Comic Review #9: Marvel Two In One #79 (1981)

 

Since I talked about Brave and the Bold and Marvel Team Up and DC Comics Presents it felt only natural to end off this little series of discussions on Team Ups (which I'm sure I'll come back too because these comics are always usually a lot of fun to talk about) with Marvel Two In One. The second of Marvel's two team up books (which was cancelled first). The Thing may be tied with the Hulk for second best Marvel character of all time (the first goes to Spider-Man). That's something these companies did that was great, pick the perfect characters to team up with other characters. Another great thing was add in weird obscure characters.

I love the weird obscure guys that get less and less traction. The ones that had a series between 1948 and 1961 and then didnt show up again for like 15 years. The guys that never get to show up and have fun at the party. I also love the weird one off guys, like Tappin Tommy. A EVIL tap dancer that worked for I think Hydra or probably the Maggia or something and tried to fight the Defenders. I really need to try and find that issue because it's a hoot.  Just the weird little nooks and crannies that never get light shun on them before. This was a big thing I wanted to mention so it was a big reason why I chose this issue. TWO obscurities for the price of one! Two characters I'm not even sure if they've appeared in the almost 40 years since this comic came out.  Getting into superhero comics may be a weird and daunting task because a lot of people want a good starting out point, I think Team Up comics are a really good starting point because you'll learn about a lot of characters ranging from the most popular to characters no one remembers but my sad ass. You'll have to figure out what's still in continuity and all that jazz but the characters well personality should be what you really go for...

Our two obscurities of today are, Star-Dancer (who appears here for the very first time! This will be a collectors item in 2052! when Marvel uses her in a movie!) and The Blue Diamond. Star-Dancer is a cosmic character who well welds THE POWER COSMIC. I don't know why it sounds cooler when someone says THE POWER COSMIC instead of COSMIC POWER but it does. It's just sounds cooler. She spends her time out in the stars in the universe. She misses the planet she was born on. Think of her as a weirdly sexy Silver Surfer who's kind of a jerk. The Blue Diamond is one of the many characters from the early 1940s. Like he wasn't Captain America or The Human Torch or Namor so he's well forgotten nowadays. There was an attempt by Roy Thomas to bring a lot of the 1940s characters back into relevance in the 1970s in The Invaders (a series that I don't have many issues of but what issues I do have I enjoyed). In this issue he appears and an old man because of how World War II characters were treated by both Marvel and DC. Marvel had them age and if you wanted The Thing to team up with them he had to time travel. DC had all the WW II characters on their own Earth called Earth Two, and if the heroes wanted to team up with them they had to go to a different earth. It was worth it though no matter how you traveled because you got to throw around some Nazi assholes. That's always a good time.

This is a pretty simple little issue but I still had a fun time with it. It's always a fun time with the Thing. He kinda reminds me of my dad. A little ornery but a good fella. He even fishes in this issue like my dad. I enjoyed reading about the Blue Diamond feeling like he had wasted his life and all that. That's some good ass pathos. He almost dies in the end but the Star Dancer saves him. She causes a ruckus and she and the Thing fight but in the end she's gives the Blue Diamond a cool new diamond form. Of all the Team Up comics I've reviewed this is probably the one that's the shortest on plot but it has a lot of fun and entertaining character moments which do make up for it. I like how thinking of how much of a moron the Hulk is gives the Thing an idea. Tom Defalco was always pretty good at the character moments thing. The art is pretty good too.

FINAL VERDICT: Al Ewing is writing Guardians of the Galaxy and S.W.O.R.D. for Marvel currently. I am going to bother him on twitter with posts about how he should bring back the Blue Diamond and Star-Dancer. Also Darkhawk too. I like Darkhawk. Maybe even Sleepwalker.

NEXT TIME, GADGET, NEXT TIME: We shall be talking about something that isn't from Marvel or DC. I don't know what but expect something cool and good.