When writers Ralph Macchio and Mark Gruenwald took over the reins of MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE, the series that featured stories of the Thing teaming up with a diverse assortment of other Marvel superstars, they decided to challenge themselves. They didn’t really like the contemporaneous FANTASTIC FOUR era, so they set out to make MTIO a better book than the character’s home series. And to a great degree, they accomplished this, thanks also to terrific art from first John Byrne and then George Perez, both of whom were good friends with the two writers. They also decided to kick their run off with an extended epic of six parts, in contrast to the typical one-and two-part stories that had been the title’s regular offerings. The Project: PEGASUS Saga was well regarded, to the point where it eventually received a trade paperback collection of the work at a time when very few Marvel stories got to enjoy that format. I’m sure some of that had to do with the fact that Ralph and Mark were both still on staff, both still among the decision makers–but their story was good enough to warrant collection on its own merits.
As mentioned earlier, with this issue, and for the back half of the six issue, superstar George Perez stepped in to provide artwork for the series, or at least breakdowns. They were finished by the illustrative Gene Day, who maintained Perez’s penchant for detail but also gave the pages a bit more mood and atmosphere through his spotting of blacks and his textured line. So the series continued to look good. Sadly, Gene Day passed away relatively young, and so has been somewhat forgotten in the years since he was last working regularly. That’s a shame on multiple levels, as he was a fundamentally excellent artist with a great sense of design and page layout.
This issue opens up with Thundra and a quartet of super-powered lady wrestlers, The Grapplers, attempting to break into the alternate energy source concern Project: PEGASUS to plant a specific piece of technology at a key strategic point for shadowy masters who appear to be connected to the Corporation, one of Jack Kirby’s last creations that had been turning up across the Marvel Universe of the period. The Grapplers were loosely inspired by Kirby’s Female Furies from MISTER MIRACLE, but they were also named after people in and around Marvel’s staff at the time, so there was a bit of a double-joke to them. Thundra has taken on this assignment largely because she’s at loose ends at the moment, and she has no idea that the Thing, with whom she’s shared a flirting relationship, is staying there and helping out security.
Thundra and the Grapplers carry out their mission, but it turns out that the wrestlers have also been given other objectives that Thundra is unaware of, and so they leave her in the dust. At this point, Thundra happens to come across Ben Grimm, who is hustling in response to the break-in alert. Thundra can’t really explain her presence there, so she and the Thing get into a slobberknocker, punching one another off the walls. The Grapplers, meanwhile, split up, with Letha and Screaming Mimi running into Quasar, the base’s Chief of Security, as they penetrate deeper into it. Quasar is new enough at the super hero game that the two Grapplers give him a hard time of it, Mimi’s sonic scream causing him to see them as horrific monsters. But he’s eventually able to pull himself together enough to zap them both with his Quantum Bands.
Elsewhere, Poundcakes and Titania run afoul of the new Giant-Man, formerly Black Goliath and secretly scientist Bill Foster who worked at the installation. Bill isn’t at his best here–it hasn’t been revealed yet, but he’s suffering from radiation poisoning due to a battle he’d had with a radioactive super villain some time ago in his own title. Still, he’s able to use his colossal size to bring the two Grapplers’ rampage to a premature end. Most of this issue is devoted to a series of brawls, which aren’t terribly heavily story-oriented but which do give George and Gene an opportunity to show off their chops.
As the issue heads towards its climax, the focus shifts back over to the Thing and Thundra, who are tearing it up. As always, Thundra declares her romantic affection for Ben, couched in the terms of her female-superiority Femizons civilization. But Ben simply isn’t interested, and continues to insist that to Thundra, who simply will not relent on this point. Thundra is also patronizing to Ben, telling him that she’s ashamed of battling an inferior foe who is also injured–the Thing had been shot by Deathlok a few issues before and his arm still wasn’t good as new. So the intensity of the brawl escalates–and then, at a key moment, the entrance of other people into the scene brings the bout to a premature conclusion.
It’s Project: PEGASUS’ security team, with the rest of the Grapplers in custody. With her gang taken down, Thundra doesn’t see any point in continuing to fight. But she also refuses to reveal anything about the shadowy employers that sent her and the Grapplers on this mission. While this is going on, Dr, Lichtner, who had once been the villainous Black Sun, collects the component that had been left in secret by Thundra and the Grapplers. He thinks to himself that it’s the last piece he needs to construct his Nth Projector, which he’ll use to destroy the Project and everyone in it. And on that dire note, we are To Be Continued!
The Ever-Lovin’ Blue-Eyed Letters Page this issue included another bit of correspondence from future Marvel writer Kurt Busiek. Kurt was commenting on a pre-Project: PEGASUS issue that had been one of the first jobs drawn by a young Frank Miller. For what it’s worth, Busiek liked it, as you can see for yourself above.
I love the Perez/Day team. I’ve read most of these MTIO issues, and it’s so rare to see an art team that does not include Joe Sinnott make the Thing look right.
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Gene Day’s inks are all-time great. IIRC he first inked Ben Grimm in MTIO49 and he made workman like artist Alan Kupperberg look great.
BTW thats not slight against Kupperberg he was solid and dependable. Not everyone is the Judge or Ohtani of their profession or in this case the prime Byrne or Perez.
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Gene Day’s pencil art on the later issues of Master of Kung-Fu are absolutely gorgeous.
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I have 3 Master of Kung Fu that Gene Day pencils and the last 2 he inked too [ Master of Kung Fu#110 ( March 1983 –inked by Jack Abel. New foe is Ghost Maker ( Grigori Sovchenko ), 114 ( July 1982 –story of a blind archer and his wife who have been chased by on of Fu Manchu’s Si-Fan warriors for 40 years ) & 115 ( August 1982 –vs. Death-Dealer ).
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Page 15 maybe the “most like” The George Perez I first stumbled onto a few years after this, in a DC book.
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I truly believe Gene Day would have become one of the top ten artists ever had he lived longer. His work is beautiful!
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He could make anyone look better and even made a few on the cusp look like they’d made it at last. His loss was unfortunate on top of the loss of the man from his loved ones lives. I’d hoped for much more of his work than we were blessed with.
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Clearly I missed some good comics during my hiatus from collecting. Any book at that time with either George Perez or John Bryne had a leg up on the competition. As for Gene Day’s inks, just add my voice to the chior. It was just a week or two ago that were lamenting Don Newton’s early passing and it’s very much the same with Day’s lovely work.
I have to add that I’ve always had a soft spot for Thundra. The tough lady was the antagonist for FF #133 – my first issue of that series when I actually started collecting it. She seems like a someone worthy of a deeper dive. A woman whose background combined with experiences on this world would present some intriguing complexities to explore. (And I’ve no idea if she’s still with Arkon.)
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To me, Thundra tends to come off as a one-note Straw Feminist. There’s nothing there. She’s a cardboard cliche of “machismo”, just inverted. Golden Age Wonder Woman did it right – there was a sense of a whole culture behind her, which seemed to run on own internal logic, rather than just lazy reversals. Besides Marston, I can’t think of a writer who has approached the “woman warrior from a matriarchal society” character with anything other than “Conan-stereotype, but female”.
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I get what you’re saying, but I’ve always found Thundra has enough personality or screen presence or whatever to transcend that.
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No she is not: marvel.fandom.com says she returned to the United Sisterhood Empire then traveled back to get DNA from the Hulk to use for artificial insemination. When she tried to get back to the Empire, her time machine malfunctioned and she was stranded in the present. Later joined She-Hulk’s Lady Liberators to fight against Red Hulk, later teamed up with him before finding a working time machine( She kissed Red Hulk who hoped in vain she took some of his cells too ). Arriving at her time, her scientists were able to proceed with the insemination, and she successfully gave birth( I thought they did that artificially? Yeah, her profile says her original timeline used laboratory birthing ) to a green-skinned warrior whom she called Lyra ( Not a fan of this character ). Decades later, they met in the present and Thundra tried to reconnect with Lyra by taking her to Weirdworld for them to have adventures together. While I do like Thundra, not a fan of characters from the future living in the present ( They should have had her come from a present day Alternate reality who in the past the women had enough of male rule and took over or even had them be located in another dimension like People of the Black Sea[ Daredevil#77( June 1971 )] ).
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Great comic. I really liked this run of issues.
Byrne’s cover with Thundra knocking Ben through the wall with a right always struck me as a clever homage to Trimpe’s cover for Hulk #228…. featuring Moonstone knocking Hulk through a wall with a left.
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I did like TWO-IN-ONE 51!
I still like it.
And the Project: PEGASUS Saga was winner, too. Such a change from the usual throwaway stories you tended to get in team-up books.
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however much perez & day work exists, its criminal there isnt more. does look more like perez doing the breakdowns, with day just crushing a home run over top of it. havent read these issues in about 40 years, totally forgot how damn good they look. day also doesnt get his due when talking about attention and phenomenal work
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Seeing that panel of Thundra with Ben in a chokehold reminded me of JLAvengers Wonder Woman vs Hercules.
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Actually the last panel on page 26 looks more like Thundra is trying to break the Thing’s neck ( Which is an odd way to show you love someone ), the way she is holding Ben’s head I just don’t see how she could prevent him from breathing. I think I remember her later on having her legs around his neck, which could choke him out. Has Thundra ever used her chain as a weapon? Cause in this issue she could have used it to choke Ben unconscious like the MI6 spy Ilsa Faust did the bad guy Solomon Lane in Mission: Impossible – Fallout ( 2018 film ) using rope.
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I returned to comics from a brief hiatus around the time Gene Day took over the full duties on Master of Kung Fu. I was very fortunate and was looking forward to much more of his work, especially with Batman. A tragic loss for the industry, for sure.
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Tom, marvel.fandom.com’s Thomas Lightner profile backs up my memory that this was a Roxxon plot ( Roxxon’s Nth Command contacted Lightner — he reported to Nth Command that the Thing was at the Project – MTIO#53 ) against Project: PEGASUS. Their Nth Projectors [ Deathlok robot was constructing one in MTIO#54 ] appear in Captain America#288-289 ( December 1983-January 1984 — another Roxxon plot ). Sure the Grapplers get connected to the Power Broker and he use to work for the Corporation as Curtiss Jackson.
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Ah Thundra. The brilliant creation of Roy Thomas & John Buscema on their FF run. I think she would work well in one of the team books such as New Avengers, Defenders or Thunderbolts or kick Johnny Storm out and make her a member of the FF. Project Pegasus is up there with Dark Phoenix and the Kree-Skrull War. So enjoyable!
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Another issue in the middle of a storyline, so I read the entire Project Pegasus saga. I really like George and Gene’s artwork on this issue (and the others). In my opinion there really isn’t much to the story in this issue, although I was surprised how the issue started. Also, showing my Marvel ignorance, other than the Thing, I didn’t recognize any of the characters in the whole storyline.
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