Happy Tuesday, peeps!
Today's focus will be on the ninth issue of Marvel's Two-In-One. The well-drawn cover showed the Thing squaring off against the mighty Thor, with the rest of the Fantastic Four lying helpless in the foreground and the Puppet Master smiling as he held puppets of the two combatants in his hands. The tale was titled "When a God Goes Mad!" The issue had a cover date of May 1975.
The story started with Ben Grimm knocking down Doctor Doom, with the encouragement of Sue Richards (aka the Invisible Girl), Reed Richards (Mister Fantastic), and Johnny Storm (the Human Torch). On the second page, we learned that the action was all part of a children's matinee. The audience reacted strongly to the performance.
Included in the audience were Namorita and her college roommate Ann Christopher, the alien Wundarr, and Ben Grimm himself. Ben was sulking until he noticed that one of the puppets bore a strange resemblance to one of his old enemies, the Puppet Master. When he stood up, the Thing was recognized by people in the crowd, who started to gather around him.
This gave the puppet enough time to slink into the shadows behind the curtains. Afterward, the foursome headed for the Fantasticar and headed home to the Baxter Building. On the way, they narrowly evaded the flying Avenger, Thor. The near collision had been observed by the Puppet Master and an associate who was wearing a radiation suit.
The villain went to his workbench and picked up a model of the Asgardian. Within moments, the powerful hero was at his command. Thor stopped his flight in mid-air and crashed into the Baxter Building. He quickly took out the Torch, Mister Fantastic, and the Invisible Girl. Moments later, he realized what he'd just done and stamped his mighty Mjolnir to the ground to become his alter ego, Doctor Don Blake.
While the doctor quickly tended to his new patients, the Puppet Master and his ally realized their minion's failure. They tracked the Fantasticar's arrival. Ben saw the hole in the side of the building and was immediately concerned. He burst in to find the doctor caring for his teammates.
As the doctor explained that the damage had been caused by Thor and listened to the Thing's suspicion that the Puppet Master was involved, the attention was then turned to the villains. We then saw that the Puppet Master's comrade was Radion, the Atomic Man. He helped to supply power to the clay figure of Thor. Blake had left the Thing's company and returned to his heroic form and was enraptured once more.
Thor started to fight the Fantastic Four's strongest teammate. The Puppet Master brought out his puppets and used Radion's energies to control them. However, they stopped working after the atomic man came into contact with Wundarr. Radion eventually fled, leaving the old man in between his combatants. Wundarr struck to protect his "Unca Benjy" and took the villain out of the fight. Thor thanked Grimm for his assistance before taking off and leaving the group to themselves.
I wasn't a big fan of the art in this issue, but I was okay with the story. The Thing would encounter the Puppet Master several more times in this mag and in its follow-up, which was just named The Thing, both as friend and foe. Thor would also guest star again before this title's cancellation. Wundarr saved the day, although we still didn't know much about him at the time.
Questions about the man-child will have to wait for a while. He wasn't included in the tenth issue of this title, which I'll cover tomorrow. The Black Window is the featured guest star in that issue. She and Ben embark on a covert mission that has implications for the entire world. Until then, have a great week and don't forget to be kind to one another.
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