Essential Marvel Two-in-One, Vol. 2

Essential Marvel Two-in-One #2

by Marv Wolfman, Roger Slifer, Tom DeFalco

Cosmic calamities, espionage, black magic, time travel, alien gangsters and martial-arts madness: Benjamin J. Grimm can handle it all, but he won't have to face it alone! Stars old and new shine when the thunderous Thing joins them against many of the most magnificent menaces the Marvel Universe can offer! Invasions, impersonations, assassinations and transformations! Plus: when heroes play poker! Guest-starring Captain America, Daredevil, Ms. Marvel, the Black Panther, Moon Knight, Spider-Woman and more! Collects Marvel Two-in-One #26-52 and Annual #2-3

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Marvel, Comic Book, Superheroes

568 pages, Paperback

First published June 10, 1979

About the author

Marvin A. "Marv" Wolfman is an award-winning American comic book writer. He is best known for lengthy runs on The Tomb of Dracula, creating Blade for Marvel Comics, and The New Teen Titans for DC Comics.

Reviews

[Adam Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's Clobberin' time in this massive collection of Ben Grimm comic stories from the late 1970s, featuring Issues 26-52 and Annuals #2 and #3. A summary of each issue:

Issues 26 and 27: Nick Fury warns the Thing that Mentallo and the Fixer are going to kidnap him and the two succeed in doing so in a plan where kidnapping Ben leads to attempting to assassinate Jimmy Carter and that's not even their main goal. Issue #27 is essentially a Fantastic Four comic rather than a Thing comic.

Issue 28: The Thing's en route to London and gets drawn into an undersea battle with Pirahnna, fighting along the Sub-mariner.

Issues 29-33: The Thing in London to find a scientist to help Deathlok. Key stories in establishing Spider-woman (Jessica Drew) as a hero. Pretty well-done and shows Ben's concern for Alicia Masters.

Issue 34: One last London comic as Ben teams up with Nighthawk after an apparently monstrous alien is freed from a rock. The alien is not as monstrous as he looks, but tell mankind that. A classic Sci-Fi story.

Issues 35 and 36: As often happens in these stories, the Thing is cleaning up an old plot line. In this case, he goes into the Bermuda Triangle to deal with an anomaly and gets dragged back in time to another dimension and meets Skull the Slayer (from a discontinued Marvel Comic series) and they have to get home. The Thing battles dinosaurs and the comic is a lot of fun.

Annual #2: Spider-man is summoned in a dream by Moondragon to help the Avengers who are being imprisoned by Thanos and Spidey turns to the Thing because he needs a spaceship and that's the sort of thing Reed Richards leaves lying around. Good story, even though it feels more like a Spider-man story than a Thing story.

Issues 37-39: The FF was dissolved and the Thing finds himself going on rampages that destroy property and is thrown in jail. His attorney Matt Murdoch (aka Daredevil) suspects something's wrong when he hears a noise around the Thing. A supervillain is behind it and it takes a couple more guest stars to straighten things out.

Issues 40 and 41: Prominent black citizens are being kidnapped. A so-so story featuring Black Panther and Doctor Voodoo.

Issues 42 and 43: Ben follows up on his ex-ward Wundar, who's being studied as part of Project Pegasus. He fights with and teams up with Captain America. The story features a no-name villain and the second story features Man-Thing and ends how most Man-Thing stories do.

Annual #3: Monitors come to Earth to "judge" it and they find every planet imperfect. It's up to the Thing and Nova to save the day.

Issue 44: The Thing tells kids of his team up with Hercules to figght in Mount Olympus. A little ambiguity if it's true (or Ben's trying to impress the kids), but still fun.

Issue 45: The story begins with the Thing shot up by a '20s gangster which annoys him. Convoluted story featuring Skrulls and Captain Marvel.

Issue 46: Meta story where the Thing is jealous of the Hulk's TV show and goes to Hollywood to get his own show and ends up facing off against the Hulk who hates the show.

Issues 47 and 48: Team up with the Yancy Street Gang (really?) but they're all overcome by the Machinesmith and it's up to that new hero, the Jack of Hearts, to save the day. Yeah, I don't know anything about him either.

Issue 49: Writer Mary Jo Duffy puts Ben in the middle of a Dark Shows homage. A good idea for a story guest starring Doctor Strange.

Issue 50: Writer/Artist John Byrne features a story where the Thing goes back in time to cure his past self of being the Thing. Ludicrous plot, nice look at how the character changed from Fantastic Four #1.

Issue 51: Ben and Nick Fury head for a poker game at the Avengers Mansion for a poker game with Wonder Man and Miss Marvel. Some great art by Frank Miller on the game and some smack talk from Ben Grimm. Villains show up and our fought but that's secondary to establishing this poker game exists.

Issue 52: A man is killed right in front of the Thing and Ben insists he doesn't need the help of "Johnny come lately" hero Moon Knight. He gets it anyway. Features one of the best villains in the book.

Overall, a solid book despite some weaker issues. The book has a lot of fun stories even though few of the co-stars are Marvel A-listers, Ben manages to save the world a few times while rapping up a few stray storylines, and getting brainwashed three times. Good Bronze Age fun.

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

You know you are the man to goto when trouble arrives when you time travel and team up with yourself! Really nice collection of Bronze age Marvel stories. Good art and reads. Recommended

[Rich Meyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good collection of Marvel Two-in-One stories, with the advent of Spider-Woman and the beginning of the Project Pegasus Saga. At least no issues are missing as in the previous volume (where an entire issue, important to a three-part story, was omitted because of rights/licensing issues). John Byrne, Ron Wilson and even Frank Miller provide some of the artwork in these. Deathlok, Skull the Slayer, Daredevil, the Vision, Hercules and the rest of the Fantastic Four join the Thing on adventures in this collection.

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Marvel Two-in-One Annual #2 - This volume kicks off with a real big bang. A two-part epic featuring the Avengers, Captain Marvel, Adam Warlock, Spider-Man and the Thing as they square off against Thanos, the Mad-Titan. Unfortunately, this volume only includes the second half of the story. This little masterpiece is from Jim Starlin, who handled both writing and pencils on both chapters. (The full story is included in Avengers vs. Thanos, Marvel Two-In-One Epic Collection, Vol. 3: Remembrance of Things Past, and Avengers Epic Collection, Vol. 9: The Final Threat) (5/5)

Marvel Two-In-One #26-36 - This is a big one. One huge, sprawling story that took 11 months to tell and created some pretty awful continuity conflicts for the guest-stars and for the Fantastic Four. But it’s still a really fun story from the talents of Wolfman, Wilson with some help from J Buscema (on one issue) and Ernie Chan (on the final two issues). It all opens with Nick Fury recruiting Grimm to help him deal with the threat of Mentallo and The Fixer. But the scheme of these former HYDRA agents is one dealing with time machines and certain cyborg from an alternate timeline. Then Deathlok tries to assassinate the soon to be inaugurated new president. It takes the help of the Fantastic Four and the Impossible Man to succeed. Then, at Fury’s request, Grimm takes Alicia to London for a vacation and to deliver the Deathlok comatose body to specialist that may be able o help him; except while in route, Grimm stops to help Namor defeat the cloned terror of Pirahna. MTIO #29-32 features the main focus of this large arc that teams Grimm up with Shang-Chi, the first Spider-Woman, and the Invisible Woman, while Alicia’s life hangs in the balance. It then takes a few more issues to tie-up all the loose ends and brings in the likes of Nighthawk (#33), from the Defenders, Modred the Mystic (see Essential Marvel Horror, Vol. 2)(#34), and then a conclusion (#35-36) for the adventures of Skull the Slayer (see: Skull the Slayer). And finally Ben Grimm’s epic 11-part adventure comes to an end (and people are still trying to make sense of the continuity errors even to this day).

Marvel Two-in-One #37-39 - Ben gets framed and used by The Mad Thinker and it takes a sort of Defenders ancillary reunion to get him free and clear (Daredevil, Yellowjacket, the Vision, and the Thing have all had short stints with the non-team). It’s a fun story, but the Mad Thinker’s plan is as utterly ill-conceived and illogical as always. (3/5)

Marvel Two-in-One #40-41 - Ben and the Black Panther look into the mysterious disappearances of numbers highly prestigious African Americans. But the story takes a wild twist when it appears a vampire might be behind the disappearances. Then T’Challa finds himself among those kidnapped and Ben had to team-up with Brother Voodoo rescue everyone. Another unremarkable story, but still entertaining. (3/5)

Marvel Two-in-One #42-43 - This 2-parter returns Wundarr to this series, gives us Project: Pegasus, the return of the Cosmic Cube, the Cult of Entropy, Victorius, Captain America, and even the macabre Man-Thing. And there’s even art by John Byrne on the second story. What more do you want? (4/5)

Marvel Two-in-One Annual #3 - Nova recruits Ben to fight the Monitors in this rather cliched end-of-the-world story. Nothing special here. (2/5)

Marvel Two-in-One #44-46 - These next three stories are definitely played for laughs. Guest-stars include Hercules, Captain Marvel (or rather Mar-vel), and the Hulk). The first has Ben relating an adventure to a bunch of kids about him helping out Hercules free the other Olympians. It’s a tall tale indeed. Then Ben deals with an old threat that has revenge on his mind, it’s a Skrull, and what better way to find a Skrull than side by side with a Kree warrior. The jokes here are that the enemy is from the planet of gangsters, so there’s a lot of 1930s visual references. I usually love a good Thing / Hulk brawl, but this one is not one of them. It’s all just a contrived mess to promote the new (at the time) Incredible Hulk tv series. All three of these stories are rather disappointing as they rely on joke premises or narratives that are just filling the pages. (2/5)

Marvel Two-in-One #47-48 - In this 2-part arc, Ben teams up with the Yancy Street Gang and Jack-of-Hearts to defeat Machinesmith, The Corporation, and a mob boss, The Carnation. It starts off as silly as the previous stories were, but tension ramp up. Still, not great, but entertaining. (3/5)

Marvel Two-in-One #49 - Doctor Strange guest-stars and he and Ben almost meet. Almost. Definitely a Lovecraft inspired tale that some nice campy, scary humor. Otherwise there’s not to this one. (2/5)

Marvel Two-in-One #50 - Ben Grimm meets Ben Grimm. A potential cure for being The Thing is discovered but it’s only going to work on a much younger man. So travels back in time to give the cure to his younger self. Temporal shenanigans ensue as only John Byrne can deliver. (5/5)

Marvel Two-in-One #51 - This is a fun one. Poker Night at Avengers Mansion gets derailed when some old malcontents decide to steal some top secret equipment held by SHIELD. Ben, Nick Fury, Ms. Marvel, the Beast, and Wonder Man head to the helicarrier to make short business of the threat so they can get back to poker night. Early Frank Miller art, before he went all incel or whatever, good stuff. (4/5)

Marvel Two-in-One #52 - Moon Knight helps Ben track down an international threat hell bent of taking out every superhero in the business. Another good one, fast paced and thrilling. (4/5)

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

Benjamin J. Grimm is one of my favorite Marvel characters. Seeing him team up with characters who aren't members of The Fantastic Four is usually pretty fun. The problem with the these sort of team up books that storylines have little to no impact. Marvel Two-In-One has another problem is that for some reason MTIO often does team ups with Ben joining forces with another member of the FF. Which makes you wonder why they didn't make it an issue of FF.

But in this cases, you get team ups that are long. There is an arc that basically takes up a year- while acting as backdoor pilot for Spider-Woman and a backdoor finale for Deathlok and Skull the Slayer. It does all that while still making sense. Plus, it finishes off the original Thanos Saga. Yeah, there are some clunkers near the end of the book... but even those get ridiculously entertaining.

[Lawrence Hurley · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic walk down memory lane

[Devero · Rating 4 out of 5]

Era un periodo molto buono per questa collana, con storie variegate e interessanti e spesso disegnatori del calibro di Perez e Byrne all'opera. Doveva essere una serie minore, invece in quel periodo si leggevano storie migliori qui che sulla testata dei F4.

[Sean Brennan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing major to say in either the negative or positive.

[Kris Shaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nearly every single Bronze Age journeyman handled this title, and it didn't miss a beat. The Thing is entertaining as the star of his own series.