Marvel Two in One #100, WTC Ruins Taken Over by Red Skull

One day, not so long ago, before I had tilled the ground for the Garden you are now standing in, I was browsing some youtube videos when I discovered Jake Kotze's work. the first set of his videos I watched was the Comic Book Cycle. In one of these videos, he mentioned Marvel Two in One #100, there was a panel that showed a bombed out WTC with a Nazi flag flying over it. I knew I owned this comic, so I dug through my collection and found it. Re-reading it jogged my memory that it was a sequel to Marvel Two in One #50, published in 1979.



In this issue, Mr. Fantastic Reed Richards develops a serum that he gives to the Thing, hoping that it will transform him back into the human Ben Grimm. The serum fails, and Reed surmises that the Thing's cosmic altered metabolism is to far advanced for the serum to have any effect. So the Thing gets the idea to travel to the past and give the serum to an earlier version of himself, hoping that it will save him the years of anguish of being a rocky hided monster. When the Thing travels to the past and finds himself, his earlier version attacks him, but by the end of the comic he takes the serum and is cured. The present day thing remains the same, and Reed Richards guesses this is because the Thing created an alternate reality by changing the past. Now on to part two.



The cover shows the Thing and his alternate version Ben Grimm standing in the ruins of New York City, a scene eerily reminiscent of the collapse of the twin towers. This comic has a cover date of June, 1983. It starts with Reed telling the Thing that when he travelled to the past, he didn't create an alternate reality, because it was already an alternate reality to begin with. He theorized that when one time travels, he is "pushed" into an alternate timeline so he cannot effect his own present, thus preventing a paradox. Reed has a machine that lets them look into this alternate reality, and they see the Earth is in ruins. The New York of this reality is called "New Amsterdam". Feeling that he may have caused this disaster, the Thing uses the time machine to travel to it, setting the date for March 23, 1983. he quickly meets up with Ben Grimm, who tells him the Earth is in ruins because of an attack by Galactus. The survivors tried to rebuild, but they were beset by the villainous Red Skull. The Red Skull then sends his androids to attack and kidnap the Thing, and Ben goes to rescue him with a ragtag band of survivors. They track the Red Skull to his headquarters, a bombed out WTC complete with a Nazi flag flying from the ruins.



Ben and his buddies are able to sneak past the guards, and they find American soldiers rounding up citizens for termination, under the Nazi flag.



Those are some pretty disturbing images. Of course the Red Skull is defeated, and the Thing returns to his own reality.It is after all, a comic book.

The comic wouldn't be complete without the obligatory reference to ancient Egypt, and we get that on the back cover.



It's interesting that the title of the comic is "Marvel Two in One", and it displays the two towers that were destroyed in one attack. I originally posted the panel of the towers at the Prison Planet forum, in the comic book thread. I was surprised to see this one cover scan show up at Rense., in a story by Michael Godspeed.

A Google search of the words - 9/11 coincidences in comics (unquoted) - reveals over 76,000 hits. A video presentation on some of these connections (link at bottom of paragraph) features some interesting items, including an image from the Marvel Two in One #100 from June 1983. (Note: I have not seen this before, and do not personally own any comics, so I cannot verify its authenticity. I'm presenting it here as an item of potential interest). According to descriptions of this issue, the Thing is captured by the Red Skull, who has set up headquarters in a bombed out WTC. Notice the chilling images and captions below:

Michael, If you're reading this, I can assure you it's authentic, I'm holding it in my hands.