Issue(s): Marvel Two-In-One #9
Cover Date: Mar 75
Title: "When a god goes mad!"
Credits:
Chris Claremont - Script
Steve Gerber - Plot
Herb Trimpe - Penciler
Joe Giella - Inker

Review/plot:
The Thing has taken Wundarr, Namorita, and Namorita's classmate Annie Christopher to a puppet show.

Honestly, when someone like that walks out on stage, you've got a right to be suspicious, whether or not he looks like the Puppet Master, which he clearly does.

In fact, the only thing that was throwing me was that i thought that guy was one of the Puppet Master's puppets, somehow controlled by the actual Puppet Master, who i thought was the guy in the cloak here.

But no, that guy is Radion, a new villain.

And so the Howdy Doody looking guy is actually the Puppet Master. No explanation for the super-deformed head; the Puppet Master has always looked kinda weird but this is a new level.

Radion is able to boost the radioactivity in the Puppet Master's clay in order to control more powerful people, so after the Thing nearly crashes into Thor...

...the Puppet Master sends Thor to the Baxter Building, where he proceeds to pound the rest of the FF into unconsciousness.

Thor is able to realize what he's doing long enough to change back into Don Blake, and so it's Blake that the Thing encounters when he arrives at the Baxter Building. The Thing already knows Blake, so there's no arguments. There's a very confused sequence where Blake and the Thing can't figure out that the Puppet Master might be the one who possessed Thor...

...but the Thing is convinced to stay behind. Of course as soon as Blake transforms back into Thor, he's possessed again (what was he expecting?) and sent to attack the Thing.

Things are more or less going swimmingly for the Puppet Master and Radion, but the duo dumbly decide to show up in person...

...and that's when Wundarr shows up. His inherent energy absorbing powers suck in all of the radiation from Radion, forcing him to run away, and also weaken the Puppet Master's puppets to the point where they don't work on either Thor or the Thing.

But it's actually Wundarr who knocks the Puppet Master out.

Thor immediately flies off; he's got stuff going on in his own book.

Radion isn't really explained, and there's a lot of dumb scenes with the characters doing things that don't make sense. It's nice to see Wundarr getting used but he's definitely playing a deus ex role, and it also raises the question of what Namorita (a true Sub-Mariner!) is doing in this book considering she never gets to do anything.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - first Radion

Chronological Placement Considerations: This takes place between Fantastic Four #157-158 and after Marvel Team-Up #32. Per a footnote, Thor appears here circa Thor #233-234.

References:

• The Puppet Master's initial puppet show features the FF fighting Dr. Doom, and a footnote reminds us that the FF just defeated the real Dr. Doom in Fantastic Four #157.
  
• The Puppet Master has been thought dead (and buried) since Marvel Team-Up #6. It's just said here that Radion saved him.
  
• Thor is rushing to the hospital Jane Foster is being kept in after the battle of Washington circa Thor #233-234, when the Thing first nearly crashes into him.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

At the risk of overstating the obvious, you'll notice that the disguised Puppet Master's resemblance to Howdy Doody is made overt by the "H. Deuty" name on his dressing-room door. Strange how Giella's inks almost completely erase Trimpe's very distinctive style.