Marvel Two-in-One #11: The Thing Goes South!
Plotter: Roy Thomas
Scripter: Bill Mantlo
Penciller: Bob Brown
Inker: Jack Abel
Letterer: Tom Orzechowski
Colorist: Janice Cohen
Editor: Len Wein
The Guest Star:
the Golem
The Villain:
Kaballa, Overlord of the Demon-Ruin
Guest Shots:
None.
The Set Up:
Ben and Alicia catch a train for Florida, on their way to a Disneyworld vacation, much to the chagrin of their fellow passengers.
Cut to San Pedro University in St. Petersburg, where three people stand in front of the Golem statue, discussing its history and theorizing on its origin and motivations.
Cut to some very hokey looking demons, who are observing the aforementioned three people. One realizes the people are correct in the Golem's motivations (protecting its loved ones, sort of), and after recapping his history with the Golem, sends his demons out to separate the Golem from those its attached to.
Back on the train, Ben hears a radio report of some unusual behavior on the part of the sea (dividing St. Petersburg in half) and Ben and Alicia jump off the train and head out to help. Heading for St. Pete, Ben hears another report of a large and immensely strong monster made out of stone on the loose. After taking some initial offense, he realizes that they're talking about a different large and immensely strong monster made out of stone. He quickly meets up with the Golem, and one of those ever-so-common hero-on-hero fights starts up...
Clobberin' Time?:
Pg 17, panel 2. After trying to get the Golem to talk, and giving him a chance to surrender... "All right, prune-puss-- I gave ya yer chance! An' now-- It's Clobberin' Time!!"
One more Clobberin' Time- don't forget to check out that cover too!
Petunia's Patch:
You guessed it- no Petunia.
Unofficial Index:
Being a long-time fan of George Olshevsky's Official Marvel Indexes, I'm slowly 'indexing' these loosely in his formats. I'm doing this in issue order, and the previous issue is as far as I've gotten to date.
Things of Interest:
Here's one of those classic MTIO themes- wrapping up the loose ends of another series. The Golem previously starred in Strange Tales 174, 176, and 177, and this issue pretty much wraps up his story and presents (I believe) the Golem's last-ever appearance. He's probably still standing as a statue in the middle of St. Petersburg today...
... which may actually be solely due to his arch-enemy, Kaballa, who has to be the goofiest looking demon ever to come down the pike. I also wonder why Kaballa's minions all wear little yellow swimsuits- you wouldn't think demons would have such a sense of modesty.
There's a kind of fun scene on page 17 where the Golem picks up Ben and using a telephone pole as a baseball bat, knocks Ben "right out of the ball park". Not a commonly employed tactic against the Thing!
On page 18, Ben also says "Unca Benjy's got a surprise for the monster--". I find it kind of fun that Ben adopted Wundarr's nickname for him!
