The Thing #32: Vance Astrovik’s Very Special Episode

The Thing #32 by Mike Carlin and Ron Wilson with Mark Gruenwald (October 1985).
#Thing #VanceAstrovik #MajorVictory #MikeCarlin #RonWilson

[@robert2430]

Quite the medley there. 😂

[@atomicninjaduck9200]

Bet you didn't know Son of Nimrod is actually quite the singing sensation!

[@SonofCapwolf]

Was on Eurovision.

[@robert2430]

I have a lot of nostalgia for this period even though I wasn’t a regular reader of this comic at the time. It bled over into other comics like WCA and SWII though. I have read them since and get a kick out of it.

[@SonofCapwolf]

And then he leaves WCA because he transformed into a monster in the last issue and we never see what he transformed into ever.

[@atomicninjaduck9200]

Actually, Vance Astro's containment suit is necessary to keep him from succumbing to old age. Outside of it, he would age the full 1,000 years and crumble to dust. Inside, he's pretty much immortal.

[@SonofCapwolf]

I think the reason for the suit alternated a bit early on. Gerber was definitely going with that environmental idea (I mainly remember him going on quite a screed about aerosol sprays as if they alone are the cause of everything wrong with the year 3001).

[@atomicninjaduck9200]

@@SonofCapwolf There's a part where Vance tells his younger self about the future (while pretending to be from another planet), and claims that aerosol will cause the ozone layer to disappear permanently by the 1980s!😅

[@SonofCapwolf]

Wasted all the time warning Vance about the danger of the ozone layer and didn't feel it pertinent to mention his dad's fists.

[@apilgrim8715]

The Thing's wrestling career prevented him from joining West Coast Avengers.

[@SonofCapwolf]

And then he mutated (which is hinted at in a scene of this issue) and he left because he became a monster - we never got to see what he transformed into.

[@robert2430]

They never gave up on Vance. He was around a long time before finally getting a book that clicked. Quasar was like that also, right?

[@SonofCapwolf]

Well, Vance has the weird added novelty that there's two versions of him and at any time one of those two versions is in play (and some times both are). The main reality version of Vance didn't even really become a proper character until this run, before he had only appeared in conjunction with his "future self". And after this series wrapped, he didn't make any appearances until New Warriors. And by this point, the Guardians were dormant too. Both New Warriors and Valentino's Guardians launched at the same time (I remember the John Byrne Marvel Age cover with Spidey and Namor and Ghost Rider and Robocop). In truth, I would've said they gave up on either version of Vance before New Warriors brought him back. Quasar was a bit of a ripple, introduced at the tail-end of 1977 most his appearances are within the space of a few years - the key ones being Gruenwald/Macchio Marvel Two-in-One - but he was then mostly absent for the bulk of the 80s. Gruenwald was trying to get a solo series off the ground but Quasar's only appearance following Marvel Team-Up Annual #5 (1981) is in an issue of Hulk that Gruenwald pencilled. Wasn't until Avengers #302 that Quasar resurfaced and Quasar #2 explains his absence as being when he was off in-space searching for the origin of his Quantum Bands.

[@markshulusky6680]

This story arc gave us some good material, but for a "Thing as wrestler" tale, I prefer the old FF one where he's kidnapped by Skrulls and forced to fight Torgo, that rhinogon and, of course, the "Skrull bred Magno Man" who had a giant magnet for a head.

[@SonofCapwolf]

Torgo featured in one of the Hostess adverts they ran. Torgo discovered that Hostess Fruit Pies are better than fighting and so he and Ben Grimm became friends and appreciated the consumer product.

[@atomicninjaduck9200]

I must be missing something, because the only "Torgo" I'm aware of is from that terrible 'Manos' the Hands of Fate, and the subsequent MST3K character based on him.

[@markshulusky6680]

@@atomicninjaduck9200 In a 60s FF story, Skrulls kidnap Thing and take him to another planet where he fights for their entertainment. Torgo was a sentient mechanoid from a race of intelligent robots he met there. The character returned in FF 173 and 174.

[@SonofCapwolf]

​@@atomicninjaduck9200 Fantastic Four #92, I believe it was (probably off by one). Lee/Kirby. The cover to it is actually what is being parodied or homaged on the cover to Thing #28 that I showed in this vidya. In fact, the whole wrestling thing is kind of an expansion on that one issue (which has been riffed on about a dozen times elsewhere - Giant-Size Super-Stars #1, Marvel Two-in-One Annual #8).

[@billyjoejenkins2081]

👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

[@atomicninjaduck9200]

Ah yes, Giant Sized Defenders #5. The one with Eelar, the greatest villain of all time, with clearly the greatest name of all time. /s

[@SonofCapwolf]

Eelar Musk, he bought Twitter and wants people to think he's cool.

[@robert2430]

I didn’t think Byrne was on the comic that long. Looking it up it appears he took a break after the first 13 then came back for 19-22. Was this the most notable thing Carlin did at Marvel?

[@SonofCapwolf]

Carlin's only major credits without Gruenwald anywhere near are some issues of Dazzler, one of which I've read and reviewed and it was quite honestly appalling, and some fill-in issues earlier in this series when Thing was on Battleworld which I've not read and only found out while editing this. He also wrote that one Marvel Team-Up issue where Aunt May becomes Galactus' Herald called the Golden Oldie. He co-wrote some of Ka-Zar (the 80s series) with Bruce Jones. I think those are his only full stories without Gruenwald listed anywhere in the credits. Otherwise there's those 5 issues of Cap he wrote but those are even more clearly Gruenwald than these issues of Thing are. They swapped titles on the book because after 5 issues they decided that was more accurate to what has happening (Mark says so in a Mark's Remarks from 1992 I think it was, when he was celebrating his 100th issue as writer). On the other hand, Carlin's time editing Superman is enough of an accomplishment that who cares if his actual writing is a mix of disaster and flaccid. Everything from Byrne to Superman Blue came from his desk. Triangles didn't last long after his departure.

[@billyjoejenkins2081]

Superman the Triangle Era Omnibus vol 1 hopefully comes out in a few weeks. I hope they don’t mess it up.

[@SonofCapwolf]

Any word on if they're actually going to do a Vol 2? Doesn't really matter, on the back of the Superman Blue collection, it said it was the first of 4 volumes and they did 1 and gave up.

[@billyjoejenkins2081]

@@SonofCapwolf Nope, no word on a vol 2.

[@atomicninjaduck9200]

"Had begun beating him?" In Defenders, his father was already coming up with the flimsiest excuses to hit his son. Vance: "Mom! Dad! Wait'll you hear--! I just saw a UFO--a flying saucer--a real one--it crashed--" Vance's Mother: "I didn't hear a crash, did you, Tom?" Vance's Father: "Don't encourage him, Mary. Is it your turn to do the spanking--or mine?" Vance's Father's secret thoughts: Please, please, please let it be mine!

[@SonofCapwolf]

There's that tearful moment in MTIO #69 where Future Vance unmasks to his dad from the past and I can't read it without wondering "Would you do this if you knew he was going to hit your younger self?"