BHOC: MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE #48

I bought this issue of MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE like clockwork when it showed up at my regular 7-11 source for comics. While the series had been suffering a bit, running an assortment of fill-in issues and not really having a settled creative team or direction to it, it starred the Thing of the Fantastic Four, and therefore was essential to my complete reading experience. I knew that the book was wobbly during this period, but it didn’t make a difference. When a new issue dropped, I bought it regardless, hoping that I’d get lucky and this would be a good one.

One of the flukey things about Marvel’s two team-up comics was the fact that, except in very rare instances, they insisted on pairing the Thing’s logo on the cover of every issue with that of another Marvel star. Which meant that, like clockwork, if you were telling a multi-part story, you’d be required to bring in more and more characters so as to add new logos to the cover. In this case, having started this two-part adventure with the Thing and the Yancy Street Gang, writer Bill Mantlo chose to bring in one of his own pet characters for the back half, Jack of Hearts. Jack was a character that Mantlo had created for DEADLY HANDS OF KUNG FU, and he pushed Jack whenever he got the chance across the larger Marvel line.

Last issue, the Thing had been drawn back to Yancy Street by a covert message for help from his regular tormentors, the Yancy Street Gang. There, he was attacked by the forces of Machinesmith, an operative of the criminal Corporation, and defeated. This issue opens up with Jack of Hearts putting himself through a training regimen and recapping his recent appearances in other titles, reconciling, among other things, Jack’s appearances in DEFENDERS which weren’t scripted by Mantlo. As Jack winds up his exercise session, his butler Martins lets him know that Jack has received a letter. It’s from the corporation, a disguised invitation for a confrontation. The Corporation has been after the secret of the Zero Fluid that gave Jack his powers, and here they’ve essentially decided to invite him to be a part of this story. How accommodating of them.

Elsewhere, Machinesmith and his men have both the Yancy Street Gang (whose faces are always kept awkwardly in shadow) and the Thing prisoner. Machinesmith fits Ben with an Alpha-Wave helmet that essentially puts his conscious mind to sleep, allowing Machinesmith to control his powerful body. With it, he intends to pillage all of the scientific secrets of Reed Richards. But before that, the Corporation has another party they need to take care of; Jack of Hearts. So when Jack arrives for his midnight confrontation, he’s jumped not only by Machinesmith’s powerful androids, but also by the mesmerized Thing.

So Jack and the zombified Thing mix it up for a bit. Overjoyed about his current success, Machinesmith and his minions prepare to abandon their current base. But it’s at this point that the Yancy Street Gang manages to break free, and they go on the offensive, tearing into Machinesmith’s gang.

Elsewhere, in the middle of his battle with the Thing, Jack notices the Alpha Wave headband on his head, and increasing his energy output, destroys it. Machinesmith is amazed that the novice super hero has triumphed over his more experienced foe–forgetting, perhaps, that the Thing was in no real shape to take advantage of his experience or battle prowess as a mindless thrall. What’s worse, just as Machinesmith takes this turn of events on board, the Yancy Street Gang members burst into his inner sanctum, surprising both him and his associate, Mr. Carnation. They proceed to illustrate their displeasure with the pair through physical means.

By this point, Jack of Hearts and the Thing have shown up for teh denounment, but it’s too late for them to get their licks in–the Yancy Street Gang has pummeled both Carnation and Machinesmith into unconsciousness. Or at least, that’s what it looks like. Because as Jack examines Machinesmith’s body, he’s shocked to discover that it too is an android, now lifeless. So the true Machinesmith is still at large somewhere else. But this is enough to wrap up this adventure–which ends with a member of teh YSG giving Ben a celebratory cigar which turns out to be explosive. Sadly, you could almost have done this story without the Thing and it would have turned out much the same.

The letters page in this issue included another letter from frequent correspondent and future Marvel writer Kurt Busiek, this one complaining about the unexplained return of the Cosmic Cube in a recent story, after it had been destroyed by Captain Mar-Vell in the first Thanos saga.