I agree that she should have had more to do.

My fault, I cut the page. Sup is just blasting away the Kryptonite spear with his heat vision.

Marvel Two-in-One #80



Creative Team: Tom deFalco-writer, Ron Wilson-pencils, Chic Stone-inks, Joe Rosen-letters, George Rousos-colors, Jim Salicru-editor

Synopsis: Ben is knocking the house down, while he works out with his EverKirby 500 Heavy Bag. Alicia's studio is shaken and her statues wrecked. She goes to "see" what is going on and almost stumbles into the path of the bag....



Reed snatches her out of the way, in the nick of time and Ben runs off in a huff, because he endangered Alicia. Redd, Sue and Johnny help clean up the mess, but Alicia is too sad, without Ben. Ben goes off moping and wrecks a building. He goes to be somewhere safer and witnesses the police chasing Ghost Rider.



After doing his biker stuff, causing panic and terrorizing people, he turns back into Johnny Blaze, who goes off and whines about willingly selling his soul tot he Devil. ben turns up and helps him escape....



Ben drops Johnny off and he gives Ben two free tickets to his show. Ben goes back home an apologizes to Alicia. They go to the show, where some punk kids decide to go joyriding in one of the cars that Johnny is set to jump, at Shea Stadium. Johnny does some tricks, then performs the jump, including a loop in the air, before landing...



The punks make off with the car and Johnny follows and wipes out. Ghost Rider then appears and goes after the kids. Ben goes to stop Ghost Rider from hurting the twits. The punks spot GR in the mirror and wet the front seat of the car, then crash. They run off, but don't get very far. Ben turns up to stop GR from laying the smackdown on them and they fight each other. Ben tries his old Torch-fighting tricks; but, water doesn't work on Hellfire. Smacking GR with a lamppost does and he turns back into Johnny Blaze and runs off, in remorse. Ben goes home and makes sweet rocky love, down by the fire, with Alicia.

or whatever they do at home.

Thoughts: Okay issue. Nothing spectacular; but, nice character moments, as Ben realizes he has it pretty good, while also sympathizing with Johnny Blaze, as an outcast. Nothing worthy of grandeur; but, a nice little story.

Not fond of Chic Stone on Ron Wilson. He kind of tones him down too much. Would much rather have Gene Day or Steve Leiloha or even Joe Sinnott

Marvel Two-in-One Annual #6



Thing & Ka-Zar & Wyatt Wingfoot & the American Eagle!

As opposed to the American Starship Eagle.....


(On the left. That's Coyote, on the right)

Creative Team: Doug Moench-writer, Ron Wilson-pencils, Gene Day-inks, Pierre Bernard Jr, George Rousos, David Anthony Kraft-editor

American Eagle created by Ron Wilson, for all of the acclaim and remuneration that has brought him!

Synopsis: Ben is twiddling his thumbs, bored, all alone in the Baxter Building. He goes and lifts his Kirbyplate 2000 weight set, when the alarm sounds. Turns out it is Wyatt Wingfoot, who is looking for help. He tells Ben about some legend of two sons of a dying chief, who are sent to consult the Great Spirit, to see who will lead their people against an invader. The Great Spirit appears before them and turns them into Apache Chief so they can wrestle for it.



They hit each other with mountains and fall into rivers, before one son delivers a Wahoo McDaniel Tomahawk Chop and knocks his brother on his kemo sabe.....



The new chief led his people against the invaders and drove them away. Later, he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Ben isn't buying it; but, Wyatt tells him of a modern twist to the story, as a pair of brothers (Jason & Ward Strongbow) argue over the encroachment of a mining company, thanks to one of the two brothers (Ward) making an unsanctioned agreement with the company. Jason tried to fight in court, but lost. They tried agitating and picketed the mining operation. A watchman panicked and shot a protester, then ran into the sacred cave, in the mountain. Jason went after him and found brother Ward, in some kind of high tech cavern, with secret shenanigans going on...



There was an explosion and a landslide, then Jason appeared before his people, glowing. He said the defilers were gone, but he was going after them, then disappeared. One of the protestors went to the next reservation and told Wyatt, as Ward & Jason had disappeared. Wyatt then came to the FF for help, as the protestor said Jason was following the murderers to The Savage Land!

Dunh-duh-duh!!!!!!!!

Ben and Wyatt take the Pogo Plane and head for Antarctica and the secret entrance to the Savage Land.

In the Savage Land, we see some pro wrestler, with a crossbow, stalking through the jungle, just as a Tarzan-wannabe stalks him. A unicorn is drinking from a nearby stream, where a few goblins are hunting for it, for their master, Darkness....



The wrestler fires his crossbow; but at some men, not the unicorn.



Tarzan and Wahoo fight....



Wahoo cleans his clock and then Tarzan...er, Ka-Zar says he will keep fighting to stop him killing the unicorn, and Wahoo stops whooping him to say he was trying to kill the white men, not the unicorn and ka-Zar says, "Oh, well, that's different." Wahoo explains, then introduces himself as the American Eagle.

Zabu turns up and Ka-Zar stops American Eagle (Wahoo sounds less stupid) and Zabu does his kitty-kitty routine (can a sabretooth tiger purr?)

The white boys move off deeper into the jungle and Ka-Zar violates ER Burrough's trademarks and goes vine-swinging, while Eagle fires his own modern vines, with his crossbow. They witness the Pogo Plane landing (convenient route) and meet up with Ben and Wyatt. ben and Eagle arm wrestle, while Wyatt and Ka-Zar cop some Zs. Eagle explains what really happened in the cave. Ward was knocked out, the white boss turned up and it was Ulysses Klaw, who zapped Jason with his sonic claw and they carried off Ward. The energy from the claw and the fire set off an explosion, leaving Jason fustigated and glowing. The sonic energy combined with radiation, from the uranium ore that was being mined, to create Jason's powers. He overheard the men say they were headed to Antarctica to obtain vibranium.

Elsewhere, at a dinosaur graveyard, Klaw yells at his flunkies.....



He plans to start a dino stampede, then take the vibranium. Eagle spots Klaw standing at the rim of the crater and he, Ben and Ka-zar make like the Devil's Brigade and climb up the side, out of sight.



Ben and Klaw meet up and we learn what happened to Klaw, after the Project: Pegasus story, where he had been reduced to sound molecules and absorbed by his sonic claw. A cleaning lady (in a top secret government research facility) found it, while cleaning up the rubble forom the various fights and accidentally triggered it, causing Klaw's body to reform. He zapped her unconscious (he isn't a total louse) and scampered. He finishes his story, then blasts Ben.

Ka-Zar finds ward, who is working with Klaw, then Jason turns up, in his wrestling gear. They have words, then fight with dinosaur bones....



Wyatt flings a rock, from the ground, to the top of a crater that had to be scaled to reach the summit, and knocks aside Klaw's weapon. Ben tackles him and they fall to the dino pen and Klaw unleashes a stampede of sauropods. Ka-Zar and Zabu help Ben and he redirects his energies at Klaw. Jason & Ward continue to fight, then Ward is shot, from behind, by the white goons. Ben decks Klaw with a haymaker and removes his sonic claw. Jason heads towards the goons and they beat feet, right into the path of the dino stampede and get smooshed. Ben picks up Klaw and loads him into the Pogo Plane. He and Wyatt say goodbye to Ka-Zar, as Jason carries his dead brother's body to the plane and the story ends.

Thoughts: This was always my favorite of the annuals and one of the best stories of this period of MTIO (which was pretty decent, in general). Moench crafts a pretty good tale, which makes good use of Ulysses Klaw, based on past history (both in the FF and in MTIO). Gene Day really livens up Ron Wilson's pencils, which is why I really wish he was still inking the regular book, instead of the stiffer Chic Stone.

The origin for American Eagle is pretty cliched and shows the usual ignorance of most writers of European ancestry, when it comes to Native American legends. Tim Truman this ain't. Still, it could have been much worse. Eagle is far more interesting than Thunderbird was, in his brief time in X-Men, though he was there to just die (since he didn't date from the original series, wasn't a Cockrum creation, and hadn't fought the Hulk). The costuming would look better in a pro wrestling ring, though, for this kind of stereotyped ethnic hero, it isn't bad. Problem is, the tribal lands were in the Southwest and the costume is more representative of the Plains tribes, like the Sioux and the Cheyenne. Quite frankly, it ends up looking like my high school and college mascots (we were the Niantic-Harristown Indians and I went to the Univ of Illinois, the Fighting Illini). Kind of disappointing that Moench and Wilson resorted to old stereotypes. It really wasn't an improvement over Red Wolf, who at least didn't run around in a war bonnet.

American Eagle got a few guest appearances, including a handful, in Marvel Comics Presents (particularly issue #27, which featured his first solo story); but, was never a significant character. He disappeared for quite while, before Warren Ellis brought him back, in Thunderbolts, with a new look, which took away the visual stereotypes. he was also retconned into being a Navajo, which makes the war bonnet even more egregious. He would have made a great fighter for Unlimited Class Wrestling, though, in the Thing solo book. That costume had pro wrestling written all over it; but, the name Strongbow has always been associated with fake indian wrestlers...



However, even the real Native American wrestlers couldn't escape the stereotype.....



Well, except Jack Brisco....



For the wrestling impaired....

Wahoo (Edward) McDaniel was a legit Native American, from Texas, who was of Choctaw-Chickasaw heritage and had been a football standout in high school and the Univ of Oklahoma. He played professionally for the Houston Oilers, Denver Broncos and most famously the New York Jets, where he was a linebacker. When he made a tackle, the announcer would ask WHO made the tackle? The crowd would respond with chants of WAHOO! WAHOO! He finished with the Miami Dolphins. he got into pro wrestling and was a star all across the country, particularly noted for brutal matches with Johnny Valentine, where they would chop each other's chest until it looked like bloody hamburger meat. He was also a rival to Ric Flair (and the wrestler that Flair most emulated, even though he took Buddy Rogers' name) and they fought through the Carolinas. The name came from his father, whose nickname was "Big Wahoo" (possibly after the comic strip Big Chief Wahoo). He also had a famous baseball coach, in school: George Herbert Walker Bush, who went on to be the 41st President of the United States. They maintained a friendship through Bush's political career and Wahoo's sports and wrestling career.

Chief Jay Strongbow (Luke Joseph Scarpa) was a fake American Indian wrestler. he was actually of Italian heritage and had wrestled under his own name, Joe Scarpa, before using the Jay Strongbow gimmick. He was later given a fake brother, Jules Strongbow (with the name swiped from a promoter of wrestling in Los Angeles), whose real name was Francis Huntington, who had also wrestled as Frank Hill. Huntington was a legit Native American, Scarpa was not. He was also not particularly well liked by a lot of people in wrestling, particularly when he was a road agent for the WWF, in the 80s. However, he was a draw in the WWWF and was tight with Bruno Sammartino and Vince McMahon Sr, which gave him a job for life, with Vince Jr and the WWF.

Jack (Freddie Joe) Brisco and brother Gerald (Floyd Gerald) were legit Native Americans, from Oklahoma, who were also top collegiate wrestlers, before becoming pro wrestlers. Jack won the NCAA Wrestling National Championship in 1965 (and was runner up in 1964, in his weight class). During his senior year (1965) he was never taken down by an opponent. After winning the NCAA tournament, he turned pro and wrestled in Missouri, before moving to home turf, for the Oklahoma territory. he eventually migrated to Florida, to work for promoter Eddie Graham. Graham groomed him and he developed a rivalry with NWA World Champion Dory Funk Jr, who had also been a talented amateur (and a second generation pro). Graham convinced the NWA Board members to vote Jack as the next World Champion and he was scheduled to face Funk to win the title, when Funk (allegedly) got into an auto accident, on his ranch. The match was shelved and the title was put on Harley Race, who then dropped it to Brisco, in Houston (as they had been promised the title switch for Funk vs Brisco). He would go on to hold it for the next two years, apart from a four day switch with Japanese wrestler/promoter Giant Baba, until he grew tired of the grind of traveling across the country to the various territories (the NWA World Champion traveled to various affiliated territories to face local stars and help boost their business and the drawing power of the local stars. They would then go to the next territory and face the next local talent in a program, which kept them on the road for most of the year. The title was voted every year, at the annual NWA convention). Brisco then spent the bulk of his time wrestling for the Florida and Carolina promotions, before helping to broker the deal for the WWF to buy the Georgia office (in which they held shares) and then started wrestling for the WWF. In an era where Vince McMahon never acknowledged the existence of any other wrestling promotion, they always mentioned that Jack had been the NWA World Champion. The only other wrestler who was given this same recognition was 6-time NWA World Champion Harley Race (who also owned part of the Kansas City promotion).

What was Satana supposed to be at this point in the character's history - still the daughter of Satan, etc? I understand that all references and connections to the Satan of the Bible were retconned at some point after I stopped following the MU. One reason I'm curious is that there was a memorable issue in Englehart's Dr. Strange in which Strange and Clea had to confront Satan in Hell, but it doesn't appear that it's referenced at all in Claremont's MTU story.