Issue(s): Marvel Two-In-One #28
Cover Date: Jun 77
Title: "In the power of the Piranha!"
Credits:
Marv Wolfman - Writer
Ron Wilson - Penciler
John Tartaglione - Inker

Review/plot:
Complaints in the lettercols for this book have been the same as in Marvel Team-Up: people want to see more "continuity", both in the sense of continuing stories and better coordination with Fantastic Four. One part of the response is that Marv Wolfman intended to bring back the supporting characters Wundarr and Namorita, but Steve Gerber had a claim on them for something he was working on. And Wolfman also intended to make Nick Fury a regular supporting character in this book, but Roy Thomas was starting up a Nick Fury and his Super-Agents of SHIELD book. Whatever Gerber was planning for Wundarr and Namorita never came to fruition, and neither did the Nick Fury book, so Wolfman didn't get to use them here for no reason. But instead he's turned the appearance of Deathlok from last issue into a continuing subplot.

This issue begins with Reed Richards trying to figure out how to revive the poor cyborg corpse.

Reed sure is using his stretching powers to make it seem like he's been working out in that panel above. Wonder who he's trying to impress.

With Reed's failure to save Deathlok, Nick Fury says that's three strikes, since SHIELD's scientists and Tony Stark have also been unable to figure it out. That leaves the Fixer, who claims that he's the only one who can restore Deathlok. But Mr. Fantastic remembers a Professor Louis Kort, London's foremost specialist in both cybernetics and bio-genetics.

So the Thing offers to fly Deathlok to Dr. Kort in Reed Richards' "new Sling-Jet" which should have him there before dinner time. Alicia goes with the Thing, with the idea that they'll turn the trip to England into a little vacation. I guess one of the nice things about being blind is that you can pretend that there isn't a dying animated corpse-man in the backseat while you're cruising with your boyfriend (i'm assuming Reed's got a fancy air filtration system in his Sling-Jet that takes care of the smell; either that or there's a lot of little cardboard pine trees hanging off the mirror).

Meanwhile, the Sub-Mariner is celebrating having recently been freed from imprisonment by Dr. Doom by going in for a swim, but he's attacked by the Piranha.

But Namor doesn't have time for that noise, so he straight up murders the Piranha and returns to his pleasant swim, not realizing that there's a second Piranha lurking behind a reef.

Namor's swim takes him into the path of the Sling-Jet, and Namor is in such a good mood after killing off a very silly looking villain that he actually stops to say hello!

That's when the second Piranha attacks. Namor is pulled under the sea, and the Thing has half a mind to just keep heading to England and ignore all of this nonsense, but Alicia convinces him to get out and help. So the Thing pops some water-breathing pills and off he goes.

I'm no super-scientist, but i figure a "Sling-Jet" gets its speed from the fact that it is shot out of a giant sling of some sort. Again, i apologize for not getting into the technical details. But i see that the Thing is able to land the jet on the water here, and i guess he'll be able to launch it again when this is all over. But probably at a lower speed, so maybe the Thing and Alicia don't get to London by dinner time after all.

Namor and the Thing wind up getting attacked by multiple Piranhas and get taken captive.

And Alicia becomes a hostage as well, as per her contractual obligation.

And then we learn why there's more than one Piranha. In his last appearance, the villain was seemingly killed when a horde of actual piranhas attacked him. But it turns out that instead of killing them, each one of them got turned into a Piranha clone.

Since then, the Piranha has been hanging out with his clone brothers, kidnapping passing sailors and making them fight. The Thing sadly immediately goes along with the "fight" idea.

It's really sad when the temperamental Sub-Mariner is your voice of reason in a story.

Eventually Namor convinces the Thing to change tactics and fake-fight their way into taking out the Piranha.

The castle that they were fighting in crumbles around them, supposedly killing all the Piranhas.

The Deathlok situation obviously doesn't really count as a continuing story so much as a way to tie issues together (and that causes its own continuity problems since the FF book also had long ongoing continued stories at this time; note that this issue is placed half a year prior to publication date), but the fact that Alicia goes on the trip will allow for a few nice character moments for her and the Thing, which is the sort of thing you'd like to see in the Thing's "solo" book. In fact, in one of the issues during this trip, she'll even get a whole issue devoted to her (heh, heh).

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: See the Considerations section for Fantastic Four #176; this takes place during that issue. The Thing next appears in Marvel Two-In-One #29, having arrived in England to bring Deathlok to Dr. Kort. Namor is "free" from Doom here, placing this at least after Super-Villain Team-Up #9. His people are said to still be comatose, placing this before Super-Villain Team-Up #13.

References:

• The Piranha was last seen in Sub-Mariner #70-71.
  
• The Thing isn't so sure he's happy to see Namor after Super-Villain Team-Up #6-7.
  
• The water breathing pills were first seen in Fantastic Four #27.
  
• The Thing doesn't just quickly agree to fight Namor during the arena segment. He also trash talks him, saying "ever since that day the FF found ya drunk as a skunk walkin' the bowery, you and yer underwater uglies've been stickin' yer gills inta our business". That's a reference to Fantastic Four #4 and also probably the death of Namor's unusual attempt at friendly outreach that we saw in this issue.
  
• Actually Namor says he totally understands the Thing's actions, since he would have done the same if it were his dead wife Dorma that had been captured. No footnote, but Dorma died in Sub-Mariner #37.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A