Thing is always the most fun when he’s gettting punched in the face. The art in this issue is great, and the story does good service to the concept—which is basically just a big brawl. When I saw the panel above, I was struck by how often I’ve seen the same sequence in dozens of comics…But I think this was the first. I’ve read every single Marvel comic before this one, and I don’t recall seeing this before.
So there it is: Big John is an innovator! Sadly, he leaves with this issue.
They’re fighting over Paul Destine’s helmet of power–Thing is trying to take it to New York for safe keeping, and Namor doesn’t believe Thing will be able to keep it safe.
The helmet is what gave Destine the power to go mano-a-mano against Sub-Mariner last issue. At the end of the issue, Namor’s got the helmet.
Also, many years later, Jim Starlin did a cool “one minute later” with the cover to this issue.
This is among the top 10 John Buscema comics of all time.