The Thing: Project Pegasus

Reprints Marvel Two-in-One #42-43, 53-58
Written by Ralph Macchio and Mark Gruenwald.
Penciled by Sal Buscema, John Byrne, George Perez.
Inked by Joe Sinnott,Alfredo Alcala, Sam Grainger, John Byrne, Gene Day.

Variant cover.

Project PEGASUS (Potential Energy Groups/Alternate Sources/United States) is a top secret research facility operated by the U.S. Department of Energy. It's located in the mountains of Upstate, NY. PEGASUS' mission is to study all possible forms of alternative energy.

The Thing visits his friend Wundarr who is being studied at Project PEGASUS. Wundarr has the power to absorb energy and turn it into strength and power. Unfortunately, Wundarr also has the brain and personality of a toddler. The Cosmic Cube, a device which can reshape reality, has been brought to Project PEGASUS because the energy experts want to see if Wundarr's abilities can unlock the secrets of the Cube. But the Thing is incensed when he sees Wundarr chained up and frightened. Captain America is present and convinces Ben to calm down.

The testing of Wundarr's power on the Cube is underway, when it's suddenly sabotaged, leaving Wundarr comatose. It's the work of a man who calls himself Dr. Victorius. He steals the Cosmic Cube and flees to the swamps of  Florida's Everglades, pursued by Ben and Cap.

When the heroes arrive in Florida, they find that Victorius is not alone. The villain is joined by Jude, the Entropic Man and his cult of entropists. They are dedicated to spreading atrophy and decay all over the the world. Captain America and the Thing have their hands full, but thankfully the Everglades are also the home of the macabre Man-Thing! He unwittingly assists Ben and Cap in overcoming Victorius and his followers.

Some months later, Ben returns to Project PEGASUS to work as a security guard. He's doing this partially so that he can check on Wundarr. The facility's chief of security is Wendell Vaughn, who fights crime as the superhero Quasar. He wears wristbands that give him super-strength and the ability to shoot energy beams.  

The Thing learns that Wundarr is still in a coma and that his interaction with the Cosmic Cube enhanced his power. Wundarr now has the ability to cancel out any source of power when he is within ten feet of it.

One of the PEGASUS scientists, Dr. Thomas Lightner is acting in a suspicious manner. Lightner previously battled the Thing as a villain named Blacksun, but has since been cured. Lightner communicates with someone known only as Nth Command, telling them that Grimm's presence has complicated their plans.

During his first night, Ben goes exploring aroung Project PEGASUS. He's suddenly attacked by Deathlok, the cyborg super-soldier from the future! The Thing and Quasar battle Deathlok, forcing the 'borg to self-destruct. But the fight leaves the Thing with an injured arm that was shot by Deathlok.

At the same time, Ben's old friend Thundra, the super-strong femizon from an alternate Earth is visiting New York. She's been recruited by a promoter named Herkimer J. Oglethorpe to become a professional wrestler. Thundra fights and defeats a team of women wrestlers known as the Grapplers

Back at PEGASUS, Lightner continues to act strangely behind the scenes. The nuclear-powered manchild Nuklo is held at the facility for testing. Nuklo is very dangerous, so Lightner releases him in hopes that Nuklo will cause havok.

Lightner's hopes are realized when Nuklo endangers PEGASUS. The Thing subdues Nuklo with the assistance of Giant-Man, who works at the facility in his civilian identity, Dr. Bill Foster.

In New York, Thundra has her first wrestling match. She dominates her opponent Titania, until Titania injects her with a fluid that renders the femizon unconscious.

When Thundra awakens, she learns that her "wrestling career" was just a ruse to get her to break in to Project PEGASUS. Thundra leads her team of Grapplers into the energy facility and deliver a mysterious device.

The Thing, Giant-Man and Quasar are able to defeat and detain Thundra and the wrestlers. But we learn that the device they've brought will be used by Lightner to build something called the Nth Projector. Lightner plans to use this to transform himself back into Blacksun. But things don't go according to plan. The Nth projector turns Lightner into the Nth Man, a being of pure, negative energy! He threatens to absorb everything around him.

In the middle of all of this, Wundarr escapes from his holding cell. He suddenly has the intellect of an adult and is more powerful than ever. He changes his name to Aquarian, in honor of the location of his home planet.

This is a very good development, because the Thing and the other heroes will need all the help they can if they want to prevent Nth Man from destroying the world!

Plus, in the midst of this crisis, Project PEGASUS is threatened by villainous duo Solarr and Klaw!

Review:
It's hard to do justice to this storyline without spoiling large portions. But it's one of the best mult-part sagas of the Bronze Age.

Story:
The Thing is one of my all-time favorite characters, and he's well-written here. Ralph Macchio and Mark Grunenwald co-wrote these tales (Macchio wrote the first two issues reprinted here by himself) and they really get what Ben is all about. Early in the book, the Thing makes a comment about how he doesn't know anything about advanced technology. Captain America tells Thing stop the "hick routine" and reminds the readers of Ben's previous life as a test pilot.

The writers also do a nice job showing how much the Thing cares for Wundarr.

Giant-Man, Quasar and Wundarr/Aquarian all serve as good partners for Ben Grimm in this story.
Gruenwald and Macchio also do a great job with the "B-plot" involving Thundra. Just when you might think the wrestling storyline is an excuse for the writers to stall and draw out the saga, Macchio and Gruenwald merge it with the goings-on at PEGASUS. This saga made me wish these writers had written some solo-Thundra stories during the Bronze Age. 

This is also a case of the parts being greater than their whole. It's basically just Ben Grimm interacting with a bunch of other heroes and battling a bigger bunch of villains. But it's a whole lot of fun.   


Art:
The art features work by several of the biggest names of the Bronze Age and it's excellent.

John Byrne penciled four issues here, mostly inked by Joe Sinnott. Their art looks great, just as it did in issues of Fantastic Four that were published around the same time.

George Perez and Gene Day take over and finish the book. They also make a fantastic art team. Take a look at this great image from Perez and Day:

And here's another, where Screaming Mimi's scream nearly drives Quasar insane:

The book has fantastic art from start to finish.


How Does It Look?:
Here's a page scanned from an original copy of Marvel Two-In-One #55 (borrowed from the excellent blog Comics Should Be Good):

And here's how that same page appears when it's reprinted in the Project PEGASUS book:

Extras:
This hardcover contains Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe entries for Quasar and Project: PEGASUS.

The Thing: Project PEGASUS features some excellent story and art from some of the greatest comic creators of all time. This is without a doubt the high point for Marvel Two-In-One and this book is highly recommended.

J.A. Morris' rating:

4 Sals!

Avengers: Heart Of Stone

Reprints Avengers #188-196 and Avengers Annual #9
Written by Jim Shooter, Bill Mantlo, Steven Grant, David Michelinie, Mark Gruenwald.
Penciled by John Byrne, Arvell Jones, Don Newton, George Perez, Arvell Jones and Sal Buscema.
Inked by  Ricardo Villamonte, Dan Green, Frank Springer, Joseph Rubenstein, Marvel Staff.

The Avengers are flying home from Europe and decide to take a shortcut through Soviet airspace.  They're about to ask a MiG pilot for permission to do so when the Soviet plane explodes. The Avengers land their Quinjet and find themselves on a Soviet military base. The Russians ask for their help in freeing a nuclear reactor that has been taken over by a strange team of criminals. 

The base is under attack by a team of villains called the Elements of Doom. Each member is the living embodiment of an element. The Elements capture Falcon and Wasp and intend to turn them into elements. It's up to the Avengers to save their teammates and the base.  


In a secret cave below the Avengers' mansion, the android known as Arsenal is planning to attack the Avengers. Arsenal is talking with a computer it calls "Mistress", who gives it orders.

Iron Man learns that his father, Howard Stark, created Arsenal during World War II. Arsenal would be activated if the Nazis took over the United States to defend the country from the Third Reich. It will take the might of the Avengers to stop Arsenal, but Iron Man is shocked when he learns of his  connection to Mistress.

After the fight with Arsenal, Hawkeye leaves the team mansion in anger. He's still frustrated over being removed from the team in favor of the Falcon.

Falcon tries to make peace with Hawkeye, to no avail.

He gets a job as chief of security at Cross Technological Enterprises. He is glad to have a "cushy" job, but it doesn't last for long. Cross is attacked by Deathbird, Ms. Marvel's old enemy. She's been stealing technology from Cross, and Hawkeye will have to stop her all by himself.

Later, a meteor lands in Jamaica Bay. Unlike regular meteors, this one sprouts legs and walks from the bay into New York City.

At the same time, the Avengers are subpoenaed and forced to attend a Senate hearing. Their NSA liaison, Henry Peter Gyrich, has accused them of violating the membership rules he recently set up for the team. 
The hearing ends when Gyrich learns of the "walking meteor" and the Avengers are allowed to leave so they can stop it. They're shocked to learn it's really their old foe the Gray Gargoyle. He turns several Avengers into stone.

Subsequently, Tony Stark is touring a steel mill in Pittsburgh that he possibly intends to purchase. The mill's claim to fame is that Thor once visited it for repairs to his hammer. A worker named Joseph Conroy keeps a fragment of Thor's hammer as a good luck charm. But disaster strikes when one of Conroy's enemies pushes him into a vat of molten steel. Due to the hammer fragment, Conroy is transformed into a monster known as Inferno. The Avengers are called to Pittsburgh to battle this new menace.

Back in New York, a man named Selbe comes to the Avengers' Mansion seeking help. Selbe has escaped from the Solomon Institute for the Criminally Insane. He claims he's been tortured at the institute.

The Wasp feels very sympathetic to Selbe's cause, but the other Avengers aren't sure what to think of him. It's a moot point when someone arrives at the mansion with a court order that sends Selbe back to Solomon Institute.  

Jan shrinks to "wasp" size and sneaks into the institute, where she's gassed and imprisoned. Wasp's husband, Yellowjacket guesses she's inside and plans a rescue mission. The Avengers learn that man behind Selbe's torture is a criminal who calls himself the Taskmaster, who was born with the rare gift of Photographic Reflexes. This gives him the ability to watch feats performed by superheroes and imitate them with amazing accuracy. Taskmaster has set up "schools where I could train crooks and social misfits to be goons for the frontline baddies." The Solomon Institute is one of his crime schools.

Taskmaster makes a grand entrance.

Can the Avengers stop the Taskmaster and shut down his criminal training school? They're helped in this battle by a guest superhero, Scott Lang, the Ant-Man!

Plus, Wonder Man's acting career results in a gig...as second banana on a local children's show!

Wonder Man gets a job on The Uncle Elmer Show as "Mr. Muscles!"

Review:
While none of these stories are classic or essential Bronze Age tales, it's a good, solid entertaining book.

Story:
Bill Mantlo wrote opening tale. It isn't great, but it features a good action story, even if the Elements of Doom are forgettable. Mantlo also penned the Arsenal story. It would have a lasting impact on the Marvel Comics and Cinematic universes. For it shows Howard Stark actively involved in creating WWII-era technology, something we would see in Captain America: The First Avenger.

David Michelinie scripted the majority of these stories and they're all pretty good. He writes Hawkeye as a jerk. There's a nice panel where Yellowjacket says, "Hawkeye's never happy unless he can complain about something!" Truer words were never spoken by a comic book character. But Hawkeye's solo outing, credited to Michelinie, Steven Grant, Mark Gruenwald, & Roger Stern is a fun ride.

The Taskmaster never reached A-list villain status, but he was a great bad guy and one of my favorite Avengers antagonists. I always thought his idea to start schools for minions made sense in the context of comic books. 

Last but not least, the Inferno/Pittsburgh story is credited to Michelinie and the Pittsburgh Comix Club.  It's basically a tale of corporate corruption, with the steel mill having connections to the Maggia. But setting a story outside of New York was a nice touch and it features some good references to Pittsburgh landmarks.

Inferno rampages through Pittsburgh.

Art:
The book opens with several stories penciled by John Byrne and ends with a three-parter drawn by George Perez, two of the finest artists of the Bronze Age. They both provide gorgeous work in Heart Of Stone.

This was a great era to be a Byrne fan. I've never been a big fan of Grey Gargoyle, but Byrne makes him look great in this tbp. Here's a nice fight scene that features the Gargoyle and Falcon:

I love this "training exercise" drawn by Perez, great stuff:

And Perez pencils a nice snowstorm, as seen in this scan:

 
Don Newton penciled the Arsenal story. I haven't read many stories drawn by Newton (this is one of only two Marvel credits since he mainly worked for DC), but his art is good here. It's a shame he didn't get the chance to draw Marvel characters more often.

Arvell Jones penciled the Pittsburgh/Inferno story and his work is decent. Sal Buscema is credited as the penciler for part 2 of the Inferno battle, but Dan Green's inks are so heavy Buscema's work is barely visible. Their art isn't bad, just a step down from the work of Byrne and Perez.

Extras:
We get an essay written by Tom Breevort that praises Perez' Avengers art. Seven pages of original art are included. The Avengers roster, from the 1982 edition of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe is also reprinted in this tbp.

How does it look?:
I don't own copies of all the issues reprinted in this tpb.  But here's the splash page as of Avengers #196:

And here's how the same page looks in the book:

Looks pretty good to me. I don't see any "modern" recoloring.

Avengers: Heart Of Stone contains some good stories, great art, and it introduces Taskmaster. The contents of this book might not be as important to the Avengers history as the Korvac saga or battles with Ultron, but it's a fun book that is worth picking up. It's especially recommended for fans of Perez and Byrne.

J.A. Morris' rating:

.5

 3 and a half Sals.

Contest Of Champions

Note:There's a 2012 hardcover reprint book called Avengers: The Contest that reprints the same stories. This review is based on a 1999 paperback.

Reprints Marvel Super Hero Contest Of Champions #1-3
Written by Mark Gruenwald, Bill Mantlo, Steven Grant.
Penciled by John Romita, Jr.
Inked by Pablo Marcos and Bob Layton.

Grandmaster and The Unknown prepare to play a game.

All over the world, superheroes are disappearing!

In New York City, the Avengers, Spider-Man, Daredevil and others vanish. In the Soviet Union, the Soviet Super Soldiers disappear while battling the Red Ghost. This scenario plays itself out on every continent, until every superhero is removed from Earth.

The heroes find themselves transported to a very large arena that is orbiting the Earth. After exchanging pleasantries with one another, they are greeted by the Grandmaster, the cosmic gamesman. He's placed Earth and all its people in a state of suspended animation. 

Grandmaster's brother the Collector was recently killed and Grandmaster wants to recover his soul. He has challenged a cloaked figure known only as "The Unknown" to a game that will use the heroes as pawns.  If the Grandmaster wins, he will be granted the power to restore the Collector to life. If the Unknown wins, the Grandmaster will join his brother in "oblivion."

The two god-like beings will form teams of superheroes who will need to find pieces of a golden globe, which contains the power to resurrect the dead. The heroes will have to fight each other to get the globe parts. If the heroes refuse to participate, Earth will remain in suspended animation. But the heroes have a stake in who wins and loses.  f Grandmaster wins, he promises to never bother Earth again. If the Unknown is victorious, she will grant Earth a million more years of existence. 

In Round 1, two teams of heroes face off in the Arctic. Talisman, a magic user from Australia, Daredevil and Darkstar fight for the Grandmaster. The Unknown's team consists of Sunfire, Iron Fist, and Sue Richards, the Invisible Girl. Talisman uses his Bull-Roarer weapon to disorient his opponents. 

The teams fight a spirited battle, which results in the ice cracking beneath them. Daredevil uses his radar sense to locate the piece of the globe, giving the Grandmaster a lead in the contest.

For the next portion of the game, the heroes are transported to a "wild west" ghost town. She-Hulk, Defensor (guardian of Argentina...or Brazil?) and Captain Britain represent the Grandmaster, while Iron Man, Israeli heroine Sabra, and Arabian Knight from Saudi Arabia battle for the Unknown. 

Sabra and Arabian Knight aren't keen on working together, but Iron Man tries to get them to put their ethno-religious animosities aside long enough to win the round.

The battle turns in favor of the Unknown's team when Captain Britain and Defesnor collide with one-another, knocking them out of the fight. She-Hulk and Iron Man arrive at the site of the prize.  Shellhead zaps the Jade Giantess with a repulsor ray, which enables Arabian Knight to get the globe piece. The Unknown's team has tied the score, 1 to 1. 

Next up, two teams of heroes find themselves in rural China. Perigrine, a France-based flyer, is teamed with Wolverine and the Thing. Vanguard (a member of the Soviet Super Soldiers), Angel, and Black Panther are their opponents.

Wolverine gets a little too aggressive with his claws until Ben Grimm intervenes. Grandmaster's team locates the third piece of the globe and comes out on top, taking the lead 2-1.  

Lastly, six heroes materialize in a South American jungle. Fighting for the Unknown are Storm (leader of the X-Men), Shamrock (an Irish heroine), and Collective Man, who hails from China.  They're matched up against the Grandmaster's side, which consists of Sasquatch, Captain America and Blitzkrieg, a German crimefighter who shoots bolts of lightning from his fingertips.

Can the Unknown's team tie up the contest? Or will Grandmaster win and regain the life of his brother?  And what is the true identity of the Unknown?

Review:
Contest of Champions isn't great, but it's long been a favorite of mine since it was published in 1982 and it's still a fun "battle" story. I remember eagerly awaiting each issue of this limited series, so I bring a lot of nostalgia to this review.    
I realize the summary is rather threadbare, but telling a lot more would spoil the story. Yes, I know the tale is 33 years old, but it's not as famous as "The Death Of Gwen Stacy" or other major storylines, so I want new readers to be surprised.

Story:
Bill Mantlo, Steven Grant and Mark Gruenwald are all credited as writers of this story. There's not much to this story. It's basically a case of "superheroes captured and forced to fight each other." But that's okay since these are fun fight scenes. In some cases, these are decisive battles, something we don't see in many "hero vs. hero" matchups. But it should be noted that none of the Marvel A-listers are on the losing end of the fights.

But Contest Of Champions has some problems.
 
One is the portrayal of Wolverine. Even at this point, he'd progressed a lot since his early days with the X-Men. Yet Mantlo, Grant and Gruenwald write him as a bloodthirsty killer, ready to kill Black Panther given the opportunity.

The new "foreign" superheroes introduced here aren't very interesting and border on stereotypes.  Which is probably why they never caught on or made many appearances after Contest Of Champions.  At one point we're told Defensor is from Argentina. Later, he says he's from Brazil. Which one is it?

Plus, there's an error in the story that had to be fixed in a sequel contest. See below for more (non-spoilerish) info. Otherwise, the writers did a good job writing a story that featured so many characters.    

She-Hulk slugs it out with Sabra;
Arabian Knight duels Captain Britain.

Art:
John Romita Jr. and Pablo Marcos serve as penciler and inker of Contest Of Champions, with Bob Layton assisting (he's credited with providing "additional art") on part 1. The art is excellent, and considering how many characters Romita had to pencil, that's no small feat.

How does it look:
Here's a scan from the original story, borrowed from the excellent SuperMegaMonkey site:

 And here's how the same pages look in the tpb:

 
I'd say it's a reprinting that's faithful to the original colors.

Extras:
This tpb contains a nice introduction by Tom DeFalco about the background of the series, how it started it as a tie-in to the 1980 Summer Olympic Games.

Due to a writer or editor error, the winner of the game was somewhat in doubt. So a sequel was published five years later, after the Bronze Age of Comics was over. That story is contained here as well.  

Contest Of Champions contains some very entertaining fight scenes, good art and is still a fun story three decades later. This book is recommended, but the problems mentioned above keep me from giving it a higher grade.

J.A. Morris' rating:

3 Sals.