Tuesday, May 30, 2017


We glanced at the previous issue some time back, so today seems as good a day as any for the conclusion: from 1977, Marvel Two-in-One #23, "Death on the Bridge to Heaven!" Written by Bill Mantlo and Jim Shooter, pencils by Ron Wilson and Marie Severin, inks by Pablo Marcos.

When last we saw Thor and the Thing, they were battling Seth's armies of the undead; basically a few skeletons. They're mostly to soften the heroes up so Seth can finish them off, on the "Golden Paths of the Gods!" Seth has already beaten his pantheon-mates Horus, Isis, and Osiris; with Horus taking the bulk of the beating and subsequent torture. Although Seth had wanted to take out Thor single-handedly (literally, he only had one hand!) the heroes are still too tough, so Seth calls in the Devourer. It's a giant green monster with just a hint of Egyptian costuming, but there you go. Having previously been tricked and imprisoned by Horus, the Devourer is single-mindedly set on revenge, and Seth realizes the monster doesn't follow his commands as well as he would have hoped. Panicked, Seth even tries to restore Horus to again defeat the Devourer, but it turns out maybe the god of death isn't the best at restoring power, and a weakened Horus can do nothing. Except maybe serve as bait: Ben grabs Horus, and jumps off the Golden Path into space. The Devourer follows, but Thor is able to throw Mjolnir out to Ben, who catches it and gets back before he or Horus suffocate. And that's pretty much that.

In fact, we don't even really see Seth in the conclusion; he last appears a couple pages from the end, mostly crapping himself in terror. I know Seth had a pretty big comeback in Defalco's Thor run, but that was over ten years after this issue; his poor showing here may have benched him until then.

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