Issue(s): Marvel Two-In-One #92, Marvel Two-In-One #93
Cover Date: Oct-Nov 82
Title: "This evil returning--!" / "And one shall die--!"
Credits:
Tom DeFalco - Writer
Ron Wilson - Penciler
A. Sorted / D. Hands - Inker
Jim Salicrup - Editor

Review/plot:
Note the clever inker credits that indicate that these issues needed lots of help. Even the UHBMCC doesn't list specific credits.

These issues are basically devoted to what frequent commenter Mark Drummond would call the disposing of a disposable character (see the comments here, and scan the All Comments page for more). Poor Jocasta never got to do much. She was never really a full Avenger and she hung around in the background a lot and then got shuffled off when the line-up changed. These issues kill her off. Of course, being a robot, i'm sure no one was too surprised when she was resurrected years later.

She shows up at the Baxter Building looking forlorn...

...and complaining of problems with her circuitry. Mr. Fantastic tries to dump the problem back on the Avengers (kidding!)(but look how snotty Cap is in this appearance. "Oh yeah, you know, I was getting sloppy cause it almost took me a full minute to subdue five gunman. Yes Jarvis, please stand there and hold my tea for me while I have a long conversation with Reed here.").

Jocasta eventually goes berserk, and the Thing gets the news while he happens to be looking into insurance policies. His agent is Aaron Stack, so Machine Man gets involved as well, since he's intrigued by the idea of a "lady robot".

Jocasta is under the control of Ultron, and he directs her to free him.

Now, the Thing, Jocasta, and Machine Man aren't exactly the team you want to have going up against Ultron.

The Thing actually does better than i would have expected knocking around an adamantium body.

But Ultron has hypnotizing powers, too.

After fighting off the Thing and Ultron...

...Machine Man escapes with Jocasta on the Thing's sky sled.

He heads to his friend Gears Gavin's garage where he gets some much needed repairs.

Despite it being her final story, Jocasta doesn't do very much. She's the secondary title character for issue #92, and she spends the issue whining about her ill treatment at the hands of the Avengers and then being mind-controlled by Ultron. In issue #93, Machine Man is the official guest star, and Jocasta is similarly passive and or whiny.

Meanwhile, Ultron, who has a secret base on Liberty Island, by the way...

...is using the hypnotized Thing to finalize his plan of creating an army of Ultrons.

Even Jocasta's attempt at a heroic death ends in failure.

Ultron is ultimately defeated when Machine Man sticks his arm down his throat, finding something non-adamantium on the inside.

Ultron's insides are supposed to be a nuclear fusion reactor, so Machine Man's arm really should have melted. But that was a pretty cool scene, so i'll let it slide.

It isn't the 60s or 70s any more, so Marvel hasn't had the opportunity to bash protesters as much as they used to, but Tom DeFalco finds a way in an admittedly cute throwaway scene early in issue #92.

Anyway, that's it for Jocasta (for now). I don't think there was anything inherently wrong with her; it's just that no writer seemed interested enough to use her.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 3 - Death of Jocasta

Chronological Placement Considerations: The MCP places this between FF #248-249. However, Jocasta appears in Contest of Champions, which therefore has to occur before she dies in this arc. And Fantastic Four #250 has to take place before Contest of Champions, because (stay with me!) the events of FF #250 are referenced in Uncanny X-Men #167, and UX #167 is the issue when the X-Men return home from space, which needs to happen before the X-Men appear in Contest. So i've pushed this arc until after Contest of Champions and therefore between FF #250-251. As for Machine Man, he is working in an insurance company in this arc, but rather than go into contortions trying to fit this prior to Machine Man #19, i'm just going to assume he returned to work some time in the year after quitting in that issue. Machine Man even says it's his "first caper in months", so cramming it in between panels of the closing page of another issue doesn't make sense.

References:

• Alicia Masters asks Reed why he hasn't worked on a cure for the Thing since the last failure in Fantastic Four #238. Reed is interrupted by an alarm before he can respond.
  
• Jocasta was created in Avengers #192.
  
• She was dropped from the Avengers line-up in Avengers #211.
  
• Ultron was last defeated - trapped in a slag heap of melted adamantium - in Avengers #202.
  
• There's no footnote, but Machine Man indicates that he's met the Thing before, and that their last encounter wasn't pleasant. I think that would be Machine Man #15.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Jocasta would come back--sort of--in the excellently Barry Smith-drawn Machine Man mini-series in 1984.

Interesting how Ultron has his George Perez-model face with the butterfly-silhouette mouth in the first issue, and the John Buscema-model skull face in the second.

yeah, the arm trick was pretty cool

Ultron would return to the scheme of creating duplicates of himself -- with greater success - during the "Ultron Unlimited" storyline in AVENGERS years later.

Jocasta again returns to life/function briefly in the 1988 Annual crossover storyline.

Machine Man will also encounter Jocasta in Marvel Zombies 3, which shows her death scene in Marvel Two-In-One #93. Machine Man was apparently unaware of her survival.

Poor Jocasta I thought she started off really interesting and could have been used really well. She wasn't a carbon copy robot Janet either. I started liking here when she was able to get rid of Gyrich smoothly.
Gyrich: Hey! She's not on the Avengers rooster!
Jocasta: Really now Mr. Gyrich does the government have to fear a harmless robot?
Gyrich: Yes, er, no, that is I'll have to check this with my superiors.