Thing & She-Hulk: The Long Night #1: The Long Night


Writer: Todd Dezago
Penciller: Bryan Hitch (pages 1-25) & Paul Neary (pages 26-39)
Inker: Ivan Reis (pages 1-25) & Randy Emberlin (pages 26-39)
Letterer: Randy Gentile
Colorist: Paul Mounts
Editor: Jaye Gardner & Tom Brevoort

The Stars:
      the Thing and the She-Hulk

The Villain:
      Roxxon; some vampires

Guest Shots:
      Dragon Man

The Set Up:
      Deep beneath New York City, a subterranean Roxxon lab is doing research, using the sedated Dragon Man as a guinea pig. The goal is to learn how to make an army of synthetic beings for the corporation.
     A little further up, Ben is taking the subway cross-town, and ends up being hassled by some thugs who don't know any better to pick on a huge six foot guy in a trench coat. The situation is quickly resolved, and Ben's on the subway train in short order.
     Elsewhere, She-Hulk (also known as Jennifer Walters) is also taking a subway, and also gets hassled, this time by your basic male chauvinist pigs who don't know better than to hassle hugely muscled six foot seven inch green women. Go figure. This situation is also quickly resolved, and her train is quickly moving.
     Even further below NYC than the Roxxon lab, we find a cult of vampires, who have decided to raid the surface world tonight. For some reason, they need to dynamite their way to the surface.
     With the explosion of the dynamite, we find the Roxxon lab collapsing (freeing Dragon Man), as are both subway tunnels that our heroes are currently in. Chaos ensues...

Clobberin' Time?:
      Page 8, panel 3. Ben takes care of the subway thugs, and our narrator fills in the rest:
     Ben: "You skels know what time it is?"
     Thug: "Uh oh."
     Narrator: "(Here's a hint: starts with 'C,' ends in 'IN' and has a 'LOBBER' in the middle...)"

Petunia's Patch:
      Page 17, as Ben tries to clear the subway train. "Okay, everybody-- don't panic, we'll have ya outta here faster'n you can say 'my sweet Aunt Petunia.'"

Things of Interest:
      This was a double-sized one-shot, published in May of 2002, many years after MTIO ended. As it was very definately a Thing team-up issue, I went ahead and included it here. I have to admit, I had some high hopes for this being high quality, selling well, and leading us to a revival of Marvel Two-in-One...
     Roxxon was a ongoing villainous corporation in MTIO. They were behind most of the troubles Project Pegasus had, and were responsible for the "new" Serpent Squad as well.
     Okay, your editor's two cents on the issue- I was looking forward to this when it was released, but its just a bit too much. There's just a few too many coincidences involved in getting Ben, Jen, Dragon Man, Roxxon, and a swarm of vampires with dynamite all in the same place. Once you get all the pieces rolling, it works and kind of makes sense, but the start was just too random for me to every appreciate this. The artwork is very nice, however.
     I did like the She-Hulk refusing to be "exploited" in order to catch Dragon Man. It was a very cute scene. Based on Jen's past appearances, however, she'd be about the one woman in the Marvel Universe who seems to me like she _wouldn't_ be offended by that! And as an overly geeky aside (though I've put up well over 100 individual web pages dedicated to a comic that hasn't been published since the 70s-80s, so I think geekiness is probably assumed), I was recently rereading some Fantastic Four issues, and in 321, She-Hulk meets Dragon Man and ultimately defeats him by vamping him. I guess I can't blame the writer/editor though, if I'd forgotten it too!