Allen Christian reviews Marvel 2-in-One – The Thing and Mr. Fantastic #11…
Not a week before the release of Marvel Two-in-One #11, Marvel announced the cancellation of the book. So here we find writer Chip Zdarsky resigned to tying up loose ends. It’s unclear if that was the initial intention of this particular issue, or simply to bring the book more in line with the concurrently running Fantastic Four by Dan Slott and Sara Pichelli. In either scenario, the book suffers.
Issue #11 sees the Thing reunited with Mr. Fantastic, initially in the same universe where Ben Grimm and Johnny Storm have been stranded for the past several issues. Over burgers, Ben confronts Reed, asking why he allowed Johnny and Ben to believe that he and Sue, along with their children, were all dead. This issue is predicated entirely on Reed’s answer to that question. Reed takes Ben on a short tour to a couple of locations in the multiverse that will help him illustrate his point. But it doesn’t matter. His point is stupid.
First, Reed attempts to illustrate to Ben that he and his family had to be away from the Fantastic Four, because being in the FF had come to mean more super-heroics than exploration and science. This is not a particularly fair point, considering that not two runs previous, the main Fantastic Four title revolved entirely around exploration across time. Had it been a fair point, it still isn’t much of an answer to Ben’s question, is it?
No, the real answer is that Reed found a universe in which Doctor Doom isn’t so terrible, potentially because the Reed Richards of that universe died long ago. Reed wanted to leave the impression that he had died in order to see if the already deeply flawed Doctor Doom of their universe would change. Letting Ben and Johnny know they were alive would allegedly have risked Doom finding out. Early in Two-in-One, we did see a Victor Von Doom attempting to do good as the Infamous Iron Man. I suppose Reed’s logic here is intended as a bookend to that arc for Doom, but it is incredibly weak.
“Weak” is the word for all of this. A weak explanation of weak motivations being used to paper over the three-year, editorially-mandated absence of Marvel’s First Family. It’s hard to immediately lay this at the feet of Zdarsky, as it’s unclear how much control he had over that particular narrative, given that this book has been forced to surrender to the new status quo being set by Slott in the main FF title. It is fair to say, however, that the execution exceeds the idea, as this is still a well made book. Zdarsky has also displayed an understanding of the tone and characterization of at least three-quarters of the team (Sue’s appearances in Two-in-One have been limited, though issue #12 looks to change that), a feat that both Matt Fraction and James Robinson, the two most recent writers on the main title, fell dramatically short of.
As mentioned, issue #12, this book’s finale, will seemingly pair the Human Torch and the Invisible Woman. Fitting enough. It’s unfortunate to see a book that started with so much promise fizzle out under the weight of editorial mandates. But that’s comics, and it’s certainly modern Marvel Comics. Zdarsky is moving on to a new Invaders series, which he promises to bring the same kind of heart that initially won this title plenty of acclaim. And though Dan Slott has promised a Fantastic Four run lasting many years, I can only hope that when he’s ready to release the reins, they land in the capable hands of Chip Zdarsky.
Rating: 5/10
Allen Christian – @FourColorFilm
