COMIC BOOK REVIEW: Marvel 2-in-One #7 'Mad Ben: Beyond Thunderdome'

MARVEL 2-IN-ONE #7
Writer: Chip Zdarsky
Penciler: Ramon K. Perez
Inker: Ramon K. Perez
Colorist: Federico Blee
Publisher: Marvel Comics

Marvel and its fans—and comic book fans in general—love a story that casts familiar characters in a different light by traveling to alternate realities where their histories and lives went down roads not taken or in unfamiliar directions. The current Marvel 2-in-One series has been trading heavily on the popularity of such stories. So…here’s yet another.

What You Need to Know:

The “search” for the Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Woman of the main Marvel Universe—who are “understood” to be dead—continues under false pretenses. This time it leads the Thing, the Torch, Doom, and Rachna to yet another world where the history of Marvel Earth as we know it has gone radically off the beam—and the explicit laying out of people’s motives will come to no good for anyone.

What You’ll Find Out:

Dr. Doom and the Thing both “know” that Reed and Sue Richards—the ones belonging to the main, regular Marvel Comics universe—are no more. We who are aware that there is a new Fantastic Four #1 coming in August know better, but as far as Ben Grimm and Victor Von Doom know, the Richardses are gone. Further, Doom knows that Ben is just leading the Human Torch from world to world looking for his sister and his brother-in-law to keep up the Torch’s morale in light of his and Ben’s fading powers. And further yet, Doom knows that Rachna is just pretending to use Reed’s Multisect technology to track down “our” Reed and Sue in whatever universe they’re ensconced; Rachna has some other, real goal of her own that she’s not telling. All those cards are on the table between Ben and Doom as their little search party visits another Earth where the familiar Marvel world has become anything but familiar.

In this world, the super-hero Civil War became an apocalypse and a psychotic Spider-Man and a decadent Dr. Strange took over. To entertain the rabble of disaster refugees that they rule, Spidey and Strange have created a gladiatorial arena where any number of grotesque or desperate combatants engage in battles to the death. Using Strange’s magic to corrode Doom’s armor and “dis-enchant” him, they capture our universe-hoppers and send them to do battle in the arena.

Meanwhile, back on the main Marvel Earth, Rachna’s home has some intruders in her absence. Remember that subplot from a few issues ago about the even madder Mad Thinker and his scheme to create his own Fantastic Four in lieu of the real one? As the Thinker once helped himself to some of Reed Richards’s technology to create his Awesome Android (Fantastic Four #15), his new plan seems to be to do the same with Rachna’s tech to empower his all-new FF! Score another one for Chip Zdarsky, our writer.

Anyway, back to Thunderdome—or “Battleworld,” as the psycho Spider-Man is so unoriginally calling it. There’s a giant combatant called Disha, who gets speared through the neck by Doom. And who is Disha, you may ask? She is this world’s counterpart of the comatose woman that Rachna was visiting a few issues ago—Rachna’s brain-dead sister! Rachna has been searching the multiverse not for Reed and Sue Richards, but for a new body into which to transfer her sister’s stored memories and consciousness! Doom has just slain a potential host for Rachna’s sister’s mind. And to get them all out of their immediate mess, he uses the Ovoid trick again to seize control of Edwin Jarvis, the Avengers’ butler, who’s been serving the insane Spider-Man and the twisted Strange since the apocalypse. Under Doom’s control, Jarvis slits Strange’s throat, releasing the mage’s hold over Doom’s magical powers and enabling our foursome to escape. This turns out to be not as good a thing as you’d think, because once outside of “Battleworld,” Rachna bolts and turns on the Multisect again, and Doom chases after her. They both disappear into the resulting dimension warp, leaving a disgusted and demoralized Thing and a bewildered Torch stranded in a hostile world.

What Just Happened?

As I thought when reading the Marvel 2-in-One Annual a couple of weeks ago, I’m getting the feeling that what we’re reading in this mag since the conclusion of the opening storyline is marking time for the return of The Fantastic Four in August. However, I found this issue of the regular book a bit more enjoyable than I did the Annual, and that’s because of the improvement in the art. Yet another new artist has come on board, and while Ramon K. Perez is no Jim Cheung, he is at least a better fit for this book than Declan Shalvey, who drew the Annual. I think Marvel is going to have to start giving its new artists classes in how to draw the Thing, as Ramon Perez is not quite getting Ben’s look down; however, that may be the effect of the deterioration of Ben’s powers, and his physical appearance with them, as much as the ability of the artist to draw a proper Thing. So we can at least partly reserve judgment about that.

Meanwhile, Doom is still running true to form, taking his familiar attitude of superiority while trying to act as if he were a hero. He has appointed himself to the task of helping the Thing and the Torch—formerly his mortal enemies—because without him, in his judgment, they’d be dead for sure. He’s imposing his protection on them for their own good and doesn’t much care what he has to do, including taking lives, to keep them “safe.” Anyone and anything is expendable in the pursuit of Doom’s goals, even now he’s assuming the position of “the good guy.” Such is the skill of Zdarsky’s writing that whether he’s evil or ambiguous, Doom is still the same guy we’ve known all these years, either flatly hating him or loving to hate him. It’s a testament to the character that Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created back in 1962 that the more Doom changes, the more he remains the same.

Rating: 8/10
Final Thought: Now that the introductory story for the new Marvel 2-in-One is over (as of last issue), this universe-hopping business is diverting, but it will be much more interesting when Ben and Johnny return to the prime Marvel Earth and catch up with what’s going on over there, especially the Mad Thinker’s all-new Fantastic Four. Who or what will these characters be, and what kind of trouble will they cause for our heroes? And what happens to Doom when he is confronted by “his”—and “our”—Reed Richards once again? There’s a lot of fun yet to be had when this book is finished being the comic-book equivalent of the TV series Sliders. And please, if Jim Cheung is no longer available and Valerio Schiti is now working on something else, can we please get one artist who is compatible with the style and sensibility of The Fantastic Four to take over this book regularly? Ramon K. Perez shows a bit of promise, at least. Let’s see what he can do in the main Marvel Universe with the Thing and the Torch a little more the way we’ve been accustomed to seeing them. Marvel 2-in-One, which started so auspiciously, still has the potential to be one of Marvel’s better current comics.