Writer – John Byrne
Artist – Ron Wilson
Inker – Frank Giacoia, Kevin Dzuban
Colours – George Roussos
Letters – Joe Rosen

For the final issue of Marvel Two-In-One, there could only be one guest star who could send the book off in style and it is none other than The Thing himself, Ben Grimm. For long-time readers, and newer ones who are given a recap of a previous issue in the series, it is a Ben Grimm from another timeline or at least it was thought to be and is now clarified by Reed Richards to be a Ben Grimm from another Earth. That knowledge makes the present-day, Earth-616 Ben quite curious as to what happened ever since he left his alter-ego all those many moons ago. Such as it is, John Byrne who comes on board to write this last trip and who is joined by Ron Wilson on pencils, take The Thing back to that dimension where he finds the Earth decimated by Galactus. The Earth, for all that it was, is now a dead planet, its energy stolen by The Devourer and the people who yet survive now fight for scraps with one of those people being Ben Grimm. The Thing meets up with his counterpart, to which all of this is relayed and it is not soon after that they find themselves attacked by androids who belong to this Earth’s Red Skull. The rest of the double-length book is filled with action as The Thing is captured and interrogated by the Skull while Ben Grimm works on a plan to free his compatriot, it being put into motion in no short order. There is one moment in the book when Ben Grimm and his companions who are breaking into the Skull’s facility notice a beaten down Alicia Masters, something that strikes a chord in the reader when seeing this as her 616 counterpart has played such a big part in the series. When all is said and done though, Byrne and Wilson give their audience a happy ending, or at least as happy as one can get on a dead planet when The Thing eventually goes back home via the Time Platform. For a last issue, this book does it all right by finishing up one of the last remaining plotlines, keeping its readers entertained with enough drama and action in an unfamiliar setting and surprisingly, leaving The Thing in a good spot in his life. At the end of the day, the series worked on every level with very few issues being less than ‘good’ which makes it one that everyone should seek out should they love Benjamin J. Grimm or the Fantastic Four.

5 out of 5