Before the Fantastic Four - Ben Grimm and Logan. #1: Mission to Nowhere. #2: Midnight Train to Moscow. #3: Conecting Flight.
Writer: Larry Hama
Penciller: Kaare Andrews
Inker: Walden Wong
Letterer: Kevin Somers
Colorist: RS/Comicraft/OG
Editor: Bobbie Chase
The Guest Star:
Logan
The Villains:
Colonel Malenky; Natalia Shostakov; Inspector General Berenski from the Central Committee
Guest Shots:
Carol Danvers (1-3); Nick Fury (1-2); Tony Stark (1-2)
The Set Up:
Issue 1: Test pilot Ben Grimm joyfully buzzes a driver off the road with his jet, and the driver (Logan) follows the jet to a military base and begins a brawl. The two men are placed in the brig until Colonel Nick Fury retrieves them - he needs Ben, as an experimental jet pilot, and Logan, as a spy type, for a "suicide mission" into Russia. After a tech intro from Tony Stark, the pair are joined by Department of Defense agent Carol Danvers, who is going along. Once in the air and approaching Russia, the trio are sighted and attacked by Russian planes.
Issue 2: Despite discovering that their plane is unarmed, Grimm manages to get the plane to the ground. Ben and Logan are captured, allowing Carol to escape. Logan and Ben are conveniently placed on a train transport that is also carrying Russian technology that Logan had secretly been assigned to steal, so the pair escape. Meanwhile, Carol steals a Russian plane herself.
Issue 3: Ben and Logan join Carol in the air, and a climactic and chaotic free-for-all dogfight begins.
Clobberin' Time?:
One per issue!
Issue 1, story page 9. After brawling with each other, Logan and Grimm are locked together in the base brig with a few locals. When Logan disrespects them and starts a brawl, Ben joins in with a full-throated "Now you've done it... it's clobberin' time!"
Issue 2, story page 9. Surrounded by Russians, Logan and Grimm debate what to do. L: "The logical thing to do is surrender." BG: You think?" L: Naah." BG: "I thought so. It's clobberin' time!"
Issue 3, last story page. After Logan reveals that their mission isn't finished, Ben reacts violently - "That tears it! I've said it before, and I'll say it again - it's clobberin' time!"
Petunia's Patch:
No Petunia in these three issues.
Things of Interest:
This is one of three "Before the Fantastic Four" miniseries released in the year 2000 (this one is dated July, August, and September). Reed Richards got one, and the other was titled "The Storms." As Ben didn't figure into either, no further mention of them here, but they're fun and worth tracking down, particularly this one and Reed's.
If it's not incredibly obvious from the "Before the Fantastic Four" title, this is a flashback issue, taking place before the various characters involved became costumed heroes. Major Ben Grimm (later the Thing) is a Marine pilot test-flying a plane at Nellis AFB in Nevada. Logan (later Wolverine) is a Canadian intelligance agent, of whom little more is revealed (though he did have adamantium claws in this timeframe, he never uses them in this series). Carol Danvers (later Ms. Marvel / Captain Marvel) claims to be with the Department of Defense, though Logan believes her to be with the Defense Intelligence Agency. Natalia Shostakova (married name of Natalia Romanova, a.k.a. the Black Widow) is working for the KGB. Tony Stark (later Iron Man) is present as a military contracter.
They do a nice job of nodding to the previous encounters between the characters. Grimm had once flown Logan from Ottawa to Washington D.C. (Wolverine -1). Logan has previously worked with both Fury and Danvers (Wolverine -1 and then Logan: Shadow Society in this era, among other places). Logan even met Natalia while she was very young (X-Men 268) and then briefly crossed paths with her in Wolverine -1, though he doesn't see her up close here and so she only seems vaguely familiar to him.
The potential flaw here is that when Ben later "first" meets Carol Danvers and Logan out of costume, he appears not to know them. Two possibilities here: It seems unlikely, even though many years have passed between meetings, that he legitimately doesn't recognize them, given that both are using their real names. However, the events of this miniseries are top secret and so in each case both parties might well pretend not to know the other (and in fact, we've never seen this mentioned by any of the participants, ever). That so-called "first" out-of-costume meeting with Ben for each seems to be the poker game shown in Marvel Fanfare 24.
They're setting up a sequel at the end, as Logan reveals that this is just "Phase One" of their mission, and that phase two is the rough part. So far as I'm aware, this has never been addressed - I'd love to see their adventures continue!
The mcguffin that Wolverine is chasing is a small box containing "Project Red Storm." Apparently the box contains an extremely rare metal that Malenky says there are only 20 kgs of in all of Russia. Oscillating filaments of it are being used to operate an ultra-low frequency transmitter, but we never learn how/what/why the point is beyond that. Stark describes it as "more Russian voodoo science experiments." So far as I know, it has never been mentioned since.
This miniseries has apparently been reprinted just once, in a trade paperback titled "Wolverine: Prehistory," which puts together a lot of those pre-X-Men Logan appearances.
I really feel this is something of an overlooked gem, with Ben at his brawly fun happy best. If you're an MTIO fan, this is worth seeking out.
The next/last issues links below will reflect the publication dates (mid-2000) not the dates the story took place in. Consider it a flashback in the middle of these issues, which is what it was.
