Marvel Two-In-One #37-39Issue(s): Marvel Two-In-One #37, Marvel Two-In-One #38, Marvel Two-In-One #39 Review/plot: The FF have broken up and the Thing has gone into immediate decline, apparently having moved into a run down hotel where he's gorging himself eating boxes of chocolate. I wonder if the Thing can get fat. We see him exercising all the time, and he's grown stronger over the years, so presumably he can grow muscle. If he's not exercising, and pigging out on candy, i guess he would lose muscle, but would he actually get flabby? The fat would develop underneath his rock hard skin, i guess. Anyway, as you can see, the Thing is being targeted by someone, and soon he finds himself making the occasional unintentional jerk, which when you're the Thing has destructive consequences. A man named Alex Stone calls the police. The Thing willingly goes with them. The story gets a little silly with the Thing having to stand in a lineup... ...and then getting put in a holding pen with a juvenile. It doesn't wind up being relevant, but the kid, Eugene Everett, was also in the Thing's lineup, and he seems to be wearing a "Hell Kid" jacket like another older boy in the lineup. In contrast to the silliness of the lineup, the Thing actually becomes very maudlin, convinced that he's a monster that needs to be locked away. But Ben's lawyer, Matt Murdock (the nominal team-up partner for issue #37, whereas it's Daredevil for #38), is convinced the Thing is innocent, and he aims to prove it "even if I must become Daredevil to do so". During the trial we also learn that Stone has an ulterior motive in bringing charges against the Thing, and is working for someone. Murdock detects a hum that goes off before the Thing has his violent spells, and he tracks down Stone during a break in the trial and finds that he has a "weird heartbeat" and is operating a chop-shop. Stone was apparently based on Rocky Balboa/Sylvester Stallone. In their confrontation, Stone also demonstrates super-strength. Daredevil is lucky to escape with his life, and he returns to the prison and goads the Thing into breaking out and going after Stone. The Thing's cellmate Eugene follows on a skateboard. The Thing's investigation leads him to a group of androids... ...with the implication that Stone was one also, and soon both the Thing and Daredevil are captives of the Mad Thinker. The Thinker has decided that since his plans are always foiled by some unaccounted-for element (the "X-Factor"), he needs a psychic to help feed him all the variables when he's making his plans. His computers have somehow told him that setting this situation up with the Thing would lead him to a psychic, and so he assumes that Daredevil is the psychic he's looking for. And if Daredevil won't admit that he's a psychic, the Thinker will poison the Thing. Daredevil is able to convince the Thinker that he's a psychic by "predicting" the arrival of Eugene Everett (he actually just hears Eugene approaching with his super-senses). This is all prelude; the Thinker really wants to create an army of Visions. He's created a Vision duplicate, but it doesn't have the Vision's powers of density control. It's not said, but i imagine he's kicking himself for giving the android Human Torch's body to the Ultron and is jealous of Ultron's modifications. So his plan is to hypnotize the Thing... ...and send him to Avengers Mansion to capture the real Vision under the supervision of the "psychic" Daredevil. With remotely detonate-able exploding shackles to keep him in line. Yellowjacket is the only other Avenger at home, and i thought it would be hilarious if this was all we saw of him... ...but in fact he'll figure more heavily, and weirdly, into the story. After a brief fight with the Vision, Daredevil disables the synthezoid by using an ionic field, apparently "the one weakness imposed upon [Vision] by [his] creator". Daredevil briefly heads to the other room to pick up the Vision's body, and then DD and the Thing carry the Vision past YJ's body... ...to the Thinker. But when the Thinker opens the box, he finds a nearly naked man in a Yellowjacket helmet instead. It turns out that "Daredevil" is really Henry Pym, and naked-YJ is really Daredevil, who quickly shrinks down to pantless-wasp size. The body they passed was actually Yellowjacket's costume, filled with ants. The Thinker is a lot less freaked out by all of this than i am, and he unleashes his army of (unmodified) Visions. But the heroes manage to defeat the robots and capture the Vision. It does turn out that the Thinker's prediction of the appearance of a psychic was correct. It turns out to be the boy, Eugene Everett. The conclusion of Ben's trial is not covered here, and it's implied in issue #40 that it's all behind him. Some goofy stuff here, but a fun enough story for Marvel Two-In-One. Nothing is ever done with Eugene Everett, as far as i know. Quality Rating: C Chronological Placement Considerations: After issue #36, which took place circa Fantastic Four #176, Marvel Two-In-One makes a huge jump forward in time to take place after the FF have broken up, between Fantastic Four #191-192. It's possible that with the inclusion of Mr. Fantastic in issue #36, they realized they had a problem, maybe explaining why the next issue blurb for #36 indicated that they had no idea what was coming next. I have Daredevil here between DD #154-155, same as his appearance in Human Fly. For the two Avengers, this takes place concurrently with the Korvac saga; Pym will stick around for some pizza in Marvel Two-In-One #40, and that same issue is referenced by the Black Panther in Avengers #172. References:
Crossover: N/A Continuity Insert? N My Reprint: N/A Inbound References (1): showCharacters Appearing: Alicia Masters, Daredevil, Eugene Everett, Foggy Nelson, Henry Pym, Mad Thinker, Thing, Vision CommentsWeird that Matt couldn't tell that Stone was a android, or at least not a normal human. Posted by: Michael | June 18, 2013 10:30 PM Whatever did happen to Stone? He just vanishes. Good continuity with Grimm liking Stephen King; he was also reading Salem's Lot in MTIO Annual#2. I think Wolfman was supposed to only write this book for year(ending with #36), but a replacement hadn't been found yet, resulting in the "We don't know what happens next" blurb at the the end of #36. I'm guessing Marvel couldn't find anyone in time and pressed Wolfman to stay longer, only to have Marv bolt immediately(like halfway through a book) when Slifer signed on. Posted by: Mark Drummond | June 21, 2013 4:20 PM Alicia appears in #37. The police station in that issue is based on the early 1960s "Car 54, Where Are You?" sitcom, and I suspect the drunk in the cell was taken from that also. Eugene Everett is indeed the short kid in that lineup. You can't really see it in the color comic, but in the Essential you can clearly see the top of the skull patch and "Hell" just above a cop's head's shadow. Posted by: Mark Drummond | March 25, 2016 10:17 PM On the last page of #38, panels 5 & 6 are out of order. That makes the 6th book so far... Posted by: Mark Drummond | March 25, 2016 10:41 PM Added Alicia. Thanks. Posted by: fnord12 | March 26, 2016 12:54 AM How many fast-assembling, packed-together ants would it take to fill up a man's pants, with bulges in all the right places? I don't think I wanna know... Posted by: Oliver_C | March 26, 2016 4:07 AM Also, that view of the Thinker's face in left profile as he hypnotises the Thing is something of a swipe from FF #100. Posted by: Oliver_C | May 21, 2016 4:44 AM One could imagine Eugene today running a fantasy sports website and/or an offshore sports book. Posted by: Brian Coffey | March 4, 2018 4:57 AM Comments are now closed. |
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