Issue(s): Marvel Two-In-One #74
Cover Date: Apr 81
Title: "A Christmas peril!"
Credits:
Mark Gruenwald - Writer
Frank Springer - Penciler
Chic Stone - Inker
Bob Budiansky - Assistant Editor
Jim Salicrup - Editor

Review/plot:
This is a Christmas issue. The FF are having a party (Jeannine O'Connell, a scientist at Project Pegasus, is announced as Quasar's fiancee but that won't turn out to last; the rest of the guest list is included in the lettercol and they're all included in the Characters Appearing)...

...but Alicia's father the Puppet Master has just gotten out of jail and, thanks to a Seasons Greetings card the Thing sent him at Alicia's insistence...

...he shows up too. It's cool seeing him mingle with the FF, setting up the potential for some kind of reform.

When Franklin offers him one of his presents, the Puppet Master instead says he'd love to revisit his homeland. This is really just a scheme to get some new radioactive clay, since his old supply has degraded over time. But as far as Alicia is concerned, it's an opportunity to take her father back to his homeland. Which, it turns out, is Transia, the tiny city-state that holds Wundagore Mountain, which is the source of the Puppet Master's clay. This creates a shared origin between the Puppet Master and Mr. Doll, which makes a lot of sense. It also gives us an opportunity to check in on Bova and Modred the Magician...

...who in his idiot-child state shrinks down both the Puppet Master and the Thing, thinking they are bad guys (he was half-right), and forcing them to work together

In the end they are able to convince Modred to restore them to normal size, and the Puppet Master gives him a doll to play with.

Christmas stories are usually too precious for my tastes, and this one does have its saccharine moments, but i do like the development for the Puppet Master. And i like Gruenwald's characteristic tying things together. I really wish Frank Springer had worked out a better look for the Puppet Master, though.

Statement of Ownership Total Paid Circulation: Average of Past 12 months = 176,565. Single issue closest to filing date = 175,674.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - revelations and development for the Puppet Master

Chronological Placement Considerations: The MCP places this between Fantastic Four #221-222, but this has to take place between FF #228-229 because the Human Torch has brought Lorrie Melton to the Christmas party and they don't start dating until #228, and they break up at the end of the #229-231 arc. Just a reminder that i don't put any effort into lining up seasons or Christmases in my project. With the sliding timescale, i figure they just celebrate Christmas randomly in the Marvel universe.

References:

• This is the second published appearance of Bova, after Avengers #185-187, and she re-describers her origin here. Modred the Mystic also lost his intellect in that storyline.
  
• When Bova mentions that she was created by the High Evolutionary, the Thing remembers that he and Alicia met him in Marvel Two-In-One #62.
  
• The same footnote reminds us that the Thing and Alicia also met Modred the Mystic previously in Marvel Two-In-One #33, but he subsequently (at their request) wiped their minds of the encounter.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Hope you enjoyed your time off, fnord. We missed you! Are we assuming that Gilbert Vaughn is the guy standing just behind son Wendell, his face partly obscured by Ben's word balloon, or the white-haired and bearded guy standing just in front of that guy (in between Quasar and Stingray)? If the former, then the latter is unidentified in the lettercol. I thought maybe a no-longer-amphibian Dr. Henry Croft...?

The lettercol lists Gilbert among the people "coming in the door", so i assume he's the one further back, next to Quasar (who is also "coming in the door"). So yeah, the guy with the more wild beard is unidentified. And looking at him, i agree with you that it's meant to be a post-amphibian Henry Croft. I've added him. Nice catch.