Marvel Two-In-One (1974) #2: "Manhunters From The Stars!"

After spending some time focusing on one of Namor's less common foes/allies, we're going to have a look at a book featuring one of his most frequent in the Thing.

The book starts with an appearance by Namorita, which is a nice unexpected treat. A character named Wundarr falls from the sky into the ocean near Hydrobase where Namor's cousin is conveniently hanging out. She leaps to the rescue.

She gives him mouth-to-mouth and starts to crush on him right away. This Wundarr guy is clearly confused though and when Namor shows up, Wundarr panics and beats it. Namorita knows something's up and begs Namor to help her help him.

Cease your prattling, woman! There are so many such scenes in the comics of the time...

But what IS the deal with this Wundarr fella? We sneak onto a spaceship to find out. Would you believe that is dad was an astronomer who predicted that their planet was going to be destroyed and...

How ludicrous, right? 😐 

We'll ignore the familiarity of all that (I assume it was done with a wink anyway) and see what happens when Wundarr reaches dry land again. He crashes into New York city, wrecking a couple of cars and getting plowed into by a cab. His child-like minds perceives the cab episode as an attack against him and he seeks to defend himself. 

Wouldn't you know it, the Thing is walking nearby. It seems that wherever Wundarr goes, a member of the Marvel pantheon happens to be out chilling. The Thing sees Wundarr freaking out and decides to put an end to it.

I would buy a book of nothing but punches drawn by Gil Kane. 

Namor and Namorita and arrive and, for a change, Namor attempts to prevent further fighting. 

The aliens who had been tracking Wundarr feel that Namor's sudden presence will probably make it less likely that the Thing will end up killing Wundarr so they beam down with their robot assassin. For all that their "mortoid" got partial cover treatment, the two heroes dispatch it in a page and a half.

The aliens are impressed by this and decide to beam back to their ships. Namor and Namorita, who was so concerned about Wundarr's well-being earlier, essentially say "okay bye!" and take off as well, leaving the Thing holding the bag, so to speak.

Apparently they can.

 
I had a few of the later issues of this series as a kid and hated them because the Thing was among my least favourite characters. I tended to buy them for the guest star.

This one surpassed expectations and while the panels above may not demonstrate it fully, a big reason for that was Gil Kane's dynamic art, particularly during fight scenes. I've owned this book for months,  picking it up for a buck during a sale at the time, and I'd been holding off reading because I wasn't particularly looking forward to it. If I'd have known Kane had handled its art chores, I would have read it much, much sooner.