Clobberin' Time?:
     No serious fights in issue 1, but when Ben meets Doom he does say "start talkin' before I start clobberin'!" which is the closest we get.
     Issue 2, after Doom intervenes in the Mole Man and Googam fight, Ben angrily turns on him: "You - I knew it! Ya ain't no hero! Ya followed us here ta get Reed's invention, didn't ya?" Doom tries to reply, and Ben interrupts "Shut yer yap! It's Clobberin'.." only to be interrupted in turn as Doom blasts him.
     No clobbering in issues 3 or 6.
     Issue 4, Ben faces off against an alternate-universe She-Hulk: "I don't know if you got clocks in this universe or not... but It's Clobberin' Time!"
     We finally get the classic full-page "It's Clobberin' Time" in issue 5 as Ben jumps off the roof of the Baxter Building onto a Herald of Doom. Nicely inspirational moment, as the other heroes are semi-awestruck to see the FF back in action.
     

Petunia's Patch:
     No Petunia through five issues. John Byrne kind of "broke" the Petunia jokes when he had her actually appear in Fantastic Four 238-239 way back in the early 1980s (and then Mark Millar had her apparently killed in the late '00s in FF #568, though Fantastic Four #5, Ben and Alicia's wedding issue, in 2018/2019 will later reveal her to be still alive), so I wouldn't expect many Petunia mentions.
     We do get a Petunia mention in issue 6, when Ben steps out of the Galactus-level fight. "Time for me to skedaddle. Aunt Petunia's favorite nephew knows when a fight's outta his league."

Things of Interest:
     I'll not be doing individual page reviews here for each issue, but maybe one page per six-issue story arc
      In June 2017, Marvel announced this new iteration of Marvel Two-in-One as part of their "Marvel Legacy" promotions. These two images were released, the left informally, the right formally. The left pair are a tribute to and the cover of The Thing (2005) #1, which they apparently chose not to use save as a teaser. The pair on the right, which they did choose, is an Edgar Delgado homage and the original cover of Fantastic Four #159. One variant cover for the first issue was a lenticular featuring both the Delgado cover and the FF cover it homaged.

     Okay, an only slightly serious complaint... with the "Marvel Legacy" promotion theme renumbering old series right and left as this was released, shouldn't they have just numbered this issue as Marvel Two-in-One #101?
     So... not really a Two-in-One / Team-Up book, but rather just a Human Torch / Thing book. They actually did that in the 1960s with Strange Tales 116-134 or so; maybe they should have more accurately titled this book Strange Tales instead of MTIO. I imagine you'll understand my disappointment at this, but I'll happily read a Ben Grimm book any day of the week. It seems worth noting here that in August 2018 (between M2iO issues 8 and 9) Marvel published "The Human Torch & The Thing: Strange Tales - The Complete Collection," which compiled all the aforementioned 1960s Thing/Torch Strange Tales stories. These had previously been collected, though in black and white, in the "Essential Human Torch" volume.

     By the indicia, this is technically Marvel 2-in-One, not volume 3 of Marvel Two-in-One. So, the abbreviation for this series will be M2iO, as opposed to the original series, MTIO. Though it has no presence on this website, there was indeed a volume 2 of Marvel Two-in-One. It ran 17 issues from (by cover date) Sept. 2007 to Jan. 2009, but each issue just reprinted two younger-skewing stories - a Marvel Adventures The Avengers story (issues 1-17), and one of either X-Men First Class (vol. 1 issues 1-8 and vol. 2 issues 1-4) or Marvel Adventures Iron Man (issues 1-5). Confusingly, there also was a Marvel Adventures Two-in-One, which ran pretty much at the same time, 21 issues from Sept. 2007 to May 2009, as part of the Marvel Adventures kids' line. Each issue there also just reprinted a Marvel Adventures Spider-Man issue (issues 27-47) plus either a Marvel Adventures Hulk (issues 1-4, 6-11) or a Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four (issues 23-33) issue. And though no one will confuse either with MTIO, this is as good a place as any to give a hat tip to a pair of non-Marvel comics which homaged the name: 1) Fantagraphics' Hip Hop Family Tree Two-in-One, which was a 2014 Free Comic Book Day giveaway; and 2) an Image Comics 2001 "24 hour comic book" one-shot, Image Two-in-One.

     Issue 1:
     The official first issue solicit, as released on Sept 13, 2017: "The Four are no more, so two must do! Something is very wrong with the Human Torch and only the Thing can help him! It’s the Marvel Universe reunion you’ve all been waiting for (well, half of it, at least!). Plus: What monumental secret has Doom been hiding since the end of Secret Wars, and how will it completely change the lives of Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm?" The book was initially scheduled for a Dec. 13, 2017 release, but actually came out one week later on December 20th.
     As if the two "official" first issue covers (the main cover and the lenticular variant mentioned and seen above) weren't enough, Marvel also went with _so_ many other variant covers (seen to the right). Row one: the main cover, by Jim Cheung; a variant by Arthur Adams; a Kirby legacy cover; a John Byrne "remaster." Row two: one (front/back) based on 1960s era Jack Kirby t-shirt art, one (again, front/back) a trading card variant by John Tyler Christopher. Row three: an Alex Ross cover; legacy headshot variant by Mike McKone; a Joe Jusko exclusive variant for Sanctum Santorum Comics & Oddities; a Todd Nauck exclusive for POW! Entertainment. So, what, at least eleven different covers in total? C'mon, Marvel, don't you think this is just a _little_ bit of overkill?
     In mid-November, uncolored preview art from one of the pages had a Spidey wisecrack to Ben as follows: "You dunce! I'm here to support you! The world's second most well-known orange monster." The final sentence there, a Donald Trump reference, didn't survive to publication.
     The character of Rachna, introduced on page 5, had an interesting look and vibe. As this issue came out, I couldn't tell if this was the writer setting something up, or just giving a friend a cameo. We will see her again in issue 3, and much of the rest of the series.
     Page 1, panel 1, during a car race, the order of the drivers is given as Jordan in first, followed by Evans and Underwood. Those are the three actors who've played Johnny Storm in live-action movies: Michael Jordan, Chris Evans, Jay Underwood.
     Ben's reading glasses on page 2 were a new thing and unexpected; I found them charming but, as you might guess from my having grown up on the original MTIO (1973-1983), I'm reading glasses age myself by the time this book is being published. I suspect they'll eventually vanish as Marvel seems to want to keep everyone young, but for now I'm charmed by them.
     Piledriver, the bruiser Spider-Man is fighting and who Ben takes out with one punch, is pretty much Marvel's prime example of an orc, a personality-less cannon fodder you throw in when you want a quick fight. I suspect the Wrecking Crew are permanently ruined as effective villains by this point.
     Marvel Value Stamp! The original run of MTIO had the MVSs in issues 2-7 and 12-15, so this is a timely throwback. This issue has #6, the Black Panther.
     As part of the "Marvel Legacy" promotion, the issue includes a three-page history of the Fantastic Four at the back. This was done by Robbie Thompson (writer), Greg Land (penciler), Jay Leisten (inker), Frank D'Armata (colorist), Joe Caramagna (letterer), and Darren Shan (editor).

     Issue 2:
     I assume that no one missed that the main cover to issue 2 is an homage/pastiche of the cover to issue 1 of the original Fantastic Four book? There was a mere one alternate cover this time, an Avengers variant by Gabriele Dell’Otto.
     I don't think Giganto (the monster on the cover, originally from Fantastic Four #1) really appears - his apparent appearances inside never move, and appear to really be just a rock formation carved to look like him.
     There is a real Lord Kelvin Prize, but it's an international award offered since 1994 by the Institute of Physics for excellence in outreach. Since a) this is a campus award, for theoretical physics, and since b) Victor's "Time's Trick Arrow" paper is clearly not outreach, this is a very different award! As an aside, I assume Ben's calling it the "Prince Kevin Award" is him intentionally disparaging Victor's win. Interesting that Victor's paper sets up his future "big invention," while Reed's paper on eternal chaotic inflation doesn't seem to relate to his many future works.
     Victor Von Doof is cute, but kind of seems a trifle uninspired ("juvenile," in Ben's own words) even for a college-age Ben.
     Before anyone even goes there - "Professor Cho" is not Amadeus Cho's father Philip.

     Issue 3:
     An artist change already in just this third issue, as Jim Cheung has been replaced by Valerio Schiti. There was initially just one alternate cover, a Hulk variant by Mike Hawthorne. A second variant, a Young Guns cover by Mike Del Mundo, followed. A fourth cover apparently came about for the second printing of the book, drawn from the initial splash page (both previous issues had received second printings, but the cover was the same as the main cover for both).
     I love Ben's UCWF t-shirt in the Hercules scenes - nice callback to the original The Thing series.
     We also get a nice intro to Rachna Koul, after her issue 1 cameo. Clearly semi-sinister, but a nice vibe to her none the less, though maybe just a tad too angry, bitter, and self-centered.
     The final page Wolverine cameo is part of a "Where is Wolverine?" promotion Marvel was running across numerous books, trying to mimic the "after the credits" scenes from the Marvel movies. Really, it just comes across here as both random and pointless.
     Doom is calling the Thinker "Julius" here, as he did in Brian Michael Bendis's Infamous Iron Man 2. I'm not aware of any evidence this is his real name, and suspect that was Bendis either trying to run a joke based on a moderately obscure DJ, or honestly confusing the two (I know, but he's notoriously made equally bad information-search errors before). In either case, a real name for the Thinker lessens the character's impact, so I'm arguing here that it should not be accepted without evidence, for whatever little that is worth.
     There's a decent amount of Thinker here in service of the Doom storyline, and then a lovely sinister set-up at the end. And then he doesn't appear again in at least the next three issues. I can't tell if this was an FF set-up, or just awkward timing/planning here. He eventually shows up again in issue 7, but even at modern "decompressed" pacing that's a long-time to let a subplot/set-up lie untouched.
     Fun points for the cover layout people for placing the various barcode and other boxes in such a way that they're spiraling into the cover whirlpool.

     Issue 4:
     No alternate covers, yay!
     Unfortunately, to my mind, this is where the series starts to go off the rails. After being told that we would be seeing where Ben and Johnny fit in the universe after so long with no FF and with Reed, Sue, and the children gone, we apparently learn that their fit in the universe is to leave the universe. Sigh. Cue the remainder of the series being alternate universe travels, e.g. "no impact on anything."
     Hmm - odd supporting factoid to the above note - in compiling "clobberin time"s above, I've now realized that Ben can't even manage his classic catch phrase until he leaves the universe. Kind of says something about where the pair of Ben and Johnny "fits" within the Marvel universe anymore.
     We do get a nice bit with Rachna and her sister that indicates her own particular road to Hell may be paved with good intentions.
     I am... conflicted on the repeated Doomishness of it all. We've had the "Infamous Iron Man" Doom popping up in prior issues, and now it appears the main bad guy of this story will be a Galactus-level Doom. I've never enjoyed the Ben-Doom interactions - it doesn't seem to make either of them look good. At least Reed-Doom conflicts tend to have some interesting heft and history to them, but Ben and Victor both look childish facing each other.
     The Galactus Doom seems a bit too much on the Secret Wars (classic flavor) Doom nose, as well as paralleling the Reed-Doom contrast from Secret Wars (new flavor). All of which seems kind of out of Ben and Johnny's solo league.
     ... And, on March 29th (between issues 4 and 5), they announced the return of the Fantastic Four book (Dan Slott writing, Sara Picheli art), and that M2iO would continue beside it. I was strongly crossing fingers for it moving to "Ben and ???" status instead of always being Ben and Johnny. Spoilers: didn't work out well for me. :(

     Issue 5:
     One alternate cover, Venom, by artist Dave Johnson. I confess, I am really liking the way Ben is drawn on the regular covers for issues 4 and 5, which appears to be Nick Bradshaw's work.
     So, we have despairing frazzled Reed, indicated by long hair. And bitter, scornful Sue. I get it, this particular universe has had it bad, but it is just a downer to read this book. I do like the HERBIE appearance, though!
     I do like the out-of-the-blue romantic pairing of Norrin Radd and Emma Frost at the end. I imagine she was necessary for the plot (how else do you make Norrin believe it is really Ben and Johnny), but somehow I can see, or at least like to see, the pairing working.





     Issue 6:
     Jim Cheung is back on art, I see; he previously did issues 1-2. Deadpool variant cover by Gerald Parel.
     I was fairly strongly willing to bet at the time this issue was announced, having read just three issues and seen the solicits for three more, that when the next solicits rolled around we would discover that M2iO was done, canceled in favor of a new Fantastic Four book. I was, however, quite happy to be proven wrong!
     I feel obliged to note that, counter to the arc title, "the Fate of the Four" was not revealed here, nor was it really even touched on in the first six issues, other than Ms. Koul's unreliable statements and Reed's obviously wrong statement at the end. I kind of assume that Mr. Zdarsky's plans were derailed/altered by the timing of the forthcoming new FF book.
     Okay, there's a bit of Ben joy to this issue - Pym-particled Ben is particularly fun and lovely. The happy ending for Norrin and Emma at the end is heartwarming, and Reed's final words are the first time in the last three issues that our real plot is going to advance, even if just a tic. Definitely a step up from issue 5.



     These six issues were published as a trade paperback not too much later (the cover is the main image for this page): Marvel 2-in-One Vol. 1: Fate of the Four TPB.