Project Pegasus, Part 3

cover art by John Byrne

Marvel Two-in-One #53 (July 1979) was co-written by Mark Gruenwald and Ralph Macchio, two excellent writers who have penned many exciting comic book tales. But this issue, which brings Ben Grimm back to Project Pegasus after a 10-issue absense, sadly lacks excitement.

The art looks great. John Byrne did the breakdowns and Joe Sinnott provided the finished art. But the overall pacing is slow, with a lot of unnecessary filler. I can almost see what the problem was. This is the beginning of a five-issue story arc and they wanted it to end with an effective cliffhanger that will bring us fully into that story, while still providing us with all the exposition we need. 

Jamming all that into 17 pages wasn't easy and the end result isn't completely successful. In fact, I think the issue stumbles right out of the gate, as it takes Ben four pages (nearly a quarter of the story's length) just to get to Pegasus and get through security.

Ben is there, by the way, to do a stint on the Project's security staff, something he's agreed to do so that he can check up on Wundarr, the super-powerful but child-like being that Ben had sort of adopted. 

 

By the time Ben meets Quasar and has a fun-to-watch but ultimately unnecessary fight and by the time Quasar explains his origin, we are halfway through the story. Before we reach the end, another couple of pages will takes us back to New York to watch Thundra (the superstrong woman from another dimension with a cruch on Ben) get involved with a wrestling promoter, though to be fair this is setting up the plot of an upcoming issue and is by itself another fun-to-watch interlude. We also get an update on the still-comatose Wundarr, which also sets up future plot points. 

There's very little that actually moves the plot along. We find out that the Project's security still stinks. For the second time in its short history, one of their scientists is a bad guy. In this case, he's a former bad guy pretending to be a reformed but is really still a bad guy. He launches a plan that involves sending the cyborg assassin Deathlok after Ben. 

This is the third Project Pegasus story I've reviewed and--gee whiz--I've complained about two of them being slow-paced. I really do like this story arc. I really, really do. Despite my criticisms, there are fun moments throughout Marvel Two-in-One #53 and, now that we've got introductions and exposition largely out of the way, the remaining four issues of this story move along at a better pace. 

Also, we get a nifty cross-section view of Project Pegasus in place of the letters page. I love stuff like this.

That's it for now. Next week, we'll visit with the brilliant rabbit Uncle Wiggly as he goes on a epic quest to recover stolen piggy banks.