>The concept of teaming the Thing with a different character in each issue was given a test run in Marvel Feature #11-12 and proved a success.
>Marvel Two-in-One continued from the team-up stories in the final two issues of Marvel Feature and lasted for 100 issues from January 1974 through June 1983.
>After issue #100 it was immediately replaced by a Thing solo series.
How was this so popular that the Thing basically had a solo title of his own for over a decade? A lot of the stories are just crap (thanks to frequent changes in writers), the team-ups are dull or in some cases outright bizarre (Scarecrow in particular, and no l, not the Iron Man/Ghost Rider escape artist turned horror villain) and when you occasionally got a decent story the one-and-done format that the title largely followed meant that usually the issue just has to suddenly end it with a sudden asspull ending because there’s no pages left. When Thing and Spider-man for example fight the Basilisk they just punch the guy together at once and that sends him flying into a volcano and somehow he and the volcano (that the Basilisk created in New York) magically disappears and that’s the end.
Yet somehow this was successful enough to guarantee 100 issues.
Because it was clobberin' time.
The Thing, with his blue-collar attitude and rough-around-the-edges personality is a naturally fun character to follow, and especially fun to see regularly butt heads with other Marvel characters he doesn't regularly interact with in the F4 book. Heck even as a kid I'd immediately grab any comic book that had Thing and Hulk having a knock-down, drag-out brawl on the cover because you were almost always guaranteed a good time where you got your money's worth.
The Thing being a big palooka meathead can be fun but it doesn’t help make Two-in-One a good book because the draw is supposed to be the team-ups and the a lot of them aren’t particularly good because the dynamics suck and the story is usually super boring.
And in any case, just in the first twenty or so issues Ben only gets few issues where him being a grouch or mad or overzealous ham results in good comedy.
Ben is always fun, he's a character that's hard to frick up.
I dunno but the Sandman one was pretty good, so was the annual
It was a different time. Even Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen had two solo books that run for more than 120 issues until 1974.
Yeah but two-in-one lasted from the mid-70s to the 80s
OP, if you really want to see something like this that will break your mind, check out Bob Haney's run on Batman The Brave and the Bold.
Haney has a way better hit ratio in making good, very middle of the road (even if bit filler-ish) feeling team-up yarns. And Aparo’s consistent artwork helps a lot unlike the uneven, regularly switching art of Two in One
I don't know anon, all of Haney feels like filler to me. There are actually a couple stories in Two in One that I actually like, such as the serpent crown arc with Stingray. I agree that early Two in One is no good, but I feel like it improved quite a bit once it veered away from the one and done format and did longer stories. also iirc, Ron Wilson was the regular penciller for awhile, so the art changes slow down too.
Bob Haney stories sold well in his day but I think modern fans would break their minds trying to read him. Continuity was just a suggestion to him and he had no problem with insane concepts like Bruce Wayne having a long lost twin brother or Batman eating in a diner. Whatever told an interesting story was okay with him.
The Thing was just that popular, he was a fun character that everyone liked. Not many people remember now that during Marvel's Golden Age, Fantastic Four was their premium comic book, especially during the Lee/Kirby days. Remember those letters where George R.R. Martin was gushing about the FF comics specifically?
The FF is a legacy team these days, completely forgotten by people and abandoned by Marvel, which is honestly a shame, but modern writers couldn't pull off what Stan and Jack did back then anyway, there's not nearly enough imagination and talent to go around.
storytime an issue
This is a good thread, but it's sort of sad that's it's the only good one on Cinemaphile right now.
These team-up books were a good way to feature obscure characters and keep their trademarks active. Some writers also used the team-up books to finish storylines that got left hanging when a title was cancelled. So if, say, Deathlok or someone lost their book on a cliffhanger, that could be concluded in a team-up book. And sometimes a character could get enough of a positive response to get a second chance.
For years, Superman had his own team-up title
Try to find a Marvel character that Spider-Man DIDN'T meet at least once. Doc Savage, King Kull, Werewolf By Night, Dracula... yep, he shook hands with all of them. (Maybe not Rawhide Kid or Kid Colt, though.)
I don't think he ever teamed up with conan but it is very rare
I think you're right. There was a WHAT IF where Conan fought Captain America and there were those recent SAVAGE AVENGERS books but Spider-Man wasn't in them. You know, Conan would be interesting to place in a post-apocalyptic world after WW III or something because he would fit right in.
Spidey met Conan in Savage Avengers (but it wasn't a team-up)
Thanks, I've skipped over those comics but not really sat back and read them.
Any other long-runners that surprise you? I still have a hard time wrapping my head around Wolverine more or less having a solo book since the 80's. And it's weird to think the Legion of Superheroes were once a mainstay of DC.
…but Wolverine is a super popular character. WTF is surprising about that? Yes, even in the 80s he was popular enough to warrant his solo book.
Kid Colt Outlaw ran from 1948 to 1979, although it was all reprints from 1966 on. Patsy Walker ran from 1944 to 1965 (but PATSY AND HEDY made it to 1967). Stan Lee always said he enjoyed scripting those teen romance comics better than super-heroes.
It was made for the newsstand market. The target audience was a kid who was in the drugstore or wherever, saw a cover with the Thing and some other character, and decided it was worth a quarter. The Thing was one of their most popular characters after Spider-Man and he's a character who really pops off the cover.
It's not a coincidence that all the team-up titles were canceled in the '80s. The newsstand market had collapsed and the Big Two's audience was mostly people who bought specific titles regularly, not just individual comics.
So Marvel Team-Up was replaced with Web of Spider-Man, Two-in-One was replaced with a Thing solo, and Brave and the Bold was replaced with Batman and the Outsiders.
You're right, so much about comics changed when specialty comics shops took over from newsstands, drugstores and supermarkets for sales. I think this was also when you started seeing better quality paper. variant covers, all that stuff.
People just have no appreciation for team-up books anymore, it’s sad.
it gave us Ron Wilson drawing Ben so that is good. storyline wise the big one would be Pegasus Project. Marvel Two-in-One #99 with ROM is good one. Marvel Two-in-One #91 ties in to Fantastic Four #208-214. even the annual with Thanos is part of the original Thanos storyline even Ben started off in those early Starlin issues when he teacup with Iron Man to fight the Blood Brothers in Iron Man's book and Marvel Feature which was the pre Marvel Two-in-One book of its day. issue #96 is a fun one to read with Ben being in a hospital bed after his fight against the Champion of the Universe.
#50 had a fight between the current rocky Thing and the original dinosaur-hide Thing. They even had the early Thing speaking in villain style as he did in the first issue. ("Bah! He'll not get another chance.")