Letters from Marvel
Two-In-One #42, August 1978
The Ever Lovin’ Blue-Eyed Letters Page!
Dear Marv, Ron, and Pablo,
With Marvel Two-In-One #37,
we saw a whole new approach to the handling of this mag. Whereas MARVEL TEAM-UP is definitely
the place where Spider-Man joins forces with someone, MTIO is Ben Grimm’s book. The
basic idea of the comic seems to be to expand the Thing’s character,
to give Ben Grimm lovers more of him. In issue #37, there were no
supervillains to battle and no popping in as a back-up. And even
though Matt Murdock is Daredevil, we didn’t see him in his
super-hero guise this issue and he only used his radar-sense once.
The villain was also there, but we didn’t see him – just his
infra-red scope and his non-super ally. No super-guest, no
super-villains, no real fighting – all the usual elements of a comic
book story were missing. But boy, did it work!
The characterization of Ben Grimm was by the best done to date. His
exterior may be that of a monster, but deep down inside he’s
something everyone can love. He’s been feared and hated by many
ordinary people for years, even though he’s risked everything for
them. Now that his life is crumbling, he seems to be losing all
hope. He considers himself guilty and deserving of being locked
away. Ben Grimm has been through a dozen hells and his soul is
finally losing. He simply doesn’t care. Page 26, panels 3-5 really
touched me, Marv – actually hurt me. Thank you for the story.
Peter Petruski II
Millerton, NY
Dear Marv,
MITO #36 was, by far, one
of the best issues I can remember in this book’s history. One of the
reasons I feel so strongly about it was the tie-in with the FF’s own
mag. Keep it up!
Now, for the book itself. As the Thing has a unique personality and
therefore can be used in different situations, I’d like to see the
Thing go solo, allowing you to explore his relationships with his
friends and foes. However, I think the book should still have one –
maybe two – real team-ups a year. Another good possibility for this
book would be to have a “fun” story every now and then – the Thing
on the trail of the Yancy Street Gang, for example. MITO #37 had almost that kind
of magic about it. Good job. In closing, I must compliment Ron and
Pablo for keeping the book in good visual shape.
David Glass
Aroyyo Grande, CA
Congratulations, Dave, you read our
minds! Keep an eye out for an upcoming story just along the lines
you’ve suggested – a story narrated by bashful Benjy himself and
starring none other than Hercules, son of Zeus!
Dear Marv,
Ah, yes!
Thank you for MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE
#37. Though the villain is pretty obvious, the main point
of the story was carried across pretty well. This was one of the
best THING stories to date – and that includes all the previous FF
stories, as well!
The sense of isolation, the sense of power, the sense of injustice,
and the sense of helplessness were all conveyed so beautifully
through your words and Ron Wilson’s graphics.
Congratulations.
Jack Dreso
Padova, Italy
Well, thank you, Jack! Marv’s just
bustin’ with pride that you’ve compared his story to Stan &
Jack’s FF classics. And as the Marvelous One is the brand-new
scribe for the fabulous FANTASTIC
FOUR, you can bet that he’ll be doing his darndest to
keep you coming back, issue after ever-lovin’ issue. And as this
August heralds the publication of FANTASTIC FOUR #200…well, need we say more?
Yes.
Last issue marked the departure of
Rampaging Ron Wilson from these pages…at least for awhile. You
see, right now, Ron is hard at work with Devil-May-Care Doug
Moench on our new HULK color magazine! That’s right, THE HULK,
(formerly RAMPAGING HULK) will soon be appearing at your friendly
neighborhood comics rack in beautiful living color! So watch for
it, you hear?
In the meantime, you needn’t worry
about the art chores going lacking, ‘cause we’ve got some frankly
fabulous folks warming up in the Bullpen who are just itching to
illustrate Bashful Benjy’s adventures. Like who? Like Our Pal Sal
Buscema, who’s already finished this issue’s extravaganza…like
Jocular John Byrne, X-MEN artist supreme…like Battlin’ Bob Hall,
our newest, drawingest (?) Associate Editor-type. And that’s just
for openers! Looks like this just might be one very interesting
summer for Thing, n’cest pas?
Note: Roger Stern was the editor
of the series at the time, and was mainly in charge of responding
to the mail received for this issue.
