Marvel Two-in-One #27: Day of the Demolisher!


Writer: Marv Wolfman
Penciller: Ron Wilson
Inker: Pablo Marcos
Letterer: John Costanza (with Beth Bleckley)
Colorist: Len Wein
Editor: Marv Wolfman

The Guest Star:
      Deathlok

The Villain:
      Mentallo; the Fixer

Guest Shots:
      Nick Fury; Mr. Fantastic; Human Torch; Invisible Girl; President Jimmy Carter; the Impossible Man

The Set Up:
      Ben Grimm and Nick Fury are facing off against an unhappy and confused Deathlok the Demoplisher in the Baxter Building. Mentallo and the Fixer convince Deathlok that the other two are his enemies, and while the fight begins, Fixer zaps Deathlok with a mind-control device, assuming complete control of him. The two depart by air, with Deathlok in tow, and Fury takes off to try to see what he can learn. The Fixer and Mentallo, alone with Deathlok, discuss their plans for him, which seem to include the assassination of President-Elect Jimmy Carter at his inauguration.
     On inauguration day... the FF are getting into formal dress for the inauguration. The Fixer and Mentallo are setting Deathlok on his task with a specially made rifle. Fury is in Washington as well, and has just learned that Mentallo and the Fixer are there. Nick hooks up with the Fantastic Four inside the White House and lets them know what's up, at which point Reed immediately makes a mysterious phone call...

Clobberin' Time?:
      In panel 8 on page 23, as numbered in the original, Ben takes out his anger after mistakenly believing Deathlok had just assassinated President Carter: "Maybe I couldn't stop this murderer before, but I ain't givin' 'im another chance ta kill! Buddy-boy... It's Clobberin' Time! An' this time, gruesome -- I mean it!"

Petunia's Patch:
      Page 17, panel 1. Ben takes Petunia's name in vain when he unexpectedly encounters Nick Fury: "Fury? What in the name a' Aunt Petunia are you doing here?"

Things of Interest:
     Reed's mysterious phone call (no spoilers!) is a fun and completely out of the blue gambit...
     Yet again, its the MTIO tradition of using this book to wrap up the loose ends (or at least pick up the lost characters) from a cancelled book. Deathlok had had his own series (in Astonishing Tales, issues 25-36) which was eventually cancelled with him in a formless limbo. He appeared briefly in the present in Marvel Spotlight 33 (which also was the last issue of that series, and which, by the by, also had the first appearance of Devil-Slayer, who'd go on to occasionally interact with the Defenders). From there, he came here. Its kind of fun that the original Deathlok comes from a futuristic post-apocalypse world in the year 1990...
     When I first created this particular page, somehow I missed both the Petunia mention and the Clobberin' Time noted above. Special thanks to Mark Pearson for pointing both out.