Happy Thursday, peeps!
Today's topic is the thirty-fourth issue of Marvel Two-In-One. The cover showed the Thing and Nighthawk before a strange humanoid being with tentacles, whom Ben Grimm was trying to protect from several gun-toting men. The tale was titled "A Monster Walks Among Us!" The issue had a cover date of December 1977.
The story started as the Defender known as Nighthawk was flying off to a meeting in London, where his alter-ego of Kyle Richmond was needed for a business meeting. Kyle was only two hours late, for which he used the excuse that his jet was hijacked (even though his Nighthawk costume's jets allowed him to fly).
Mr. Marcus Welby and Dr. Reginald Johnson St. Martin Casey had an important discovery that they wanted Richmond to examine. They were optimistic that it could be the discovery of a lifetime. Meanwhile, in another part of London, Ben Grimm was awaiting the good news about the cyborg from the future, Deathlok, from Professor Kort. Kort was able to revive the warrior from the 30th century. He was no sooner awakened when SHIELD (Supreme Headquarters International Intelligence and Law Enforcement Division) head Nick Fury and his associates arrived.
Fury and his men carted Deathlok away after Nick gave Ben a single Havana cigar, instead of the box of cigars that Grimm had bargained for. A phone call would later bring Kort and Grimm to Richmond's lab, where the trio watched Casey and Welby activate a neutron ray that was aimed at the strange stone that had been recently uncovered.
The beam was powerful enough to cut the rock and let the strange creature it had contained free. It emitted a strange gas that rendered its witnesses unconscious. The being did not know that the others of its kind who had arrived on Earth had perished in a nuclear explosion in 1908 in Siberia.
The creature later left the laboratory and came across a young girl, in a scene that was eerily reminiscent of a similar one in a famous monster movie. The girl was initially terrified of the beast, and her scream brought her father and his friend running after her. The two men were armed and ready to defend the child and themselves.
As the otherworldly being ventured farther, the witnesses in the laboratory woke. Ben and Nighthawk set out in search of the creature. The girl was now safe in a hospital, where she was met by a stranger. The creature had found a deer trapped under rocks and went to free it, right before he was fired upon by the girl's father and his accomplice.
While Nighthawk and the Thing were trying to prevent further unnecessary violence, the girl pulled an electrical wire by the plug, and moments later, the hospital she was in caught fire. The heroes now had a mission: to save all of the hospital's occupants. That was a task that the strange creature embarked on as well.
Richmond entered the building and retrieved several children. Ben had an idea for extinguishing the flames. The creature also freed children from the burning hospital. For his efforts, he was fired upon. Even after being injured, the monster still continued to try to help the youngsters.
Grimm had reached a nearby bell tower and removed the bell. He dunked it into a stream and flung the water at the hospital to douse the fire. The last person that the creature saved was the little girl Maggie, whom he'd met earlier, and whose father had shot at him before it passed on. Nighthawk admonished the gunmen for their actions, since it was now clear who the real monsters were in this scenario.
This was a typical moral tale of the time, but one that still matters. We still often fear the unknown and are prone to act defensively or with violence toward those things. That doesn't solve anything, and in many cases makes things worse.
Nighthawk was a solid member of the Defenders for many years, and a de facto leader and mentor to many younger superheroes before his character was killed off. He's reminiscent of Warren Worthington III and Bruce Wayne, but was different enough to stand out on his own. I liked how he redeemed himself from his days as a villain and became probably a better person than he'd initially expected himself to be.
Next time, I'll cover the thirty-fifth issue of this series. Ben embarks on a multi-part storyline that features a character who had his own short-lived series for a while. Until then, have a great week and don't forget to be kind to one another.
No comments:
Post a Comment