Marvel Two-in-One 48

Marvel Two-in-One 48
Featuring The Thing and Jack of Hearts
Feb 1979

My Master, Machinesmith!
By Bill Mantlo, Chic Stone, Tax Blaisdell

Jack of Hearts gets lured to a ship on Pier 9. The Machinesmith’s robots attack. They are just the appetizer. The main course is the Thing who is being mentally controlled by Machinesmith. The fight ends once Jack of Hearts blasts the Thing after he figures that the Thing must also be a robot.

Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit 3.2

Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit Vol 2
By Motoro Mase

Episode 3: The Pure Love Drug

Act 2

Kazusa’s landlord finds out about the Ikigami and calls Katsumura. Kazusa has about 17 hours left at the time Katsumura gets the news. He dithers a bit before calling her.

Kazusa picks up but their conversation does not go well. Kazusa ends the call by hanging up on him. She’s still angry at him. She tells him to keep working and not worry about her. Katsumura is torn but for a while he continues to work.

Brave and the Bold 182

Brave and the Bold 182
Jan 1982

Interlude on Earth Two
By Alan Brennert, Jim Aparo

In the midst of a storm Batman is hit by lighting and transported to Earth 2. There he meets and teams up with Robin and Batwoman. Dr. Hugo Strange has come back from the dead and stolen Starman’s cosmic rod. He is using it an attempt to destroy Gotham. Starman is in the hospital. It is up to the trio of super-powerless heroes to locate and defeat the villain.

Marvel Two-in-One 47

Marvel Two-in-One 47
featuring The Thing and the Yancy Street Gang
Jan 1979

Happy Deathday, Mister Grimm!
By Bill Mantlo, Chic Stone

It’s the Thing’s birthday. He starts by celebrating with Fantastic Four teammates. He gets a package which explodes and a message from the Yancy Street Gang warning him to stay away from Yancy Street. He ignores the warning and heads for Yancy Street, alone.

Batman/Huntress: Cry for Blood 2

Batman/Huntress: Cry for Blood 2
Jul 2000

Cry for Blood (Part 2)
By Greg Rucka, Rick Burchett

Helena’s talks to the Question after she almost hits him with her car. He talks cryptically but doesn’t seem to say much. She gets back into her car and leaves once she realizes this.

Nightwing visits Helena in her apartment. He wants to help her but she doesn’t want his help. She’s preparing dinner but doesn’t invite him to stick around.

Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit 3.1

Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit Vol 2
By Motoro Mase

Episode 3: The Pure Love Drug

Act 1

Fujimoto’s girlfriend breaks up with him. She can’t stand what his job does to him, how he walls himself off from her emotionally. He warns her about being too open with her feelings about his job. If he reported her she could get sent to a re-education center or maybe even executed by lethal injection.

The Uncanny X-Men and the New Teen Titans

The Uncanny X-Men and the New Teen Titans
1982

Apokolips... Now.
By Chris Claremont, Walt Simonson, Terry Austin

This story breaks down nicely into several scenes. Here's what how I broke it down.

Batman/Huntress: Cry for Blood 1

Batman/Huntress: Cry for Blood 1
Jun 2000

Cry for Blood (Part 1)
By Greg Rucka, Rick Burchett

The Huntress, aka Helena Bertinelli, is framed for murder. The victim is her cousin, Claudio Panessa. Batman confronts Helena about the murder of Claudio. The primary piece of evidence that links her to her cousin’s murder is the murder weapon, a bolt from a crossbow.

This chapter digs into Helena’s family history. She narrates the story of her ancestors. She explains how they came to be part of Gotham’s underworld, one of the five families, and about the bad blood among the families. Her parents and brother were murdered by one of the other families but she was spared. To this day she wonders why. She was taken in by the Panessa’s, a renegade family, not one of the five. Helena’s mother was a Panessa but, as Helena describes it, her mother was the only good thing to come out of that family.

Kurt Busiek’s Astro City (1996) 3

Kurt Busiek’s Astro City (1996) 3
Nov 1996

Adventures in Other Worlds
By Kurt Busiek and Brent Anderson

Astra goes AWOL. Astra wants to learn about hopscotch. She goes to a school where she sees other girls playing hopscotch. In order to fit in she uses her powers to make a disguise. She probably isn’t there more more than a few days.

Astra’s parents and the rest of the First Family are worried sick when they discover that she is missing. They travel all over the Earth and to various dimensions looking for her, without success. They meet old friends and foes while they search.

Alias (2001) 28

Alias (2001) 28
Jan 2004

Purple (Part 5 of 5)
By Brian Michael Bendis, Michael Gaydos

Jessica discovers that Scott isn’t really dead. It is Killgrave, the Purple Man, messing with her mind. He tells her about what he plans to do as they walk through Manhattan. He causes the people all around them to beat each other to death.

Jean Gray telepathically projects herself into Jessica’s mind. She gives Jessica what she needs to resist Killgrave’s commands. The Avengers show up. Killgrave orders Jessica to kill one of them. Jessica doesn’t hesitate for long before punching Killgrave with all she’s got. He looks dead when she’s done with him.

New Teen Titans (1980) 31

New Teen Titans (1980) 31
May 1983

Inferno!
By Marv Wolfman, George Perez, Romeo Tanghal

The Brotherhood of Evil tortures Raven. The Brain is convinced that she knows the secrets of Brother Blood. It all goes back to New Teen Titans (1980) 22 when she tried enveloping Brother Blood in her soul self. How the Brain knows about that is unclear. Maybe he read that issue.

The rest of the Titans (plus Frances Kane) rush to Zandia to rescue their teammate. They know she is there based on Wally’s experience when he accidentally went speeding through one of Warp’s dimensional portals in the previous issue.