Ben Grimm drew first blood last week, can Batman meet him head on with a mystical guest-star?In the orange corner... it's the Thing and Doc Savage, written by Bill Mantlo and drawn by Ron Wilson and Pablo Marcos, Marvel Two-in-One #21, Black Sun Lives!
In the black corner... say hello to Batman and the Phantom Stranger, written by Bob Haney and drawn by Ross Andru and Mike Esposito, Brave and the Bold #89, Arise Ye Ghosts of Gotham
DING DING DING!
The Stars
Ben seems to have gone back to being the Thing, unassisted by exoskeletons, and that's how we love him. He makes the girls faint, and he smokes while he works out. He's that kind of a man. He's also the kind of man who tells it like it is:
And that's gotta be worth points. However, there is the matter of neither the Thing nor his guest-star having much of an effect on the villain, and the villain essentially self-destructing instead. Still, a flying pile-up is a sight to behold.
Perhaps it's harder to squeeze a strong performance out of two stars teaming up with Marvel's recent switch to 18 pages of story. +4 pointsNot only does Batman know his Gotham history, but he can tell where sand comes from just by sifting it through his fingers. He's that kind of a detective. However, one must question his political savy. As Councilman Bruce Wayne (when did he have TIME to do THAT?!), he's pretty quick to give up the Wayne Foundation building to the invading Hellerites and their claims of ancestral rights. Worse, it doesn't seem to be a ploy.
It gets worse. The Hellerites cast a curse on every first son, which possesses Dick Grayson and affords Batman the opportunity to scream like a little girl!
I can accept him saying the word "bat-arrest", but "YIIIIIIIIIII", not so much. And that's the second time Batman is paralyzed in this story. Still, he bounces back and doesn't let himself be deus ex machinaed by the Phantom Stranger, winning the day with a good old-fashioned punch. +2 bat-pointsThe Guests
Doc Savage?! Yes, though the Man of Bronze was published for many years (and still is) by DC, the license did once belong to Marvel. Consequently, this story won't be find in the Essentials collection. Savage starts out in his corner of history, investigating parallel occurrences to what Ben's going through, until he is brought forward in time by the accident that creates the villain (see below). Savage is not surprisingly accompanied by a couple of his friends, Monk and Renny, but when their "mercy-bullets" don't make a dent, there's no stopping him from charging the character who just punched the Thing into the ground.
Well, he did need to get his shirt ripped before the end of the story. It's in his contract. And he gets his licks in by timing the cloud cover that saps the villain's powers. +5 pointsThis appears to be the first meeting between Batman and the Phantom Stranger, so he's not sure if he's friend or foe. Things gets more confused when Dr. Thirteen shows up to "debunk" the Stranger and karate chop him into unconsciousness!
Thirteen also doses him with a "vapor" that takes him out of the story for a while. Bad form. So these two act as advisers to the Batman, one pro-magic, the other against. And you know what?
Dr. Thirteen is a douche. Batman wakes the Stranger, and he's needed to "drain his energies" so that the Caped Crusader can get his lucky punch in. +3 bat-pointsThe Villains
In 1936, evil wife-beating Raymond Lightner has built a sky cannon. In 1976, his evil, sister-beating son, Tom Lightner has rebuilt his father's sky cannon. 40 years apart, they use the cannon to steal star energy. 40 years apart, some heroes get in the way. And 40 years apart, the sky cannon malfunctions and explodes. This merges father and son across time and turns them into... Blacksun!
Bullets and energy alike bend around his black hole-like powers. His one weakness: Cloud cover. And when he tries to go above the clouds to drain star energy directly, well, he overdoses and crashes. I do hate it when villains pwn themselves. +4 pointsIn 1818, an Amish-like sect called the Hellerites were kicked out of Gotham City and went to settle in the desert. In 1968, the Hellerites return to Gotham and ask for their land back. Who do these guys think they are? American Indians? People who work at Colonial Williamsburg? Or according to one cop, dreaded HIPPIES?
I'll tell you who they are. Heller's descendant is actually asylum escapee Karl Loftus who only thinks he's Heller's descendant. He's convinced other Hellerites to move back into Gotham, only incidentally causing riots. Dr. Thirteen is right, there's nothing to his talk of curses. EXCEPT DR. THIRTEEN IS DEAD WRONG. Fake Heller's delusions have angered the spirit of Josiah Heller a lot more than Gotham ever did, so to get release, it's making the curses come true! Evil Dick Grayson that can make fire jet out of the ground is only the beginning. As the bricks start flying, Batman must break the psychic link by making faux-Heller realize who he really is. Or punch him out. The Hellerite crowd then goes back to the desert, having found out that their anti-crime, anti-vice, anti-technology values are not well served by squatting in Gotham City high rises. +6 bat-pointsOdds vs. Ends
From Marvel Two-in-One:
-For most of the issue, Mantlo tells two parallel stories with a distinctive parallel panel structure.
+2 points-Having Monk and Renny in it is all well and good, but the real guest-star here has to be Monk's prize pig Habeus Corpus!
If only he would have seen more action. +2 pointsFrom Brave and the Bold:
-You gotta love how Commissioner Gordon embraces vigilantism:
"I don't want to violate their rights! But if you want to do it, I'll be looking in that other direction right over there!" +2 bat-pointsFarewells and Scoring
With the Thing, it's important to have an Unfriendly Farewell, and though Doc Savage isn't exactly antagonistic (there's a bond between orange characters), he still leaves without giving Ben an autograph.
And he was one of his personal heroes too. +2 pointsBatman's also the victim of a disappearing act, but he can't hold that against the Phantom Stranger, and in fact, credits him with far more:
Although... that's not saying much about Gotham City's "heart". +1 bat-pointTwo stories with ancestral threats, but only one can come out the winner. After a final tally, it's Doc Savage 19, Phantom Stranger... 14! The Thing actually banks another point, bringing his cumulative score to 2-0 against the Batman! Might he actually have a chance this time? Stay tuned for more!
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