THE THING IN THE PROJECT PEGASUS SAGA

By Mark Gruenwald, Ralph Macchio, John Byrne, George Pérez, Joe Sinnot & Gene Day (Marvel)
ISBN: 0-87135-350-4

Although the glory-days of Marvel were undoubtedly the years of Lee, Kirby and Ditko, through to the Adams, Buscema, Englehart, Gerber, Steranko and Windsor Smith Second Wave, lots of superb material came out the latter years when the company transformed from inspirational small-business to corporate heavyweight. This is not said to demean or denigrate the many fine creators who worked on the tide of titles published after that heady period, but only to indicate that after that time a certain revolutionary spontaneity was markedly absent from the line.

It should also be remembered that this was not deliberate. Every creator does the best job he/she can: posterity and critical response is the only arbiter of what is a classic and what’s simply another issue. Even high sales don’t necessarily define a masterpiece – unless you’re a publisher…

Nevertheless every so often everybody involved in a particular publication seems to catch afire at the same time and magic still occurs.

A great case in point is this self-contained mini-saga that first appeared in the pages of the Fantastic Four spin-off title Marvel Two-in-One which was used as a team-up vehicle, partnering the charismatic Thing with the cream of Marvel’s cast list over its hundred issue run and a handful of pretty impressive annuals.

Project Pegasus first appeared as a maguffin in issues #42 and 43, a federal research station dedicated to investigating alternative energy sources and a sensible place to dump super-powered baddies when you’ve finished trouncing them. Ten issues later writers Gruenwald and Macchio stretched their creative muscles with a six-issue epic (Marvel Two-in-One #53-58, 1979) that found the Thing back at Pegasus just as a sinister plan by a mysterious mastermind to eradicate the facility went into effect.

Trapped in the claustrophobic confines of the base Ben Grimm leads a motley team of heroes as they seek to recapture a number of escaped energy-based villains including Solarr, Klaw and Nuklo, fend off an invasion by super-powered lady wrestlers (I know what you’re thinking but trust me, it works) and prevent a living singularity from sucking the entire Project into infinity.

Most remarkably, the high-tension bombastic action rattles along without the appearance of any major stars – a daring move for a team-up title. Leading off with the solo(ish) debut of Quasar, swiftly followed by a reprogrammed Deathlok, a revamped Giant-Man (formerly Black Goliath), the extra-dimensional super-woman Thundra and Wundarr – an alien superboy who evolved into the pacifist hero The Aquarian in the final episode – these are not names that would have been considered sales-boosters, but their combination here truly proves the old adage about there being no bad characters…

Another solid decision was the use of John Byrne and Joe Sinnott to illustrate parts 1-3 and George Pérez and the late, great Gene Day to finish off the tale. Both pencillers were in their early ascendancy here and the artistic energy just jumps off the pages.

As a bonus this volume also contains appropriate text pages from the Marvel Universe Handbook, a cutaway diagram of Project Pegasus and the comedy classic from Marvel Two-in-One #60 which featured The Thing and Impossible Man in hilarious combat with three of Marvel’s earliest bad-guys. ‘Happiness is a Warm Alien‘ is by Gruenwald, Macchio, Pérez, and Day, a delightful change-of-pace that applies some much needed perspective to all the pulse-pounding drama that preceded it.

This is a solid example of super-heroic hokum that is as readable now as it ever was, and I’m unable to explain why such a minor classic should ever be out of print. This collection is available – albeit at some remarkably high prices – but it should be part of Marvel’s always-in-print line…
© 1988 Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc/Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.