Omitted material: Marvel Two-in-One 99

Left out of Essential Marvel Two-in-One volume 4 is issue #99, which features a team-up with the licensed character Rom (previously seen in Power Man and Iron Fist #73 so I won't describe him again here). The issue is written by Bill Mantlo and drawn by Bob Hall.

This is a relatively straightforward action piece in which Rom crashes on the roof of the Baxter Building after an initial fight with a coven of Dire Wraith witches who have animated the armour of his deceased fellow Space Knight Firefall. Ben already knows Rom from adventures in the latter's own title and the two set off to deal with the Coven. During the fight Ben is bewitched by the Wraiths, forcing Rom to deploy his neutraliser weapon which dispatches all the Wraiths and also turns Ben human again. To Rom's surprise, Ben is upset at regaining his "humanity" - this is because Ben fears Alicia is drawn to the Thing not the man and is scared of losing her. Then the effects of the neutraliser wear off, restoring Ben to his Thing form.

This issue is somewhat slight due to telling two extended action sequences, one in flashback, but does show the problems with telling Rom stories because he comes with a powerful weapon that can permanently dispatch his foes and only his foes with ease. (And as the weapon came with the toy it can't be simply abandoned.) But it's also surprising to see yet another temporary cure for Ben and what I think is the first time he directly acknowledges the possibility that he really prefers being the Thing because of Alicia and implicitly this may be why no cure has ever lasted. It puts the final issue of the series into greater perspective and so is more key than it first seems, even though the main issue is nothing to write home about.

Essential Marvel Two-in-One volume 4

Essential Marvel Two-in-One volume 4 contains issues #78 to #98 & #100 and annuals #6 & #7. (Issue #99 is a team-up with the licensed character Rom and thus unavailable here.) The writing is mainly by Tom DeFalco with some by David Michelinie, David Anthony Kraft and Jan Strnad with the final issue by John Byrne. One annual is by Doug Moench, the other by DeFalco. Most of the art is by Ron Wilson bar a few issues by Alan Kupperberg.

As this is a team-up title, here's the usual list of the titled guest stars in each issue:

78. Wonder Man
Annual 6. American Eagle
79. Blue Diamond
80. Ghost Rider
81. Sub-Mariner
82. Captain America
83. Sasquatch
84. Alpha Flight
85. Spider-Woman
86. Sandman plus a back-up with the Impossible Man
87. Ant-Man
88. She-Hulk
89. The Human Torch
90. Spider-Man
91. [None billed but this issue supplies the volume's cover so have a guess]
92. Jocasta
93. Machine Man
94. Power Man and Iron Fist
95. The Living Mummy
Annual 7. [None billed]
96. [None billed]
97. Iron Man
98. [None billed]
100. Ben Grimm

Note the increasing number of issues not promoting a second star towards the end of the series; a sign of where things would eventually go. These stars are once again taken mostly from the more obscure side of the Marvel universe but with some exceptions and some attempts to build up their profiles.

This period of the title sees an initial drift back to the book's roots as a team-up title first and a Thing series second. There are a few times when the book gets used to either wrap up left-over matters from another series or else make significant changes to one of the guest stars. An example of the former comes in issues #92 & #93 which serve as a two-part tale that seems to be more about giving Machine Man one great final adventure following the cancellation of his own title (whose last issues were written by DeFalco) than about advancing the events in the Thing's life. It brings Machine Man into conflict with Ultron and introduces him to Jocasta for the first time, forming the basis on which DeFalco would later build the brilliant Machine Man limited series set in 2020 and often reprinted (including twice in the UK in the back-up pages in Transformers). In all this the Thing feels a bit like a spare part, at times relegated to a hypnotised state as a mindless minion of Ultron whilst the focus is upon Machine Man and some of his supporting cast such as mechanic "Gears" Garvin and psychologist Peter Spaulding, or upon Jocasta as she seeks to find a purpose in the world and make friends, both human and mechanical. It's a good tale but it's also one of the last examples of how team-up books could often get conscripted into sorting out things when a regular series bit the dust.

A rather odder development comes with the appearance of Spider-Woman in the final part of the volume's only real epic. A succession of issues see the Thing and Namor the Sub-Mariner then Captain America and Giant-Man (Bill Foster) battling Modok and Aim, with the Thing being infected by an experimental virus but a cure being obtained. Meanwhile Giant-Man is slowly dying of radiation poisoning but declines his one chance of a cure in favour of saving Ben's life. Ben in turn goes searching for the one expert on radiation who may be able to cure Bill - Walter Langkowski aka Sasquatch of Alpha Flight. The search leads to the Canadian wilderness and a battle with the spirit Ranark in which the rest of Alpha Flight get drawn in as the battle rages across much of Canada. But it's too late for Langkowski's treatment to have an effect and so Bill heads for Los Angeles to tie up his affairs with the Thing in tow, where they join with Spider-Woman in battling a new Atom Smasher who replaced the foe who gave Bill the poisoning in the first place. Salvation ultimately comes for Bill but at the cost of Spider-Woman's special immune system that makes her invulnerable to poisons, drugs and gases. It's a nice moment to see one hero sacrifice part of their powers to help another but it's very odd to remove a key power of a hero with their own title in what is, from their series's perspective, a throwaway guest appearance. Spider-Woman's series was still going at this time, having reached issue #42, and that should have been the place for this to take place in. But instead the issue has been treated as such a throwaway that it's not even included in Essential Spider-Woman volume 2. A development that does make more sense here is that of the Blue Diamond, as the Second World War hero, who has been little seen in the present day, gets a radical makeover at the hands of Shanga the Star-Dancer, and the two head off together.

Both the annuals see new characters introduced but one tale has more of an impact than the other. The first annual included here sees the debut of the American Eagle, a rather minor and somewhat stereotyped hero in an adventure that also sees Ka-Zar and Wyatt Wingfoot caught up in a battle with Klaw. The last annual is more spectacular, with no specific guest star billed but instead the Thing is one of many strong heroes kidnapped for an intergalactic boxing match with the Champion of the Universe, an Elder devoted to physical fights. Doc Samson and Namor the Sub-Mariner both drop out in training whilst Thor is disqualified and the Hulk is dismissed when he reverts to his mindless savage form. Then in succession Sasquatch, Colossus and Wonder Man fail leaving it down to the Thing to try to achieve what no other being has ever done - last more than two rounds in the ring with Champion. It's a tough battle with just about all the Marvel heroes watching. It leads to a fun follow-up in the regular series as Ben lies injured in hospital with a horror of a nurse who blocks most visitors whilst outside many old foes decide to take advantage of the situation and attack a vulnerable Thing yet the other heroes stand in their way and eventually both sides resort to uniting their forces. This may be one of the earliest times all the Marvel heroes got together to battle a veritable legion of villains and yet little is made of it as it's mostly played for laughs. But whilst the battle is raging there's a strong serious and moving moment inside the hospital as one old foe finds his way to Ben's room.

Between issues #86 & #96 the Sandman is taken forward light years. Having only just escaped from his last mess when he accidentally merged with Hydro-Man into a giant mud monster, the Sandman is now reassessing his life, starting with a drink in a bar where he declines to fight when the Thing turns up. Instead they just sit and talk, realising how they have much in common, and we learn a lot about the Sandman's life before the explosion that gave him his powers. It's a very sympathetic look at a villain who is given a second chance and his freedom by the Thing and doesn't disappoint - when he shows up at the hospital it's to deliver cigars and beer. The nurse might not approve but these issues have done much to make the Sandman a more sympathetic and human character and show there is a chance of redemption. The character has had quite a mixed handling over the years but it's here that he stepped up and it also reflects well on Ben in his handling of the situation.

There aren't too many other recurring villains or themes throughout the volume with most issues being a done-in-one conventional team-up. A few exceptions pop up, starting with a team-up with Wonder Man on the set of a rather dire television series called "Monster Man!", based on the Thing's exploits but sufficiently changed for legal reasons. The show is being manipulated by Xemnu the Titan, with the producer Ted Silverberg left searching for new material to rip off. He shows up again when he seeks revenge on the Thing with a dire monster movie but things get out of hand when the dinosaur special effects prove more realistic than anyone realised, forcing the Thing and Iron Man to clean up with Tony Stark using his business interests to mop up the aftermath. Otherwise it's a run of one-off tales including a confrontation with the Ghost Rider who has now become a separate personality from Johnny Blaze and is getting out of control. Easier to control is the Impossible Man who has now reproduce, forcing Ben to find ways to keep the whole Impossible Family entertained whilst he finds a new home planet for them.

There's a visit to a world in a micro universe where Ben has been taken to champion the ruler Pearla against Zorak of the Lizard People and only Ant-Man, now a role fulfilled by Scott Lang can save him. Back at normal size Ben gets hired to protect Los Angeles from a terrorist called Negator - and also fend off the advances and demands of the She-Hulk in her most flirtatious mood yet. David Anthony Kraft enjoys revisiting another aspect of She-Hulk's first series when he pits the Thing and the Torch against the cultist the Word and his daughter Ultima. There's also a battle with Sardeth the Sorcerer at a mediaeval recreation fair, with Spider-Man showing up to help and irritate the Thing. Elsewhere Ben gets caught up in some chaos as a rich eccentric inventor goes on the run with the Thing trying to help him but Power Man and Iron Fist have been hired to recover him for a company. Ben also finds himself visiting Egypt twice, including an encounter with the Living Mummy in which they battle the ancient High Priest Nephrus - who has transformed Alicia into his bride.

The last couple of issues in the volume veer away from the traditional approach of the series, with an issue that's more of a solo story in which Ben and Franklin Richards meet a video game inventor and get transported to a dimension where the elements of the video game come to life. The Tron influence is all too clear but fortunately the art doesn't try to accurately depict the world - there's nothing that dates faster than computing. The final issue sees Ben return to what he thought was an divergent timeline created by his attempts to cure himself of being the Thing at an earlier stage in his life but finds instead it's a pre-existing alternate timeline which has collapsed into a dystopia ruled by the Red Skull and it's down to Ben and his counter-part to save the day.

The final story addresses a minor subplot about whether or not Ben is better off being the Thing or not, with an earlier issue seeing Reed Richards privately speculate that the reason successive cures have always been unsuccessful is because Ben is secretly scared Alicia prefers him as the Thing and would reject him in human form. The visit to the alternate world has an effect and the last page show Ben deciding overall if he could pick between human and Thing form he'd pick the Thing. His relationship with Alicia remains much the same throughout the volume, with a brief period where she moves into the Baxter Building to be safer - only to find that with all the madness in there it's anything but safe.

This volume concludes the whole series as it was replaced after this by a solo Thing title, suggesting it was felt the team-up format had had its day. As this was the first of Marvel and DC's four main team-up titles to end it's arguable that it was killed too soon but it's certainly the case that much of this volume is more conventional team-up than the adventures of the Thing and an ever changing set of guest stars, insofar as the distinction was made. This volume maintains the general fun of two heroes working together that team-up titles always bring but it's not as strong or as coherent as some earlier periods. Still overall it offers lots of good individual adventures and makes for a strong collection.

Essential Avengers volume 8

Essential Avengers volume 8 contains issues #164 to #184 and Annuals #7 & #8 plus Marvel Two-in-One Annual #2. The writing on the regular series is mainly by Jim Shooter then David Michelinie, with individual issues solely or co-written by Marv Wolfman, Bill Mantlo, Steve Gerber and Tom DeFalco. The art sees runs by John Byrne, George Pérez and Dave Wenzel with individual issues by Sal Buscema, Carmine Infantino and Jim Mooney. The second annual is written by Roger Slifer and drawn by Pérez whilst both the first annual and the Marvel Two-in-One annual are written & drawn by Jim Starlin. With a lot of creators there's inevitably a separate post for some of the labels.

The late 1970s saw a big science fiction resurgence and its effects are felt here with two of the best-known Avengers stories of all. "The Korvac Saga", a name that like so many does not actually appear on the original issues, runs across eleven issues (including a fill-in that manages to insert itself into a decent interlude in the narrative rather than having to be placed some time earlier) and sets out to build its mysteries and menaces slowly. Early on we get a minor incident with the Porcupine attacking a fashion show but the real curiosity is a strange man in the audience who abducts one of the models, Carina. Meanwhile the Guardians of the Galaxy are on Earth in the present day both to protect Vance Astro's younger self and to locate their old foe Korvac, who has now taken on humanoid form as "Michael", a being with great powers living unobtrusively in suburban New York. An early investigation by Starhawk ends in failure as Michael wipes his memory of the incident and makes the Guardian unable to perceive him. Elsewhere the Avengers face trouble of a very different sort in the form of special agent Henry Peter Gyrich from the National Security Council. Gyrich rapidly establishes himself as a recurrent arsehole, pouring scorn on the Avengers' security measures and eventually has them stripped of their security clearance privileges, denying them access to equipment, help from agencies or even data files and making them rely on their wits and friendships. He adds to the tension in a team already under strain as Iron Man's leadership and time commitment gets constantly questioned by Captain America and others. Gyrich's questions also delve into some of the conventions of superhero comics that don't stand up in real life, such as how heroes can verify their identity, making for some further problems.

There's then the fill-in interlude (usually excluded from collections of this storyline but the Essentials have a completist philosophy) in which the Avengers act to formula in dealing with the multiple bombs planted around the world by a dying competitor of Tony Stark's, Jason Beere who wants to take the world with him. Ironically Beere ends up living much longer than planned as the Eternity Man. The Korvac Saga then resumes but in an unobtrusive manner in the background with the main attention given over to Ultron's robotic bride, now named "Jocasta" in reflection of her being based on the Wasp's brain patterns and thus part of Ultron's Oedipus complex. However Jocasta turns on Ultron because her feelings for him, wishing to end his evil and foreshadowing a key point in the ultimate battle. Meanwhile various Avengers are suddenly vanishing, even little used ones like the Two-Gun Kid. Whatever the intention in bringing the character to the 20th century he has been woefully underused, in part because of changing writers, and it's not surprising that he is ultimately sent back to his own time. The Avengers' ranks are slowly depleted as more and more of their numbers disappear, leaving the remaining ones and various returning members and allies to deal with other menaces such as the Atlantean Tyrak or the continued interventions of Gyrich. The kidnapper turns out to be the Collector and the Avengers are forced to use the Guardians' technology in order to reach his ship, only to discover that Carina is his daughter who has betrayed him and Korvac is even more powerful than any of them realised.

We then head towards the climax of the saga as the Avengers try to track down their foe without any of their usual resources or vehicles thanks to Gyrich's harsh approach to force them to adopt tighter security measures. The later scene of the Avengers having to commandeer a bus to transport them to the suburbs is a good exposure of how Gyrich's actions undermine their efforts to save the universe, as is having to rely on information from Hank's ants. When they do finally reach the suburban house, horrifying the neighbours in the process, they find Michael seeking to occupy an ordinary existence until Starhawk claims there is no-one there, exposing Michael's power. The final showdown comes as Korvac reveals his full power and panics as he now expects the universe's cosmic entities to attack him. In a brutal battle Avenger after Avenger is killed, until Korvac is briefly on the defensive and reliant on Carina's support - but it does not come and so once again a powerful foe is brought down by the complex attitude of his partner. But then it's revealed the Avengers have been revived by his power, making this one of the earliest examples of a story where hero after hero is killed in battle with an all powerful entity only to be restored to life. It's a cliché that's now been overdone but this may be where it all started. Overall the saga has some strong moments but never establishes too clearly the wider looming cosmic war that Korvac wished to avoid. Still it's easy to see why the story is so well known and often reprinted.

But even better known and more often reprinted than the Korvac Saga or anything else in this volume are Avengers Annual #7 and Marvel Two-in-One Annual #2, containing an epic battle with Thanos which served to resolve the saga of Warlock. With Jim Starlin at the helm it becomes clear just where his priorities were with the Avengers themselves largely serving as supporting fodder whilst Captain Marvel seems to only be around for the sake of seeing off one of his greatest foes and the Thing mainly serves to supply transport to bring Spider-Man to the action and a second annual in which to conclude the saga. Otherwise we have a strong saga that carefully builds up both the villain and the threat in order to show how desperate the odds are, with Warlock bringing together the Avengers and Captain Marvel to deal with Thanos's great armada. But it's Warlock and Spider-Man who are the main focus and the story doesn't even stop to explain the appearance of a second Warlock from the past who shows up to finish off his own future self. Iron Man may be responsible for the destruction of Thanos's great weapon and the Avengers as a whole get some good fight scenes but the follow-up in Marvel Two-in-One focuses upon Spider-Man as a person with a great destiny to bring Warlock back for one final mission. Having now read this tale from the perspectives of all four of the titled individuals or groups it has appeared under, it becomes clear this is much more of a great Warlock and Spider-Man tale than it is an Avengers or Thing story. Annuals are odd beasts that often stand outside the regular flow of a series and the number of places to conclude the saga was limited in 1977 but that doesn't take away the problem.

Annual #8 is rather more typical of the regular issues at the rear end of the volume; a rather dull battle against a somewhat unmemorable old foe. In this case Doctor Spectrum of the Squadron Sinister reincarnates through possessing a succession of Avengers' bodies, with his colleagues Hyperion and the Whizzer briefly showing up as well as a guest appearance by Thundra from the pages of Fantastic Four. It's all just one inconsequential battle after another. The volume's opening saga sees Count Nefaria assemble the Lethal Legion consisting of Whirlwind, the Living Laser and the villainous Power Man who has not yet obtained a new code name despite the existence of the Hero for Hire. The villains all get a power boost but it soon turns out that Nefaria has his own objectives.

The rear of the volume gets somewhat bitty, not helped by a few months between regular writers. There's an odd solo tale of the Beast in which he is manipulated by a strange foe called the Manipulator who has both mental powers and cunning. The whole thing appears to be a sting operation but it's not entirely clear. Following this comes a tale involving the genetically modified lifeform Bloodhawk, a part human part avian being, along with the new foes the Stinger and the Monolith. Bloodhawk at first seems set to become a new member of the team but it is not to be. He's not the most imaginative of members either, feeling too much like a Hawkman clone, and in any case the Avengers have at this stage a rather large roster as shown on the volume's cover (taken from issue #181 which is also the first ever appearance of Scott Lang in a small supporting role but he doesn't become Ant-Man until much later).

The team is dramatically cut down as Gyrich demands a much smaller active membership in order to have their security clearance restored. The team is pruned down to Iron Man, Captain America, the Wasp, the Scarlet Witch, the Vision, the Beast and, most controversially, the Falcon. Gyrich insists on diversity but with the Black Panther returning to Wakanda this results in a new untested member being suddenly added to a small squad, to a lot of muted doubt and criticism. The Falcon himself isn't too happy with this and starts calling himself "the Token" and briefly adopts a very stereotyped accent around Gyrich. Also unhappy is Hawkeye at being dropped in favour of a new member and it becomes clear that the debate on affirmative action is going to be fought out in issues to come. In the meantime the cut-down of the team is a little staggered with Hawkeye hanging around for a final mission and Ms. Marvel becoming an almost immediate substitute when the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver briefly depart for Europe. This comes after a strange attack by an old gypsy called Django Maximoff who identifies Wanda and Pietro as his children "Ana" and "Mataéo" and captures their spirits to put in little dolls. Regarding him as a mistaken but well meaning old man they forgive him but are curious and head off to investigate his claims in more detail whilst the rest of the team battle the Absorbing Man.

This volume shows the series in a generally strong position though as is often the case with this title a change of writer can result in a period where it struggles to find direction, clear membership and a regular scribe. There's a strong sense of ambition and epic to the Korvac Saga which seeks to put the team through the ultimate challenge, and it's appropriate to have so many members present for such a landmark event. It's also showing a determination to get beyond menaces being defeated by sheer force of numbers and strategy and to get into more personal drama. This saga stands up well though the rest of the volume is either more run of the mill or an annual epic that has rather wandered into the series. The addition of Gyrich does, however, make for some good interesting challenges for the team and also helping to streamline it. It's a mixed volume but holds out well for the future.

Essential Fantastic Four volume 8

Essential Fantastic Four volume 8 contains issues #160 to #183 (#180 is a reprint with only the cover included here) plus Annual #11 and the crossover issues Marvel Two-in-One #20 and Annual #1. Most of the writing, including the annual and the Marvel Two-in-One issues, is by Roy Thomas with one issue co-written with Gerry Conway and another scripted by Bill Mantlo. The penultimate issue is co-plotted by Len Wein, Jim Shooter and Archie Goodwin, and scripted by Mantlo who writes the final issue. The art is by a mixture of John Buscema, Rich Buckler and George Pérez, with Ron Wilson and Sal Buscema each contributing a couple of issues at the end. John Buscema draws the annual and Sal Buscema both the Marvel Two-in-One issues.

This volume covers a period in which the Thing now had almost a solo series in the form of Marvel Two-in-One, yet apart from the odd mention of one or other of his team-ups it's barely noticeable in the regular series. Instead the series operates as though this is the only place where significant developments happen to him. This is most noticeable when a succession of issues see Ben first temporarily ally with the Hulk against the rest of the team and then the result of prolonged exposure to the Hulk's gamma radiation causes Ben to revert to human form. Ben's loss of powers leads to his temporary replacement by perhaps the shortest lasting official membership of the team ever as Luke Cage, Power Man is taken on. Cage is around for such a short period of time, part of which is spent under the control of the Puppet Master and the rest with Ben still hanging around on the scene as the Four battle the Wrecker, making it impossible to assess either the new member's potential or the overall dynamic of the team. It's tempting to see this as just an extended advert for Power Man's own series, which often showed signs of being in danger saleswise. Meanwhile Ben finds being fully human again is not all he was expecting, with reduced strength and many people only interested in his monstrous form. However he is soon restored to active duty courtesy of a special exo-skeleton designed to mimic his rocky form, finally giving him a way to have both forms when he needs them without the awkward mental side-effects. Sadly for Ben this doesn't last too long with Galactus blasting him with a special energy that turns him fully into a monster once more. The only long term side-effect is that Ben's strength has been enhanced, as part of a general upscaling of the powers of some of the Four. He does start thinking about marrying Alicia, and there are hints that she wants children, but it doesn't come to much.

The main area where Marvel Two-in-One makes its presence known is in a crossover between both titles' annuals, even spilling over into an issue of the regular series. The whole piece is a convoluted epic built around time travel as a canister of adamantium is accidentally sent back in time to the Second World War, resulting in changes to history as the Germans win and conquer the United States. The canister gets cut in half by a time wedge, resulting in the whole Four first going back in time to team up with the Invaders and then Ben travelling back solo where he allies with the less well-known Liberty Legion. Both adventures present a variety of foes from the 1940s set titles, including a clash with Baron Zemo as we see how he was stuck under his hood whilst the Liberty Legion bring conflict with Master Man, U-Man and Brain Drain plus new foes Skyshark and Slicer. It's a good idea in principle and allows each half of the saga to stand more or less on its own. But the whole thing is let down by an ability to explain or understand just how time travel works with some of the saga implying that the events of the adventure has changed actual history albeit temporarily, other moments suggesting that it depicts part of what was always in the original history and other moments still suggesting that the 1940s elements actually took place in an alternate timeline and so explain why Captain America and Namor the Sub-Mariner in the present day have never remembered what happened. Any one of these approaches to time travel would be fine but when all three are thrown together it creates an incoherent mess that undermines a good attempt to bring together the heroes of different eras.

The other tale to noticeably indulge Roy Thomas's enthusiasm for pre-Silver Age Marvel characters is a curious two-parter in which the Four take on the Crusader, who turns out to be the grown up version of the early 1950s hero, Marvel Boy. But rather than a straightforward revival of the character to allow him to be used as a hero in the modern day, we instead get a strange story that instead turns him into a zealot driven by anger and revenge upon a bank that denied him a loan when the Uranians needed medication, thus preventing him from returning to Uranus in time to either save the civilisation from natural destruction or else to die with it. It seems that Thomas was aiming for a tale to contrast the black and white simplistic morality of the Golden and Atlas Ages with the more complicated superhero ethics that were developing strongly by the mid 1970s, as well as a more general look at fanaticism in the name of one's "father". But the problem is that he has never been one of the best polemical writers and so all the subtleties about the Crusader's approach to fighting crime in contrast to the Fantastic Four's (and they're far from the best heroes to use for such a contrast anyway, being more adventurers) are completely lost in favour of a tale of a seemingly indestructible fanatical foe. Marvel Boy's original adventures were only published for about a year, though were reprinted in the late 1960s and so he's not a hero whom it's easy to get excited about making it odd that he gets brought back this way only to be immediately killed off. It's also surprising that no effort is made to reconcile the civilisation on Uranus with the greater scientific knowledge of the planet that had developed in the intervening quarter of a century since the original tales. In 1950 it was possible to present other planets in the Solar System as being inhabited but by 1975 this was no longer credible.

One recurring theme in this volume is alternate Earths of one kind or another. At the start of the volume is a convoluted tale of Earth and two separate alternate dimensions that are all being pushed into a three-way conflict with each other by Arkon. One world is the Fifth Dimension, allowing Johnny to meet with Valeria once more, the other is the world where Reed became the Thing instead of Ben. It's a rather convoluted piece more notable for characterisation than for the conflicts, and presents a clear attempt to create a new Silver Surfer when Ben is travelling through space and encounters Gaard, an intergalactic ice hockey player complete with skates, stick and a puck, who serves as guardian of an interdimensional portal. The revelation that he is actually the Johnny Storm of the Reed-Thing's dimension, albeit unaware of his own identity, is an attempt at adding tragedy and familiarity but the character as a whole feels half-baked and it's easy to see why he is quickly forgotten.

A more substantial epic comes with an unusual starting point as a highly articulate golden gorilla called Gorr lands on Earth and lures the Four onto his spaceship to take them away. We soon learn he has solicited their aid because Galactus is seeking to consume Counter-Earth on the other side of the Sun, with only the High Evolutionary offering any meaningful resistance. Battling both Galactus himself and his current herald the Destroyer yields no ground until he accepts an offer to find an alternate populated world to consume providing that either its inhabitants voluntarily offer themselves up or the Four will select it for destruction. This leads to exploration of three possible alternate worlds, one being inhabited by a race of robots led by Torgo, the Thing's sparing partner from the world where the Skrulls operated like a 1920s gangster movie. Another world appears to be a parallel to medieval Earth as knights battle dragons but it turns out to be the Skrulls again, this time driving out the last of the indigenous population. Finally the third world appears barren and deserted but instead turns out to be Poppup, the home of the Impossible Man and his people with a single group mind, thus making the rest of the race willing to offer themselves up. But all is not well and Galactus suffers indigestion, and is then accelerated evolved into an energy form that no longer needs to eat. It's a curious twist to end the epic with but it shows an attempt to move forwards.

The return of the Impossible Man is the big surprise, since the original story had been exceptionally silly and it seemed as if all were trying to forget it. But now we get a somewhat slapstick issue as "Impy" roams through New York, eventually invading the Marvel Comics bullpen in the hope of starring in his own comic. It's a wonderfully anarchic piece that allows a tongue in cheek look at the Marvel office. However the Impossible Man then hangs around the Four for the rest of the volume in a tale that also sees both Thundra and Tigra show up and never really depart. The Impossible Man is best kept for one-off stories rather than an ongoing element.

The last issues in the volume put the team through multiple wringers as the Baxter Building gets taken over by the Frightful Four who are trying to recruit a new fourth member. They eventually find one in the form of the Brute - the Reed Richards of Counter-Earth who has inadvertently stowed away on the Fantastic Four's journey home. The rest of the Frightful Four are soon defeated but the Brute takes Reed's place and confines the real Reed to the Negative Zone. Reed's stretching power has been weakening before vanishing completely and so he is forced to survive by his wits and make a deal with Annihilus against a giant android controlled by the Mad Thinker, who has bizarrely found the ability to extend his power into the Negative Zone. Meanwhile the other Reed is trying to keep up the pretence on Earth but Sue has her doubts and they're confirmed by the different way this Reed kisses her. Sue has been growing ever stronger as a character, learning to use her forcefields for effective offensive action and seeing her power steadily increase in strength. It is thus a surprise only to the Brute that she proves the hardest of the Four to subdue. Reed's own nobility also triumphs through in the climax, impressing even his counterpart.

In general Johnny is the least used of the Four throughout this volume. After seeing Valeria a final time he tries updating his hair style and fashion sense in order to hit the singles bars, but the results are almost painfully comic. A long running though occasional thread sees him dating new character Frankie Raye but she is fearful of flame and panics whenever he flames on to go into action. There are hints at some great reason for this but she appears so infrequently that it becomes an irritation and with Thomas leaving just before the end there's a strong possibility it will not be resolved at all.

Apart from a few slips towards the end, this volume is quite strong. It demonstrates that it is possible to find new ways to handle the characters and their large ensemble cast whilst also adapting to the spirit of the times. This is the series at its best so far since the later Lee-Kirby years.

Essential Captain Marvel volume 2

Essential Captain Marvel volume 1 contains issues #22-46 of the original Captain Marvel series plus Iron Man #55 and Marvel Feature #12. Issue #36 is a reprint with a framing sequence that is included here. The Iron Man issue is a prologue to a storyline in the main series whilst the Marvel Feature issue ties in with that and is also part of the try-out for Marvel Two-in-One. Bonus material includes a map of Titan from issue #27 plus the covers, pin-ups and extra pages from the reprint series The Life of Captain Marvel. The writing on the main series is primarily by Mike Friedrich, Jim Starlin and Steve Englehart either solo or in various combinations with Al Milgrom co-plotting some issues and a few by Gerry Conway, Marv Wolfman and Chris Claremont. The art is mainly by Jim Starlin, Al Milgrom and Wayne Boring with an individual issue by Alfredo Alcala. Friedrich and Starlin also co-produce both the Iron Man and Marvel Feature issues.

Although the numbering begun in 1968 is continued, this volume represents the third attempt to launch an ongoing Captain Marvel title in less than five years. Once again this perseverance is almost certainly down to a desire to maintain the trademark at a time when DC had obtained the licence for the Fawcett Captain Marvel and would soon relaunch him on the world in his own title. US trademark law is big on the "use it or lose it" principle so Marvel Comics couldn't just rely on a registration but had to actively use the mark "Captain Marvel" in order to prevent others using it. This shows in the first few issues as we get a fairly generic superhero series with the only real twist being Rick Jones increasingly resenting sharing his physical space with Mar-Vell and resisting transformation no matter how dire the situation. The villains consist of Megaton the Nuclear Man and Dr Mynde, both men affected by radiation. Megaton has mutated into a solid form but is set to explode whilst Mynde is an ambitious scientist whose body succumbed to radiation poisoned so he transplanted his head onto a robotic body. Neither foe is terribly exciting and both die at the end of their first encounter. There's yet another change to Captain Marvel's set-up as his powers are altered so he is now reliant on solar energy for his powers and is noticeably weaker at night. A supporting cast is grown in the form of musician Lou-Anne Savannah and her uncle scientist Benjamin but all in all this is a series still searching for a purpose beyond trademark protection.

On first encounter Iron Man #55 seems an odd choice for inclusion as it doesn't feature Captain Marvel or any of the characters from his series. Instead we get the introduction of a new villain and his opponent. But that villain is Thanos and the opponent Drax the Destroyer, with the issue serving as a prologue to the best known storyline in this volume. Over no less than nine issues, with bimonthly publication making it last eighteen months, we get an extended tale of Captain Marvel's battle with Thanos, establish the Titan as one of the mega-villains of the Marvel universe. The epic spread beyond the pages of Captain Marvel itself, with Iron Man teaming up with the Thing to battle Thanos's minions the Blood Brothers in Marvel Feature #12, Moondragon being aided by Daredevil and the Black Widow in their own series and the Avengers taking on Thanos's armed forces in their series. Only the Marvel Feature issue is included but it isn't very critical to the ongoing plot and doesn't justify its presence here whilst other tie-in issues are ignored. I suspect the reason is that this inclusion/exclusion pattern appears to have been followed by all the reprints of the storyline going right back to the mid 1980s series The Life of Captain Marvel.

This storyline presents with a truly cosmic epic with a well developed backstory and characters. Over the course of these issues Captain Marvel battles first with Thanos's recruits such as the Super Skrull and the Controller, before eventually taking on the Titan himself. We get a broad scope reminiscent of Greek epics as we learn the history of the civilisation on Titan from its founding by A'Lars, brother of Zeus, under the name of Mentor, through to Thanos's rise, recruitment of an army and conquest of the moon and then sweeping outwards. We learn of how steps have been taken to stop them but they are not enough. And we see the effects as Thanos turns his attention to Earth in pursuit of the Cosmic Cube to further his ends. The Cube offers immense power but its ramifications aren't explored too much beyond a notable 35 panel page in which Drax is subjected to a reality warping experience. Captain Marvel steadily steps up to the point where his heroism allows him to triumph.

We get many new characters who have gone on to perform significant roles through the Marvel Universe and beyond into the films. There's Thanos himself, his brother Eros (later to use the alias "Starfox"), their father Mentor, Isaac the super-computer and Drax the Destroyer. Each is carefully sketched out as a distinctive being who advances the story in their own way. And there are the more cosmic entities. The mighty Kronos is introduced though like Eros he bears limited resemblance to the character from Greek mythology. From afar he has created Drax the Destroyer out of Moondragon's dead father. Even more mysterious is Eon, a blob that appears to be a hybrid of two separate entities and which summons Mar-Vell to transform him from soldier to cosmic protector. And then there's Death, a silent skeletal female figure in a robe who appears at Thanos's side. There are some status quo changes as well, with Benjamin Savannah killed off at the start but more substantial is Mar-Vell's transformation under the guidance of Eon. Now an even more powerful cosmic being with "cosmic awareness" of what is happening in the universe he bursts forward with a new light stream tail of photon energy. Unfortunately the other main visual change is his hair turning from silver to blond, a change that is impossible to notice in a black and white reprint. And it's my main irritation with an otherwise fantastic storyline that we get yet another change in the main character's powers. It seems it may be impossible for any intellectual property protection to resist constant tinkering.

Issue #34 is probably the best known single issue in this volume, featuring Captain Marvel taking on new villain Nitro to stop him stealing an experimental nerve gas with consequences that would be returned to in later years. Nitro is a villain with an interesting power, that of being able to blow himself up and then reconstitute himself. I suspect that in the 1970s it was possible to present a living bomb as a character without the wider connotations of suicide bombers (and it still was over a decade later when one of the last of the original Masters of the Universe toys was Blast-Attak, with very much the same character basis) but nowadays it would be much more daring to create such a being.

Also a sign of the times is the drug use on the music scene. Rick's new singing partner Rachel "Dandy" Dandridge gives him a capsule that she jokingly claims contains "Vitamin C". When Rick takes it in the Negative Zone, it causes him to hallucinate and through the mind link it also affects Captain Marvel. However this affects a process whereby their minds have been converging. Rick has previously discovered the ability to control Mar-Vell's body when the latter is unconscious and the two are finding themselves ever more drawn together with the implication they may be merging. The drug taking seems to have the effect of empowering them to ultimately separate and merge at their own choosing. Again it's highly doubtful such a cause would be used today. Equally brushed over more than would be the case today is a scene where, in a brief guest appearance, the Wasp tampers with the Living Laser's equipment resulting in his weaponry killing him. Some of these ideas were clearly slipping past during one of Marvel editorial's most turbulent periods.

However out of that turbulence comes another epic as Captain Marvel battles elements of the Kree across multiple worlds, culminating in a showdown on the Kree homeworld with the Supreme Intelligence who has been manipulating things all along. During the course of the epic Mar-Vell and Rick briefly go their separate ways but reunite after Rick discovers his music act is out of touch with modern audience expectations. Both men find their powers developing thanks to the Nega bands with each learning from the other about how to use the powers in new and imaginative ways. The two are finally separated but able to reunite when needs be, allowing them to more easily travel through space and enhance their fighting skills. Towards the end their minds are on the brink of merger, resulting in a showdown to re-establish their separate egos. Against this personal conflict comes an array of adventures, ranging from confrontations on Earth with agents of the "Lunatic Legion" such as Nitro and the Living Laser to a showdown on the Moon with the Legion revealed as blue Kree racists led by old foe Zarek in search of purity. There's a trip to the Watcher's homeworld, battles with Annihilus in the Negative Zone and a more personalised conflict with a creature possessing the body of Una, Mar-Vell's former romantic interest. A more whimsical tale takes Mar-Vell and Rick to a plant very like the American Old West where they have a showdown with the Stranger - but all is not what it seems. There's a return appearance by an angry Destroyer, now angry that his purpose in life has been destroyed by Captain Marvel. Then there's a world with a war between cyborgs and giant Kree robots called Null-trons, before the climax with the Supreme Intelligence. The later parts see first Rick and then Mar-Vell aided by a mysterious woman known only as Fawn, a manifestation of Rick's mental powers. This is a story with a big vision and scope, providing one of the earliest intergalactic Marvel epics, but it's also a quite personal tale about the relationship between Mar-Vell and Rick, showing how intertwined the two are and how each benefits the other.

Overall this volume shows some of the telltale signs of the character's origin as a trademark protection, with continuing changes to the powers and status quo, but by the second half of the volume it feels like actual character development rather than an endless search to find something that will work to keep the trademark in use. But beyond that there's finally a clear long-term idea as to what this series is about and it survives a change of writer. Rather than an alien operating amongst humans or a detached observer of humanity we get a strong series on a cosmic scale, with a mixture of menaces that threaten the whole universe and those that focus upon Marvel himself. The Thanos epic is the peak of the volume, even with the needless inclusion of the Marvel Feature issue, and shows a self-confidence that had been lacking for years. After that there are some questionable moments where the series shows its age with accidental killing of villains without consequences, drug taking and suicide bombers all being elements that would be unlikely to appear today. Whilst the second epic may ramble a little overall it still has breadth and imagination, putting the characters through a critical personal journey. The result is a series finally on the up and more than justifying its existence to its readers rather than just intellectual property lawyers. This volume is definitely the series at its highest so far.

Essential Marvel Horror volume 2

Essential Marvel Horror volume 2 is another example of the anthology Essential, this time collecting tales of a diverse set of characters and presenting them by character instead of chronology. We get the adventures of the Living Mummy, Brother Voodoo, Gabriel the Devil-Hunter, Golem, Mordred the Mystic and the Scarecrow. These come from Supernatural Thrillers #5 & #7-15, Strange Tales #169-174 & #176-177, Tales of the Zombie #2, #6 & #10, Marvel Team-Up #24, Haunt of Horror #2-5, Monsters Unleashed #11, Marvel Two-in-One #11, #18 & #33, Marvel Chillers #1-2, Dead of Night #11 and Marvel Spotlight #26. That's a lot of issues with a lot of characters and lots of creators so given the anthology nature of this volume I'll list the creators for each character individually. And there are labels posts for characters and creators 1 and 2.

The volume kicks off with the Living Mummy from Supernatural Thrillers #5 & 7-15. The writing is initially by Steve Gerber and then Tony Isabella before being finished off by John Warner, with plot contributions by Len Wein and Val Mayerik. Mayerik is the main artist on the feature with individual issues drawn by Rich Buckler and Tom Sutton. Supernatural Thrillers had initially adapted various famous horror stories but also ran a one-off original piece featuring an immortal mummy and overall only lasted six issues. It was then revived nearly a year later starring the Mummy with the cover of issue #7 proclaiming that he was back by popular demand. However it's very clear that there was no initial plan for the character who is originally introduced mainly in Egypt (although the opening scene is in the Gaza Strip, then under Israeli occupation) but then transported to New York when the feature becomes ongoing, only to almost immediately be returned to Egypt for the rest of the run. One side effect is that any plan to have guest appearances by the wider Marvel universe is set aside, bar a single appearance by the Living Pharaoh.

However there's a strong sense of history to the lead, established upfront as we learn he was N'Kantu, the chieftain of an African tribe known as the Swarili in ancient times. They were conquered and enslaved by the Egyptians under forgotten Pharaoh Aram-Set, but N'Kantu led a rebellion that freed the slaves and killed N'Kantu. However he was captured by the priest Nephrus who used a potion to paralyse him and then performed a transfusion that replaced his blood with a fluid that made him immortal. N'Kantu then spent three thousand years entombed until the paralysing potion wore off. This origin is quite dark for the time but gives a strong sense of history and tragedy as N'Kantu slowly comes to terms with being exiled from his home by the millenniums and completely unable to return home. In the present day he is drawn to Egyptologist Alexi Skarab, a descendent of Nephrus, who shares a psychic bond with the mummy enabling the two to communicate. Skarab, his two assistants, Janice Carr and Ron McAllister, and thieves Dan "the Asp" Harper and Miles Olddan form a small supporting cast for an epic involving a search for and struggle over a Ruby Scarab of immense power sought by the Elementals - four beings Magnum, Zephyr, Hellfire and Hydron with powers based on earth, air, fire and water respectively. Zephyr initially takes control of the Mummy to find the Scarab but when N'Kantu breaks free the other Elementals turn on her, leading to a prolonged struggle in which modern day Egypt is conquered. It's easy to see the roots of this story - the lead character seems to have been inspired by the contemporary fad for zombies since the end result is once again a living corpse wandering the Earth, unable to communicate substantially with other people and for a period being controlled by the magic of a woman. However the main elements are drawn from Egyptian history and mythology, with some brief acknowledgement of the modern day political turmoil in the Middle East, and the result is a good little epic that doesn't feel too forced or take the lead out of his natural environment. N'Kantu may be one of many horror characters who is unable to converse with those around him but he is able to think, understand and recall and the result is a noble being both in flashbacks and the present day.

Next we have the tales of Brother Voodoo (who gets the cover) from Strange Tales #169-173, Tales of the Zombie #6 & #10 plus an introductory text feature from issue #2, and Marvel Team-Up #24. The Strange Tales and Marvel Team-Up issues are all written by Len Wein who also plots the first Tales of the Zombie story which is scripted by Doug Moench who writes the second. The art on Strange Tales and the first Tales of the Zombie is by Gene Colan, the second by Tony DeZuniga and the Marvel Team-Up by Jim Mooney. The introduction feature is written by Tony Isabella and drawn by John Romita. It's clear Marvel had big hopes for this series, launching it in a monthly series and even reviving the "Strange Tales" name. (Though it's slightly odd to see "Fantastic First Issue!" on issue #169.) But the insurance policy of being able to keep the title and replace the strip proved wise as by issue #171 it was bimonthly and then Brother Voodoo was dropped after only five issues. It's possible the strip ended prematurely for non-sales reasons. Issue #173 ends on a cliffhanger with a caption stating that the story will be concluded in Tales of the Zombie and its place here will be taken by the Man-Wolf. As we'll see the slot was in fact filled by the Golem, which was so rushed issue #175 had to be a general reprint issue and the Man-Wolf instead appeared in Creatures on the Loose. The fact the Brother Voodoo story was concluded in a magazine suggests that there were problems with the Comics Code Authority over the portrayal of some of the voodoo elements in the series.

When I first encountered Brother Voodoo in the pages of Marvel Team-Up I did a double take as the character seemed rather stereotyped. His solo adventures show a more rounded character with a determination to avoid stock tropes so we get Jericho Drumm, a psychiatrist, who returns to Haiti and has to take on the role of his dead brother Daniel - with Daniel's spirit co-inhabiting him. Brother Voodoo shows some efforts to get away from being a black Doctor Strange - he may have a manservant, Bambu, and a mansion but he's a much more physical character. He faces a string of foes, all voodoo inspired but with some superhero twists, including a man claiming to be Damballah the Serpent God who has killed Daniel, and another impersonating Baron Samedi but actually an agent working with AIM. Baron Samedi is an understandably popular villain in voodoo fiction but to find him with a secret layer beneath a cemetery on a Caribbean island just a few months after the release of Live and Let Die does show a degree of unoriginality. A fight with the Cult of Dark Lord introduces potential romantic interest Loralee Tate, a nurse, and her father, local police chief Samuel Tate, but once again the foe is illusionary with the "Black Talon" another man in a suit, here being manipulated by his mother, Mama Limbo. The final solo story is more overtly magical, with Dramabu the Death-Lord raising the dead as "zuvembies" on Haiti, including Brother Voodoo's mentor, Papa Jambo. The team-up with Spider-Man brings a different twist on foe types as they tackle Moondog the Malicious, a spirit currently possessing the body of an accountant.

Overall this strip is a bit hit and miss. It would be churlish to pick on Brother Voodoo for being a product of riding on the latest cultural fad even though this one is now more forgotten than most. And there's a clear attempt to establish a status quo for ongoing adventures in and around New Orleans but it never quite gets there. The problem is there are a lot of overt voodoo concepts in these tales, whether set in Haiti or New Orleans or even a pursuit to New York, and at times it can be a little hard to following if terms like "loa" and "houngan" aren't fully explained - the Marvel Team-Up does a good job at this but the solo stories less so. Otherwise the stories feel rather run of the mill and not as spectacular as they were built up to be.

Third up in this volume is Gabriel the Devil-Hunter from Haunt of Horror #2-5 and Monsters Unleashed #11. Everything is written by Dough Moench with the art handled by Billy Graham, Pablo Marcos and Sonny Trinidad. This is another character whose creation rode the wave of a fad - in this case The Exorcist movie. Information about Gabriel is only slowly revealed and it's not even clear if that is his first or last name. The final story - presumably rescued when the original series was cancelled - fleshes out the background of how a scholar found his wife Andrea dead, seemingly at her own hand, and turned to the priesthood only to be subject to a possession but he drove the demon out with force of will, burning a crucifix mark onto his own chest. Now working as an exorcist from the thirteenth floor of the Empire State Building and accompanied by his mysterious assistant Desaida, Gabriel faces a succession of possessions and drives out the demons, with repeated signs this is part of a greater struggle as the demons know Gabriel. The Devil-Hunter is no pure priest, having turned his back on the Roman Catholic Church and at times turns to drink. Desaida is another source of mystery until it's revealed she is possessed by the spirit of Andrea. At the end Andrea's death certificate spontaneously combusts and Gabriel accepts Desaida as his wife. All in all this is a rather slight series, with the mysterious elements cleared up rapidly when Marvel's black and white horror magazines started ending in close succession though it's good to see a creator getting a chance to control the revelations in time. The settings are mixed with exorcisms in homes, churches, cemeteries and even at Stonehenge (although Sonny Trinidad clearly had no idea what it looks like). But the whole genre just isn't one that appeals much and this strip doesn't reach too well beyond it.

The fourth lead character is the Golem from Strange Tales #174 & #176-177 and Marvel Two-in-One #11. The first Strange Tales issue is written by Len Wein and drawn by John Buscema, and the other two are by Mike Friedrich and Tony DeZuniga with the Marvel Two-in-One by Bill Mantlo and Bob Brown. The Golem is a creature taken from Jewish folklore with this particular representative being the one created by Judah Loew Ben Bezalel in 16th century Prague. The stone monster saved many people from oppression and tyranny before going immobile in the desert. In the present day he is rediscovered by archaeologist Abraham Adamson, his nephew Jason, niece Rebecca and Rebecca's fiancé Wayne Logan. When a group of bandits steal from the campaign, killing Abraham in the process, the Goldman comes to life, seemingly animated by Abraham's spirit. The rest of the strip sees the Golem accompanying the three survivors back to New York, saving them from danger and facing off a series of demons sent by Kaballa the Unclean who desires the Golem's power. The strip soon came to an end with the story becoming one of many to be wrapped up in a team-up with the Thing. All in all there's not much to this strip or character at all. There's an attempt to flesh out the mythology of the stone creatures and show how they can be killed, but the main character has neither the ability to converse with others nor the stature and charisma of other silent monsters and so isn't that interesting. Nor are the supporting cast. This leaves the piece as a curiosity that fortunately doesn't outstay it's welcome.

The penultimate strip in the volume is Mordred the Mystic from Marvel Chillers #1-2 and Marvel Two-in-One #33. The two Marvel Chillers issues are written by Bill Mantlo and the sole Marvel Two-in-One by Marv Wolfman with art by Yong Montano & Ed Hannigan, Sonny Trinidad & John Byrne and Ron Wilson respectively. This is a very slight series, telling how a sorcerer’s apprentice at the time of Camelot had rejected being assigned to the unseen Merlin, who had reportedly turned bad, and instead sought dark magic to overthrow the wizard. However it threw him into suspended animation until found in the twentieth century. The rest of the series is a mixture of fights with various magic and demonic beings including the strange "the Other" and four representatives of the elements, and a culture clash battle with a stereotyped cliché pretending to be the Metropolitan police in some Hollywood executive's idea of London. There's clear potential for this character, and also a sub-plot laid of a romantic triangle involving him and the two archaeologists who found him, but the strip is over before it's really begun and the practical implementation is nothing to write home about. Yong Monano's art is particularly fine though, with the lengthy flashback to the days of Camelot having a real olde worlde feel. The story is nominally wrapped up in Marvel Two-in-One in what is also the conclusion of the first Spider-Woman epic, but all we get is a battle with the elemental demons sent by the wicked Merlin rather than an actual showdown.

The final character highlighted is the Scarecrow from Dead of Night #11, Marvel Spotlight #26 and Marvel Two-in-One #18. The first two are written by Scott Edelman and the third by Bill Mantlo with Edelman co-plotting. The art on the three issues is by Rico Rival, Ruben Yandoc and Ron Wilson respectively. The letters page for Dead of Night #11 is reproduced and it's an essay by Scott Edelman outlining early ideas for the character and the various titles he was considered for. This is frankly a highly confusing series with key mysteries never resolved. The Scarecrow seems to inhabit a painting and comes to life when attempts are made to steal said painting by agents of the demon Kalumai. The painting is obtained by collector Jess Duncan, with multiple hints of a connection between the Scarecrow and Duncan's brother Dave Monroe. Beyond that we have multiple fights, an attempt to sacrifice Duncan's romantic interest art critic Harmony Maxwell, and no actual origin. The Marvel Two-in-One issue reveals that the painting is an portal to a dimension where Kalumai is trapped with the Scarecrow as gatekeeper but the other questions are left unresolved and the painting seemingly destroyed. All in all this is easily the worst of the six different characters' appearances collected here but fortunately it doesn't outstay its welcome.

Of the different characters it's the Living Mummy which works the best, having a clearly defined character and soon finding a strong direction. The Brother Voodoo tales are so-so but the rest of the volume is really a demonstration as to why these characters never took off and I wonder how Marvel Two-in-One readers felt about that series being so often used to wrap-up such obscure properties. However the general concept of this book is a good idea. There have been many short-lived characters and series that are too short to collect in a standard continuous run edition and here is a way to rescue them. The idea could be carried forward to other features - there have probably been enough short-lived series and limited series featuring various Avengers that would allow for multiple volumes bringing them altogether. However it's unfortunate that the title "Essential Marvel Horror" had previously been used for what was really "Essential Children of Satan" as there's no real direct connection between the two volumes and separate titles would have been better, though this one is far more deserving of the general "Marvel Horror" label.

Essential Man-Thing volume 2

Okay let's deal with the usual laughter straight away. This volume contains more Giant-Size Man-Things. Pause for laughter.

[Lengthy pause.]

Essential Man-Thing volume 2 contains issues #15 to #22 of the character's first series, the complete #1 to #11 of his second, Giant-Size Man-Thing #3 to #5, plus what may be a leftover issue from the first series run in Rampaging Hulk #7, wilderness years appearances from Marvel Team-Up #68 and Marvel Two-in-One #43 and a crossover from Doctor Strange #41. That's a lot of issues so here go the credits. All the issues from the first series are written by Steve Gerber and drawn mainly by Jim Mooney with individual issues by John Buscema and Rico Rival. The Giant-Sizes are from this period and all are written by Gerber and drawn by Alfredo Alcala, Ed Hannigan and Ron Wilson. The Rampaging Hulk issue is written by Gerber and drawn by Jim Starlin. The second series is written first by Michael Fleisher and then by Chris Claremont, with one issue by Dickie McKenzie and a short back-up story in another by J.M. DeMatteis. The art is mainly by Jim Mooney then Don Perlin with individual issues by Larry Hama and Val Mayerik and the back-up by Ed Hannigan. The Marvel Team-Up is written by Claremont and drawn by John Byrne, the Marvel Two-in-One is written by Ralph Macchio and drawn by Byrne "& Friends", and the Doctor Strange issue is written by Claremont and drawn by Gene Colan. That's an awful lot of labels so naturally some have been put in a separate post.

The first series ends with leaps between the sword and sorcery fantasy that the title has often experimented with to the down to earth social commentary that Steve Gerber is more normally associated with. I've never really felt the former style is a good match with the Man-Thing and the material here continues to confirm that view, though it's less of a struggle to get through compared to the first volume. This one kicks off with a Giant-Size Man-Thing with a battle to liberate the homeworld of Korrek the barbarian from the sorcerer Klonus. In the process Dakimh is killed but the world is liberated.

The sword and sorcery is then put aside for a number of issues that instead deal with social commentary about changes in society and those who seek to resist them, starting with a tale of Sainte-Cloud, an ex-girlfriend of Ted Sallis's who persuaded him to move into more values based research. Using a hallucinogenic candle carved in the shape of the Man-Thing she seeks inspiration for her writing, leading to events becoming more real than they seem. Then there's the introduction of the Mad Viking, a forcibly retired man disgusted at what he sees as a decline in masculinity so he adopts a costume in commemoration of their perceived manliness and launches a crusade against modern "wussy" men, including slaughtering a rock singer and many of his groupies. Meanwhile a school pupil has died and his friend is about to publish his diary, revealing his loneliness and misery at the hands of bullies both at school, including on the staff, and in his family for being different and fat. The Man-Thing gets caught in the confrontations and burns the school coach to death. These events spark terror in Citrusville and a house wife decides the problem is rooted in what is taught in schools, having glanced at a text book and panicking that it discusses Communism and sex education. The result is a book burning riot outside the school where the Mad Viking is so blinded that when his granddaughter tries to stand up for the freedom of the young to make their own choices in life, he hits her so hard she falls and cracks her head, dying.

Rory has been a rare voice of reason in the town, for which he gets the sack from his radio station job, and he leaves in disgust, taking with him Carol Selby, the daughter of the town's Mary Whitehouse, and the Man-Thing, who thanks to an extended dip in chemicals is now able to move away from the swamp. The last few issues see a move to Atlanta for a more magical storyline, with Rory written out when he discovers Carol is underage, making him legally a kidnapper. She is injured in a car accident and returned home whilst Rory is arrested, leaving the Man-Thing alone for the end of the run.

Issue #22 marks the end of Steve Gerber's run on the title, a point acknowledged in the strip, and also for the series itself, which is not acknowledged in the strip, which was cancelled and revived only four years later. This was just a few months before the launch of Howard the Duck so it's not hard to see why the writer was moving on but was this also a very early example of a publisher linking a series so heavily to an individual creator that they opted to end it when that creator left rather than replace them? It was a practice that happened more commonly in later decades but I'm surprised that it could be even considered at this early stage. And it's particularly ironic given the disputes Gerber would later have with Marvel that included his removal from the Howard the Duck series and comic strip. Of course Marvel was notoriously disorganised at this stage in its history so it may be overreading the situation to assume the end of the series was linked to the end of the run. Nevertheless it's a sign of how prominent creators were becoming, with appearances moving beyond the odd scene as a nod and wink to the audience to a much greater point of participation.

The issue is not as well known as one of Gerber's Howard the Ducks but it deploys an interesting narrative approach, presumably suggested and approved as a way to economically incorporate more events than usual in order to wrap up existing storylines whilst the writer was still on the book, rather than leaving them for another writer to take on, usually at very short notice and without any real idea as to what had been planned. But it also seeks to establish the authenticity of the stories through the appearance of Gerber himself, with much of the issue an illustrated letter to Len Wein. Jim Mooney's depiction confirms what many had suspected, namely that Richard Rory is based on Gerber himself. Within the letter Gerber explains how he wrote the series at the instigation of Dakimh, and how this continued even after the sorcerer’s apparent death. There's a summary of most of the incidents from Gerber's run and then an extended explanation of Thog's plans and methods before a final showdown in which the fate of the universe hangs in the balance. Finally Dakimh gives his blessing to the writer's departure. As an exercise in concluding the storyline in a limited space this issue works. As a comic less so, with three of the eighteen pages resorting to prose text with illustrations, a format I've never liked to see in Marvel comics. It's also not really a Man-Thing issue with the monster only coming into the action near the end, and again suggests that the writer's priorities were elsewhere. Still as an experiment that both pushes at the barriers of convention whilst also harking back to the conceit of the Lee-Kirby days, it's a sign of a willingness to do things differently and expand the frontiers of the medium.

The only non-Gerber authored issue from this period is the final issue of Giant-Size Man-Thing, in which a young Ted Sallis and his wife Ellen visit a carnival fortune teller and witness three visions of the future, all of which involve horror and despair including a cult trying to sacrifice a baby, a young couple coming to grief because of their families' disapproval and mercenaries in the swamp turning on each other. It's an interesting way to showcase what are ultimately fill-in pieces from a variety of creators but overall the issue doesn't add much.

The second series shows a title setting out to be a bit different from its predecessor but rapidly retreating into some of the old tried and tested methods and then ending in a similar way. Although the social commentary is notably almost completely absent, there's once again a book that starts off as a reasonably conventional monster series but which steadily dips into the world of magic and swords - although this time it's cutlasses. Also there's an early attempt to enhance the Man-Thing but it's largely gone by the second issue.

At the start there's a short-lived effort to stick to science and monsters, starting off with a tale as a scientist is recruited by what claims to be the CIA to restore the Man-Thing's mind in the hope of recovering the Super Soldier Serum. However before the monster can be coaxed to adulthood the FBI attack, accidentally killing the scientist in the process. At first it seems the Man-Thing has retained his rudimentary intelligence but by the second issue the effects have worn off. What's also surprising is that the nature of the group representing itself as the CIA is never explored beyond the FBI statement that they're "enemy agents". Could this in fact be a squabble between agencies? Or was that idea too radical in 1979? We then get a change of location when another scientist accidentally teleports the Man-Thing to the Himalayas, where we find the old stereotype of a party of two men and a woman with one of the men sending the other to his death and making moves on the grieving widow. Add in an encounter with a tribe of Yeti - here established as an offshoot of Cro-Magnon Man who have survived in the mountains - plus a high priest figure foretelling doom and the clichés are complete.

A crossover with Doctor Strange brings a new writer to the series and another round of magic as the Man-Thing and Elaine, the woman from the Himalayas, get swept back to the Florida swamp to find Baron Mordo's latest scheme. After this we finally get a recurring supportive cast in the form of Barbie Bannister, a spoilt rich girl who finds she has to fend for herself when her parents are killed by modern day drug smuggling pirates, and John Daltry, the local sheriff. After Daltry and the Man-Thing deal with a bunch of college students trying to destroy the monster for kicks and fame, we get the first and only epic of the series as Captain Fate returns with his sky pirates. Fate is ultimately freed from the curse of immortality but instead the curse engulfs Daltry and nobody seems able to break it leading to Barbie searching for anything to do it. After a couple of one-off tales of the Man-Things encounters with those who find themselves in the swamp, including a tragic young couple who flee their parents and give birth to a child, only to die of poisoned water whilst the grandparents confront the Man-Thing, and a isolated boy who joined a cult and then got "deprogrammed" by his parents. The latter is a short story by J.M. DeMatteis and in its take of the obessiveness of some religions it's about the only sign of social comment in the run. The main plot gears up with the arrival in the swamp of John Kowalski, a mysterious man who is the personification of Death and who offers to free Daltry if Barbie will join him.

The final issue is once again told in flashback by a writer to his editor, although this time it's done in the pub and we see not just editor Louise Jones but also assistant editor Danny Fingeroth and editor-in-chief Jim Shooter. Chris Claremont relates how he got taken away to a realm for a final battle with the force behind Daltry's curse, Thog. Once more Thog is destroyed and everyone returns home with Barbie freed from her Death obligations but the Man-Thing proves impossible to cure. Claremont announces his resignation as writer and Shooter agrees to cancel the series. As they leave we discover that once more Dakimh has been directing the writer.

This second series is brief and ultimately unsatisfying. There was clearly an attempt to do something different early on but it fizzled out and we're left with a relatively mundane series that eventually winds up wallowing in the memory of the first, as shown most notably in the final issue. It feels like it was being written by numbers and just didn't know where to go. The end of the first series included here has the reverse problem - it's trying to go to almost too many places, riding waves of fantasy and realism at the same time. But it does at least try to say something. All in all this volume and the series as a whole is rather inessential. The central problem is that very little can ever be done with the main character and most of the events around him don't easily fit the genre. This is not one to search high and low for.

Essential Ghost Rider volume 3

Essential Ghost Rider volume 3 contains issues #51 to #65 of the series plus what appears to have been an unused fill-in issue that eventually saw print in Marvel Super-Heroes #11, and guest appearances in Marvel Two-in-One #80 and Avengers #214. Bonus material includes the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe entry for Arabian Knight. The main series is all written by Michael Fleisher, with the Marvel Super-Heroes fill-in by Tina Chrioproces, the Marvel Two-in-One appearance by Tom DeFalco and the Avengers issue by Jim Shooter. The art is more varied with a run by Don Perlin giving way to contributions by Carmine Infantino, Jim Shooter, Jack Sparling, Herb Trimpe, Alan Kupperberg and Luke McDonnell. The Marvel Super-Heroes piece is drawn by Greg LaRocque, the Marvel Two-in-One by Ron Wilson and the Avengers by Bob Hall. That's a lot of creators so there's a separate labels post.

The four Essential Ghost Rider volumes demonstrate a remarkable lack of forward planing considering the first only came out in late 2005 by which time Marvel had made a long term commitment to the reprint series. Of the eighty-eight core issues (including the initial bannered run in Marvel Spotlight), no less than fifty-seven, plus two crossover issues, were reprinted across the first two Essentials, whilst also leaving out some pretty major appearances in Marvel Team-Up and Marvel Two-in-One that would have impacts on the regular series and would be often referenced here. This left just thirty-one core issues to complete the series - too many for a single volume even before considering a few other key issues that also merit inclusion, but really not enough for two separate volumes. Hence the resort to guest appearances that are frankly not needed here (especially when compared to the earlier omissions), and even then this volume looks and feels rather thin for one published on the slightly thicker paper the latter-day Essentials use. It's a good idea in principle to include standby material that was prepared for a series but not actually used for one reason or another without affecting continuity, but scraping around guest appearances can produce the most needless of filler material.

That said, Ghost Rider's appearance in Marvel Two-in-One does actually tie in well with the ongoing themes, even though it's a bit of a surprise to find Johnny in New York, performing major stunts before huge crowds at big stadiums when at this stage in his regular series he's still wandering the roads in the west or mid-west, surviving from job to job and suffering from a post-title reputation as yesterday's man. But both the regular series and guest appearance share the focus on how Johnny is increasingly losing control of his Ghost Rider self, who is lashing out at criminals for even minor offences. Here it falls to the Thing, who is also finding his monstrous form isn't always easy to control with bad results for those around him, leading to a fight between the two. (This is one of a number of Marvel Two-in-One issues that forgoes the original team-up concept and here actually bills the two characters as "versus".)

Also tying in with the series's themes but getting the status quo wrong in the opposite direction is Avengers #214. Placed during the period when Johnny is now working for a carnival, it instead shows him as a loner on the road who succumbs to taking up a low paying job at a petrol station. The Ghost Rider continues to be out of control, attacking his old ally the Angel which brings the Avengers (via a call searching for the now departed Beast) out to the west to hunt him down. Once again Johnny's situation is compared with a regular character, in this case Yellowjacket who has been suffering a breakdown, been expelled from the Avengers for his dangerous actions and is now being divorced by the Wasp after an act of domestic violence. Though Yellowjacket and Ghost Rider don't meet themselves, the comparison is all too clear between the two sinking in unhappiness and despair, leading them to act with ruthlessness and savagery. The resulting battle is unusual in that it's not a clear victory for the heroes in the book's title. Instead the Angel staggers from his hospital bed to confront the Ghost Rider about what he's become, causing the latter to calm down and revert to Johnny. It's an okay issue but not really essential. It would also have benefited from being placed before issue #63 instead of after it.

As for the "lost" issue, this also displays a problem of placement. The story in Marvel Super-Heroes #11 carries the caption "This story takes place prior to events in Ghost Rider, vol 1, #80" (yes "vol 1" - somebody had forgotten about the series starring the western Ghost Rider, but then Marvel Super-Heroes was published at a time when Johnny Blaze was usually billed as "the Original Ghost Rider") but otherwise gives no formal clue as to when precisely it's set. Here it's placed after issue #63 and before Avengers #214. But informally there's a lot in this story that suggests it would be much better placed later on in the run, at least after issue #65 but better would probably be somewhere in volume 4. Other than Johnny the only regular character to appear is Red Fowler, who is introduced in issue #63 but his relationship with Johnny shown here is much friendlier which would place it after events in issue #65. But what really makes the issue stand out as an anachronism are the uses of the names "Zarathos" and "Mephisto". Neither name has appeared yet in the regular series where the Ghost Rider is not given a name and the source of the power is still described in both dialogue and the intro box as "Satan" (though the actual origin hasn't been touched upon for a while) and their use here is frankly confusing. I wonder if this issue was commissioned around the mid #60s as a standby to go to print if the regular creative team missed their deadlines, and it was subject to minor rewrites over the next few years in order to keep the names up to date. That might perhaps explain why it's been placed at what is now clearly too early a point in the run. The story itself is rather functional as Johnny and Red arrive in a small town where they get caught up in a struggle between a cult leader planning to destroy a nearby nuclear power plant and his daughter who has rejected the cult's ways. But for the presence of Red in a sidekick role, it's a fairly typical example of the one-off adventures that take up most of this volume. It also appears to be the only credit ever for Tina Chrioproces. I wonder what became of her or if she was just a pseudonym for a more familiar creator.

Over in the regular series we're almost at the end of Michael Fleisher's run and it's starting to show. There are only really three significant developments throughout this volume. By far the biggest at first seems to be a one-off story but it soon proves to have had far deeper significance. Issue #53 introduces Azmodeus, another demon who becomes a recurring foe within these pages, who wants the Ghost Rider as his agent of chaos but needs to dispose of Johnny first. He sends his agent Tabicantra to do this and she uses her power to weaken Johnny's control each time he becomes Ghost Rider and the link ultimately destroyed so long as he changes enough times before an hour glass runs out. However she meets Johnny and has a change of heart before the final transformation, sacrificing her life as her magic prevents his transformation whilst she sees off a monster. In its own right this is a strong story but over subsequent issues it becomes clear that the Ghost Rider is becoming ever more out of control, getting ever more vicious whilst Johnny struggles to change back.

Otherwise the series continues the theme of Johnny Blaze wandering the roads, occasionally entering races and undertaking stunt jobs as part of long term practice for an eventual challenge to regain his title. Issue #58 sees the long anticipated rematch with Flagg Fargo as Johnny challenges him to regain his title and would have achieved it but the tournament is cut short when the Ghost Rider's old foe the Enforcer hospitalises Fargo as a match fixing scam. Johnny saves Fargo from death and the two earn a degree of respect such that later on Johnny feels able to ask Fargo for a loan to visit Saudi Arabia to take on a sheikh with ambitions to take over all the oil states in the Middle East utilising the Water Wizard's powers which can also work on oil. Fargo provides the money albeit with an impossibly short repayment period but thanks to the Arabian Knight and his flying carpet Johnny is able to make it back just in time. The final development comes at the end of the volume as Johnny seemingly settles down for the time being. Although he's previously stayed around in first Las Vegas and then Chicago for more than a single issue, he now joins a carnival, acquiring a supporting cast in the process. Owner Ralph Quentin is primarily a background figure at this stage but of greater significance are the existing stunt bike performer Red Fowler and accompanying journalist Cynthia Randolph. Red is initially displeased at being displaced to become Johnny's assistant but changes his view when Johnny risks his life to save Red from loan sharks. Meanwhile Cynthia is travelling with the carnival to research a feature for her magazine and resists Johnny's advances but soon realises there is more to him and determines to find out his secret.

In the meantime Johnny starts off the volume as the wandering hero helping those in need whom he comes across and facing down a succession of local bullies, crimelords and more exotic foes. There are some return appearances by the likes of the Orb, the Weather Wizard and Moondark, with the latter two teaming up for revenge, though their egos undermine them. Meanwhile the Orb makes multiple appearances, even turning to Machine Man's foe Madame Menace for new weapons. One adventure sees the awakening of the Sirens from Greek mythology who have been long trapped in sarcophaguses hidden in a cave in the American wilderness. They promptly seek vengeance on the world and capture a nuclear missile then launch it at a city. Later in Chicago the Ghost Rider's attempts to prevent a bombing are hindered by the Destroyer of Demons, a reverend with a hereditary power to tackle demons.

Ghost Rider occasionally acquires allies in these adventures but the most surprising is a modern day incarnation of the Night Rider (who once again appears with no explicit reference to having originally been named "Ghost Rider"; I wonder if contemporary readers were told this in the letterspages). Issue #51 contains a back-up story with a further adventure of Carter Slade and then in the present day issue #56 sees Hamilton Slade, a descendant of Carter's brother and successor Lincoln, discover a burial jar in a desert burial ground which transforms him into a modern day Night Rider, albeit without Hamilton being aware of his alternate form. Once more the Night Rider comes to the aide of the man with his original name. Another brief ally is "Clem", an old-fashioned lorry driver who helps Johnny against a biker gang - and is revealed to be the ghost of a victim of an earlier gang.

The pattern of women being drawn to Johnny but repelled by the Ghost Rider continues with the return of Gina, the woman he met when amnesiac in the previous volume. She is horrified at his treatment of the Orb and further by the handling of Tatterdemalion in a team-up with the Werewolf by Night, and so leaves him. One of the few women who does not flee in panic is Nora, one of the team of an auto circus that Johnny briefly joins as part of the training for his rematch. However the circus is attacked by the Apparition, the ghost of one of the circus's former stunt drivers turned criminal and executed. Johnny thinks he's tricked the Apparition into believing all his targets are dead, but miscounted and although the ghost is vanquished, the issue ends with Johnny cradling Nora's body.

At 416 pages this is the shortest Essential volume of all, though not by much. Blame for this state of affairs lies firmly with volume 2, released to tie in with the first movie and being a little overlong in order to include the team-up between Johnny and Carter Slade. This left the awkward state of affairs that results in the rest of the run being stretched over two volumes and padded out with two inessential guest appearances plus a fill-in later rescued from inventory. The Marvel Super-Heroes issue really belongs in volume 4 and that would also have allowed this volume to complete the Fleisher run. The core issues are slight but do manage to advance Johnny's saga forward, finding a good new angle on the character amidst a run of relatively typical adventures. There's no sense of building towards anything but equally there are no real stinkers in this volume. It's a solid but not too spectacular collection that keeps the character afloat for now.

Essential Marvel Two-in-One volume 3

Essential Marvel Two-in-One volume 3 carries issues #53-77 and annuals #4-5. Most of the issues are written jointly by Mark Gruenwald and Ralph Macchio with a few by one or the other solo; the last few are by Tom DeFalco with one of his plots scripted by David Michelinie. One annual is plotted by Allyn Brodsky and scripted by Michelinie, the other is both written and drawn by Alan Kupperberg. The other annual is drawn by Jim Craig and Bob Budiansky whilst the regular series art is mainly by a mixture of John Byrne, George Pérez, Chic Stone, Jerry Bingham and Ron Wilson, with individual issues by Michael Nasser, Frank Springer and Alan Kupperberg. And yes, a separate post is needed to carry some of the labels. Bonus material consists of a diagram of the Project Pegasus complex that originally appeared in issue #53 but is placed at the very end of the volume here.

Per the usual for team-up titles, here's the rundown on the titled guest stars in each issue:

53. Quasar
54. Deathlok
55. Giant-Man [formerly Black Goliath]
56. Thundra
57. Wundarr
58. Aquarian
Annual 4. Black Bolt
59. The Human Torch
60. Impossible Man
61. Starhawk
62. Moondragon
63. Warlock
64. Stingray
65. Triton
66. Scarlet Witch
67. Hyperion
68. Angel
69. Guardians of the Galaxy
70. ?
71. Mr. Fantastic
72. The Inhumans
73. Quasar
74. Puppet Master
Annual 5. Hulk
75. Avengers
76. Iceman
77. Man-Thing

This is very much a list drawn from the obscure end of the Marvel universe, even if there are some big name exceptions including Marvel's then biggest TV star on a tour of guest appearances. But ever more so the series is a Thing solo title with guest stars rather than a genuine series with two heroes in one book. Indeed such is the dominance that issue #70 doesn't actually have a guest star, with a question mark on the cover and the nearest to fulfilling the role being the Yancy Street Gang who only show up for a few pages at the end.

Storywise we have a mixture of one-off issues with a guest star of the month and longer multi-part sagas that bring together a variety of heroes and even villains in rotation. One such example comes in the first six issues which comprise "The Pegasus Project" saga. This story sees Ben going to join the security service at the energy research facility and getting caught up in a multi-facetted plot undertaken by Dr Thomas Lightner, the younger half of Blacksun. Also working at the centre are Quasar and Black Goliath, the latter of whom is persuaded to change his name to "Giant-Man". (It takes Ben to point out that "Goliath" was a bad man and, more obviously, that it's clear he's black so there's no need to say it, in a subtle mini-backlash at the 1970s trend for giving numerous black heroes and villains the prefix "Black" in their name to the point that even the pre-existing Aquaman foe Black Manta was revealed as black.) The storyline manages to juggle in extra co-stars through a combination of occasionally giving the villain second billing and by building up the character of Wundarr to the point where he's transformed into the powerful, but about a decade out of date, hippie Aquarian. In general the individual chapters in the saga manage to bring enough diversity to keep them interesting but overall the story seems a little loose because Wundarr/Aquarian is rather detached from the rest of the events until the climax whilst the overall plot to sabotage and destroy the facility is somewhat pedestrian in its execution, even though it's at the behest of Roxxon, the regular Dastardly Evil Corporation, who want to maintain an energy monopoly. At the time the story was originally published the oil crisis was at its height so the story may have had more impact at the time, but nowadays the public focus in energy research is more on cutting emissions than replacing oil and so some of the impact is lost.

Another mini-epic sees the Thing and Starhawk first fight and then ally with "Her", formerly Paragon, and Moondragon as Her is on a quest to find the body of Adam Warlock. The story even resurrects Warlock's body, though not his soul, and also wraps up several loose ends from Warlock's adventures such as the real reason why he had expanded in size to the point where the Earth was smaller than his fingernail, how he soon shrank down, why the Soul Gem only began stealing souls when it did (and, implicitly, just why only one of the six Soul Gems had been seen to work on souls; however in the 1990s the point was solved by renaming them the Infinity Gems), the fate of Counter-Earth and the final encounter between Warlock and the High Evolutionary which was only predicted and never previously shown. The story also introduces an alien race headed by Sphinxor who are moving planets on behalf of the unseen powerful entities known as "the Beyonders" - that name being used four years before Secret Wars. Fortunately all the revelations are confined to a single issue but I wonder what Marvel Two-in-One readers who had never followed Warlock's adventures made of such a continuity heavy issue. The earlier issues are, fortunately, structured in such a way that readers less familiar with Her or Starhawk or Moondragon can share Ben's discovery whilst those who had read their past adventures can enjoy the story on a different level as it tidies up continuity. This tale was left out of Essential Warlock volume 1 and earlier reprintings of Warlock's saga, perhaps because of space, perhaps because only the third issue is directly relevant, but it doesn't feel a great loss and in any case the original publication was about three or four years after that series had ended.

Lurking in the story is Starhawk of the Guardians of the Galaxy, alongside his wife Aleta who has been merged with him, but there isn't too much more revealed about them. The whole team of Guardians appears in a later issue as Major Vance Astro tracks down his younger self, in the hope of convincing him to not become an astronaut and thus get trapped in space for a millennium. As we saw in the last volume, Ben is all too aware of how futile this can be, but the Major wants to at least spare one incarnation and succeeds, albeit at the cost of triggering his younger counterpart's mutant telekinetic powers. In later years the younger Vance would go on to be variously the Thing's sidekick, a founder member of the New Warriors and an Avenger but there's only a slight hint of all at that here.

The other epic in the volume is "The Serpent Crown Affair" in which the president of Roxxon seeks to acquire two parallel universe versions of the Serpent Crown and take over the country. It's a relatively tame story that only comes together in the third and final part and is also interrupted by other plot threads such featuring the likes of Thundra and Hyperion or the plight of the Hydro-Men, humans mutated into amphibians. Consequently this team-up with Stingray, Triton and, later on, the Scarlet Witch, feels rather slight and inconsequential even though it once more plays a role in tying up past continuity. Sub-plots in these issues later blossom out as Thundra finds herself teamed with Hyperion (of the Squadron Sinister) and steals an "Nth-Projector" in the hope of travelling to an alternate version of her world which has survived. Meanwhile the plight of the Hydro-Men is followed up in a later two-parter where Mr. Fantastic undertakes the research to produce a cure whilst Ben, some of the Inhumans and Stingray play games and get caught in a plot by the mysterious Maelstrom to steal the chemical that will reverse the effects of the Inhumans' Terrigan Mists that grant them their powers. Another issue follows up on the "Nth-Projector" and Roxxon as the Thing and Quasar travel to a world where dinosaurs and cavemen exist side by side and where the corporation is tapping a new supply of oil.

This attention to detail with plots and ideas flowing from one issue to another helps to make the bulk of these issues a strong coherent whole and it's easy to see why many consider this to be the golden age of the series. However there are still low points, particularly with the two annuals that are equally forgettable. One of them is a mundane team-up with Black Bolt of the Inhumans to take on a power enhanced Graviton. The other sees the Stranger bring together the Thing and the Hulk, the latter at the height of his fame due to the television series, in order to save the universe from the Greek god Pluto. (Surely he should be called "Hades"? All the other Greek gods are depicted with their Greek not Roman names.) Neither are good examples of the series as a whole, just random team-ups.

The regular issues have a mixture of returning and new foes, with first appearances by a number of them starting with the Grapplers, a group of female wrestlers. Consisting of Titania (a name used by a number of different characters over the years), Letha, Poundcakes and Screaming Mimi, now best known as Songbird. Then there are the Serpent Squad, initially consisting of Sidewinder, Anaconda, Black Mamba and Death Adder. Or there's  Maelstrom's and his minions Gronk, Helio, Phobius and, seemingly more powerful than any of the others, Deathurge. Making their first appearances here after featuring in other series are a number of foes. Naturally a good number were originally seen in Fantastic Four, such as Klaw, the Terrible Trio, consisting of Bull Brogin, "Handsome" Harry Phillips and Yogi Dakor, or the ex-minions of the Pyscho-Man Shellshock and Live Wire. A trip into the Negative Zone brings the first encounter between Blastaar and Annihilus. Coming from other series are Nuklo, previously seen in Avengers, Solarr, who first appeared in Captain America, the Toad, hailing from X-Men, and the Super-Adaptoid who debuted in Captain America's strip in Tales to Astonish. And it seems no Marvel series would be complete without the Circus of Crime, first seen in this incarnation in the early days of the Incredible Hulk but they've since been retconned as the successors to a group first seen in the 1940s Captain America Comics. Indeed it may be their appearance here that first makes that connection. Not all issues have a clear foe with some instead presenting a problem, such as the one where the Thing and the Human Torch have to mop up after a man determined to live out all his childhood goals before he turns 30. Elsewhere a test flight goes wrong and Ben crashes in the Man-Thing's swamp where he dreams of working with Sergeant Fury and his Howling Commandos during the Second World War - a surprising reference for 1981 as it would make Ben considerably older than he's normally portrayed as.

Also developed well is Ben's relationship with Alicia as he gets more concerned about the danger to her, resulting in a temporary break-up and then after reconciliation she agrees to move into the safer confines of the Baxter Building. Issue #74 is a Christmas special in which her stepfather the Puppet Master is released from prison and manipulates Ben and Alicia into taking him to a new supply of radioactive clay to make his puppets from; however after an encounter with Modred, whose mind has regressed to childhood, the Puppet Master sees the error of his ways and seeks to reform.

By now this series is firing on all pistons though at times the guest stars are either interchangeable or simply superfluous, leaving the book as very much the Thing's show. There are no issues where he's temporarily replaced by another big name hero, which is more than can be said for Spider-Man in Marvel Team-Up, and instead we get a strong string of adventures that flow well from one to the next. There's a clear desire to tidy continuity in some of Mark Gruenwald's co-authored stories but apart from the Warlock issue it never feels as though the series has been hijacked just to address obscure points. Instead we get a solid run of one good Thing after another.