Retro Comic Recap: Marvel Two-In-One #13

Good morning,

Hope all's well. It's time for me to recap the thirteenth issue of Marvel Two-In-One. The cover depicted the Thing and Power Man in the clutches of a tall green monster. The story was called "I Created Braggadoom! The Mountain That Walked Like A Man!" The issue had a cover date of January 1976.

The story started in the offices of Heroes for Hire, in the building that also housed the Gem Theater in New York City. Luke Cage was sitting at his desk, listening to a timid scientist who wanted to employ the costumed adventurer. He explained that he was a biological researcher at Krasner Bio-Systems Inc. 

The man had been working on a delicate experiment, and the cellular tissue he'd been using was accidentally combined with an unknown substance. This error caused the solution to bubble over and forced the scientist to drop the beaker. It crashed onto the floor, and a strange green glob emanated from it, growing continuously as it moved along. 

It was finally encased in a glass case, but one of the reporters at a press conference lifted the cover to poke at it, and the entity was consumed along with Krasner. The blob later assumed a humanoid form and kept growing until it broke out of the compound and moved across the city. When Cage asked why the man hadn't contacted the Avengers or the Fantastic Four, he learned that Ben Grimm was battling the beast at that very moment. He was the only one of the FF who had been home and answered the call.

Cage then led the scientist out into the street, heading toward the destruction wrought by the monster. They found Ben and the giant known as Braggadoom in Central Park. It took that name from the sound made after it tossed the Thing into a coliseum seating section. As it fought, its intelligence increased.

Ben and Luke battled the creature until they wound up fighting each other. By then, the monster had taken the scientist named Arnold Krank with him. They went to the Baxter Building and used a Pogo Plane to track the monster. 

Braggadoom was destroying a bridge. The battle resumed until the creature was left alone. It started to shrink until it was about the same size as an action figure. Braggadoom fit right in the palm of Krank's palm, and he carried his creation off, as Ben reminded Cage about the two people who were lost when the substance absorbed them. A short while later, we saw the scientist making an audio log as the beast sat in a playpen. Apparently, Krank took the role of father figure to this being quite literally. 

This was the first of many issues of this series that was pencilled by Ron Wilson. He would also go on to draw most issues of the follow-up book, The Thing, before its cancellation. He excelled at drawing Grimm's rocky alter ego and various monsters, but I always felt his skills were a bit lacking when it came to depicting other human characters. Braggadoom is another baddie that had some potential, but to the best of my knowledge, has never appeared again in any other Marvel comic books. That's too bad. I would have liked to have seen him face off against other characters at some point, especially if his higher-level intelligence returned as well.

That's it for this morning. Later today, I'll tackle the fourteenth issue of this title. Ben goes out West and encounters an unexpected menace alongside someone who you've probably seen in issues of the Defenders and his own solo stories. Until then, have a great week and don't forget to be kind to one another.