Discos and Dungeons!

In order to take the Thing's mind off of Alicia Masters, Johnny Storm takes Ben out to a disco to dance it up, however, Ben is not in the mood for doing so. Returning to the bar they run into Warren Worthington III, aka the Angel, and Johnny leaves Ben with the X-Man while he dances Candy Southern. When Warren drinks a bad drink, Ben takes him to the men's room, unaware that they are walking into a trap and find themselves gassed and secreted out of the dance club.

When Ben revives, he finds that he and the Angel are inside a castle and have been suspended over a vat of acid. When Angel revives the two use teamwork to get out of their trap and are greeted by a robot designed to resemble Magneto. The robot advises them that they have been brought to the castle by his master to see if they can get out of his castle which has been rigged with deathtraps.

Fighting their way through the castle and breaking through all the traps, Thing and the Angel soon enter the throne room and find that it's been designed to look like a mechanical swamp. Greeting them is Toad, who advises them that he has gotten into the business of assassinations and that he sought to use it against one of his old X-Men foes to test it out. Attacking the Toad, the two heroes are once more forced to go on the defenses against the various devices and death traps in the castle.

During the battle, Toad gets a call from his mysterious benefactor, Mr. A, who demands payment for all the devices as soon as possible and becomes mortified because he doesn't have the money. Fighting off the death traps and seeing the pathetic Toad crumpled up in a sobbing ball, Angel feels sorry for Toad's plight and offers to pay off his debts, and in return, the Toad would have to agree to work for the Angel. A few weeks later, Angel takes Thing and Candy back to the castle which Warren has converted into an amusement park called Toadland, which he hopes will encourage the Toad to turn his life around.

Recurring Characters

Thing, Angel, Human Torch, Candy Southern, Toad

Continuity Notes

• The Thing is out at a bar trying to pick up women because he and Alicia Masters in Marvel Two-In-One #64, he believes Alicia has moved on and started dating another man after seeing her from afar last issue. However, that turns out to be a misunderstanding and the couple get back together in Marvel Two-In-One #70.

• At the time of this story, everyone knows that Warren Worthington is the Angel because he publicly revealed his identity in Champions #1. This story takes place during his returning stint with the X-Men between X-Men #135-148.

• Implied this issue it is confirmed that the Toad was set up by the assassin known as Arcade in Uncanny X-Men #145.

• The Toad's hideout is actually Doctor Doom's castle located in Upstate New York. Doom eventually evicts the Toad and restores his castle to normal, using it as grounds to battle the X-Men in Uncanny X-Men #145-147. Ben recognizes it from his first visit in Fantastic Four #5 during the Fantastic Four's first clash with Doctor Doom.

• Toad's robots are based on his fellow members of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants: Magneto and the Scarlet Witch. Toad was a founding member of that group since X-Men #4. Toad was always seen as a lackey and abused by Magneto during his entire tenure with the group. He also developed an unrequited infatuation with the Scarlet Witch.

• The Thing and the Angel are involved in other events between page 17 and 18 of this story:

  • The Thing is involved in the events of next issue where he helps the Guardians of the Galaxy recover their teammate Vance Astro.

  • While the Angel and the X-Men thwarted the new Brotherhood's attempt to assassinate Senator Robert Kelly in X-Men #141-142.