Issue(s): Marvel Two-In-One #68
Cover Date: Oct 80
Title: "Discos and dungeons!"
Credits:
Mark Gruenwald & Ralph Macchio - Writer
Ron Wilson - Penciler
Pablo Marcos - Inker

Review/plot:
Johnny Storm has brought the Thing to a disco to help him forget about Alicia.

It doesn't work, but while he's there, they run into Warren Worthington, aka the Angel, and his girlfriend Candy Southern. While Angel and the Thing are in the bathroom, they get gassed.

They wake up in a dungeon that the Thing soon recognizes as Dr. Doom's castle in upstate New York.

They fight their way through a series of death traps only to find the Toad, who's got himself a tiny Magneto robot to boss around...

...and a life-sized Scarlet Witch robot to... well, let's not speculate.

He's borrowed money and equipment from Arcade (note the "A" on the device that gasses the duo)...

...so that he can become a freelance assassin, but instead of taking on money making projects he's decided to build this death trap in Dr. Doom's old castle and go after the people that used to treat him poorly. Arcade calls in the loan while the Toad is trying to menace Angel and the Thing.

Angel feels bad and offers to pay off his debt and help fund a business venture with the Toad. They re-create Doom's castle as the Toadland amusement park.

Angel wonders why the super-heroes don't try the rehabilitation route with super-villains more often. I guess it's cause most heroes aren't made of money.

Cute little issue which will actually have some wide-ranging implications.

My issue had an out of sequence page, but i bought it 29 years too late to demand my money back.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 3 - Dr. Doom's upstate New York castle converted to an amusement park.

Chronological Placement Considerations: Alicia and Ben are still broken up. They get back together in Marvel Two-In-One #70. She also moves into the Baxter Building that issue. Angel mentions that he "saw some action" with the X-Men "a few weeks ago". That's a bit of a casual way to talk about the death of Phoenix, but that's the storyline that most closely fits. Maybe he doesn't want to talk about it. The MCP places this between FF #216-217 but that would push it before the Dark Phoenix saga (which is when Angel rejoins the X-Men) and i'm afraid to move that around due to all of the guest stars and cameos, so i'm placing it between FF #218-219 unless i find a reason not to.

References:

• The Thing first saw Doom's castle in Fantastic Four #5.
  
• It's not explicitly mentioned, but the events of this issue are only possible because Dr. Doom is currently out of commission due to the events of Fantastic Four #200.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

I don't think Arcade was revealed as the Toad's loan guy until X-Men #145, and I don't think they sufficiently explained how Arcade grabbed Doom's castle to begin with.

Arcade wasn't officially revealed in this issue but it was definitely meant to be him. I added a scene above where his trademark "A" can be seen on the device that gasses the Thing and Angel, and later Toad refers to him as "Mister A" when he calls.

Love the site. An "apologia" in the letter column of MTIO 70 states that this issue was actually inked by Pablo Marcos.

Thanks! I've confirmed it and updated the credit.

Uncanny X-Men 145 brings up that Doom hates Arcade for this, and mentions Toad. But it's all all camera, and the footnote doesn't have the Marvel Two-in-One number. A rare mistake by Marvel at that time.

I'm surprised the other Marvel characters don't get upset that Ben gets all the truly great splash pages. That splash is all sorts of awesome. Disco may have sucked, but at least it gave us that panel.

While Angel and the Thing are in the bathroom, they get gassed.

Hmmmm.