Good morning, folks,
Time for me to talk about the thirty-fourth issue of the Thing. The cover showed Ben Grimm in an odd pose as he ducked a fist aimed at him by his old enemy, the Sphinx. The tale was titled "Dual Duel." The issue had a cover date of April 1986.
The story started in the Sphinx's mobile flying pyramid, as the decades-old monarch viewed the Thing battling an opponent in the wrestling ring on his monitor. He swore vengeance on the former Fantastic Four member, as his vehicle hovered over a garbage dump. Machines were employed to extract materials from the ground, including lifeless clay that was soon brought on board.
Upon further examination by some of those devices, the clay was transformed into the form of the Puppet Master. The villain had been dismantled after his last encounter with Grimm (in issue #8) and placed in a dumpster, where the Sphinx found it. Upon hearing about his host's plans to destroy the Thing, the Puppet Master offered a partnership. The Sphinx quickly rejected that proposal and kicked the old man out of his flying fortress.
The pyramid flew off, but not before the Puppet Master vowed to find their common foe first. Ben was back in action in the ring at the Unlimited Class Wrestling Foundation's headquarters in Los Angeles a few days later when his sparring partner, Demolition Dunphy, seemed a bit stronger than usual. Grimm eventually realized that his opponent's moves were being deftly guided by the Puppet Master, whom he spied in the arena seats.
After tying up Dunphy, the Thing made a beeline for the elder Masters. He confronted the Puppet Master, who was still angry at him for dating his stepdaughter Alicia. Grimm had to set the man straight. He explained that Alicia had left him for another man, although he wouldn't disclose the fact that her current suitor was his old Fantastic Four teammate, Johnny Storm (the Human Torch). Grimm showed Masters a picture of his current love interest, Sharon Ventura.
The Puppet Master finally started to understand that the Thing simply wasn't interested in Alicia anymore. He fled moments later, leaving Grimm to untie his colleague and explain a bit. He barely noticed that Sharon had gone off with the female Grapplers, but Dunphy reminded him that Sharon was her own woman, and that she needed a bit of space for her own.
Ben was engaged in the marquee match that evening when the contest was interrupted by the arrival of the Sphinx. Their battle raged across town and was captured by local media. Phillip Masters was in a hotel room not far away when his attention turned to a TV broadcast of the destruction. He rushed out of the room after having made a decision to become involved in the affair.
The Puppet Master raced through the crowd of onlookers and neared the two combatants just as it appeared that the Sphinx finally had the upper hand. He used some of his radioactive clay to form a puppet of the Sphinx, which he then manipulated to make the real Sphinx take the Ka stone from his forehead and crush it.
The villain dissipated into dust not long thereafter. Masters walked past Grimm, who was severely weakened from the fight, and announced that the Sphinx would have met his demise anyway once the stone deteriorated. All he did was speed up that process. Grimm was surprised by his old enemy's heroics, but was too spent to do anything more at the moment.
This issue provided a bit of closure from the events that occurred in the ninety-first issue of Marvel Two-In-One. It also showed a different side of the Puppet Master, who was still a bitter rival of the Thing earlier in this series. It did change their dynamic for a while, at least until it was later revealed that Storm was in love with a Skrull who had taken Alicia's place.
That's it for now. I'll return later today with a synopsis of the thirty-fifth issue of the Thing. We'll learn what happened to Sharon Ventura and learn a bit more about her past. Until then, have a great Sunday and don't forget to be kind to one another.
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