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Marvel Two-in-One
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Marvel Two-In-One was a comic book series published by Marvel Comics that featured the Fantastic Four member, the Thing, in a different team-up each issue with a different character. The series continued from the team-up stories starring the Thing in the final two issues of Marvel Feature (1971 series), and lasted for 100 issues, from January, 1974, through June, 1983. Seven annuals were also published. As the series progressed, many of the characters paired with the Thing were more obscure superheroes (or, on occasion, supervillains), and the series never attained the popularity of Marvel Team-Up, which featured Spider-Man in the same format of different guest stars each month, though Two-in-One was often noted for its more organic feel than Team-Up, which fan magazines frequently called "contrived".
However, Marvel Two-In-One Annual #2 (1977) by artist/writer Jim Starlin became what is still one of the most popular Marvel stories among comic fans and the most valuable issue of the series to collectors. It is the second part of a crossover story with Avengers Annual #7, in which the death-worshipping demigod Thanos attempted to destroy half the stars in the universe. The issue billed Spider-Man as the guest-star, but also featured the Avengers, Captain Marvel, and Adam Warlock.
Warlock and Thanos both died by the story's conclusion, though both were resurrected fourteen years later in the pages of the Silver Surfer, to become integral characters in a series of crossover comics (such as the Infinity Gauntlet) and their own titles.
Besides Starlin, many other notable comics creators contributed to the series, including Steve Gerber, Frank Miller, Jack Kirby, John Byrne, John Buscema, George Perez, and Marv Wolfman.
Marvel Two-In-One ended with a "team-up" between the Thing and Ben Grimm, his own human alter ego, in issue 100; this team-up was enabled by the Thing travelling to a parallel timeline in which he was not the Thing. The alternate Ben Grimm seen here had first appeared in Marvel Two-in-One #50. Immediately following the cancellation of Marvel Two-In-One, the Thing was given his own solo title, sans team-ups, in which the Thing decided to leave the Fantastic Four and remain on the Beyonder's alien planet where he could control the transformation to his rocky form.
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The plot to "Marvel Two-in-One Annual #7", in which The Thing along with a group of other Super-heroes are summoned by an intergalactic champion, is recreated in a "Dial M for Monkey" segment in the second episode of the first season of Dexter's Laboratory.
- Warlock #6 (May, 1983, also collected with #1-5 in 1992 trade paperback; reprints MTIO Annual #2)
- The Thing: The Project Pegasus Saga trade paperback (1988; reprints MTIO #53-58, 60)
- Adventures of the Thing #1-4 (April, 1992 – July, 1992; reprints MTIO #50, 80, 51, 77)
- Marvel's Greatest Super Battles trade paperback (1994; includes reprints MTIO Annual #7)
- Marvel Super-Heroes Megazine #5 (February, 1995; includes reprint of MTIO #50)
- Thunderbolts: Marvel's Most Wanted trade paperback (1998; includes reprints of MTIO #54, 56)
- Essential Marvel Two-in-One v.1 (November, 2005; includes reprints of MTIO #1-20, 22-25, Annual #1)
- Essential Marvel Two-in-One v.2 (forthcoming, due late June, 2007 - includes reprints of MTIO #26-52, Annual #2-3)
The Essential Marvel Two-In-One TPB omits issue #21 from the collection, as the rights to the character Doc Savage (who was the featured team-up in that issue) are no longer owned by Marvel.