BHOC: MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE #49

MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE #49 was another junky, lifeless issue of what had become a largely junky, lifeless series. There was improvement just around the corner, though, and while I didn’t know that at the time, my critical standards at the age of twelve were pretty meager. I liked the Thing and the Fantastic Four, and so I bought the book without fail every month, simple as that. And every once in a while, there’d be an issue that I really liked. This one, though, was not that issue. I didn’t dislike it per se, but I found it almost completely forgettable. Before looking at it again for this piece, I could have told you very little about what the actual story was about.

The one thing I did remember was the Thing’s bananas Jack Kirby fishing rod, which had been a gift from the Black Panther acquired back in FANTASTIC FOUR #54. I’d never read that issue, but it was distinct enough that it lodged in my head. What I didn’t get right away was that the sailor who has ferried Ben out for a day of fishing on the coast is meant to be Popeye–the name of his boat, Olive, and the fact that Ben calls him Doyle (“Popeye” Doyle had been Gene Hackman’s character in the film the French Connection) get the idea across even without the sailor having huge forearms or a corncob pipe.

Ben is up in New England, in the creepy cottage town of Crawlinswood–a name to conjure with if ever there was one. He’s forced to register in an old hotel right out of central casting. It’s run by an old woman who is the spitting image of Grimm’s associate Agatha Harkness, but apparently there’s no relationship between the two. Also at the inn is Doctor Strange, who thinks to himself that the Thing has unknowingly responded to the psychic call he put forth to gather allies, as there is something nefarious going on that requires the attention of the Master of the Mystic Arts. Doc would have summoned one of the heroes he was closer to, such as the Defenders, but this is the Thing’s title and he respects that.

I should give a mention of the creative team here. This self-contained story was written by Jo Duffy, a longtime letterhack who had recently come on staff as an Assistant Editor and who would go on to make her mark writing POWER MAN AND IRON FIST. The penciling is by Alan Kupperberg, and it’s as rubbery and stilted as his work typically was. The saving grace were the excellent inks of Gene Day, who elevated these pages, giving them nice texture and a sense of environment that Kupperberg simply wasn’t capable of producing on his own. Day died at a young age, and I suspect it was a real loss to the industry, as his work was routinely superlative on everything he did.

Strange is forced to remain out of sight in his room in order to keep his presence hidden, but he’s able to advise and guide Ben to a limited degree in his astral form. Years ago, the necromancer Ellis Tremellyn, perished while in pursuit of his enemies, the Crawlins family. Now, years later, the planets are in alignment, and Ellis can strike at the descendants of his enemies, using the reanimated and petrified body of Kemo, a Polynesian sailor who had gone down with him as a silent operative. As night falls, Kemo rises in an attempt to kill off Jane Crawlins, but the Thing is there to get in the way. But Kemo is driven by sorcery, and is able to stand up to the mightiest blows the Thing can throw at him.

Leaving the Thing to handle the physical conflict and to keep Jane Crawlins safe, Strange journeys in his ectoplasmic form to the astral plane to confront the spirit of Ellis Tremellyn directly. Strange, though, is weaker in his spirit form, though still adept enough to be able to hold Ellis at bay. But as they battle, Ellis discerns Strange’s true nature, and sends a psychic instruction to his zombie slave Kemo. He is to abandon Jane Crawlins and instead slay the man in a certain room of the hotel–Strange’s physical body. If that should die, so too would Strange’s astral form ultimately perish.

Ben, though, has been around the block a few times, and he’s worked out that it must be the gem embedded in Kemo’s chest that’s animating him, so he proceeds to crush it. This has a backlash effect on Ellis, and as the planetary alignment move on, he is drawn away to face the retribution of his hellish masters. As a result, Keno is freed from Eliis’ control, and he thanks Ben for his actions before also disappearing into teh afterlife. And the issue wraps up with the Thing having only the slightest ideas as to what had been going on, while Doctor Strange is satisfied with the resolution and is content to let sleeping dogs lie. The end. It’s a perfect fine story, but utterly unmemorable, with a villain and a set of circumstances that just didn’t stick to my ribs in any way.

The Ever-Lovin’ Blue-Eyed Letters Page this month included a letter from future Eclipse editor Cat Yronwode, who was a regular correspondent to the Marvel titles at this time.