how Banner sees his change into the Hulk in dream form, as if he's literally being forced inside the monster (we'll see a lot more of these "mindscape" battles between the Hulk(s) and Banner as David's run goes on). We also see a seismic shift within the Hulkbuster group, particularly with John LaRoquette (I wonder if this name was meant to be a nod towards the actor, who was killing it on NIGHT COURT at this point in time), who has become obsessed with killing the Hulk (as he blames the monster for the accidental death of an ex lover, who happened to also be part of the team)....Any Hulk. This puts him at odds with the more pacifistic members of the Hulkbusters, and starts the slow destruction of that group (and ending off more Byrne/Milgrom plot/character setups). In fact, John takes it to the extreme near the end of the issue, as he goes off in a tank after a now human Rick Jones, hoping to kill him. Luckily, he is stopped by Doc Sampson, who promptly kicks his ass for attempting such a despicable act. Speaking of despicable, we also get the backstory as to how Samuel Sterns lost his gamma amped intelligence, slowly reverting from his classic flat top Leader form into being a regular human again. He agrees to help the Grey Hulk fix the gamma projector, and thus removing the Rick Jones Hulk from the equation, in exchange for transferring that gamma energy into him. This ends up happening at the very end of the issue, but while the whole curing Rick thing works, the gamma energy ends up mutating Sterns in a far different way than his original transformation did. This represents the change and modernization of the Leader character into what I like to call the "Jiffy Pop Head Leader" look, which despite the silly name I gave it, I actually prefer it to the classic look. However, we don't see the transformation finish, as the device ends up exploding, causing the three to be....gasp....buried alive ( ![:o](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/shocked.png) ). Next issue we'll see the fall out from all of that, as well as the continuation of the Betty/Ramon side plot (which we see a bit of this issue as well, as Ramon tries to barge his way into Gamma Base, only to get his ass kicked by the security guard at the front gate....lol. This happens a lot to Ramon over the next few issues). In the end, this was quite a solid follow up issue, as David starts to transition out of the Byrne/Milgrom stuff, and starts to lay the foundation down for his own run (which, I don't think he imagined it would end up being as long as it ended up being, but he obviously knew he would be there for a while, hence, all the building he does in his first 10 issues on the book). GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Jan 24, 2018 0:31:58 GMT -5
The Incredible Hulk #333"Quality of Life"Cover Date: July, 1987 Writer: Peter David Artist: Todd McFarlane Featured Character(s): The Hulk Villain/s: Mike White Guest Star: Rick Jones, Betty Banner, Hideko Takata, Ramon Morales, Blaire White, & various S.H.I.E.L.D agents Official Plot:In a small town, Blaire White is recovering from another beating put onto her by her husband, Mike White, the local sheriff. As he shaves his face while preparing for the work day, Mike justifies the beating and berates his battered wife. Having had enough, Blaire reaches into the night table and pulls out a revolver. She fantasizes about killing him to stop the abuse, but can't bring herself from pulling the trigger. When Mike emerges from the bathroom and sees his wife with the gun in her hand he dares her to take a shot at him. When she chokes under the pressure he beats his wife some more, questioning her on what is going on inside her head. Meanwhile, in the ruins of Bruce Banner's secret lab, the Hulk pulls himself out of the rubble after an experiment to transfer Rick Jone's gamma radiation into the boy of the Leader ended in a massive explosion. Rick has also survived thanks to the fact that the Hulk shielded his body. When Rick comes around he is surprised to discover that it is night time and he hasn't transformed into the Hulk. Rick is thankful to the Hulk, but when he suggests that they repeat the process with him, the Hulk has not interest in being cured and swats Jones aside. The Hulk does not want to be a weakling like Bruce Banner. Now that the Leader seemingly died in the blast, the Hulk has been cheated out of the promise to eliminate Bruce Banner so the Hulk can lived unrestrained. The Hulk then refuses to return to Gamma Base, and warns Rick against crossing paths with him again and leaps off. Rick then hops into the ambulance that has been left on the scene. Inside he finds the body of the bludgeoned morgue technician and that the gurney carrying the body of Thaddeus Ross is now empty. The Hulk lands in a nearby town and with sunrise coming up, he seeks to do something to impede the Banner from trying to find a cure during the daylight hours. Spotting a liquor store, the Hulk breaks in and then begins to drink a massive amount of alcohol until the sun begins to come up. When the transformation into Bruce Banner begins Banner finds himself heavily intoxicated and passes out. He is later found by Mike White and his officers who are shocked by the damage done by this puny man. When Bruce is woken up, he tries to explain himself he is too drunk to articulate himself and he passes out again. Banner is then put under arrest. While back at Gamma Base, Rick Jones returns to to find his ride surrounded by SHIELD agents who are aware that he was the "new" Hulk. When Rick is brought into the facility, he tells Betty that Bruce forced himself to transform into the Hulk in order to cure him. This upsets Betty who is furious of all the neglect and secrets that her husband has been keeping from her. When Rick tries to justify it, Betty storms off while Jones is restrained. As she walks away, Hideko gives Betty a note. It's a message from her ex-lover Ramon who tells her to meet him at Chelsie's Bar at 7 pm that evening. Back in town, Blaire White goes over her photo album and reflects back on her relationship with Mike. She recalls how handsome and strong he was when they first met in high school. Although gentle to all, he refused to be bullied and often defended himself easily thanks to his strong body. She recalls one time when a classmate named Piper tried to get back at Mike by attacking him with a pipe, her future husband managed to disarm his opponent and then used his strength to bend the bar in half. Mike kept the bar as a representation of his great strength. She recalls how they started dating and after high school they got married. After he became sheriff, they tried to have children and discovered that she couldn't carry his child. That's when the abuse started as Mike began taking out his frustrations on his wife. Deciding that she has had enough of the abuse, Blaire decides that it is time to leave and packs a bag. At that moment, Bruce Banner is waking up in a cell with no idea how he got there and feeling hung over. Struggling with his memories, he tries to access those of the Hulk's mind. He begins recalling how the now-powerless Leader sought the Hulk's aid to restore his lost powers. How he intentionally transformed himself into the Hulk. How he now changes into the original gray Hulk and how these transformations now happen every night. He also discovers that the Hulk's persona will overpower him depending on the phase of the moon, and that the Hulk's persona will be strongest during the new moon. Worse, this new version of the Hulk -- more intelligent and more cruel than ever before -- has made it his mission to prevent Bruce Banner from maintaining control ever again. Coming completely out of his stupor, Bruce demands Mike White let her free and get him back to Gamma Base. White refuses to listen and begins antagonising Bruce by slamming the bent bar of his youth against the bars of Bruce's cell. However, this is just as the sun begins to set and Bruce suddenly transforms into the Hulk. Not liking the mockary of this man, the Hulk breaks out of the cell and begins beating on the sheriff. Their fight takes them out into the street where a crowd gathers, including Mike's wife. The townspeople have come to considered the sheriff a bully and begin cheering for the Hulk. However, when the gamma-spawned monster begins gaining the upper hand, Mike's wife tells him to stop, pointing a gun at him. The Hulk sees how Blaire's face is bruised and leaves her husband to him. Blaire goes to her husband and helps him up. Instead of being greatful, Mike begins to berate his wife for humiliating him in front of the whole town. Fed up again, she points her gun at Mike's head. He dares her to pull the trigger, and surprisingly she does and he is killed instantly. In a state of shock, Blaire insists that she didn't mean to shoot her husband, but the Hulk isn't convinced and leaps away. Meanwhile, at Christie's Bar, Ramon is waiting for his rendezvous with Betty. To his surprise she actually shows up. Confused as to the thoughts she has about her father, her husband Bruce, and herself, Betty decides that she needs to feel something like she used to. Ramon tells her that's what he does best. Brodie's View: From the rubble of the events of last issue, a new status quo starts to form. Of course, that's not the main story here; merely the things that are going on around it, but it's the best parts of this issue. The main story involves an abused wife, and her monstrous (in more ways than one, as Todd draws him looking like a brick shithouse) husband, who also happens to be the sheriff of the small town they both live in. This is also the small town Bruce Banner finds himself, after transforming back from being the Grey Hulk. Of course, being that this is the Grey Hulk, who is lot craftier than the classic Green Hulk, he wants to minimize Banner's influence as much as possible (we also find out during a dream/flashback explanation by the "now dead" Sam Sterns/Leader, Banner's influence over the Hulk is based on the sun, and that the more full the moon is, the greater the Banner influence is on the Hulk, and vice versa), so, right before the transformation back to Banner is about to take place, he breaks into a liquor store and drinks enough to leave poor Bruce in a drunken stupor for most of the day ![:D](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/grin.png) . This is how Bruce/The Hulk end up coming into the lives of the White (lol) family, which leads towards the ending of the story, where after the Hulk beats the shit out of Mike White (with his own townspeople cheering the Hulk on), his wife ends up stopping the beating by threatening the Hulk with a gun, which she then "accidentally" uses on her husband after he starts berating her for making him look weak. Thus, allowing the Hulk to prove to Banner that he's no more of a monster than most people. There will be quite a few of these "Who's the real monster?" issues in just this short run we're doing; some good, some...just OK. This is one of the latter examples, as Mike White is portrayed as a bastard in an almost cartoonish fashion, which kind of takes some of the effect David was trying to make with this story away. It's not bad, though, and there are enough interesting things going on around it to keep it from falling into David Kraft territory (well, that could never happen, as Peter David is the level of writer that David Kraft would never be on his best day). For one, we definitely see that the Rick Jones Hulk is no more, which allows Rick to step fully back into the role of the Hulk's begrudging sidekick (actually, he'll have a few sidekicks by the last part of this run). In addition, we also see more development in the whole Betty/Ramon sideplot, which will end up converging with the main story in the next issue. Speaking of next issue, we'll be getting our best issue in this run (so far), as David will be introducing a brand new threat to ole Grey Skin, but one that will end up connecting to the main threat that he has been building since #331. ![:)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/smiley.png) GRADE: B
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Jan 24, 2018 23:49:01 GMT -5
The Incredible Hulk #334"Grave Circumstances"Cover Date: August, 1987 Writer: Peter David Artist: Todd McFarlane Featured Character(s): The Hulk Villain/s: Half Life & The Leader Guest Star: Rick Jones, Betty Banner, Hulkbusters (Hideko Takata, John LaRoquette, Craig Saunders, & Armand Martel), Ramon Morales, Doc Sampson, Clay Quartermain, & various S.H.I.E.L.D agents Official Plot:At Miller Heights Cemetery, a man stands at a grave as a green-skinned corpse pulls itself out of the grave. The mystery man refers to this ghoul as Half-Life, telling him that he was late. Half-Life retorts that being late is what he is good at. Two days later, Bruce Banner has found himself on top of a massive butte in the middle of the desert. Left there by the Hulk in an effort to impede his efforts to try and cure himself. He is spotted by a helicopter and rescued. He is taken to a town 500 miles away from Gamma Base and calls himself in, telling Doc Samson about his attempts to stop the Rick Jones Hulk. He keeps quiet his own reversion back into the Hulk, deciding to keep this a secret until he can use the facilities at Gamma Base to cure himself. As he talks on the phone, he looks at a poster of a bikini-clad woman. He swears that he sees his wife everywhere, little realizing that he is actually looking at a photo of his wife. In another town, Betty Banner is shocked that she spent the entire evening talking to her ex-boyfriend Ramon until 4 am when he fell asleep. Betty realizes that the ability to talk and express her feelings is something that is missing from her marriage with Bruce. However, despite the fact that Ramon has actually proven that he can be there for her, she cannot just abandon Bruce without having a chance to talk to him and make him see sense. While back at Gamma Base, Doc Samson checks in on Hideko Takata and Armand Martel who are examining Rick Jones. They have determined that there are no traces of gamma radiation in his system and that he is cured of his transformations into the Hulk. Even though Rick has a clean bill of health, he also decides to not tell Samson about how Bruce is turning into the Hulk again. Soon, Bruce Banner returns to Gamma Base. There he is told by one of the guards that some guy came claiming that he is Betty's husband. Banner finds this ridiculous, as the only other man who could make that claim is dead. While at the morgue that was assigned to recover the body of Thaddeus Ross reels with the death of one of their employees, a new cadaver is brought in. None are aware that this corpse is actually Half-Life. As everyone on Gamma Base relaxes, Bruce recalls how he blurted out the fact that Rick Jones was the new Hulk when they were hunting him. Bruce secretly wonders if this slip was influenced by the Hulk and wonders how his alter-ego could be influencing his thoughts and actions. He later meets up with Rick, Armande, Hideko, and Clay Quartermain and asks them where Betty might be. He learns from Hideko that she got a message from a man named Ramon to meet him at Christie's Bar in town. He demands to know what is going on and leaves, telling everyone else that he will handle it on his own. However, when Bruce gets to a jeep he finds Rick Jones waiting for him, and he refuses to let Bruce go alone. As the pair take off, Doc Samson checks on LaRoquette and Craig Saudners who are still recovering from their injuries during their last battle against the Rick Jones Hulk. LaRoquette explains that they have had their fill, the Hulkbusters were a failure and once they heal up, they're quitting. Meanwhile, Bruce and Rick have tracked Betty to a sleazy motel. Learning which room she booked into, the go and knock on the door. When Ramon answers it, Bruce shoves him into the room and demands to know where his wife is. Betty tries to intervene, explaining that it's not what it looks like. Ramon then starts beating on Bruce who can just barely defend himself, but Rick steps in and uses the fighting skills he learned from Captain America to incapacitate Ramon. Betty explains that she went to Ramon because Bruce had been neglecting her so much and all she needs it some romance in her life. Bruce decides to finally listen to his wife for once and gets them a room in the hotel so they can have a romantic evening together. At that moment in the morgue, Half-Life emerges and begins his master's scheme. Also at that moment, Rick is in the hotel bar when he notices that it seems as though it's getting darker sooner, the bar tender confirms this explaining that the clocks were turned back for daylights savings the day before. Realising that Bruce doesn't know this, Rick rushes out of the bar to aid his friend. Up in the hotel room, Bruce and Betty spend a tender moment together as the sun sets. Suddenly Bruce changes into the Hulk right before Betty's eyes. When Rick gets up into the room he finds it trashed and Betty injured and begins calling for a doctor. The Hulk meanwhile leaps into the desert where he chastises Banner for allowing himself to change in front of Betty and the harm he caused. He is suddenly confronted by a dune buggy that crashes. From the wreckeage comes Half-Life. Half-Life attacks the Hulk, explaining that he was the a mere school teacher before he was caught in a gamma bomb blast that turned him into a living corpse that feeds off of gamma rays. As the two battle it out, the Hulk is horrified to learn that the gamma bomb that Banner invented years ago may have been the first, but it is certainly not the last. The Hulk then quickly incapacitates Half-Life by ripping him limb from limb and escapes. He retreats back to Banner's secret lab. At dawn, the Hulk reverts back to Bruce Banner who is horrified to learn that his invention is now being used and tested by the United States Army and vows to put a stop to it. Brodie's View: We continue moving towards our new status quo for the book, while introducing a new threat (we'll get to him in a second) for The Hulk in this issue. We also start seeing Peter David (and Todd McFarlane) starting to gear things up, as one can tell that both are getting their bearings, and starting to move towards the kick ass run we get to end this little run (while giving David an awesome base to build off of once it is over). We get both Bruce Banner and Rick Jones returning to Gamma Base; the latter being confirmed to be 100% Hulk free, the other....pretending he still is. Needless to say, it's not a lie that lasts very long, especially after the events of this issue, but it allows for one more fun little gathering of Byrne's Hulkbusters (well, other than the injured LaRoquette and Saunders, but I doubt they would have wanted to be a part of this, even if they were healthy), as it seems that there is no longer a Hulk to bust. This leads to Bruce and Rick going off to find Betty, who is secretly shacking up with sleazebag Ramon. Needless to say, Bruce isn't too happy about this, but Betty reveals that she was drawn to Ramon because he was everything Bruce wasn't....needless to say, passionate. This causes Bruce to try to prove Betty wrong by confronting Ramon, who promptly kicks Bruce's ass ![???](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/huh.png) . Luckily, Bruce has Rick Jones, who was trained to fight by Captain America, watching his back, and Rick ends up whooping Ramon's ass in return. Happy that Bruce at least tried to fight for her, she goes off to make love to our favorite messed up scientist, but during the post sex period, as Bruce is holding Betty, he ends up transforming into the Hulk, injuring her badly (Double ![???](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/huh.png) ). This all leads up back to the main villain of this issue, Half Life, who The Hulk ends up happening upon right after the previously mentioned accidental injury. Half Life is kind of the nightmare scenario of what happened to Bruce Banner, as he was a man that was caught up in a gamma explosion, and assumed dead, buried, activating Half Life's power, absorbing things. He ends up absorbing the things from the various graves he was put in (as he is just a normal decayed corpse in the daytime), turning him into an intelligent gamma zombie, but one that is most dangerous to the Hulk, as he can absorb our Grey hero's gamma energy. This makes the Hulk have to fight Half Life from a distance, or if given no other choice, like he is by the end of this issue, literally dismembering the former teacher to end his threat. Of course, being that Half Life is essentially undead, we know that he'll be back. In fact, as it's revealed who has been secretly pulling Half Life's strings (and that's not really that hard to figure out, given what's happened since the beginning of this run), I can guarantee that he will return. Not in the next issue, though. No, the next issue will be something different than what we've seen so far in this run, both in an artistic (as Todd takes a break for this issue) and literary sense. ![;)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/wink.png) GRADE: A-
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Jan 26, 2018 1:07:20 GMT -5
The Incredible Hulk #335"The Evil That Men Do!"Cover Date: September, 1987 Writer: Peter David Artist: John Ridgeway Featured Character(s): The Hulk Villain/s: The Stalker/Gil Jeffers Guest Star: Adria Wagner Official Plot:A young woman named Adria Wagner wakes up in the middle of the night with the sense that something is in her room. Looking under her bed, she is shocked when a man in a wide-brimmed hat and long finger nails comes out from under her bed. Her shock is turned into utter horror when this man, this stalker, uses his long fingernails to slash her eyes, blinding her. The girl climbs out her bedroom window and attempts to flee down the street. With her pursuer following behind her the girl meekly calls out for help. That's when Adria Wagner bumps into the Hulk. Unable to see what her would-be savior looks like, she begs him to help her from the monster, a request that the Hulk finds somewhat amusing. The Stalker orders the Hulk to stand aside from the woman or face the consequences. While the girl begs the Hulk to help, the Stalker tries to convince the Hulk that as a creature as hideous as he is, they should destroy something so pretty as the Wagner girl. While the Hulk finds the prospect interesting he decides against it. It's at that moment a police car arrives on the scene and interrupts the exchange. The Stalker suddenly vanishes leaving the Hulk to deal with the cops. As Adria runs to their side, the Hulk laughs at the officers threats. He isn't afraid of them hurting him and demonstrates his strength by punching off the top of a fire hydrant. Convinced that he proved himself to the officers, the Hulk leaps off, warning them that they wouldn't like him when he's angry. The following morning gas station attendant Gil Jeffers is filling up a customer's gas tank when he learns about what happened to Adria Wagner. Although he expresses that the news it terrible, his overall persona gives the customer the creeps. While at the hospital, a concerned Bruce Banner is posing as a doctor to learn what he can about Adria's attacker. The only thing he can glean is that the Stalker called her "Addy-Addy", a nickname which the weird gas jockey Gil Jeffers used to call her. When the girl asks how someone could be so evil, Banner tries to explain it to her but his words are not as soothing as she'd hope. Bruce then leaves the hospital before he can be caught by the actual staff. By this time, Gil Jeffers has gotten off work and follows his usual routine: buying a bunch of booze and renting a stack of horror films. He is lost in his thoughts, thinking about how he is a loner and justifying his love to drink and indulge in violent entertainment. The whole time he is unaware that Bruce Banner has been tailing him the whole day and now watches from outside his window. As Gil begins watching a movie based on "Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde" he begins to pass out. As night begins to fall, Banner transforms into the Hulk and witnesses as the Stalker suddenly materializes in the middle of Gil's living room. When the Stalker exits Jeffers house he bumps into the Hulk. Before a fight can break out, the Stalker explains how he terrorizes those he believe are deserving of his wrath. To prove his point, the Stalker convinces the Hulk to take him to a nearby by. There the Stalker points out four men who raped a woman and thanks to their mutual alibies got away with it. The Stalker brags about being able to take all the men at once and the Hulk calls him on his bluff. The Stalker then goes crashing into the bar and attacks the men, maiming them with his long fingernails. He then invites the Hulk in to partake in the killing, the Hulk contemplates this and decides that he will. However, the Hulk is actually turning his rage toward the Stalker himself, having decided that he doesn't like the man. The Stalker is frightened of the Hulk and tries to flee. As he exits the bar police arrive on the scene and the Stalker steals their car. Frantically trying to flee the scene, he cannot avoid the Hulk when he leaps into the path of the squad car. The Stalker bails out at the last minute and then runs back to Gil's house to try and wake up his host. However, Gil is too drunk to wake up and soon the Hulk catches up. With nowhere to run, the Stalker begs for his life, but it's all for naught as the Hulk rams his fist straight through the phantom killer. The following day, Bruce Banner is skulking around the hospital again just as Adria Wagner who is being released from the hospital. She has some small hope after her ordeal: there is a new experimental surgery that may allow doctors to restore at least some of her sight. Overhearing that Gil Jeffers is now in the hospital as well. Banner goes up to visit him and finds that Gil is in a catatonic state, having been consumed by his own evil. Brodie's View: Todd McFarlane takes a break for this issue, as we get a moodier (and superior) take on what Peter David was trying to do a couple of issues before; the "Monster meets a REAL Monster" type of story. Basically the threat this issue is either some sort of evil spirit or some sort of manifestation created from the subconscious of a sociopathic young adult known only as The Stalker. The issue starts with this Stalker attacking and blinding an innocent girl, who ends up running into The Hulk while running away from this being. The Stalker, perhaps sensing a kindred monstrous soul in the Hulk, tries to recruit our Grey hero into joining him in killing people, but the Hulk passes. Later, the Stalker tries again, but this time the Hulk ends up attacking him, and as the tide is turned, the Stalker ends up on the run from the Hulk, who ends up putting an end to the specter-like creature. Of course, I'm sure the Hulk would defend his actions by saying he hated competition, but deep down, we see that despite trying to deny that part of himself, there is still very much heroism in even this more devious Hulk. This was a pretty cool little side issue, that while not being as great as last issue was, was definitely a better example of a "Who's the REAL monster?" type of issue than what we saw in #333. Perhaps the difference maker was the art work, that definitely fit this type of story more than Todd's art work would have. Anyways, it was pretty effective. The next few issues will see the Hulk dealing with various mutants; both in single and group form. The next few issues, in particular, will have Ole' Greyskin kickin' it with the X-Factor (sorry, had to make that joke). Of course, these next two issues will also finish one of the major plot points of the Byrne/Milgrom runs once and for all, and send the book into the status quo that we'll keep until the end of this run. GRADE: B+
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