Issue(s): Marvel Two-In-One #47, Marvel Two-In-One #48
Cover Date: Jan-Feb 79
Title: "Happy Deathday, Mister Grimm!" / "My master, Machinesmith!"
Credits:
Bill Mantlo - Writer
Chic Stone - Penciler
Chic Stone / Tex Blaisdell - Inker

Review/plot:
Machinesmith used to be Starr Saxon, a Daredevil foe who both built robots and also took on the Mr. Fear persona for a while after killing the original. This arc is his first appearance as Machinesmith, which is Saxon's consciousness transferred into a robot body after he died fighting Daredevil. None of that is even hinted at in this story, though. As far as we know so far, he's a brand new bad guy. (It's worth noting that Roger Stern was editor of these issues, and he's the guy who will later tie Machinesmith to Saxon.)

Machinesmith is a relatively minor villain, but i've always liked him thanks to his appearance in Stern/Byrne's Captain America. In this story he's working for the Corporation with orders to kill the Fantastic Four, which he intends to do by cybernetically controlling the Thing (and then he plans to use Mr. Fantastic's technology to take over the Corporation himself).

We learn at the end of this arc that the Machinesmith was actually a robot.

The Corporation was fairly ubiquitous at this time, which is pretty cool. It's amazing that they more or less disappeared completely in a fairly short time period and no one's brought them back in a big way, although Roxxon tended to play a similar role.

This is a straightforward fight issue. There's a clever bit where Jack of Hearts sees the cybernetic gadget on the Thing's head and assumes the Thing is a robot.

Jack of Hearts, a Mantlo creation, is simply an uninteresting character.

Issue #47's guests are the Yancy Street gang, and they help save the day in issue #48 as well.

It's unusual to see veteran inker Chic Stone on pencils. The art is fairly typical house style, nothing special but not bad.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: The guest stars in these issues aren't characters that appear regularly in other books so this works well in any gap in the Thing's FF appearances.

References:

• While training, Jack of Hearts mentions his fight with the assassin called Hemlock in Marvel Premiere #44. See the comments on that entry regarding the chronology presented here between that issue and the Defenders story referenced below.
  
• Jack of Hearts got his powers in Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #23.
  
• He misses the excitement he had teaming-up with Iron Man in Iron Man #109-113, but "shell-head couldn't tutor me and deal with his own problems" (See current issues of Iron Man).
  
• After hanging out with Iron Man, Jack of Hearts tried to join the Defenders in Defenders #62-63, but we all know how that turned out.
  
• At one point when the Yancy Street Gang think the Thing is dead, they start reminiscing about the time they saved him from the Molecule Man in Fantastic Four #20.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Chic Stone was a regular penciler for ACG in the 1960s, and after they ceased publishing, he drew some Batman issues during the Adam West TV show phase.

According to Fantaco's Hembeck #6 by Fred Hembeck, the Jack of Hearts flopped as a character because the artists refused to draw his massively detailed costume.

Tex Blaisdell is another artist that had been around since the Golden Age, and before this he was primarily known for inking Superman and the Flash for DC.

Interesting how little we actually learn about Machinesmith in these issues.

Yeah, Mantlo pushed Jack o hearts too much as he wasnt very interesting. He gets a surprising win against the Thing here. I actually think he could have worked in a team dynamic like the Avengers or Defenders, but solo, nah.

The Yancy Streeters sure don't look like a street gang here. They look like construction workers.

Jack of Hearts did always have a great look, though. He became a much more interesting character in later years.