Issue(s): Marvel Two-In-One #34
Cover Date: Dec 77
Title: "A monster walks among us!"
Credits:
Marv Wolfman - Writer
Ron Wilson - Penciler
Pablo Marcos - Inker

Review/plot:
Nighthawk, as Kyle Richmond, is summoned to England to respond to make a decision regarding an archeological find that his company has made. "Wait just one rather ridiculous second" is my new favorite exclamation of choice.

Meanwhile, the Thing has brought Deathlok to Professor Kort. Kort stabilizes Deathlok, and then SHIELD swoops in out of nowhere to take him away.

Kyle then calls in Professor Kort to help with his rock problem, and the Thing tags along. It turns out the rock has something living in it, and Kyle makes the call to let it out.

Wait just one rather ridiculous second! What the heck is that?!

It turns out that it's a friendly alien, but it's not aware that all of its companions died in a spaceship crash back in 1908. It also doesn't know that it's way of communicating, via a gas, causes people to fall asleep.

So the poor thing staggers around the countryside, getting the locals upset.

The Thing and Nighthawk eventually wake up and try to get out and stop and/or help it, but the alien winds up getting shot to death while helping kids out of a burning building.

It would be tragic if the monster weren't so goofy.

The lettercols continue to be have people complaining about continuity conundrums, including a problem that i still struggle with some 40 years later:

...there exists a crying need for more continuity research between the Thing in Fantastic Four and the Thing in Marvel 2-in-1. As it is, the two books seem to be mutually exclusive.

Part of this seems to be the fault of Roy Thomas. His portrayal of the FF was one of the best characterized since late forever, but the continuity there was so tight you couldn't pry a knife in between issues. Each issue led to the next; I don't think the FF ever had a chance to sleep, let alone get embroiled in MTIO side-conflicts. With all the loose ends Thomas left behind, the punch-a-minute storyline will last for a few months more at least. As it is, all the MTIOs since #26 haven't had a chance to happen yet, and Gerald Ford is still President in the FF's own mag. Len would do well to leave a several week gap between issues soon.

As for you, Marv... this Deathlok/Hydra/Spider-Woman serial is as compulsive... As for continuity, you cannot control what goes on in the FF mag, but there are a few spots where you should keep better informed. For example, letting Reed have the power to stretch back in the Jimmy Carter inauguration issue was INEXCUSABLE. My waking mind tried to explain that one for weeks.

The sliding timescale/acceptance of president appearances being "temporal references" helps a bit, and the Indexes (and the MCP) did eventually decide to fit all of these Marvel Two-In-One issues into an "impossible" gap during Fantastic Four #176, but since this is a team-up book that still does cause coordination issues for other characters, like Sub-Mariner and Nighthawk (luckily a lot of the Two-In-One guests around this time are characters that don't have regular books, so the problem isn't as compounded as it could be). In any event, it's nice to know that readers in real time were having some of the same problems with this sort of thing as i am.

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 is still in England and has finally brought Deathlok to Dr. Kort. For Nighthawk, i've got this between Defenders #41-42.

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

The 1908 explosion in Siberia is the Tunguska event, which happened in real life.

This story tells one of three mutually exclusive explanations for its happening in the Marvel Universe.

More sloppy production on this title: in one panel a research paper literally reads "Reserch". That's the kind of thing I expect to see in an old Dennis the Menace story!

I always found it amusing that Kyle Richmond had such a cavalier attitude with his so-called "secret identity", like he was in this story with Ben and later with Spidey. "Oh hey, did I mention that I'm Nighthawk?"