Marvel Two-In-One #12: Review

Nov 1975

Bill Mantlo, Ron Wilson

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Story Name:

The Stalker in the Sands

Review & Comments

Rating:

Marvel Two-In-One #12 Review by T Vernon (April 29, 2023)

Comments: Story set at a time when Iron Man’s helmet had a nose. Prester John is based on a Medieval legend of a European King ruling over a Nestorian Christian kingdom in the Middle East who came to the aid of Richard the Lion-Hearted during the Crusades. His first appearance in the modern Marvel era was in FANTASTIC FOUR #54 (cited here); his second appearance was DEFENDERS #11 but that was a time travel piece. This is his next contemporary appearance. Later, he shows up often in CABLE AND DEADPOOL of all places. Only appearance of the Stone of Power. Thing refers to then-New York City Mayor Abe Beame (in office 1974-1977) and the City’s subway system. First issue drawn by Ron Wilson who would draw more issues of MTIO than any other artist. “Special thanks to Barry Lahm for help and enthusiasm”—Page one. The letters column includes one by future comics writer Robert Rodi and one by future comics artist Ken Johnston.

Review: Thing and Iron Man meet a Medieval legend, which turns out to be no big deal. Prester John looks impressive and the magic stone gives him phenomenal powers but the battle is fairly brief and the crazed knight is defeated in the most prosaic way (un)imaginable: taking the stone away. Then everything is cool again. Well, that was easy. Prester John would be treated a bit better over the years but here he’s just a generic villain with magical powers. The big question is how and why Tony Stark could launch a spaceship with only one employee assisting him, an employee who vanishes after the first few pages. Let’s assume the huge team we didn’t see was off searching for Ben since Tony never told them that Ben was probably in the hole. We’re adding half a star since Ron Wilson’s art does look really nice.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Marvel Two-In-One #12 Synopsis by T Vernon

In Israel’s Negev Desert, Tony Stark is planning the test launch of a spacecraft called Pattycake One, piloted by Ben “The Thing” Grimm, the man most likely to walk away from an accident. Because of the heat exhaust, the ship is being fired from a silo. The firing button is pushed, the ship takes off—but there’s no sign of it on the radar. Tony initiates a search….

But there was a cavern beneath the silo and the ship crashed through to the underground. Ben pulls himself from the wreckage, grumbling. He spies a light ahead in the cave and goes to investigate and receives a shock….

Deducing that the ship must have gone down, Iron Man flies into the silo and discovers Ben on his knees before a strange knight calling himself Prester John. John assumes Thing and Iron Man are some sort of demons and he wields his Stone of Power to force Shellhead to his knees beside Ben. Prester John clues them in on his history: he was a knight of King Richard I and slept in a cavern for seven hundred years until he was awakened by the Human Torch and Wyatt Wingfoot. John then wandered and was taken for a god by a tribe of Bedouins who presented him with their sacred Stone of Power. The Stone made him think he really was the god-creator of all things so the Stone wiped out the tribe by opening the ground beneath them but Prester John fell in too. The two heroes’ arrival wakened him and now he is leaving to claim the outer world which belongs to him. Iron Man suspects a shock to the nervous system could free them so he blasts Ben in the head with a repulsor ray; Ben gets up and responds by punching Iron Man in the head. Thus freed, they pursue Prester John….

At the Pattycake One test site, Thing and Iron Man battle John whose strength as well as his madness are greatly enhanced by the Stone. In the fracas, Ben yanks the Stone of Power from about his foe’s neck and hurls it into the distance where it disappears. Prester John is instantly released from his delusions and asks to join his two rescuers in a quest for a meal….

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