Issue(s): Marvel Two-In-One #4, Marvel Two-In-One #5
Cover Date: Jul-Sep 74
Title: "Doomsday 3014!" / "Seven against the empire!"
Credits:
Steve Gerber - Writer
Sal Buscema - Penciler
Frank Giacoia / Mike Esposito - Inker

Review/plot:
This issue starts with the Thing taking Wundarr to the Central Park Zoo, where he starts a disturbance by letting out all the animals.

Namorita, Captain America, and Sharon Carter show up to help. Namorita offers to start watching Wundarr now that she's going to school in the city and the Thing is more than happy to get him off his hands.

The Thing invites Cap and Sharon back to the Baxter Building for a chat. While they are there, Reed is tinkering with Doom's time machine, and the Thing accidentally activates it.

Meanwhile, Cap, Reed, and the Thing sit and relax while Medusa and Sharon get sent to the kitchen to make the men some tea. I'm not sure what the hell that was about; it's unlike Gerber.

As everyone's talking, a lady from the future appears on the time machine talking about a future where humanity is conquered by the Badoons. The Thing, Cap, and Sharon decide to head into the future to help out that era's freedom fighters, the Guardians of the Galaxy. Reed and Medusa have to stay behind to operate the time machine. Perhaps making up for the tea scene, we don't get any of the usual crap about Sharon Carter needing to stay behind because Cap is worried about her. The Thing asks Cap if it's really ok that she comes, and *Sharon* responds very simply "I'm a trained agent of SHIELD, Mr. Grimm. I can take care of myself." And throughout these two issues, she does.

In the future, they meet the Guardians of the Galaxy.

This is the second comic featuring the Guardians, the first being Marvel Super Heroes #18 (which, taking place entirely in the future, isn't included in my project here). This is the first time they've met characters from the modern Marvel Universe. We've got Vance Astro, an astronaut from our time that woke up in the future after centuries of suspended animation. His body has essentially disintegrated and he has to wear his costume to stay alive, but he's a 'master of psychokinesis'. We've got Charlie-27, a man with 11 times the mass of an ordinary human because he's the sole survivor of colonists from Jupiter. There's Yondu, a master of weaponry from Centauri IV. And there's Martinex, a master of hot and cold light waves, from Pluto. Charlie, Yondu, and Martinex are all the sole survivors of their respective races, which were otherwise wiped out by the Badoon.

With the help of Cap, Sharon, and the Thing, the Guardians are able to drive the Badoon out of the city of Manhattan, beginning humanity's rebellion.

The heroes from the modern era then have to return to modern times due to the restrictions of time travel.

The quality of this book under Gerber is better than the average team-up book, but that's not saying it's great.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 3 - first Guardians of the Galaxy in a mainstream Marvel Universe book.

Chronological Placement Considerations: Steve Rogers is still Captain America at this point, placing this before Captain America #176. Note that i don't count the locals in time travel stories, so the Guardians of the Galaxy are not listed as Characters Appearing.

References:

• The Thing is stuck with Wundarr thanks to the Sub-Mariner, as shown in Marvel Two-In-One #2.
  
• Doom's time machine was first seen in Fantastic Four #5. The footnote says that the Time Machine was "captured" in that issue, which isn't accurate.
  
• Major Victory compares his origin - waking up after centuries in suspended animation - to Captain America's revival in Avengers #4. Cap responds that his story - an astronaut who is sent into space while in suspended animation only to wake up centuries later to find that man had advanced during his trip and had beat him to the stars - is "Incredible! If I'd read that story as fiction, I'd have called it preposterous." I'm not sure what those of us who are reading the story as fiction are supposed to make of that.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Sal Buscema has often been criticized for giving characters garage door mouths. In this title, he gives the Thing a carved jack-o-lantern mouth.

Arnold Drake and Gene Colan did the first Guardians story in the late 1960s. The story itself suffers from Drake's usual clunkiness, and at the time it was considered a flop.

The title to #5 may be a reference to the Jefferson Starship album "Blows Against The Empire", but I'm not sure when the album came out.

Perhaps that title is a mash-up of the Starship album and Aeschylus' "Seven Against Thebes."

Dave Cockrum designed the Guardians' spaceship and gave some of them new costumes.

The letters page in #4 credits Tony Isabella for giving Gerber the idea to bring the Guardians back.

The letters page in #7 contains an explanation from Gerber saying that Martinex created a dimensional probe-thingie that allowed IV feeding to go through Vance's costume, and the same for relieving himself.

That first panel is an example of what is so fun about Marvel Two-in-One. It may not be a classic splash like FF#51, but the look on Ben's face just says it all. He's such a great character, it's no wonder they wanted to see what would happen when he mixed it up with other characters.

I love how in #4 Gerber takes the time to bring the heroes together (without the dreaded Misunderstanding Fight) and then show them enjoying coffee and conversation on a Sunday afternoon in NYC. As for Sharon and Medusa being put on coffee duty, it actually is an excellent representation of how at this early date in the women's liberation movement, forward-thinking writers like Gerber could acknowledge the equality of women in the workplace but still felt the need to put women in traditional gender roles inside the home.