{"id":33866,"date":"2025-09-23T12:23:35","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T12:23:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=33866"},"modified":"2025-09-23T12:23:35","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T12:23:35","slug":"marvel-two-in-one-masterworks-volume-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2025\/09\/23\/marvel-two-in-one-masterworks-volume-8\/","title":{"rendered":"Marvel Two-In-One Masterworks volume 8"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Tom DeFalco<\/strong>, David Anthony Kraft<\/strong>, Jan Strnad<\/strong>, John Byrne<\/strong>, Doug Moench<\/strong>, Ron Wilson<\/strong>, Alan Kupperberg<\/strong>, Chic Stone<\/strong>, Jim Mooney<\/strong>, Jon D\u2019Agostino<\/strong>, \u201cA. Sorted\u201d<\/strong> & various (MARVEL)<\/p>\n

This book includes Discriminatory Content<\/strong> produced in less enlightened times.<\/em><\/p>\n

Above all else, Marvel has always been about team-ups. The concept of an established star pairing, or battling (often both) with less well-selling company characters was not new when Marvel awarded their most popular hero the same deal DC had with Batman<\/strong> in The Brave and the Bold<\/strong> since the early 1960s. Although confident in their new title, they wisely left options open by allocating an occasional substitute lead in The Human Torch<\/strong>. In those distant days, editors were acutely conscious of potential over-exposure – and as superheroes were actually in a sales decline, they might well have been right.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, after the runaway success of Spider-Man<\/strong>\u2019s guest vehicle Marvel Team-Up<\/strong>, the House of Ideas ran with the trend with a series starring bashful, blue-eyed Ben Grimm<\/em> – the Fantastic Four<\/strong>\u2019s most popular character. They began with a brace of test runs in Marvel Feature<\/strong> #11-12 before awarding him his own team-up title, with this 8th<\/sup> rousing & rowdy round-up gathering the contents of Marvel Two-In-One <\/strong>#83-93 covering January 1980 through November 1982.<\/p>\n

Preceded by another comprehensive, informative contextual reverie via editor Jim Salicrup\u2019s Introduction \u2018It\u2019s Introducin\u2019 Time or Two Marvel<\/strong> Introductions in One<\/strong>!\u2019<\/em>, a late-running annual event anachronistically opens the fun. Although released in summer 1980, steadfast stalwarts Tom DeFalco, Ron Wilson & Chic Stone counter the perennial problem of team-up tales – a lack of continuity (something Marvel always prided itself upon) – by returning to an extended subplot.<\/p>\n

Previously Bill<\/em> (Giant-Man<\/strong>) Foster<\/em> had entered the final stages of his lingering death from radiation exposure, before a combination of heroes and villains had found a potential solution. Their success leads here to supergenius Reed Richards<\/em> taking over Foster\u2019s treatment, resulting in the Thing heading north in #83 to \u2018Where Stalks the Sasquatch!\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

The most monstrous member of Alpha Flight<\/strong> is actually radiation researcher Dr. Walter Langkowski<\/em>, but his impromptu medical consultation obliquely leads to the release of malign Native American spirit Ranark the Ravager<\/em> and a Battle Royale which quickly escalates to include the entire team in \u2018Cry for Beloved Canada!\u2019<\/em>
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\n\u2018The Final Fate of Giant-Man!\u2019<\/em> came in Marvel Two-In-One <\/strong>#85 wherein Spider-Woman<\/strong> joined the Thing to tackle Foster\u2019s arch-nemesis Atom-Smasher<\/em>, after which \u2018Time Runs Like Sand!\u2019 <\/em>offered an astoundingly low key landmark as Ben and the sinister Sandman<\/em> had a few bevvies in a bar and turned the felon\u2019s life around. Also included was a short, sharp comedy vignette wherein Ben and godson Franklin Richards<\/em> deal with a bored Impossible Man<\/strong> and his equally obnoxious kids in \u2018Farewell, My Lummox!\u2019<\/em>…
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\nWhen Ben is kidnapped in #87, the FF call in Ant-Man<\/strong> Scott Lang<\/em> who helps our rocky rogue defeat a duplicitous queen in the \u2018Menace of the Microworld!\u2019<\/em> after which David Anthony Kraft & Alan Kupperberg join inker Chic Stone in detailing a \u2018Disaster at Diablo Reactor!\u2019<\/em>, with Ben and the Savage She-Hulk<\/strong> countering the nefarious Negator<\/em>\u2019s plans to turn Los Angeles into a cloud of radioactive vapour…<\/p>\n

They then pit Ben and gadfly buddy the Human Torch against deranged demagogues seeking to stamp out extremes of beauty, ugliness, weakness and strength in \u2018The Last Word!\u2019<\/em> before Jan Strnad, Kupperberg & Jim Mooney pit Spider-Man and big Ben against time-bending chaos in \u2018Eyes of the Sorcerer\u2019<\/em>. A new extended epic opened as DeFalco, Wilson & Jon D\u2019Agostino reveal what lurks in \u2018In the Shadow of the Sphinx!\u2019 <\/em>When mystic master Doctor Strange<\/strong> asks the thing to investigate a vision of Egypt, the bold battler falls into the clutches of immortal wizard The Sphinx<\/em> who obsessively seeks to recover his power-providing Ka-stone. On the voyage back home after beating the bad guy, Ben encounters robotic Avenger <\/strong>Jocasta<\/em>, but not in time to stop her helplessly reviving Ultron<\/em> who has foresightedly pre-programmed the benighted mechanoid in DeFalco, Wilson & \u201cA. Sorted\u201d inkers\u2019 \u2018This Evil Returning…!\u2019<\/em>
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\nWhen handmade hero Machine Man<\/strong> and his human assistants insert themselves into the crisis, they unexpectedly score a narrow win, but not before \u2018And One Shall Die…!\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

Closing with an original art gallery featuring pages and covers by Wilson, Stone, Al Milgrom, Kupperberg, Mooney, & \u201cA. Sorted\u201d, this penultimate character cohort compendium is packed with simple, straightforward Fights \u2018n\u2019 Tights meet, greet & defeat episodes: entertaining and exciting with no hint of pretension and no need to swot up on superfluous backstory.<\/p>\n

Even if artistically the work varies from only adequate to truly top-notch, most fans of Costumed Dramas will find little to complain about and there\u2019s plenty of fun to be found for young and old readers. So why not lower your critical guard and have an honest blast of pure warts-and-all comics craziness? You\u2019ll almost certainly grow to like it…
\n\u00a9 2025 MARVEL.<\/p>\n

Today in 1938 Jean-Claude M\u00e9zi\u00e8res was born. Have you seen his Valerian: The Complete Collection volume 1<\/a><\/strong>?<\/p>\n

In 1956, the much-missed Peter David arrived. If you check out Star Trek Classics volume 5: Who Killed Captain Kirk?<\/a><\/strong> you\u2019ll see that he left us far too soon.<\/p>\n

Today in 1967 IPC (International Publishing Company) launched upscale UK girls comic Princess Tina<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Crucially, today is my 30-somethingth wedding anniversary. Hah! Can\u2019t call me forgetful anymore! Rather surprised \u201cHi!\u201d to anybody at the ceremony who is still alive after the last 36 years!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Tom DeFalco, David Anthony Kraft, Jan Strnad, John Byrne, Doug Moench, Ron Wilson, Alan Kupperberg, Chic Stone, Jim Mooney, Jon D\u2019Agostino, \u201cA. Sorted\u201d & various (MARVEL) This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. Above all else, Marvel has always been about team-ups. The concept of an established star pairing, or battling … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Marvel Two-In-One Masterworks volume 8”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[244,222,94,158,54,320,72,79,107,22,39,318,231],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alpha-flight","category-ant-man","category-avengers","category-dr-strange","category-fantastic-four","category-human-torch","category-marvel-masters-masterworks","category-marvel-superheroes","category-science-fiction","category-she-hulk","category-spider-man","category-spider-woman","category-the-thing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-8Oe","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33866"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33866\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33872,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33866\/revisions\/33872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}