Marvel Two-in-One 58

Marvel Two-in-One 58
Dec 1979

The Pegasus Project
Part Six: To the Nth Power!
Story by Mark Gruenwald and Ralph Macchio
Art by George Perez and Gene Day

Klaw is about to kill the Thing when Wundarr shows up. His appearance has changed and he doesn't seem as child like in terms of his personality as he once did. He now calls himself the Aquarian. He helps Ben take Giant-Man and Quasar to the infirmary.

They aren't there long because there is a new problem to deal with. Nth Man, aka Dr. Tom Lightener, is trying to destroy Project Pegasus. All systems get shut down including life support and the ones powering the cell in which Thundra is locked. The Thing and the Aquarian can't contain Nth Man by themselves but they are soon joined by Quasar, Giant-Man, and Thundra.

The five combine forces but are still unable to stop Nth Man. Giant-Man volunteers to allow himself to get sucked into the black hole like being that Nth Man has become. He hopes to disrupt Nth Man's powers once he's on the inside by growing as large as he can. The others object but Giant-Man insists because he is dying of radiation poisoning. He goes through with his plan but it doesn't work.

The others form a human chain. The Aquarian is on the end of the chain and allows himself to get sucked into Nth Man. He locates and pulls Giant-Man out. The Aquarian's entropy inducing field messes with Nth Man's powers. The villain is destroyed after the Aquarian and Giant-Man are successfully recovered from within Nth Man.

The day is saved. Charges are dropped against Thundra. The villain behind it all, the smoking man is revealed to be a faceless executive of Roxxon Corporation.

Thoughts

Giant-Man makes several more appearances in Marvel Two-in-One (67, 76, 81-85, 96). His battle with radiation poisoning continues to be an issue. He is a supporting character in all of those issues and never again "the" guest star. Marvel Two-in-One 85 (Mar 1982) is titled The Final Fate of Giant-Man. He made two appearances in the Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe (1983). He appears in the appendix to issue 5 (May 1983) as Giant-Man II and then in issue 13 (Feb 1984; Book of the Dead and Inactive I) he gets a full page. His status is listed as inactive.

Thundra (64, 65, 67) and Quasar (67, 73, 74) make a few more appearances in Marvel Two-in-One . Quasar is "the" guest star in issue 73.

This is not a great story or required reading but I enjoyed it. I probably would have enjoyed it more if I had read it when it first came out or soon thereafter.