Issue(s): Marvel Two-In-One #40, Marvel Two-In-One #41
Cover Date: Jun-Jul 78
Title: "Conjure night!" / "Voodoo and valor!"
Credits:
Tom DeFalco & Roger Slifer / David Anthony Kraft - Writer
Ron Wilson - Penciler
Pablo Marcos - Inker

Review/plot:
The Thing makes some pizza for Matt Murdock, Yellowjacket, and a kid named Eugene Everett, who we met in the previous Marvel Two-In-One arc.

But when they drop the kid off at school, the Thing bumps into the Black Panther, who is in his civilian identity as schoolteacher Luke Charles. The Panther wants the Thing's help to investigate a rash of kidnappings of prominent black people. All of the victims were on a list that J. Jonah Jameson published a few years ago in the Daily Bugle. Both the Thing and the Panther don't know/remember that T'Challa was on the list. They stake out some of the other people on the list and find themselves in a conflict with a zuvembie-vampire. He's a zuvembie... that's a vampire. That's pretty cool.

They fight off the zuvampire and agree to regroup tomorrow, but after the Thing leaves, the zuvampire comes back and kidnaps the Panther.

When the Thing shows up the next day at T"Challa's apartment, Brother Voodoo is on the scene (why not?).

After a brief misunderstanding (not a full-fledged misunderstanding fight for a change), the two trace the kidnappers to a "small emerging African nation bordering Uganda".

One of the kidnappers is Dr. Kinji Obatu, who used to be Dr. Spectrum, but he's powerless now (we'll see in Avengers annual #8 that someone else had the Power Prism, and then it was destroyed). The other is a voodoo priest who has an undead army.

Obatu is killed when the vampire-zombie turns into a bat and panics Obatu into falling off a ledge.

The climax of this plot is when Brother Voodoo tells the Thing to break the voodoo urn that holds the spirits of the kidnapped people. The Thing tells him he's crazy to waste time smashing an urn. So Brother Voodoo possesses the Thing and makes him do what he wants.

This frees the Black Panther, and the kidnappers are rescued.

Per Dan's comment, here's the scene where Ben holds the plane together.

I gotta tell you: i didn't even blink when i read these panels. It's nothing if you've ever seen the Menace of Magneto cartoon where the Thing's strength prevents Magneto from throwing around their flying bathtub.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - death of the original Doctor Spectrum (from Squadron Sinister)

Chronological Placement Considerations: The Black Panther mentions a missing persons problem during the Korvac Saga in Avengers #172, with a reference to these issues. Takes place between Fantastic Four #191-192 for the Thing.

References:

• The Thing says that Matt Murdock has been a pal since the Fantastic Four broke up in Fantastic Four #191.
  
• The voodoo priest in this story comes from a horror story in Marvel Preview #12.
  
• Dr. Spectrum last appeared in Iron Man #65-66.
  
• Brother Voodoo's origin was shown in Strange Tales #169-170.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

The zuvembie-vampire changes into a bat and flies away(killing the former Dr. Spectrum in the process), but apparently never shows up anywhere again.

Why does the Thing need cooking gloves to handle the pizza pan? he's the THING!

Roger Slifer started at Marvel as reprint editor in 1974.

#41 is the issue where the Thing flies the plane while literally reaching out and holding the broken wing together with his left hand, a plot device so silly that the Marvel No-Prize Book called them out on it.

I've added the scan but see my surrounding comments! ;-)

Tom Defalco's first Marvel credit, I believe, but he was already an Archie writer.