Marvel Two-in-One #89: The Last Word!


Writer: David Anthony Kraft
Penciller: Alan Edward Kupperberg
Inker: Chic Stone
Letterer: Joe Rosen
Colorist: Don Warfield
Editor: Jim Salicrup

The Guest Star:
      Human Torch

The Villain:
      The Word & Ultima

Guest Shots:
      Nick Fury; Dum Dum Dugan

The Set Up:
      A woman is trying to make it to the Baxter Building for help, and nearly does, before being attacked by a shadowy figure just outside the building.
     Inside the building, Ben and Johnny Storm (the Human Torch) are squabbling as per normal before heading down to meet a woman who'd left a message for them. Downstairs, Ben finds the woman being loaded into an ambulance, and she warns him of the dangers of "The Word." Johnny, on the other hand, sees a good looking babe and goes off to hit on her. She is Ultima, daughter of the Word, and she is responsible for the hospitalization of the other woman, but she just gives Johnny the brush-off and leaves.
     Ben and Johnny meet up in the Baxter Building again, and Ben digs out information on Ultima and the Word in the computer. Juhnny promptly recognizes Ultima as the woman he hit on in the park. Ben contacts Nick Fury, who is able to give them some probable contact information, and the two head off to find the Word. As they drive towards the Word's compund, their car is blown up, they are shot at, and then eventually gassed. They wake up as prisoners, in metal shock collars, and are sent off to work in the mines...

Clobberin' Time?:
      Page 11, panel 4. As Ben is shot at, he uses the ruins of his car to take out the automated machine guns. "I ain't no tin duck on a Coney Island shooting gallery! If the Word thinks he can take pot-shots at ol' Benjamin, he's whistlin' out his nose, 'cause-- "It's Clobberin' Time!"
     Page 24, panel 6. Johnny frees Ben from the mechanisms that restrained him, and he lashes out at some nearby robots. "Now, in case any of ya nutty mechanical men got any doubts about what's happenin'-- let me make it perfectly clear-- It's Clobberin' Time!"

Petunia's Patch:
      Page 26, panel 4. Ben is being strangled by Ultima. "Urk! Dream on sister! Like my ol' Aunt Petunia used to say, 'I ain't yet begun ta clobber!'"

Things of Interest:
      The Word (and Ultima) have exactly one appearance before this (in She-Hulk #10) and no appearances since.
     Hmmm. She-Hulk appears last issue and a She-Hulk villain appears this issue? Yes indeed, a little research does divulge that David Anthony Kraft, who wrote both stories, was also the writer of the Savage She-Hulk from issue 2 through its cancellation.