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Marvel Two-In-One (1974 series) #19

Bill Mantlo | Sal Buscema

Marvel Two-In-One (1974 series) #19 cover

Story Name:

Claws of the Cougar!


Synopsis

Marvel Two-In-One (1974 series) #19 synopsis by Peter Silvestro
Rating: 4 stars

Ben “the Thing” Grimm is sleeping peacefully in the Baxter Building when Tigra the Were-Woman creeps into his room and wakes him, after a few tries, jars him awake. He is glad that he knocked out the building’s burglar alarm the previous night or she would have been electrocuted on entering. They head to the gym where Thing exercises, wrecking his equipment while Tigra fills him (and the reader) in on her background. She now asks him for help in locating a villain called the Cougar, a renegade member of the Cat People whom she has been tasked with capturing. What makes him dangerous is that he possesses the Null-Bands, which Ben remembers from the FF’s battle with the Tomazooma robot. They are suddenly interrupted by a band of gunmen seeking to take Tigra with them. Ben and Tigra clobber the baddies and discover they had a device designed to track her by her body temperature, courtesy of the Cougar. Ben locks the baddies in an electronic-field cell and head for Reed’s safe. Ben uses a special key that reads his brain waves to enter so they can find a device to track the Null-Bands back to the Cougar….

Meanwhile, the Cougar, in his guise as Curt Rankin, big shot at Conklin Industries, owned by Sheila Conklin, who hired him to save the company. Now Sheila is uneasy about many of the changes made by Conklin but he assures her, his employer and lover, that everything is for the best. After she leaves, Thing and Tigra arrive to confront him but he foresaw this situation and pulls a lever that gasses the two heroes into unconsciousness….

They awaken to find Tigra chained up and Ben stuck in a huge device connecting him to Rankin. The machine is designed to use the Null-Bands to transfer the power of the Thing to the

Cougar, who intends to dominate the humans and the Cat People. He starts the machine and Ben cries out in pain—and then the power goes out. Ben seizes the opportunity to break free and also free Tigra. Rankin transforms into the Cougar and fires a blast from the Null-Bands at Tigra but Ben intervenes, taking the blast himself. The two heroes tussle with the villain whose power exceeds theirs. Cougar snatches up a positive-charge annihilator which will tear their atoms apart while the Null-Bands protect him. Then he is shot down and Sheila Conklin steps forward with a gun. She reveals that she knew Curt Rankin was one of the Cat People and was using him to save her company by making him think he was using her. Then she reveals that she didn’t like how greed was warping Rankin’s brain and so rejected his path….



Characters
Good (or All)
THING
TIGRA


> Marvel Two-In-One (1974 series) comic book info and issue index



Excelsioring your collection:
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Main/1st Story Full Credits

Sal Buscema
Don Heck
Petra Goldberg
Jack Kirby (Cover Penciler)
Frank Giacoia (Cover Inker)
Unknown (Cover Colorist)
Additional Credits
Plot: . Letterer: Karen Mantlo.



Review / Commentaries


Marvel Two-In-One (1974 series) #19 Review by (December 17, 2024)

Review: Tigra, still fairly new, follows the path of many other new and little-known characters by teaming with the Thing in MTIO. At least they don’t start out fighting then teaming to find the real bad guy. Instead, Tigra recruits Ben on her mission to fight the rather uninteresting baddie, the one-shot Cougar (and appropriately it only takes one shot to kill him) armed with a magical strength enhancing McGuffin while still wanting to drain Thing’s power. His nemesis turns out to be his own bad character, scaring Sheila into casually killing him. Nice shot at a moral lesson at the end but it’s all so abrupt. Anyway, for a one issue story it’s appropriately diverting. Nothing more to say. 

Comments: Marvel Chronology Project places this between MARVEL CHILLERS #4 and 5. Sole appearance of Cougar (Curtis Rankin). Blooper: The Null-Bands are called Nega-Bands several times, those being the source of Captain Marvel’s power. The Fantastic Four battled the Tomazooma robot back in FANTASTIC FOUR #80. There’s a reference to the Bay City Rollers, a popular rock band of the 1970s. Gaspar Saladino lettered the first page. 





Thor

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