Marvel Two-In-One in the 70s
After two successful stories in Marvel Feature #11 and 12, Marvel rolled out Marvel Two-In-One, a series mirrored the success of its sister series Marvel Team-Up. Whereas Marvel Team-Up (mostly) featured Spider-Man teaming up with other characters, Marvel Two-In-One featured the Thing teaming up with other heroes.
The first nine issues were written by Steve Gerber and drawn by Sal Buscema, except issue 9 which was co-written with Chris Claremont and drawn by Herb Trimpe. During Gerber’s run the Thing teamed up with the Man-Thing, Sub-Mariner, Daredevil, Captain America, the Guardians of the Galaxy, Doctor Strange, Valkyrie, Ghost Rider, and Thor. Most of these stories were used as vehicles to expand upon themes and plots that Gerber had written in other titles he worked on for Marvel. Particularly fleshing out Wundarr, the infantile Superman rip-off, that first appeared in Man-Thing, making the Thing his babysitter. Likewise, later stories may as well have been a spin-off of the Defenders, another title Gerber was writing at the time. One of Steve’s most fucked up stories during this run was a particularly insensitive story where the Fantastic Four villain known as the Miracle Man tried to recreate the birth of Christ with Native Americans only to be foiled by the Thing and Ghost Rider.
Chris Claremont also wrote issue #10 with artist Bob Brown, which featured the Black Widow. Nothing to write home about.
Bill Mantlo and Roy Thomas then wrote issue #11 which wrapped up a plot thread left hanging when the Golem story was dumped from Strange Tales in favor of stories about Adam Warlock. This started a trend that was common with Marvel Two-In-One where canceled titles or abandoned storylines were quickly resolved. Mantlo also wrote the next issue which featured the Thing and Iron Man going up against obscure Fantastic Four character Prester John.
After an odd Power Man story written by Roger Slifer, Mantlo continued writing the title teaming up the Thing with Son of Satan, Morbius the Living Vampire, Ka-Zar, Spider-Man (in a crossover with Marvel Team-Up). Mantlo then teamed up with Scott Edelman in issue #18 where the Thing teamed up with the Scarecrow, a failed horror character that was bounced from Dead of Night, to Marvel Spotlight, to Two-In-One. This last attempt led to the character being abandoned for almost 2 decades. He then worked with Tony Isabella on a Tigra story in the following issue.
Roy Thomas took over for a three-part time-travel story that started in Fantastic Four Annual #11, as well as Two-In-One’s first annual and issue #20. These stories had the Thing travel back in time to World War II to prevent the Nazis from using Vabranium to change history. The Two-In-One stories were intended to boost interest in the Liberty Legion, who had previously appeared in Marvel Premiere and the Invaders.
Mantlo returned to writing duties spinning out the first of Two-In-One’s regular arcs. The Blacksun arc included crossovers with pulp magazine hero Doc Savage (a character licensed to Marvel at the time) and ending with a two-part Thor epic were the Thing saves the life of the villain called Blacksun. Bill Mantlo and Jim Shooter then worked together on a story teaming up the Thing with Black Goliath, whose own series had just ended.
Marv Wolfman took over as writer with issue #25, after a one-off Iron Fist team-up, Marv did another running arc. Starting with the Thing stopping the assassination of the president and taking a vacation to England to stop Hydra and repair the android Deathlok. This ran for issue #26 to 33, teaming the Thing up with Nick Fury, Deathlok, the Sub-Mariner, Master of Kung Fu, the Invisible Girl, Modred the Mystic, and most prolifically, Spider-Woman who appeared in 5 issues of that arc. This gave the new character enough of a boost that she was given her own title shortly after her appearance in Two-In-One. After a Nightwing team-up, Marv Wolfman used Two-In-One to wrap up another canceled Marvel series: Skull the Slayer in issues #35 and 36. That year’s annual featured the conclusion to an Avengers story arc that saw the Thing and Spider-Man help the Avengers stop Thanos, ending with the death of Adam Warlock.
This led to another arc regarding the Mad Thinker trying to sabotage the Thing who was reeling from the Fantastic Four break up (at the time, they got back together not long after naturally). This also involved a young skateboarding kid who had mutant luck powers for some reason and featured team-ups with Daredevil, and the Vision. In issue #40-41 Roger Sifler and Tom Defalco wrote a Black Panther story involving a vampire/zombie which was wrapped up with a Brother Voodoo team-up in the following issue David Kraft that involved the late Idi Amin, the former Ugandan president who was infamous for his poor human rights record.
Ralph Macchio then picked up the title for the next two issues with a Captain America/Man-Thing combo which included the Cult of Entropy and the Cosmic Cube, taking the typically bland work of Steve Gerber and writing an interesting story with it. After a Marv Wolfman fill-in story featuring Hercules, issue #45 and 46 Alan Kupperberg did two stories featuring Captain Marvel and the Hulk, the latter a blatant promotion for the Incredible Hulk live-action TV show that starred Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno. Bill Mantlo then came back for a two-part Machinesmith story that featured the Yancy Street Gang and Jack of Hearts. Mary Jo Duffy then wrote a ho-hum Doctor Strange team-up.
Issue #50, marked some of the best stories to come out of Marvel Two-In-One with a story written by John Byrne where the Thing goes back in time in a futile attempt to cure himself. It also made an attempt to explain how the Thing went from having scaly dinosaur-like skin circa Fantastic Four #1 that later evolved into the orange brick form that is Ben Grimm’s trademark to this day. Issue #51 also introduced Ben Grimm’s traditional roving poker game, which saw Ben playing cards with various members of the superhero community. Issue #53 started the epic Project Pegasus Saga which ran until issue #58, the end of 1979.
The Project Pegasus Saga saw the Thing exposing a conspiracy to infiltrate Project PEGASUS by the Roxxon Oil company. It was written by Mark Gruenwald and Ralph Macchio and included pencils from both John Byrne and George Perez. It featured Quasar, Bill Foster returning as Giant-Man, a robot Deathlok, Thundra, and even tried to do something useful with Wundarr, a character that was nearly abandoned by that point. It borrowed elements from previous Two-In-One arcs and proved that even a team-up-of-the-month title could have some epic stuff as long as you had the right creative team.
Sadly, things only went downhill from there in the 1980s, but that’s a story for that decade.
