Marvel Two-In-One #44Issue(s): Marvel Two-In-One #44 Review/plot: The Thing is visiting Camp Run-A-Mok... ...and he tells them a story about a recent Team-Up with Hercules ("a recent Two-In-One with Hercules" doesn't have the same ring to it). Hercules was actually looking for Thor, but decides the Thing will do in a pinch. Hercules had recently returned to Olympus after the break-up of the Champions, and found it in ruins. The destruction turns out to be the work of a giant minotaur... ...a giant satyr... ...and a giant griffin. Hercules and the Thing punch them a lot and eventually free Zeus. The story is kind of cluttered, both in art and, especially, script. Note the first narration panel here which is just crammed with an extraneous joke. The kids are precocious in an obvious way. And the story has a Zeus Ex Machina ending. I'd like to say that a Hercules/Thing team-up is a lot of fun, but the attempts at humor in this story come from the Thing's interactions with the kids, not what should have been a great dynamic between the Thing and Herc. The main story is played as a straight, dry, adventure. Quality Rating: D+ Chronological Placement Considerations: There's a framing sequence with the Thing telling the main story to a group of kids. The flashback portion takes place soon after the Champions break up, after Champions #17. It would also have to take place before the FF formally break up in Fantastic Four #191, since the Human Torch has a brief appearance. The FF informally break up in #188 but the Thing and the Human Torch can still reasonably be hanging around the Baxter Building until #191. Note that a flashback in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #17-18, showing the actual break-up of the Champions, would take place before this issue, but since the main story in the Peter Parker issues takes place later, that doesn't affect placement. Regarding this issue, there's two choices. Beginning with Marvel Two-In-One #37-39, there are references to the FF's break-up, and so those stories take place after Fantastic Four #191. So just by the logic of sequential placement, this issue should also take place after that. And that's how the MCP handles it; they place the framing sequence after Marvel Two-In-One #43. But since this is a fill-in and there are no references to the FF series, you can assume that the framing sequence takes place shortly after the end of the main story, and that therefore the whole thing happens between Champions #17 and Fantastic Four #191. Going with that approach would allow me to list Hercules, the Human Torch, and Zeus as Characters Appearing, so that's what i'm doing even though it results in the slight oddity of this issue appearing between Marvel Two-In-One #36-37 (and it isn't all that odd for this site). All that said, it's worth realizing that the Thing's telling could be embellished or outright made-up (although according to the Marvel Appendix this story is referenced in a later handbook). References: N/A Crossover: N/A Continuity Insert? N My Reprint: N/A
Comments"And the story has a Zeus Ex Machina ending." I can't decide if that's brilliant or if I want to slam my head on the desk. Posted by: Erik Beck | March 31, 2015 12:39 PM Reading these entries in chronological order, this comes kind of fast on the heels of FF #190. I kind of like the idea of the Thing volunteering at a summer camp to alleviate the angst he expresses in that issue. Posted by: George Lochinski | July 24, 2016 1:55 AM THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM was a 1962 movie. There's a popular story about Tony Curtis that he had the line "Yonder lies the castle of my father" in a period film and it came out "Yondah lies the castle of my faddah". The net tells me he never said it, and it derives from a line in SON OF ALI BABA. Posted by: Luke Blanchard | July 24, 2016 8:54 AM Comments are now closed. |
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