Happy Friday, folks!
Today's topic is the seventieth issue of Marvel Two-In-One. The cover showed the Thing turning around as he was walking with Alicia Masters when he noticed a pistol being pointed at him by a pair that he'd thought he'd seen the last of. The story was titled "A Moving Experience." The issue had a publication date of December 1980.
The tale began on a sunny day in New York. Ben Grimm was buying a snow cone from a street vendor, as kids behind him were playing a game of stickball. The ball bounced away and knocked the treat from Grimm's hand. He was angered until he saw the three boys trying to retrieve their ball, which had rolled underneath a parked car. Ben walked up and lifted the vehicle so the boys could get their ball back. One of them presented the Thing with another snow cone as an act of gratitude.
A short while later, outside Alicia Master's apartment building, a pair of men looked on as Ben ascended the steps to the complex. She greeted Ben warmly before welcoming him in and introducing her art dealer, Mr. Burge, to him. He was the man Grimm had spotted Masters with earlier, and assumed that he was her paramour. She insisted that her relationship with Burge was only professional.
Ben apologized for his reaction, and the two set out together. As they did, the two strangers walked by, talking about their plans. Sometime later, Ben and Alicia arrived at the Baxter Building, home and headquarters for the Fantastic Four. Ben's teammates Reed Richards (Mister Fantastic), Sue Richards (the Invisible Girl), and Johnny Storm (the Human Torch) were working on one of Reed's machines.
Grimm announced to his friends his request to move Alicia into their headquarters, at least on a temporary basis. Reed was fine with that suggestion, adding that he'd upgraded their security system for reasons like this. He welcomed Alicia to the Fantastic Four and she and Ben were the happiest that they'd been in quite some time.
The next day, the two strangers whom we saw earlier were perched on the roof of Alicia's apartment building. Grimm was helping her move, a process that was complicated by the interference of the mystery men who we know now were Shellshock and Livewire, a pair of two-bit hoods who once aided the Psycho-Man (in Fantastic Four Annual #5). They took out some of the moving men, and took their places.
Ben insisted on riding on the bumper of the moving truck, not knowing that the villains were inside, and weren't about to let the FF strongman have a smooth ride. After being tossed off the back of the moving vehicle, Grimm later recognized it as the paint from its new coating started dripping onto the road. He caught up with his foes and managed to vanquish him, with a little help from his fellow Yancy Streeters.
After confirming that Alicia and her belongings were safe, Ben recruited the police to round up the would-be robbers. Grimm entered the van to follow the officers to the station to press charges against Shellshock and Livewire. What he didn't know was that the Yancy Street Gang had left one of their familiar trademark insults spraypainted on the back of the moving truck before Ben and Alicia left.
This felt like a bit of a fill-in issue, even though Ben and Alicia's relationship issues were resolved in the plot. The foes Grimm faced would probably fit in well with the Enforcers, who have battled the likes of Spider-Man, Daredevil, and others over the years. I wasn't too impressed with them, as they seemed sort of generic to me.
That's all I have for you today. Tomorrow, I'll cover the seventy-first issue of Marvel Two-In-One. Reed and Ben venture to Hydrobase to check in on Dr. Henry Croft. They'll run into some familiar faces and be alerted to a new threat. Until then, have a great week and don't forget to be kind to one another.
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