Project Pegasus--Part 4

cover art by George Perez

Though I thought the exposition-heavy Marvel Two-in-One #53 was a slow issue, #54 (August 1979) moves along at an exciting pace, giving us a great action and a strong story. Co-written by Mark Gruenwald and Ralph Macchio, it is fun from start to finish.

The issue picks up right where the previous one left off, with Ben about to be ambushed by Deathlock. 

The unpleasantly-visaged cyborg came from the future, but had been brought back to our time by Ben in a previous Two-in-One issue. Sometime in the interim, though, he had been lobotomized, removing his human personality, and was now being used by as-yet unidentified bad guys to set up something called an "Nth Projector" in the lower levels of Project Pegasus.

But to do that, Deathlock has to get past Ben. Unfortunately for Ben, the cyborg carries a laser powerful enough to cut through even his rock-hard skin.

Losing blood, Ben weakens, though not before crushing Deathlock's laser gun and right hand. When Quasar and some security guards show up, Deathlock runs for it.

The story has a nice rhythm to it. The fight with Ben is followed by a breather in which Deathlock makes his way down to the lower levels of the Project, with Quasar in pursuit. There, we get another fight scene. The exposition we need is doled out without breaking the quick pace of the story, something the previous issue struggled with. 

Despite losing his laser, Deathlock is apparently still bristling with back-up weaponry, including gas capsules and yet another laser. Quasar, though, holds his own until Ben shows and and demonstrates you don't mess with the Thing even when he has one arm in a sling.

The art in this issue has John Byrne breakdowns, with Joe Sinnott doing the finished art and inking. The art is strong throughout, but I think Byrne and Sinnott really shine when showing us Deathlock's tragic finish, torn apart by laser blasts and with Quasar then pretty much forced to vaporize him to stop a self-destruct device. We've been reminded several times that Deathlock was once human, giving his gradual destruction a sincere emotional impact.

We get another break from the action with a brief and honestly funny interlude with Thundra, who is learning to be a professional wrestler and turning out to be really, really good at it. (Shouldn't a world in which superheroes exist have rules about using super-strength in atheletic competitions?) This is setting up events of an upcoming issue.

We also see that Bill Foster (aka Giant Man) is working at the Project, setting up Ben's co-star for the next issue.

And the issue end with Dr. Lightner, one of several supposedly-reformed evil scientists working at the Project, getting orders from the unknown bad guys to launch a back-up plan, since Deathlock didn't finish setting up the Nth Projector. So Lightner sets free a mindless, nuclear-powered monster called Nuklo. Gee whiz, Project Pegasus security really does stink!

We'll return to Project Pegasus soon. Next week, we'll look at one of Batman's early adventures, in which a lamb turns into a wolf.