The Andromeda Rub-Out!

MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE — Issue no. 45, August 1978

Book: Marvel Two-in-One

Issue No.: 45

Published: August 1, 1978

Title: “The Andromeda Rub-Out!”

Cover Price: 35¢

Format: Original paper copy

I haven’t been a huge fan of Marvel’s 1978 iteration of Captain Marvel (that’s the dude Captain Marvel — not Carol Danvers and not the original “Shazam!” dude Captain Marvel). He’s not a terrible character or anything, he’s just kind of a square.

But Captain Marvel’s square-ness plays well against the Thing (that’s Ben Grimm of the Fantastic Four, not the alien monster from the John Carpenter Thing horror movie). In the late-’70s, Marvel Two-in-One was Marvel’s monthly Thing team-up book. The Thing, of course, has a personality that’s big and boisterous enough to match his giant, rock-like body.

There’s another Thing in this story, but he’s an imposter. (Which actually is kind of like the Carpenter Thing movie, but that’s neither here nor there.) Something about this bogus Thing sets off Captain Marvel’s sixth sense. Given what I know about this Captain and the Thing, my first thought was… is the fake Thing a Skrull? Because Captain Marvel is a member of the Kree alien race, and the Kree have a history of warring with the shape-shifting Skrulls. And the Thing and the rest of the Fantastic Four have tangled with various Skrulls over the years.

Turns out the fake Thing is a Skrull. He’s a Skrull with an affinity for the gangsters of the United States of the 1920s, and he calls himself Boss Barker. When he isn’t imitating the Thing, he disguises himself as an Al Capone-type. His spaceship can shape-shift, too, so he has it looking like a 1920s sedan. Barker and the real Thing have some history together, and it is not happy history, so Barker’s whole scheme is simply to murder (“rub out” in gangster parlance) the Thing.

On the one hand, it’s all kind of silly. On the other hand, it’s a perfect Marvel Two-in-One tale. The Thing gets to be the Thing, the guest star gets to shine, there’s a fun plot twist or two, and there’s some clobbering.

Pop-culture reference alert: when we’re introduced to Captain Marvel in this story, he’s reading a Close Encounters of the Third Kind magazine. I’m going to assume it’s Marvel Comics Super Special no. 3 that Marvel published a few months before this issue of Marvel Two-in-One.

Week 31 Wrap-Up

I read the eleven books that Marvel published the first week of August 1978. That’s eight 35-cent books, a 60-cent annual, a dollar Conan magazine, and a two-dollar Marvel Treasury. Total cover price for all of those books is $6.40. Adjusted for 2024 inflation, that’s about 31 bucks.

Next time — On to week 32 of 1978!