Marvel Two-In-One #90
Eyes of the Sorcerer
Peter Parker and his girlfriend Deborah Wittman are out on a date at the Central Park Renaissance Festival. After they watch a jousting competition, Deborah points Peter's attention toward a magician named Phil who claims he can free himself from a pair of handcuffs but fails miserably much to the chagrin of his girlfriend. People's attention are distracted by the arrival of the Thing and his girlfriend Alicia Masters. As a fan of Alicia's work, Deborah asks Peter to take her to meet the famous blind sculptress. While everyone else is gawking at the Thing, Phil tries one last attempt to free himself by incanting a magic spell. Instead of freeing himself from the cuffs, by some complete fluke, the words he muttered actually cause Phil to peer into another dimension. There, he witnesses a battle between two sorcerers, the righteous Solomus and the evil Sardeth. Solomus has Sardeth trapped in a web and is about to execute him when Sardeth detects Phil's presence and uses this as a means of escaping his own body just seconds before it is set ablaze.
As Sardeth takes possession of Phil's body on Earth, Peter Parker is deep in conversation with Alicia Masters. Getting upset at suddenly being ignored, Deborah decides to walk off. Alicia then tips Peter off of this snafu and he walks off to patch things up, thanking Alicia for pointing it out. Meanwhile, Sardeth has realized that he has come to a world where science is more dominant than magic and believes that taking it over will be child's play. As his first show of power, he uses his power to cause the ribbons on a May Poll to branch out and attack festival attendees. As Peter brings Deborah to safety, the Thing lunges into action and snaps off the May Poll. Shocked by this show of strength, Sardeth then uses his powers to turn the jouster into his Demon Knight. While Ben fights off his new attacker, Peter changes into Spider-Man and joins the battle. After pounding on their foe sufficiently enough, Spider-Man and the Thing manage to knock out the Demon Knight, causing him to revert back to normal. While the Thing checks on Alicia, Spider-Man swings off to find Sardeth.
He finds the evil wizard floating above the city streets where he summons a massive creature that bursts out of the ground. While the Thing battles the monster, Spider-Man swings up and knocks out Sardeth with a single punch. After the Thing finishes subduing the monster he grabs Sardeth and threatens to squeeze the life out of him if he doesn't release Phil from his control. With the choice between death and fleeing this body and being potentially trapped as a spirit forever, Sardeth decides to choose the latter and lets Phil free. With the crisis now over, Spider-Man has just one question: What are they going to do about the monster that Sardeth left behind?
Recurring Characters
Thing, Spider-Man, Alicia Masters, Deborah Whitman
Continuity Notes
At the time of this story, Peter Parker was dating Debra Whitman the two began loosely dating since Amazing Spider-Man #207 until Debra had to end their relationship due to mental health issues in Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #74.
A child mentions he was a follower of the Thing's cartoon. He's talking about The Thing, an animated TV series aired by NBC in 1979, some 3 years before the publication of the issue. Although most real-world references should be considered topical, Marvel related media mentioned in story actually appeared during the modern age.
