Back-Issue Review: Marvel Two-in-One #78 (1981)

Now, my affection for silly old Marvel comics is well-established. But this one was really straining my interest. Wonder Man is dressing up as Monster Man to star in a terrible TV show. The thing is, Monster Man is basically the Thing with much worse dialogue and villains.

There are a few moments of concern, I suppose, but not many. Tom DeFalco and David Michelinie just joking around. I mean, the plot kicks off because Thing goes to complain about Wonder Man, his poker buddy, doing him wrong like this. That’s a pretty random plot! One of the most interesting bits during the inevitable battle is that Wonder Man is ranked MUCH higher than Thing in the power department. Thing can barely lift Wondy’s workout equipment! I knew Wonder Man was tough, but not that tough.

So cool guest star. Nice battle. Fun art by the ever capable Ron Wilson. (Seriously, it’s amazing how well Wilson can handle a different hero each month. They are Marvel Handbook-worthy in their adherence to design.) No, there are three words that make this comic better than average. SPOILERS:

Xemnu. The. Titan.

Is there a more ridiculous villain in the Marvel U? This guy wants to kidnap Earthlings to repopulate his planet. Does he just want it full of beings? Is he going to marry an Earth gal? And his plan is to make bad TV shows to brainwash humanity??? Heck, based on Reality TV, perhaps Xemnu has already won!

Good

Fantastic Four Annual #33

I’m sort of torn on this one. I absolutely love Alan Davis’ work, both writing and drawing. I also have read just about every Clandestine book that he’s done (I quit the ongoing when he left.) So this was an easy sell for me. But that said, as someone who has read a lot of Clandestine, I was having a hard time remembering who all these guys are. It’s just been too long! I’ve been reading comics for decades, I hate to say it, but sometimes those little recap pages are a big help!

I remember the lady with liquid metal powers, the patriarch of the family, the blue guy and the enhanced senses guy. I even remember Cuckoo, the magician. But I’m fuzzy on Vincent, and I don’t remember those two ghosts at all. Unfortunately, those three are the biggest players in the story!

And this is barely a Fantastic Four comic. I mean, Davis has the Thing and the Torch’s voices down, they are perfectly in character. But they’re little more than observers going on a tour of the Clandestine back-story. I’m not complaining, but I could see how someone looking for a FF story would be disappointed.

Davis’ Dr. Strange makes me miss the “real” version of the character. Davis does an amazing job with Strange’s intricate costume and powers. Stories like this that take place outside the “modern” storyline really makes me appreciate the timeless looks of most characters. No need for constant references to Civil War or AvX, just give us some solid adventure!

I’m sure this will all make more sense as the story continues, and of course, I’ll be getting the next annuals too. I look forward to Davis giving us timeless versions of DD and Wolverine in the next chapters!

Good (boosted by that wonderful art!)

AvX Vs #3

Wow, Colossus is really racking up the wins, isn’t he? I do find it interesting that we’re only on issue three, but Colossus and Thing are already making their second appearance in this title. I wonder why we didn’t get Colossus vs. Red Hulk? I don’t figure these wins even count for Piotr since he’s amped by Juggernaut’s powers. There’s a ready made excuse anyway, so why not pit him against Red Hulk? This first chapter is written by Jeph Loeb, I would have though he’d want more than two pages with Rulk.

Jeph Loeb does a great job with Thing’s dialogue, the constant alternating between smack-talk and concern is amusing. Colossus doesn’t say much during the battle, and his overriding thought seems to be concern at his Cyttorak-related powers. Makes sense, I suppose, but it’s hard not to root for the Thing when the fight is set up like this.

Ed McGuinness does a fantastic job with the fight. This is his arena, huge dudes beating the crap out of each other. The fight has some classic punches and the smaller panels are full of detailed battling too. This truly looks like a comic book brawl, so I loved it.

The second match features an odd pairing. Black Widow vs. Magik. Chris Yost has worked on both the Avengers and the X-Men, but I really would have thought that Black Widow would run away with the fight. It is a neat coincidence that they are both Russian. There’s not time to really play on that history with anything more than dialogue, but Yost at least touches on it.

Power-wise, Magik is an easy win, but popularity and fame clearly go to the Widow these days. Widow holds her own, but Magik must be getting some kind of push from the X-office. First she’s one of the Phoenix Five, now this. Interesting.

Terry Dodson draws great ladies, so of course the pencils here are wonderful. I like his Black Widow a bit more than Magik, but that might be due to my own character preference. Widow’s face is particularly great in that soul-sword scene (the dialogue is pretty amusing too).

Good

Comics on the Bubble: New Avengers #9-16

I passed on these when they first shipped because I was tired of Bendis’ style. I’m also not a huge Mike Deodato fan; he’s good, but not my favorite. Then my store had a dollar sale, and I figured why not catch up.


Bendis falls into all of his old traps (you would not believe how many scenes take place with the New Avengers sitting around their kitchen table). Bendis also gives all his characters that one Bendis-voice that he always does. I do appreciate his use of Superia as the main villain, though, and I love that Cage and some of the other Avengers constantly make mention of how hot she is. And of course, Bendis is still writing Hawkeye like he’s a blood thirsty fool; Hawkeye repeatedly threatens to kill people.

I’m also amazed that Squirrel Girl gets as much panel time as she does. She’s a fun character, and while I don’t like the tone her dialogue seems to carry, I do like seeing her give Wolverine a run for his money.

Daredevil joins up in the last issue of this run, and he does fit in nicely. Spider-Man spends so much time complaining, DD won’t even be the biggest downer on the team! It does annoy me that every single hero in NY is an Avenger, though. DD was sort of the last hold out.

I was not a fan of the flashback arc with Howard Chaykin’s ‘50’s Avengers. It seems like an unnecessary retcon and I think it weakens the original Agents of Atlas origin. I am pleased that Mockingbird got some powers out of this arc!

Issues 9-13 – Mockingbird’s shooting, team slowly takes on Superia – Keep
I
sues 14-16 – Fear Itself. Fantastic covers, Squirrel Girl feature, DD joins. Keep

AvX #1

Look at that logo. Is it me, or does this look an awful lot like the main Avengers vs. X-Men title? No, I don’t think this will get confusing at all.


I grudgingly paid out my $3.99 for this one. I thought I’d get a free digital download, but no such luck. In fact, that would have made me pass this book buy except for one problem. I love fights. I love comic book stories, of course, but I still love what brought me to the table when I was 8 years old. Big dudes and ladies smacking the hell out of each other.

And this book delivers. The first chapter features Iron Man vs. Magneto, and thanks to Stark’s genius, the fight lasts longer than you might expect. Shellhead exhibits some fantastic new powers and abilities; the most powerful is tapping into the “planetary power” of Jupiter. Magneto pulls off the same trick, though, so fair is fair. I would have thought this one would end differently than it did, but I’m still satisfied. Jason Aaron does a nice job giving us a clean win. Adam Kubert’s art is fantastic, especially his Magneto. His Iron Man is well done, but Magneto looks regal, powerful, and classic.

The second story features the Immonens putting Namor and Thing through the wringer. Again, the fight didn’t end at all the way I’d expect. Namor, underwater, vs. the Thing. Seems sort of simple, doesn’t it? Kathryn Immonen does a nice job with the banter, especially coming from the more comical Ben Grimm. I also appreciate that the ending is a bit less… final than the one in the first fight. The Thing is walking away, but Namor has already recovered. I think there may be a round 2! Stuart Immonen remains possibly my favorite artist. The heroes look great, the undersea monsters look great, and the backgrounds look great. Couldn’t ask for more.

What an idea, giving top-name artists top-tier characters to knock around. What a treat.

Excellent

AvX #2

Wow. Jason Aaron loves laying out the cheese in this one. This is chock-full of panels, trying to set up the X-Men/Avenger conflicts as something out of legend. Sometimes the captions work (like keeping count of concussions in the conflict) but some don’t (like constantly pointing out how far away punches are audible). I really want to like this story.

Everyone online says the story is review-proof, and it really is. If you want to see the biggest names in the Marvel U fight each other, and I assume you do, then this book delivers! There are tons of great fights in this issue.

• Red Hulk vs. Colossus
• Iron Man vs. White Queen
• Quicksilver vs. Magneto
• Black Panther vs. Storm
• Cage & Thing vs. Namor (underwater)
• And best of all: Captain America vs. Cyclops.

The problem is that many of the best X-Men are not here. Rogue, Iceman, Gambit, Cannonball, and more are all off at the Westchester academy, and if they don’t show up, the battles are going to seem awfully one-sided. Warpath and Magik just don’t carry the same street cred as Angel or Deadpool.

Let’s face it, Wolverine needs to be with the X-Men here, they need the power to stay competitive. I’m still holding out hope that those guys show up here soon. The other place where the story is lacking is in the actual conflict. The X-Men and Cyclops just don’t have a leg to stand on. Cap is being reasonable, and he’s trying to protect everyone on Earth. I understand Cyclops bristling at turning Hope over, but clearly that’s the correct and moral choice. I hope the writers can come up with some way to muddy the waters soon.

John Romita Jr. turns in another solid effort. There are some very odd panels (Red Hulk’s back-of-head punch to Colossus for one) and choices, but nothing too distracting. I also get the impression that JRJR likes drawing Spidey and Wolverine more than the other characters who show up in this comic.

I’m curious if Scarlet Witch is going to appear in the mini-series or in a tie-in. I do think that was her hanging out with Quicksilver for a moment. I’m still enjoying this, because I like seeing top names fight each other. But I’m going to need a bit more plot soon, or this is going to feel mighty long at 8 issues or whatever it is. For now, the fights are enough for a rating of

Good

Fantastic Four by Jonathan Hickman TPB 2

Jonathan Hickman has a problem. He actually has so many ideas for the Fantastic Four that there aren't enough pages to address all the details he comes up with for each story. For most of the stories in this trade, there is an iPad-like note page of additional information to wrap up or expand on the story in the main pages. This comes dangerously close to a post-script resolution, one of my big movie pet peeves, but the actual art closes the story effectively without those note pages. They're essentially a nice bonus.

This trade tells FF stories like they were meant to be. The team travels all over the Earth exploring mad ideas, mostly with ties to established Marvel events or characters. A sunken city of the High Evolutionary. A hidden sea with a different kingdom of Atlantis. An uprising in the Negative Zone after the Annihilation Wave. And a spaceship city inhabited by the Inhumans of other planets in the Marvel U. These are awesome, detailed ideas that really show off how well the FF work together. But Hickman gets the other parts too, there is some great character stuff for the Thing and Human Torch in particular.

Dale Eaglesham's work is awesome. It is detailed and classic looking. This really is a team of beautiful people; it must be hard for the Thing to hang around in the Baxter Building.

Excellent

Marvel Two-In-One #63-66: The Serpent Crown Affair

Time for another ringer, as I was certain before I cracked open the first issue that I'd love Mark Gruenwald's Serpent Crown story. What surprised me was how much I liked Stingray. The guy is a classic part-time hero, constantly worrying about how he measures up to the Thing and the other heroes, but never giving up. Stingray is the one who brings the Thing out West where they discover the crown, so he's about as central as Ben Grimm to this story. He's a likeable dude, and combined with his sweet costume, I could see Stingray becoming a new fave of mine.

Triton from the Inhumans shows up briefly for some fun underwater combat as the heroes take on the Serpent Squad (who later morph into Gruenwald's Serpent Society). The Serpents are Sidewinder, Anaconda, Death Adder, and Black Mamba. I was impressed at how involved Sidewinder was in the fight, I remember him being more an administrator than a combatant.

When things get serious and the Serpent Crown finds a new host in the CEO of Roxxon, Thing and Stingray get some powerful help from the Scarlet Witch. I'm not familiar with the original crown's history, but I guess Scarlet Witch has some ties that make her pretty effective against it. Gruenwald is already showing some of his future leanings; the Serpent Crown wants to take over Washington so it can control the government. Gruenwald has the Viper do the same thing later in one of my favorite stories: The Greatest Snake of All, where Ronald Reagan becomes a snake-man.

George Perez and Jerry Bingham draw the three issues, so of course they look fantastic. I love seeing Perez spend so many panels drawing scrubs like Stingray and Titan. He's such an icon now, I love seeing his dynamic style on all these C-listers!

Good

Comics on the Bubble: The Project Pegasus Saga

Originally taking place in Marvel Two-In-One #53-58, this story has been talked about a lot and reprinted in a couple places over the year. I'm calling this an "on the bubble" title, but that's kind of a fake out. While I've never read it, and I would have dumped it if it was bad, with these characters and this creative team, there is about no way that could happen. Mark Gruenwald wrote this with pencils by John Byrne and George Perez, how could that miss?

Issue 53: A team-up with Quasar, Thing joins the Project's security team. Things are going strangely as a long-time Two-In-One villain (Dr. Lightner) is up to no good. KEEP

Issue 54: The cover this is a team-up with Deathlok, but really it has Quasar and Thing teaming up to take out the futuristic cyborg. I'm surprised at what an earnest doofball Quasar is in these issues. KEEP

Issue 55: Bill Foster Giant-Man! This guy should be a bigger deal than he is. He's a great, long-time character with ties all over the Marvel U. He works with the Thing to take on Nuklo, the child-like mutant kept at the Project. KEEP

Issue 56: Thundra is one tough lady. She knocks the Thing around for this whole issue. The best part is, she's doing wrestling moves on the guy! The high point has to be all those lady grapplers, including Screaming Mimi/Songbird. KEEP

Issue 57: Wundarr is the childlike-alien befriended by the Thing, he's the reason Ben Grimm has stuck around Project Pegasus. While Wundarr gets his new mindset together, Quasar, Thing, and Giant-Man take on Solarr and Klaw. KEEP

Issue 58: I love when the team-up books just stick with the same characters. Gruenwald pulls that off here by giving Wundarr a new name; Aquarian. He's a hippy out to save the world, but first he and Thundra have to join the Pegasus security team in taking out Dr. Lightner/the Nth Man. KEEP

Man, this would have been a cool team to see more of. The Thing, Quasar, Giant-Man, Thundra, and Wundarr. This story lives up to its excellent Bronze Age Classic reputation. I'm KEEPing all of them.

New Avengers #5

In an issue filled with talking about sorcery, my big problem concerns Hawkeye. First of all, Hawk has normal human strength, so have a car on top of him would really hurt, I'm not sure he could just flip it off as he does when he first appears here. My bigger problem is what he does to the team right after joining them; he leaves! He says he's needed on the other Avengers team, and that he only hung around for four issues to be with his wife. What? And yet Spider-Man and Wolverine calmly state that they won't leave, even though they are on the other team too. Is there some popularity limit where heroes can handle being in multiple books? I can appreciate Bendis wanting to define the cast of New Avengers, but there is no excuse for making Hawkeye out to be a selfish and non-dedicated Avenger.

The bulk of the issue deals with the New Avengers trying to figure out who is after the Eye of Agamatto. I'm a bit confused on just who is sending the light monsters, or how they're doing it. The motivations for the big bad have been twisted up so many times that I'm a bit confused at this point. Perhaps I'm reading too many comics, but I'm fuzzy on just who the bad guy is now. It's actually Agamatto, right?

Bendis excels where he usually does, in the dialogue. The Thing is great as he clarifies his stance on bad guys as "the guys he hits," and Spidey always sounds great when Bendis uses him. Luke Cage has faded into the background a tad, but that's ok, Iron Fist is doing well in the spotlight. The magic sub-team works well together, Daimon Hellstrom and Strange are old faves, but I'm pleased at how well Doctor Voodoo works as the Sorcerer Supreme.

This book is just too slow, though. While Stuart Immonen's art is beautiful, there are too many dialogue-less pages and unnecessary splash pages. This is just not worth 3.99. I'm bailing on the series in floppy format after next issue and switching to trades.

Fair (pushed up for the gorgeous art)

Marvel Two-In-One #52

Man, the Thing can be a real jerk! Steven Grant writes one grumpy Thing in this book. Moon Knight shows up and repeatedly tries to help out the rocky guy, but Thing is having none of it. He just puts MK down and makes fun of him, even when he's actually making a difference in the fight!

I'm really starting to like Crossfire, he's such a jerk with an axe to grind. He essentially views all heroes the way the Trasks view mutants; the only good ones are dead. He plays around with more mind-control attacks in this issue, only Moonie's previous experience gets the heroes out with a win. Good stuff, but I'm not sure why anyone would ever team up with the orange grump.

Jim Craig's pencils are nice and clean, and I love his take on the old Moon Knight suit. It really is a dynamic costume, I'm surprised MK never became more popular. He works so well in his own low-level stories AND in big super hero action like this. Marvel's Batman should be in cooler stories!

Good

Marvel Two-In-One #51 (1979)

Is this the first time we saw Ben Grimm get a group together for poker? Probably not, since Peter Gillis' script calls for a bunch of new folks filling in for the Thing's normal buddies.

What's interesting is how great this little group works together. Ms. Marvel wins the poker game and more than holds her own in the fighting. Wonder Man gets his props when he's actually compared to Thor in power level. Beast works best as comic relief, his normal role during his Avengers membership. Fury does what he always does, and is gruff and grumpy while drafting heroes into helping him.

The villain in this is a rogue army unit that steals an enormous flying battlestation, leading to a nice aerial battle with the helicarrier. This story would be a six-part mini these days, but back in the 70's, this is just one issue of Marvel Two-In-One.

Frank Miller's artwork is unrecognizable. It's crisp, clean, and on-model. I love it! Now, Bob McLeod, one of my favorites, handles the inks, but I think I prefer the old Miller to the current, more stylized artist.

Good

Marvel Two-In-One #47 & 48

Man, I love Bill Mantlo. The guy came up with the craziest, silliest ideas, but they are always buried in solidly entertaining comics featuring great fights and guest-stars.

Let me explain Machinesmith's plan for these two issues. First, he takes over a gang of mobsters (their leader is named Mr. Carnation), the purpose? He needs them to capture the Yancy Street Gang and force them to build an army of robots. Machinesmith is counting on them contacting the Thing, who will ride to the rescue. Machinesmith's perfectly designed robots will then defeat the Thing. This portion of the plan goes off without a hitch in issue #47.

In #48, Machinesmith places the Thing under his mental control, and forces the Thing to smash the robots to prove the Thing's power. 'Smith wants to have the Thing kill the Fantastic Four, but first he's going to use the Thing to eliminate another problem; Jack of Hearts. Jack walks into an ambush, confident in his crazy costume and abilities, and he actually takes out the mind-controlled Thing. Luckily, his full force blast to Thing's face also destroyed the Machinesmith's mind-control device, just as the Yancy Street Gang busts loose. The heroes arrive to take out 'Smith, only to find out that he was a robot, the real guy is nowhere close. (I love those villains that ALWAYS seem to get away, Taskmaster is another guy like this). It's such a ridiculous, convoluted plan, but by following it, Mantlo set up some great set-pieces and a pair of cool team-ups. I know it isn't fashionable, but I'd kill for a solid team-up book like this; it's a pity Robert Kirkman's attempt at a new Marvel Team-Up didn't work.

Chic Stone's art is classic and fun. Jack of Hearts looks awesome; the guy has 4 colors on his uniform and his energy blasts are a fifth (pink). I love Marvel 70's characters. I also dig how the Yancy Street Gang's faces are constantly shrouded in shadow.

Good

Hulk & the Thing: Big Change OGN

This is the same size as some of the other Marvel Graphic Novels, and I guess in some places it is listed as MGN #29. This lives up to the standards set by other GN's I've read recently they just aren't great.

This book has a crackerjack creative team; Jim Starlin writing and Bernie Wrightson on art. The art is fine, but pretty darn silly. Starlin sets the story on an alien world, and the conflict is over a food additive, so the stakes aren't exactly high to start with. Factor in the Hulk's talking octopus-hat, and you know this isn't high drama.

Things work out ok for the leads, but I have to question the format. The book is worth the price because of the art, but at the time, it must have seemed pretty steep for such a lightweight story.

Average

New Avengers #2

It's surprising to see the "street-level" team continuing Bendis' magic-based stories. I would have figured that was more appropriate for the Avengers Tower crew. That said, guest-stars Dr. Strange and Daimon Hellstrom immediately turn any title into a supernatural comic.

So the mysterious being who possessed the magicians last month adds Cage to his list, and the three of them go up against the Avengers. There's an amusing sequence where the team is trying to get the Eye of Agamatto out of Avengers Mansion, away from the possessed characters. They eventually succeed when Ms. Marvel snatches it and swoops away. You'd think she'd stay away, but she comes back a few moments later and poof, after a bit of musical bodies (I think the being ends up only in Iron Fist) he gets the eye and can disappear. It's funny this team is so large, half the team had almost no impact on the fight. Hawkeye, Spidey, Jewel, and even the Thing contributed almost nothing. I think the team should spend less time eating meals together and more time practicing.

Clearly this villain has history with the Earth, he repeatedly mocks the heroes and their emotional attachments to each other. I especially enjoyed when he's pretending that Cage is breaking free from possession. Dormammu is probably too obvious, and Nightmare doesn't seem like a Bendis type villain. Baron Mordo is from Earth, so I'm don't have any good guesses right now.

I still love Stuart Immonen's artwork. Giant Cage made me laugh. He does a nice Wolverine, I have to admit, I don't even think twice about him fitting in with the Avengers. I do wish that Mockingbird had her old style costume, I think Immonen would do a great job on it.

Story - Average
Art- Excellent
Overall - Fair

Marvel Two-In-One #25-32 (1977)

So I'm reading two classic runs of Marv Wolfman's, one on Marvel-Two-In-One and the other is his more popular New Titans stuff. I'm going to say, I'm actually liking the Marvel stuff better. I'm not even that huge a fan of the Thing, but I think the pacing works better with the globetrotting adventures of the rocky guy and his gal pal Alicia Masters. These issues make up the "English tour" of the book that really is paced like a current TPB. The Thing needs to travel to England to find a scientist who can save the life of Deathlok. Since he's headed across the pond, Thing brings along Alicia Masters. Since this is a comic, they bump into all sorts of interesting folks like Sub-Mariner, Shang-Chi, Spider-Woman, and Modred the Mystic. I really dug the stereotypical English supporting characters. Spider-Woman deserves a co-starring credit here, she starts off controlled by Hydra but then sticks around for quite a while helping the Thing deal with all sorts of bad guys. This book is so full of mad ideas, I just have to love it.

Heck, the Thinker and Mentallo decide the most efficient way to kill Jimmy Carter is to bring Deathlok from the future to the present! Later, Alicia Masters is injected with Spider-Woman's DNA or something and she turns into a horrific spider-beast that the Thing still can't bear to harm. And through it all, the snooty English bystanders are annoyed at what the Thing is doing to the country. They even regret allowing Captain Britain to operate since he's probably bringing all this on! It's a fun little adventure that's kept light throughout, but with trademark angst for Ben Grimm. I don't think the guy could ever be happy.

And as a side note, it's too bad we're so far removed from WWII now that we can't just pop in old Nazis as the villains for every story. There's a great running story about an old Nazi treasure hunter that pays off with a Merlin-powered quartet of elemental demons. That would be a lot harder to pull off today! Heh.

Ron Wilson handles most of the art and his style says classic Marvel like almost no one else. There is an issue here and there with great fill-in guys like John Buscema, but this is Wilson's book. His Thing is definitive, a big blocky bruiser. I don't like the closed hood on Spider-Woman, but that was the design at the time, so I can't really blame him.

Good