{"id":35451,"date":"2026-05-09T08:00:03","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T08:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=35451"},"modified":"2026-05-08T17:50:54","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T17:50:54","slug":"marvel-two-in-one-epic-collection-volume-3-1977-1979-remembrance-of-things-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2026\/05\/09\/marvel-two-in-one-epic-collection-volume-3-1977-1979-remembrance-of-things-past\/","title":{"rendered":"Marvel Two-In-One Epic Collection volume 3 (1977-1979): Remembrance of Things Past"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" \"\"
\nBy Marv Wolfman<\/strong>, Jim Starlin<\/strong>, Roger Slifer<\/strong>, Tom DeFalco<\/strong>, David Anthony Kraft<\/strong>, Ralph Macchio<\/strong>, Peter B. Gillis<\/strong>, Alan Kupperberg<\/strong>, Bill Mantlo<\/strong>, Jo Duffy<\/strong>, John Byrne<\/strong>, Steven Grant<\/strong>, Allyn Brodsky<\/strong>, David Michelinie<\/strong>, Ron Wilson<\/strong>, Sal Buscema<\/strong>, Bob Hall<\/strong>, Chic Stone<\/strong>, Frank Miller<\/strong>, Jim Craig<\/strong>, Pablo Marcos<\/strong>, Josef Rubinstein<\/strong>, Jim Mooney<\/strong>, Alfredo Alcala<\/strong>, Sam Granger<\/strong>, Frank Giacoia<\/strong>, Dave Hunt<\/strong>, Tex Blaisdell<\/strong>, Gene Day<\/strong>, Joe Sinnott<\/strong>, Bob McLeod<\/strong>, Bruce Patterson<\/strong>, Mike Esposito<\/strong> & various (MARVEL)
\nISBN: 978-1-3029-5564-9 (TPB\/Digital edition)<\/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 team-up books – 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>. Although confident in their new title, they wisely left options open by allocating an occasional substitute lead: the Human Torch<\/strong>. In those long-ago days, editors were acutely conscious of potential over-exposure – and since super-heroes were actually in a decline they may 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 carried on the trend with a series starring bashful, blue-eyed Ben Grimm<\/em> – the Fantastic Four<\/strong>\u2019s most iconic and popular member. They began with a test run in Marvel Feature<\/strong> #11-12, before awarding him his own team-up title, with this third power-packed compendium gathering in the contents of Marvel Two-in-One<\/strong> #37-52; MTIO Annuals<\/strong> #2-4 and Avengers Annual<\/strong> #7, covering November 1977 to June 1979.<\/p>\n

The action begins with \u2018The Final Threat\u2019<\/em> (by Jim Starlin & Joe Rubinstein) from Avengers Annual<\/strong> #7, wherein Kree warrior Captain Marvel<\/strong> and Titanian mind-goddess Moondragon <\/em>return to Earth with vague anticipations of impending cosmic catastrophe. Their premonitions are confirmed when galactic wanderer Adam Warlock<\/strong> arrives with news that death-obsessed Thanos<\/strong> has amassed an alien armada and built a Soul-gem powered weapon to snuff out the stars like candles. Broaching interstellar space to stop the scheme, the united heroes forestall interstellar incursion and prevent the Mad Titan destroying the Sun, but only at the cost of Warlock\u2019s life…
\n\"\"
\nThen Marvel Two-in-One Annual <\/strong>#2 undertakes a \u2018Death Watch!\u2019<\/em> (Starlin & Rubinstein): finding Peter Parker<\/em> plagued by prophetic nightmares disclosing how Thanos had snatched victory from defeat and now holds the Avengers captive whilst again preparing to extinguish Sol. With nowhere else to turn, anguished, disbelieving Spider-Man<\/strong> heads for the Baxter Building to borrow a spacecraft, unaware The Thing<\/strong> also has history with the terrifying Titan. Although utterly outpowered, the mismatched champions of Life subsequently upset Thanos\u2019 plans, allowing the Avengers and the Universe\u2019s true agent of retribution to end the Titan\u2019s threat forever… or at least until next time…<\/p>\n

Marvel Two-In-One<\/strong>\u2019s apparent function as a clearing-house for old, unresolved series and plot-lines was then briefly put on hold as issue #37 teamed Ben with Matt Murdock<\/em> (not alter ego Daredevil)<\/strong> for Marv Wolfman, Ron Wilson & Pablo Marcos\u2019 legal drama \u2018Game Point!\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

Ben had been framed for monstrous acts of wanton destruction, and when the case went badly, he faced decades in jail. However, the Man Without Fear and eccentric street punk Eugene the Kid<\/em> determined the Mad Thinker<\/em> was behind the plot to place the \u2018Thing Behind Prison Bars\u2019<\/em> (Roger Slifer, Wilson & Jim Mooney): tackling the maniac whose ultimate game plan is to corner the future, mass-producing his own squadron of the synthezoid Avenger in #39\u2019s conclusion \u2018The Vision Gambit\u2019<\/em> (inked by Marcos).<\/p>\n

Slifer, Tom DeFalco, Wilson & Marcos then detail a spooky international yarn as the Black Panther<\/strong> is involved in a monstrous reign of terror with a zombie-vampire stalking the streets and abducting prominent African Americans. Concluding chapter \u2018Voodoo and Valor!\u2019<\/em> – by David Anthony Kraft, Wilson & Marcos – sees Jericho Drumm<\/em>\/Brother Voodoo<\/strong> volunteer his extremely specialised services to Ben and T\u2019Challa<\/em> in hopes of ending the crisis. The trail takes our heroes to Uganda for a confrontation with Doctor Spectrum<\/em> and the far more dangerous real-world crazed killer Idi Amin<\/em>…<\/p>\n

Crafted by Ralph Macchio, Sal Buscema, Alfredo Alcala & Sam Grainger, Marvel Two-In-One <\/strong>#42 then debuts a future mainstay of Marvel Universe continuity as Project Pegasus<\/em> premiers in \u2018Entropy, Entropy…\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

The Federal research facility designated P<\/strong>otential E<\/strong>nergy G<\/strong>roup\/A<\/strong>lternate S<\/strong>ources\/U<\/strong>nited S<\/strong>tates is dedicated to investigating new and exotic power sources and naturally became the most sensible place to dump energy-wielding super-baddies once they were subdued. Ben finds and begins trashing the place whilst tracking down his educationally – and emotionally -challenged ward Wundarr<\/em> after the kid was renditioned by the Government. The furious Thing is soon confronted and contained by Captain America <\/strong>in his role as security advisor and together they stumble over a sabotage scheme by martial maniac Victorius<\/em> who unleashes a deadly new threat in the ghostly form of Jude, the Entropic Man<\/em>. This phantasmic force easily trounces Cap and Ben but finds the macabre Man-Thing<\/strong> far harder to handle in concluding chapter \u2018The Day the World Winds Down\u2019<\/em> from Macchio, John Byrne & Friends & Bruce Patterson)…
\n\"\"
\nThe third Marvel Two-In-One Annual <\/strong>then hosts a great big, old-fashioned world-busting blockbuster wherein Nova the Human Rocket <\/strong>battles beside Ben to free captive alien princesses and save Earth from colossal cosmos-marauding space invaders: a simple yet entertaining tussle entitled \u2018When Strike the Monitors!\u2019<\/em> all crafted by Wolfman, Sal Buscema, Frank Giacoia & Dave Hunt… after which, back in the monthly comic book, issue #44 strays away from standard fare with \u2018The Wonderful World of Brother Benjamin J. Grimm\u2019<\/em> (Wolfman, Bob Hall & Frank Giacoia) with the Thing telling rowdy kids a fanciful bedtime story concerning his recent partnership with Hercules <\/strong>to free Olympus from evil giants…<\/p>\n

Marvel Two-In-One <\/strong>#45\u2019s sees Kree Captain Marvel warned by his Cosmic Awareness that the Thing had been targeted by vengeful Skrulls in \u2018The Andromeda Rub-Out!\u2019<\/em> (Peter Gillis, Alan Kupperberg & Mike Esposito), after which the Incredible Hulk<\/strong>\u2019s new TV show compels an outraged Ben to head for Hollywood, only to become accidentally embroiled in a \u2018Battle in Burbank!\u2019 <\/em>(Kupperberg & Chic Stone)…<\/p>\n

The Thing\u2019s self-appointed gadflies The Yancy Street Gang <\/em>headlined in MT-I-O<\/strong> #47 as \u2018Happy Deathday, Mister Grimm!\u2019<\/em> (Bill Mantlo & Stone) sees a cybernetic tyrant long believed dead take over Ben\u2019s old neighbourhood… until the hero pays a visit. The invasion exposed, it is quickly concluded once awesome alien energy powerhouse Jack of Hearts<\/em> joins the fight against \u2018My Master, Machinesmith!\u2019<\/em> (in #48 by Mantlo, Stone & Tex Blaisdel).<\/p>\n

Mary Jo Duffy, Alan Kupperberg & Gene Day piled on spooky laughs in #49 as the \u2018Curse of Crawl-Inswood\u2019<\/em> highlights how Doctor Strange<\/strong> manipulates Ben into helping crush a paranormal incursion in a quaint and quiet seaside resort…<\/p>\n

Anniversary issue #50 was everything a special issue should be. \u2018Remembrance of Things Past\u2019<\/em> by Byrne & Joe Sinnott takes a powerful and poignant look at the Thing\u2019s history as a monster outcast and posits a few what-might-have-beens…<\/p>\n

Following another failure by Reed Richards<\/em> to cure Ben\u2019s rocky state, The Thing steals the chemical and travels into his own past, determined to use the remedy on his younger, less mutated self. However, his bitter, brooding, brittle earlier incarnation is hardly prepared to listen to another monster and, inevitably, catastrophic combat ensues…
\n\"\"
\nIssue #51 was even better. \u2018Full House… Dragons High!\u2019<\/em> by Peter Gillis, up-&-coming artist Frank Miller & Bob McLeod, details how a weekly poker session at Avengers Mansion is interrupted by rogue US General Pollock<\/em>, who again tries to conquer America with stolen technology. Happily, Ben and Nick Fury<\/strong> find Ms. Marvel<\/strong> (not today\u2019s teenager Kamala Khan<\/em> but current Captain Marvel<\/strong> Carol Danvers<\/em>), Wonder Man<\/strong> and The Beast<\/strong> better combat comrades than poker opponents…<\/p>\n

A note of sinister paranoia creeps in with Marvel Two-In-One <\/strong>#52\u2019s \u2018A Little Knight Music!\u2019<\/em> (Steven Grant, Jim Craig & Marcos), as the mysterious Moon Knight<\/strong> joins Ben in stopping CIA Psy-Ops master Crossfire<\/em> brainwashing the city\u2019s superheroes into killing each other, prior to MTIO Annual<\/strong> #4 providing an old-fashioned, world-busting fantasy finale – for now – as \u2018A Mission of Gravity!\u2019<\/em>(plotted by Allyn Brodsky, scripted by David Michelinie, limned by Craig, Bob Budiansky & Patterson) unites Ben and Inhuman<\/strong> monarch Black Bolt<\/strong> (and Good Boi Lockjaw<\/em>!) to stop unstable maniac Graviton<\/em> turning into a black hole and taking the world with him…<\/p>\n

Backed up by the covers of Starlin, Rubinstein, Wilson, Sinnott, Marcos, Terry Austin, George P\u00e9rez, Walt Simonson, Sal Buscema, Hall, Giacoia, Keith Pollard, Layton, Stone, Budiansky, and Al Milgrom, there is also a big bold bonus section including contemporary house ads, covers from reprint title The Adventures of the Thing<\/strong> (by Sam Keith, Mike Mignola & Joe Quesada) and original art pages by Starlin, Rubinstein, Perez & Sinnott.<\/p>\n

This tome of tales from Marvel\u2019s Middle Period are admittedly of variable quality. They are, however, offset by truly timeless classics, still as captivating today as they ever were. Most fans of Costumed Dramas will have little to complain about and there\u2019s lots 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 \u2018n\u2019 all comics craziness? You\u2019ll almost certainly grow to like it…
\n\u00a9 2025 MARVEL.<\/p>\n

This date in 1754 – and attributed to Benjamin Franklin<\/strong> – the first American newspaper cartoon \u201cJoin, or Die\u201d was published in The Pennsylvania Gazette<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Somewhat less momentously – perhaps – today in 1893 Wonder Woman<\/strong> co-creator William Moulton Marton<\/strong> was born as was Short Ribs<\/strong> cartoonist Frank O\u2019Neal<\/strong> in 1921; Half Hitch<\/strong> and Henry<\/strong> illustrator Dick Hodgins, Jr<\/strong>. in1931 and multi-directional art scribe Barbara Slate<\/strong> (Yuppies From Hell<\/strong>, Angel Love<\/strong>, Sweet XVI<\/strong>, Ms. Liz<\/strong>) in 1947. They were joined in 1953 by writer Pat McGreal<\/strong> (Chiaroscuro; The Private Lives of Leonardo DaVinci<\/strong>, Veils<\/strong>, I, Paparazzi<\/strong> and more Disney comics than seems humanly possible); in 1955 by American Splendor<\/strong> illustrator Brian Bram<\/strong>; inveterate comics publisher David Campiti<\/strong> in 1958, and the astoundingly funny Ty Templeton<\/strong> (Stig\u2019s Inferno<\/strong>, Batman Adventures<\/strong>, The Simpsons<\/strong>) in 1962.<\/p>\n

Today in 1991 The Simpsons<\/strong> episode \u201cThree Men and a Comic Book\u201d<\/em> aired, giving Comic Book Guy<\/em> to the world…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Marv Wolfman, Jim Starlin, Roger Slifer, Tom DeFalco, David Anthony Kraft, Ralph Macchio, Peter B. Gillis, Alan Kupperberg, Bill Mantlo, Jo Duffy, John Byrne, Steven Grant, Allyn Brodsky, David Michelinie, Ron Wilson, Sal Buscema, Bob Hall, Chic Stone, Frank Miller, Jim Craig, Pablo Marcos, Josef Rubinstein, Jim Mooney, Alfredo Alcala, Sam Granger, Frank Giacoia, … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Marvel Two-In-One Epic Collection volume 3 (1977-1979): Remembrance of Things Past”<\/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":[191,165,74,18,75,158,54,420,288,98,189,293,146,72,79,269,174,219,107,231,267,354],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-black-panther","category-captain-america","category-captain-marvel","category-crime-comics","category-dr-strange","category-fantastic-four","category-george-perez","category-hercules","category-hulk","category-inhumans","category-man-thing","category-marvel-horror","category-marvel-masters-masterworks","category-marvel-superheroes","category-moon-knight","category-nick-fury","category-s-h-i-e-l-d","category-science-fiction","category-the-thing","category-warlock","category-wonder-man"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-9dN","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35451","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=35451"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35451\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35457,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35451\/revisions\/35457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}