Siskoid and Ryan Daly’s coverage of Marvel Two-in-One continues with issue #28 (June 1977) by Marv Wolfman, Ron Wilson and John Tartag, starring The Thing and the Sub-Mariner! It’s “In the Power of the Piranha!”.
Listen to the Team-Up below, or subscribe to FW Team-Up on Apple or Spotify!
Relevant images and further credits at: FW Team-Up Supplemental
This podcast is a proud member of the FIRE AND WATER PODCAST NETWORK!
- Visit our WEBSITE: https://fireandwaterpodcast.com/
- Follow us on TWITTER: https://twitter.com/FWPodcasts
- Like our FACEBOOK page: https://www.facebook.com/FWPodcastNetwork
- Use our HASHTAG online: #FWPodcasts
- Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/fwpodcasts
Subscribe via iTunes as part of the FIRE AND WATER PODCAST NETWORK.
And thanks for leaving a comment!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
K I got here’s my team up since sub-marnier is gentlemen when comes to when woman . Let’s have him and cousin get sucked in strange whirl pool that sends them to alternate 90’s Japan and makes them teenagers. Where they meet a group of magical girls (based on sailor moon but here’s the twist there there civilian identities are the are original sailor scouts engilsh names but there the avenger scouts ) and there leader instead of sailor moon is the incredible iron girl who to transform shout to the phrase the future is today and who’s full name is Usagi stark . And the other two mention is rei who is the celestial torch and shout holy flame on to transform and Amy would be would spider woman counter part and shouts web up to chance . And the girls ended up falling for namor the question is well namor want to leave a word will can have his own super powered harem or retun to the people who need him .
Ah, back to 2-in-1. For the issue, I do like the art’s take on Namor. He has that borderline villain look, sometimes brooding, sometimes angry, but all Namor. While the story made him a bit too watered down (get it?!), I enjoyed the artwork a lot.
My own history with Namor is weird. I read his appearance from FF#6 in a Treasury comic first, and then saw the Marvel Super-Heroes cartoon in reruns. Both of those make him seem more on the hero side, because he sides with the FF at the end of that story, and 5-year-old me assumed only good guys could star in a cartoon. Then I saw him in an issue here and there, but nothing consistently, until Stern’s Avengers. In that run, sure he was abrasive, haughty, and a hot head, but so was his teammate, Hercules. And if Herc is considered a hero, Namor felt the same. That continued in Byrne’s solo series, where he treated Namor’s mood swings thru science, and made him very level-headed. My head canon had him as a rival of the FF, but still standard hero rather than anti-hero.
And then in the 2000s, Brian M Bendis wrote Namor into his New Avengers series in the Illuminati. Now we had full-on royal Namor, and in my opinion, this is the personality that has stuck to date, because it distinguished him so much from everyone else in the Marvel Universe. Now it’s hard to believe that was 20 years ago, but it’s such a good take, that it retroactively feels like he’s been that way all along, and it sure fits what little I’ve read of Namor’s golden age stories. So it’s the rare time when my own understanding of a character has completely changed, and for the better I’d say.
I’m not really getting a good team-up for Namor, but free association keeps bringing up Man From Atlantis, also from the 70s like this comic, and that would be a hoot to see Patrick Duffy’s character interact with Namor. And then I think of Linda Carter’s Wonder Woman, spinning into her wet suit, diving off a pier and the underwater shot being obviously in a pool, which cracks me up but I still love. Gosh, maybe any version of Wonder Woman would work. Think of Namor charging onto Themyscira because he goes where he wants, and Diana giving him a smack down. Hmmm.
Another fun episode, guys!
Namor and the man from Atlantis aka mark haris would be interesting as they both had comics published by marvel . If need a hook just use marks arch enemy sherbet have him here rumors of another man from Atlantis and it turn out namor and have sherbet use his daughter Juliet in some way or Bain wash namor im sure you can figure the rest out hope that helps .
The series is allegedly why the 70s Sub-Mariner series never got made.
Prince Namor would have fit well into Dallas. I still associate Patrick Duffy more with “The Man From Atlantis” than “Dallas”. Or maybe Prince Namor could be married to Suzanne Somers in some TGIFriday sit-com where she accidentally cooks one of Prince Namor’s subjects for dinner when they should have been the guest. Hilarity ensues!
Team up? Golden age namor and Golden age superman
The Thing and Alicia are on their way to London? I have some issues of Marvel Two-in-One from around that time where they are in London and Alicia is turned into a Spider Woman (and the real Spider Woman makes an appearance).
I hadn’t realized there was a storyline holding these issues together. Instead I thought it was just the random “team up of the month” like most of the other team up books where it wouldn’t matter if you read them out of order or missed some issues.
While MTU did present some arcs from time to time, M2i1 had the tightest continuity of all the team-up books overall.
I second that Namor/Wonder Woman team up idea, mainly because Namor and Diana together would be hilairious. Especially if he got to see Paradise Island.
Now that you mention it, I can just see Ben and Johnny Storm in this era sitting Reed down and making him watch Bionic Woman, Charlie’s Angels and of course The Lynda Carter Wonder Woman!
Is it a smile or a grimace from Namor on the last page? It’s probably a forced smile at best. He’s handing Alicia (who looks exactly like Sue except for hair color) back to Ben talking about how he wished he still had a woman of his own. Gee, I wonder who he might be thinking of.
I had this issue growing up. In one of those wonky cosmic comic karma moments, I had both issues where Piranha appeared – this one and the solo Submariner issue (an Anj beach comic). As a result I thought he was a much bigger deal than he is. Isn’t it crazy how these things happen sometimes?
I liked the secret ‘we’re fighting but not fighting’ twist in the issue as well. Nice feint.
I have never been a big Namor fan. But I have the perfect person to team him up with … Vegeta from Dragon Ball Z. Both are kind of heroes, kind of villains. Both are overwhelmingly proud, to the point of losing their minds at times. Both are extreme hotheads. Have the two of them take on Thanos and Frieza. It writes itself!
These Bronze Age team-ups are such fun, Marv Wolfman deserves great credit for how he keeps the thread of this storyline going for months on end, while Ron Wilson is spectacularly underrated as a penciller, he’s up there with Sal Buscema when it comes to capturing the eye-popping Marvel house style.
The inker’s name was read out as ‘John Tartas’ but that’s blurry printing for you, it’s ‘Tartag’ as in Tartaglione. I see colourist Irene Vartanoff, best known to comic readers back then for her many aserbic letter printed by DC, is reduced to ‘Irene V’. Note, though, that letterer Irving Watanabe managed to find room for his own full name.
I noticed the Tartag slip in editing, and made sure the show notes were correct.
Still loving this show. Regarding friendly Namor saying hello in the beginning, haven’t we all had that arrogant, argumentative acquaintance who thought we were friends? The one who doesn’t understand why people take his episodes so seriously? I know I’ve had a few over the years. Namor’s weird greeting and Ben’s reaction both sound pretty natural to me.
Just to be clear, everyone I’m thinking of is someone I’ve worked with. I consider everyone who’s arrogant and belligerent in this podcasting community an actual friend.
Yes, this is about 60% of my relationships.