Essential Marvel Two-in-One, Vol. 1

Essential Marvel Two-in-One #1

by Len Wein, Mike Friedrich, Steve Gerber

The Thing can't stay out of trouble, but at least he makes friends wherever he goes! The Ever-Lovin' Idol o' Millions teams up with heroes both frontline and forgotten against menaces spanning time and space! Gods! Aliens! Spies! Demons! Dinosaurs! Time travellers! Martial artists! The Living Eraser and the Mountain That Walked Like a Man! A veritable who's who of history's horror heroes! Collects Marvel Feature #11-12; Marvel Two-In-One #1-20, 22-25 and Annual #1; Fantastic Four Annual #11; and Marvel Team-Up #47.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Marvel, Superheroes, Spider Man, Comic Book, Fiction

592 pages, Paperback

First published March 10, 1977

About the author

Len Wein was an American comic book writer and editor best known for co-creating DC Comics' Swamp Thing and Marvel Comics' Wolverine, and for helping revive the Marvel superhero team the X-Men (including the co-creation of Nightcrawler, Storm, and Colossus). Additionally, he was the editor for writer Alan Moore and illustrator Dave Gibbons' influential DC miniseries Watchmen.

Wein was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2008.

Reviews

[Stephen · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.0 stars. This title featuring The Thing was the ugly step child to Marvel Team Up featuring Spider-man. Whereas Team Up starred mostly A-list super heroes, this title featured B, C and D-list heroes and villains in cheesy one shot stories that were generally okay at best.

[Karl Kindt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is strange and unexpected. When I was a kid buying these new off the comic book rack in the 1970s, it was only when I had some extra allowance money and there was nothing else good out that week from Marvel. I considered it a bottom feeder title with seemingly random, mostly one-shot stories that never really connected often issue to issue. The art was never that great, the writers rotated on the book faster than the rack that held comics in those days. Now, I love this title. It might be the favorite thing (pardon the pun) I have read in the Essential line because it is like a cross section survey of what was happening in the Marvel Universe during any given month during my childhood. The guest characters would come in to have an adventure and bring all the current baggage they were currently carrying in the angst-ridden Marvel style back in their own title, but you knew they were just there for awhile, so reading this now is like a buffet of 1970s Marvel goodness. What a surprise to me that I enjoyed this so much, even more than when I was a kid!

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Marvel had two long-running Team-Up titles. This one features the Thing, Ben Grimm from the pages of the Fantastic Four, and a different guest-star (just about) each issue. Because of the nature of the premise, this makes telling longer, more complex and interesting stories a little more difficult, although there are some real gems in this collection. Unfortunately, like most anthologies, there is a balance between the surprisingly good and the astonishingly bad. Some of the writers do come up with some very clever ways a telling a story over multiple chapters, with different guest-stars, but things (sorry about the pun) don’t always work out as intended.

Marvel Feature #11-12 - This volume starts off with two issues from a completely different title, as they start the series of adventures which team-up the Thing with another Marvel hero each month. Len Wein and Mike Friedrich start the series off right with art by none other than Jim Starlin. High marks all around, even with the continuity of keeping the characters, such as Thing, Hulk, Iron Man, Thanos, Leader, Blood Brothers, and Kurrgo, and their storylines, including threads from the pages of Captain Marvel, together (3/5).

Once we get to the Marvel Two-In-One (aka MTIO) issues proper we are treated with art from Gil Kane in the first two. Again off to a great start for this series. And with Steve Gerber providing a consistent grip on the script and plotting chores for the first 8 issues, so this is an additional bonus that helps this series set off in the right direction. Even through a dazzling array of guest-stars of the likes of Man-Thing, Namor, Daredevil, Captain America, the original Guardians of the Galaxy, Doctor Strange, Valkyrie & Ghost Rider (3/5).

The 2-part story that spans MTIO #4-5 is also the story that brought me into the series all the way back in dark recesses of 1974. Reading these issues again is like using a Way-Back time machine, and oddly enough Ben Grimm and Captain America, along with Sharon Carter, use a time machine in this story to travel into the future to 3014 where the meet the Real, I mean the original, Guardians of the Galaxy. This was only the team’s second appearance (the first being in the pages of Marvel Super-Heroes #18). And this is NOT the team made famous in the films, here we have Vance Astro, Martinex, Charlie-27 and Yondu. I was thrilled by this storyline and was hooked for the foreseeable future because of how much fun this story was (4/5).

I have to admit that when I first read these next couple of issues, MTIO #6-7, I wasn’t yet a fan of Doctor Strange. So this story didn’t really thrill me. It took a couple of re-readings and more familiarity with the Doctor and the Defenders, as Valkyrie joins the story in #7, for me to really appreciate what was going on. But every time I come back to this story I enjoy it a little bit more, seeing how it folds in elements from Ben Grimm’s past as easily as it incorporates Wong, Clea and eventually even ties into the origins of Valkyrie. But for that we need the concluding chapter from Defenders #20 (which is sadly, and almost criminally, missing from this volume, check out Defenders Epic Collection, Vol. 1: The Day of the Defenders for the entire story) that really wraps up this little mini-epic (4/5).

Next up is the earlier mentioned story with Ghost Rider. This one is a little wonky, and rather typical in how the format of these team-up titles can be extremely contrived. It’s also a Christmas story, sort of (3/5). Then we have Gerber’s last issue, he provided the plot and Chris Claremont handled the script, in a story pitting Ben against the might of Thor while under the control of … aw, that would be telling. This one is the low point of the collection thus far and illustrates exactly why these team-up books can get old really fast (1/5). Claremont returns for the next story, with Ben and the Black Widow working together to save the world. Better than the previous one, but still a bit contrived (2/5).

Then we have another run of many issues by the same author (with just one fill-in by someone different) which helps to illustrate why these types of titles need a regular author to help maintain some continuity. Bill Mantlo provides some consistency in characters, but the stories are all over the place. #11 features Ben and a short-run character from the pages of Strange Tales #174, 176 & 177 named the Golem. What’s interesting about this one that the Thing is in many ways an updated interpretation of the Golem from legend. This basically acts as a final chapter to the short lived career of this interesting character (3/5). #12 brings us Iron Man and Ben facing off against an all but forgotten character from the pages of Fantastic Four years previously, Prester John. It’s a typical team-up style story (3/5). #13 is our fill-in issue from Roger Slifer & Len Wein, and it shows. It’s weak and the characterization is weirdly off balance. It features Luke Cage, Power Man, and Ben fighting a giant, well basically a new born and it’s gratefully over quickly (2/5). Next, Mantlo is back with Ben & the Son of Satan, aka Daimon Hellstrom, in the pages of #14. This is a tale of a ghost town, a racist stereotype and demons, nothing to write home about (2/5). #15 offers Ben meeting the living vampire, aka Morbius, I’ve got to give credit where it is due: Mantlo comes up with some really out-there wacky ideas. This one pulls a long forgotten adversary from the pages of Tales to Astonish #49, the Living Eraser, and pits him against this duo. I did say it was wacky, didn’t I? It’s one of those typical 1970s team-up clichés that pit the two protagonists against one another before teaming-up to stop the villain. The formula can get tedious, but it kind of works here, thanks in no small part to Mantlo’s uncanny ability to keep the little details in mind while writing (like the fact that Grimm had never met Morbius before, but he had meet Michael’s fiancé previously and knew the backstory of Morbius from her). Not much else of note here, except it’s just another in a long string of weirdly inexplicable Morbius stories (3/5). Next up, #16 finds Ben on a trip to the Savage Land in Antarctica where he meets up with Ka-Zar and Zabu and defeats an allosaurus and comes face to face with Valcanus. This one didn’t quite work for me, the pacing is too fast and frenzied, with the narrative jumping from coincidence to coincidence too conveniently for me (2/5). But that story leads right into a big 2-part crossover with Ben and Spider-Man as presented in #17 and Marvel Team-Up #47. This not only wraps up the Savage Land mystery but it also concludes the Spider-Man time travel arc that had been running for half a year in issues #41-46 and pits these two heroes against the Basilisk. This is a nice highlight to this collection (4/5). Next up is one of my favorites, not necessarily because of the story, but the guest-star: the Scarecrow. This guy first appeared in Dead of Night #11, then in Marvel Spotlight #26 (you can find these two stories, as well as the aforementioned Strange Tales issues featuring the Golem, in Essential Marvel Horror, Vol. 2) and the character has always fascinated me. #18 finds Ben out of his depth at an art exhibit opening only to discover a supernatural menace threatening the attendees. With the help of Scarecrow, they turn the tide and send the demon forces back into the other world they came from, but it also appears to spell the end of the Scarecrow. While the story is pretty pedestrian, it gets a nudge from me for inclusion of the Scarecrow (4/5). And rounding out this volume, last but not least, is Ben’s initial meeting with Tigra in #19. Nothing particularly spectacular here, rather a typical team-up style story (3/5).

Fantastic Four Annual #11, Marvel Two-In-One Annual #1 & Marvel Two-In-One #20 - This is an arc that I’ve read so many times, I’ve lost count. Every time I re-read the Fantastic Four or Marvel Two-In-One it will get included. We’ve got the FF, the Watcher, time travel, the Invaders, all wrapped up in saving history from the Nazi’s winning WWII. And that’s ONLY the first part! Then we’ve got the Liberty Legion, more WWII, and more time traveling shenanigans. Roy Thomas writing, with John Buscema and Sal Buscema handling the art. This is a big fun sprawling story that allows a team-up between the FF and the Invaders and then the Thing and the Liberty Legion against a hoard of Nazi baddies.

Marvel Two-In-One #22-23 - This little epic is from Bill Mantlo and Ron Wilson (with some assistance from Jim Shooter on the finale). Sadly, this story isn’t complete in this volume. Issue #21 isn’t included as Marvel doesn’t have the rights to print Doc Savage stories any longer (see Marvel Two-In-One #21 and perhaps someday Marvel will be able to reprint the Doc Savage series they published, see Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze, with the addition of this missing issue and Giant-Size Spider-Man #3, it would be a nice collection). The second half of this tale from #22-23 feature Thor and the Egyptian gods. Nothing particularly special about that at arc at all.

Marvel Two-In-One #24 - A typical one-off team-up with Black Goliath by Mantlo, Shooter & S Buscema. It’s nothing special, but it is a fun and fast read. It also sets up the friendship between Grimm and this third Goliath, which will get developed further in upcoming issues.

Marvel Two-In-One #25 - A typical one-off team-up with Iron Fist, this one is by Marv Wolfman and Wilson. Again nothing special here, just a contrived, forced, and cliché ridden team-up.

So definitely a mixed-bag like any anthology collection tends to be, still entertaining if you like the superhero team-up narrative clichés of the 1970s.

[Skjam! · Rating 3 out of 5]

Much like DC, Marvel Comics also had dedicated superhero team-up series. Marvel Two-in-One featured perennial favorite character Benjamin Grimm, the Thing of the Fantastic Four–and I’ve never done a review of anything with him before, so first, a bit of character history!

Fantastic Four was Marvel’s first modern superhero comic book series, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby when publisher Martin Goodman decided that the market was right for another go-round on brightly-costumed adventurers with awesome powers. In the November 1961 first issue, brilliant scientist Reed Richards has built a rocketship designed to beat the Soviet Union to the moon. For…reasons, the U.S. government decides to scrap the project. Reed convinces his best friend, test pilot Benjamin J. Grimm, his young sweetheart Susan Storm, and her teenage brother John Storm to help him steal the ship and fly it to the moon to prove its worth.

However, while leaving Earth’s orbit, the ship runs into an unusually strong storm of cosmic rays. Its shielding proves woefully inadequate and Ben is barely able to guide it back to Earth and a survivable crash landing. By great good fortune, the cosmic radiation does not kill the quartet, but instead changes them in other ways. Reed becomes the stretchable Mr. Fantastic, Sue the see-through Invisible Girl, Johnny the hot-headed Human Torch…and Ben becomes the misshapen monster known as “the Thing.” Reed manages to distract them from the darker implications of these changes by proposing that they become a team that uses their powers for good and the advancement of science, the Fantastic Four.

Stan and Jack wrote the Fantastic Four very differently than previous superheroes. They bickered and fought amongst themselves, and had personality clashes when not bonding as a family. Continuing subplots gave a soap opera feel to the series, and it helped revitalize the Marvel Comics line as other novel superheroes were added.

The readers especially took to the Thing, who was very different from any other character on the market. He was a blue-collar joe who moped about his grotesque appearance, but reveled in his great strength. Eventually he got a relatively steady love interest, the blind sculptor Alicia Masters. And this series, the first volume of which I’ll finally get around to talking about.

The first two issues are actually Marvel Feature #11-12, as a try-out before launching Two-In-One. Ben’s origin is recapped when he refuses to try another of Reed’s “cure” attempts, then he’s kidnapped and set against the Hulk (one of his most frequent sparring partners) as part of a bet between two supervillains. The villains are defeated, but the Thing is stuck in the desert until the next issue, when he and Iron Man battle a couple of minions of Thanos (see my review of Essential Captain Marvel for more on that struggle.) Iron Man is so drained he can’t carry Ben out of the desert, so our rocky friend just has to keep on walking.

The first issue of the series proper has Ben get to a town and learn of the existence of Man-Thing, a swamp creature of the Florida Everglades. The Thing thinks this is a little too close to his own moniker, and detours to the Sunshine State to have it out with the Man-Thing. Except that this bout is interrupted by the son of Molecule Man, also code-named Molecule Man, who is seeking revenge for his father’s ignominious defeat many issues ago. Steve Gerber, the writer of this and the next few issues, had a distinctive authorial voice that went well with the two monsters that are actually the heroes of the story.

The next issue introduces the running subplot of Wundarr, Steve Gerber’s riff on the Superman concept. Wundarr was rocketed towards Earth as an infant when his scientist father mistakenly believed their planet was about to explode. But instead of arriving as an infant, his body aged in “real time” so that he arrived on Earth as a strapping young man given superpowers by the terrestrial environment, but with his mind still that of a baby who’s just learned to walk. To make matters worse, shortly after he arrives in New York City, “peacekeepers” from his home planet show up to kill Wundarr lest he return and upset their society in revenge for his father. Ben has to defend the man-child and winds up becoming an honorary uncle.

After that, it’s issue after issue of the Thing teaming up with other superheroes for short adventures. A particularly notable one is a Christmas adventure with the Ghost Rider, where the villain tries to create a blasphemous recreation of the Nativity story in a massive display of hubris.

And then there’s the multiple-issue time travel story where Ben goes time-traveling to World War Two twice, teaming up with both the Invaders (Roy Thomas’ teaming of the major WW2 Marvel heroes) and the Liberty Legion (the same author’s team of lesser Golden Age heroes.) It’s especially notable for being one of the last times Marvel specifically mentioned that Reed and Ben were World War Two veterans, before the sliding timescale made that a no-no for continuity.

For some reason, this collection skips issue #21, which has the Thing team up with his Fantastic Four teammate the Human Torch, so we don’t find out how they got into the situation we see them in starting in #22, where Ben and Thor battle the Egyptian god Seth.

The volume ends with #25, as the Thing and Iron Fist are kidnapped to “train” warriors of an obscure East Asian country, only to learn that they’re actually needed to rescue a princess–to stop a war with a fate worse than death.

This was one of Marvel’s lesser titles, so frequently switched writers and artists, but they’re all pretty solid. It’s fun seeing the contrivances used to get Ben and the guest stars involved in whatever’s going on, and which obscure villains the writers picked to revive. One story is even titled “Does Anyone Remember…the Hijacker?”

Content note: Superhero violence; several people die, most notably when “living vampire” Morbius is the guest star.

This isn’t Marvel’s best, most essential stuff, but is good old-fashioned Marvel Comics, and well worth checking out at your local library for a trip down memory lane.

[Fizzgig76 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reprints Marvel Feature (1) #11-12, Marvel Team-Up (1) #47, Fantastic Four (1) Annual #11, Marvel Two-In-One (1) #1-20, 22-25, and Annual #1 (September 1973-March 1977). After years of working as a member of the Fantastic Four, the ever-loving blue-eyed Thing is striking out on his own adventures. Even though his teammates aren’t with him, Thing finds himself with new allies. Thing finds himself saving the future and the past…It’s clobberin’ time!

Written by Len Wein, Mike Friedrich, Steve Gerber, Chris Claremont, Roy Thomas, Bill Mantlo, Ron Sifler, Jim Shooter, Marv Wolfman, and Scott Edelman, Essential Marvel Two-In-One—Volume 1 is a collection of the classic team-up series starring the Fantastic Four’s Thing. The Essential collection is in black-and-white and on newsprint style paper and features art by Jim Starlin, Gil Kane, Sal Buscema, Herb Trimpe, Bob Brown, Ron Wilson, Arvell Jones, and Marie Severin. The issues in the volume were also collected as part of three Marvel Masterworks volumes, Man-Thing by Steve Gerber: The Complete Collection—Volume 1, Marvel Two-In-One Epic Collection: Cry Monster, Guardians of the Galaxy: Earth Shall Overcome, Guardians of the Galaxy: Tomorrow’s Heroes Omnibus, Marvel Horror Omnibus, The Son of Satan Classic, and Doctor Strange: Lords of Fear among other volumes. The collection omits Marvel Two-In-One (1) #21 which featured Doc Savage (November 1976) due to copyright issues.

Thing was always one of my favorites as one of the earliest exposures to Marvel Comics (Thing Ring do Your Thing!), and Marvel Two-In-One was the perfect match. It brought Thing together with weird (and usually new) characters that Marvel was trying to launch. Much like Marvel Team-Up, the series is a lot of fun.

The comic reads like a classic comic. Most of the comics can be read as standalone issues though there are issue a few continuing storylines within the title. I always enjoyed the time travelling adventures since it pitted the Thing with characters he was less likely to team with (plus, I was a fan of the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Liberty Legion). The series keeps it fun and light.

Part of the fun of the Team-Up and Two-In-One titles were the “guest-stars”. I always hated it when Thing teamed-up with a member of the Fantastic Four…it felt like cheating. Fortunately, this volume doesn’t really have the FF team-ups except some appearances and an annual crossover. This volume contains team-ups with Hulk, Iron Man (twice), Man-Thing, Sub-Mariner, Daredevil, Captain America, Guardians of the Galaxy, Dr. Strange, Valkyrie, Ghost Rider, Thor, Black Widow, the Golem, Power Man, the Son of Satan, Morbius, Ka-Zar, Spider-Man (twice), the Scarecrow, Tigra, Liberty Legion (twice), Thor (twice), Black Goliath, and Iron Fist.

Essential Marvel Two-In-One is one of those titles that I have even considered buying the color versions of now that the Epic collections are rolling out. The fun and action of the series reminds me of how fun and enjoyable comics can be while still being “for kids”. Essential Marvel Two-In-One—Volume 1 was followed by Essential Marvel Two-In-One—Volume 2.

[Adam Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

When the Fantastic Four was born, it was thought that if any character would break away for a solo career, it'd be the young and handsome Johnny Storm. Yet, the public had other ideas, it was the human brick monster the Thing who sold the most toys and starred in three Comic book series as well as a limited edition run "Freak Show."

This book marks the start of the Thing's first series, Marvel Two-In-One, like the all ready existing Marvel Team Up series starring Spider-man, each issue featured a team up between the Thing and another Marvel character.

This book collects Marvel Feature 11-12, Marvel Two-in-one #1-#20 and #22-25, Annual #1, Marvel Team Up #47, and Fantastic Four Annual #11: nearly 600 pages of Comic book action.

The try out for the the concept was in Marvel Feature #11 and #12. For the first audition, Marvel led off with the fan favorite fan match up: The Thing and the Hulk. After a pre-requisite fight, they teamed up to fight bad guys who had manipulated them into fighting so they could wager on the fate of the world. This was followed by a team up with Iron Man in Marvel Feature #12.

With the success of these two issue, old Ben Grimm was set for success in Marvel Two in One. It would begin as a bi-monthly series and continue that way until Marvel Two in One #15, when it’d become a monthly.

There are many writers on the series. Steve Gerber wrote issues 1-9, Chris Claremont wrote issue #10, Bill Manlo scripted #11 and 12, 14-19, 22-24 as well as Marvel Two in One #47 with assists from Roy Thomas and Jim Shooter on a few issues. Thomas wrote issue #20 as well as the Annual. And #13 was written by Len Wein and Issue 25 by Marv Wolfman. A lot of cooks stirring this pot and that’s before we start to list all the artists.

In addition, comic book stories were getting shorter. Gone were the 23-page stories in early Fantastic Four magazines. Most of the stories in this book are told in 18 pages and the last few in 17. This can lead to rushed stories.

That said, the book has some pretty good stories. The best are the fist nine written by Stephen Gerber who does a good job capturing the wonderful character of the Thing including his compassion. He begins Issue #1 heading Florida to fight Man-thing for stealing his name but upon learning the poor man-turned-into beast’s story, he has a more compassionate reaction. He also takes to carrying for the overgrown alien child Wundaar as a foster parent of sorts for several issues. His compassion is further shown in comforting Valkryie who questions whether she’s in even real after the end of Issue 7. Grimm responds, “Paper dolls don’t cry. Only us real people got that problem.”

The rest of the stories manage to capture Grimm’s can do determination and indomitable courage. One of the best examples of that is the Two Part team up with Thor in #22 and #23 that has Ben Grimm battling Seth.

Some critics knock the book for having the Thing team up with D-listers, but really he has a pretty solid list of partners including: Submariner, Daredevil, Iron Man (twice), Thor (three times), Captain America (twice), Doctor Strange, and Spider-man. And not every story with a lesser known character was a bad one. My favorite stories in the book:

1) Issues 4 and 5: Captain America and the Thing travel to the time of the Guardians of the Galaxy and team up with them to fight for freedom.

2) Issues 6 and 7: A surprisingly moving story about a magic harmonica and two people haunted by a painful memory with Doctor Strange.

3) Issue 10: This Chris Claemont tale with Black Widow is wonderful. The two really wonderfully together to save the world from one of Black Widow’s old cohorts.

4) Issue 13: Team up with Power Man to fight a dangerous monster.

5) Issue 17 and Marvel Team up #47: Spidey and the Thing battle Basilisk Just a great story.

6) Issue 22 and 23: With Thor battling Seth with all humanity at stake.

7) Issue 24: Black Goliath-Never heard of this character but it was nice to run into him in an overall somewhat generic story.

8) Issue 25: A team up with Iron Fist as they’re brought into a troubled country

On the negative side, some comics I didn’t like:

1) Issue 3: A real head-scratcher. Daredevil appears in a story that seems to barely forward a continuing story going on in Daredevil and the rest of the story finishes up in Daredevil. Kind of pointless really.
2) Issue 11: Battle with Golem, a pointless story that wraps up a previous story no one cared about in the first place. Also, violated an established precedent. Ben Grimm has been shown to be a celebrity superhero yet when he boards a train to Florida, everyone switches sides of the train. Some, I could see. Everyone, not really. It seems to be an attempt to make the Thing relatable and to show solidarity with people being picked on for being different. That should be done in a way that’s not totally nonsensical.
3) Issue #18 with the Scarecrow, the continuation of yet another horror story the Thing doesn’t belong in and nobody cared about in the first place.

While it was an okay story, the biggest disappointment was the Liberty Legion Story in Annual #1 and Issue #20 by Roy Thomas. After the entire FF went back to help the Invaders in the superb Fantastic Four Annual #11, the Thing goes back to finish the job and teams up with the Liberty Legion. The story has potential, but it also highlights the challenge of the Liberty Legion: we don’t know anything about most of them so we have to spend a lot of time establishing who they are. Thus the Annual dragged on and on in an interminable story. Fewer character, at least in this story, might have made Ben Grimm’s time travelling adventures a lot more fun.

As an aside, Issue 21 is not in this collection as it teamed Ben up with Doc Savage and those rights are no longer held by Marvel. I bought this issue online for a pretty inexpensive price. The Doc Savage Issue had great art and was a fun story that true fans of Doc or the Thing should get their hands on, but it’s not really necessary to get it to understand the book.

Overall, not a perfect book, but if you want some great Bronze Age stories of the Thing filled with splash pages of him shouting, “It’s clobberin’ time,” than this is a worthwhile read.

[Dominic Sedillo · Rating 2 out of 5]

I purchased this volume, because I wanted to read the issue of The Thing vs. The Man-Thing, but as it turns out, in the aforementioned issue, the Man-Thing reverts to his human side for a large portion of the issue and the Thing and he hardly tussle.

It was quite a disappointment, because The Thing is a good character in the Fantastic Four, but the character of The Thing needs Reed, Sue and Johnny to counter his unending "tough-guy" remarks.

Also, him constantly say "It's Clobbering Time!" gets to be really old when you're reading it every single issue.

The rest of the volume consists of a lot of Odd Couple-type pairings with The Thing doing his "average joe" routine. The character's charm long overstays it's welcome and the villains in most cases are not noteworthy, nor are any of the plots really memorable. This is just a series of comics where writers are having fun and filling up pages.

I don't really deem it "essential" as the title along the spine indicates.

[J.R. Santos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the stories aged pretty well, but I'll probably enjoy the 1980s run more. It's closer to being like Concrete from dark horse.

[Rich Meyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Essential Marvel Two-in-One Volume 1 is a great read for any old bronze age fan. It features the final two issues of Marvel Feature with fantastic art by Jim Starlin and Joe Sinnott. Marvel Two-in-One, the book that sprang from that try-out title, has 24 regular issues and an annual reprinted here, along with a crossover issue of Marvel Team-Up and a related Fantastic Four Annual.

There is some fantastic artwork in this volume, by industry legends Herb Trimpe, Gil Kane, Bob Brown, Ron Wilson and Sal Buscema. There are some excellent tales: The Captain America team-up that reintroduced the Guardians of the Galaxy, the final stories of the Golem and the Scarecrow, a crossover with Spider-Man (featuring Ka-Zar and the Basilisk) and the three-part Invaders/Liberty Legion tale.

But the book is sadly missing one of the more original team-ups, in which the Thing met up with Doc Savage. Due to copyright provisions, DC Comics holds the rights, and reprint rights to the character, so issue #21 couldn't be included in this volume. And since it is basically the first part of a story that concluded with two issues with Thor, it's a somewhat awkward omission. And it's hard to really live up to the "Essential" name on the cover if it isn't complete.

This also happens (or will happen) in the final volume of the Essential Marvel Two-in-One, as a team-up with the licensed character ROM won't be reprinted for the same reasons.

The highlight of the book, the World War II storyline, is also available in full-color in the Thing/Liberty Legion hardcover in the Marvel Premiere Classic line, which I heartily recommend. This is a good book for someone on a budget, and is a good read, but it is far from being complete or essential in its current form.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

The decade before my birth was a wild time for Marvel. And these so called team up books were a gimmick. The assumption was most kids and teens had maybe a dime in their pocket. Why choose between everyone's favorite member of the Fantastic Four and whoever the guest star of the month was when they could have both.

They problem is that format can be VERY hit or miss. Sometimes it requires melding genres in a way that just don't quite work. But overall, in spite of going through two or three creative teams in less than two years- this one works. While there are quite a few clunkers for the most part the stories work.

It helps though that Benjamin J. Grimm is one of my all-time favorite characters in the Marvel Universe. Unlike Marvel Team-Up where Spidey was occasionally given the boot for the Human Torch, Aunt Petunia's favorite nephew is in every issue of this book. Though it is clear in part two of the big Fantastic Four/Invaders/Marvel Two-In-One/Liberty Legion story the Liberty Legion is that Roy Thomas took what was maybe 10-15 pages of the published third Liberty Legion story that was going to be published elsewhere probably an issue of Marvel Premiere) and put them into this story because the script and art were already paid for.

Either that or the Scarecrow might be the first case of something that became standard practice that started to plague for MTION and Marvel Team-Up in mid-70s to until their conclusion in the early 80s. Put The Thing or Spider-Man in an issue near or what could be the finale of your series. That way if your book did get cancelled, you can get a backdoor ending. Sometimes the stories are still good but mildly annoying.

[Helmut · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's clobberin' time again!

Dieser Essential-Band sammelt Geschichten, in denen Thing mit anderen Superhelden zusammentrifft und entweder diese verprügelt oder mit ihnen andere verprügelt.

Während die Geschichten selbst eher Standardware sind, sind die Zeichnungen überdurchschnittlich gut. Sal Buscema ist einer meiner Lieblings-Thing-Zeichner, er hat den Charakter genau getroffen. Und jede Geschichte, in der das blauäugige Ding mitspielt, ist dazu verdammt, gut zu werden - das Idol von Millionen ist halt ein echt liebenswerter Charakter mit einer großen Klappe. Zu keiner Zeit wird dieser Band langweilig. Für Fans von Ben Grimm ein Muss, alle anderen können aber auch unbedenklich zugreifen!

[Khairul Hezry · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Thing team-up book. Some threat would rear its ugly head, Thing would be in the neighbourhood, meets up with another superhero, sometimes they fight each other first but by the end they team up to combat the threat. Nothing groundbreaking here but they aren't really bad stories at all. Stupid, fun stories. I love late-70s, early-80s Marvel stuff.

[Sean Brennan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Thing was perfectly suited to the whole notion of a team up mag. Although the dialogue is a times cringe worthy, Ben Grimm is a great guy(I know it's not real)and is much more flexible character and much better suited to some of the story lines than is Spiderman in his mag(Team up).

[Shawn Manning · Rating 4 out of 5]

Classic stuff! Hero meets hero. Misunderstanding leads to heroes beating the living snot out of each other. Misunderstanding resolved, heroes beat living snot out of bad guy. Repeat process next month. It ain't Shakespeare , but it sure is fun!

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Thing has always been one of my favorite super heroes. When I was a kid, finding Marvel Two-in-One was great! You got the Thing every issue! I snatched the Essential volumes up when I could find them so I could relive some days of my childhood. Well worth getting a copy! I loved it!

[Tasha · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book of comics from the 70s starring The Ever-Lovin' Blue-Eyed Thing. The Thing is not my favorite Marvel character, but it was still a good read.

[Jon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mmm, mid-70's Marveldom. Random matchups of heroes (some obscure, some less so) with the Thing.

[Holden Attradies · Rating 2 out of 5]

meh. Maybe if I like Ben Grim more...

[Kris Shaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

This phone book is chock full of Bronze Age goodness by the usual suspects, i.e. Roy Thomas, Steve Gerber, Gil Kane, Sal Buscema and many other comic book journeymen of the day.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

The poor Thing. He was once one of Marvel's most popular characters! Right up there with Spider-Man. Ben Grimm ruled in the 70's and this was his book. This title was major fun. It really was twice the fun as most other Marvel books. Part comedy, part tragedy and all adventure- it was the perfect character in a perfect title.