Marvel Two-in-One #79: Shanga, the Star-Dancer!


Writer: Tom DeFalco
Penciller: Ron Wilson
Inker: Chic Stone
Letterer: Joe Rosen
Colorist: Geo Roussos
Editor: Jim Salicrup

The Guest Star:
      Blue Diamond

The Villain:
      Shanga, the Star-Dancer

Guest Shots:
      None.

The Set Up:
      Shanga, the Star-Dancer, dances through space. Suddenly, her "matrix-sense tingles", and she finds herself drawn across space to Earth, knowing that something there in the small town of Hartsdale, Massachusetts is linked to her fate...
     In Hartsdale, Ben and Alicia are enjoying a quiet vacation, until an artist at a craft's fair objects to blind Alicia's handling his works. Ben overreacts, and creates a scene.
     Observing this all is an elderly and frail Elton Morrow, who had been known as, in World War II, the Blue Diamond. He's now embittered, saddened, and feeling that he's wasted his life.
     While Ben departs for a solo fishing trip, Shanga shows up and seals the town in a force field. The townspeople mob Alicia, sure that this involves Ben and the Fantastic Four in some way. Ben finds himself trapped outside the dome, unable even to dent it, while Elton suits up for the first time in decades and goes to Alicia's rescue...

Clobberin' Time?:
      Page 19, panel 5. After Shanga blasts Ben: "No more Mr. Nice Guy! I'm tired of holding back! Maybe this ain't the most gentlemanly way of handling things, but-- It's Clobberin' Time!!!"

Petunia's Patch:
      Page 12, panel 2. Ben, trying to smash his way into a force field: "Wow! If I didn't know better I'd swear this glowing wall was as tough as a batch of my dear ol' Aunt Petunia's blueberry muffins-- but nothing's that hard!"

Things of Interest:
      The Blue Diamond previously appeared in MTIO with the Liberty Legion in Annual 1 and issue 20.
      This is Shanga the Star-Dancer's first appearance anywhere.
      This is (to date) the last we ever see of the Blue Diamond. Shanga the Star-Dancer appears next in Quasar #14, where she says that she was leaving Earth with her consort when she encountered the Stranger and was teleported to his planet and trapped there. What became of her consort, she doesn't know. That issue is Shanga's only other appearance to date.