Marvel Feature #11
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeMarvel Feature #11 holds a clear structural place in Bronze Age Marvel history as the first issue to spotlight the Thing in a solo lead role outside the Fantastic Four, establishing the team-up format that would become the backbone of the long-running Marvel Two-in-One series. The concept of pairing Ben Grimm with a different guest character each issue was directly tested across Marvel Feature #11 and #12, and when reader response proved strong, Marvel launched Marvel Two-in-One as a standalone ongoing series beginning in January 1974, giving the Thing one of the most enduring team-up franchises in the publisher's history. The issue also draws on the Thing's rich adversarial history with the Hulk — a rivalry stretching back to Fantastic Four #12 and Fantastic Four #25–26 — framing their brawl here as both a crowd-pleasing marquee clash and a character study of Ben Grimm's mounting frustration with his permanently altered body. Its narrative fingerprints are visible all the way into Marvel Two-in-One #1, where the Thing explicitly recalls his desert confrontation with the Hulk to establish continuity between the tryout and the ongoing.
In "Cry: Monster!", the Hulk and the Thing find themselves stranded in a forgotten New Mexico ghost town, forced into a brutal showdown by the cunning Leader and the enigmatic Kurrgo. Written by Len Wein and brought to life with striking visuals by Jim Starlin, with inks by Joe Sinnott and colors by Glynis Wein, this 1973 Marvel Feature #11 delivers a tense, high-stakes clash under a desert sky. The cover, a dynamic duo of John Romita and Jim Starlin with inks by Romita, captures the raw intensity of the battle to come.
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Marvel Feature was conceived as one of three tryout anthology titles proposed by Stan Lee after he stepped back from his editorial duties to become Marvel's publisher, alongside Marvel Spotlight and Marvel Premiere; the explicit goal was to road-test concepts without committing to a full launch or risking a public failure. After seven issues of Ant-Man content, editor Roy Thomas pivoted the title's final two issues — #11 and #12 — to Ben Grimm, assigning writer Len Wein and penciler Jim Starlin, who was then generating significant buzz for his cosmic work elsewhere in the Marvel line. Starlin handled both cover and interior pencils for issue #11, with Joe Sinnott providing inks and Glynis Oliver (Wein) on colors, under Thomas's editorial oversight; the cover date is September 1973, with an on-sale date of June 1973.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First issue to feature the Thing (Ben Grimm) as the solo lead of a story arc, outside the Fantastic Four ensemble — widely cited as the first Thing solo story.
- Written by Len Wein, penciled by Jim Starlin, inked by Joe Sinnott, colored by Glynis Oliver (Wein), lettered by Artie Simek, and edited by Roy Thomas; cover date September 1973, released June 1973.
- The concept of teaming the Thing with a different co-star each issue was directly tested in Marvel Feature #11 (Thing vs. Hulk) and #12 (Thing and Iron Man), and its success led directly to the launch of Marvel Two-in-One, which ran for 100 issues from January 1974 through June 1983.
- Plot: Kurrgo (Master of Planet X) and the paralyzed Leader make a wager, choosing the Thing and the Hulk respectively as their champions; the two heroes are teleported to a New Mexico ghost town and manipulated into fighting; once they realize the deception, they turn on their captors together — Kurrgo and his robot are apparently destroyed when the ship explodes.
- The issue references and builds on prior Thing-vs.-Hulk battles going back to Fantastic Four #12, Fantastic Four #25–26, and Incredible Hulk #122, framing this encounter as the latest chapter in one of Marvel's oldest rivalries.
- A panel on page 3 is designed as an artistic homage to the cover of Fantastic Four #51.
- The Invisible Girl's absence from the Fantastic Four in this story reflects the in-continuity separation of Sue Storm and Reed Richards that began around Fantastic Four #130; they reconcile circa Fantastic Four #149.
- The issue was reprinted in black and white in Essential Marvel Two-in-One Vol. 1 (November 2005) and in full color in Marvel Masterworks: Marvel Two-in-One Vol. 1 (November 2013), anchoring both collections as the chronological starting point of the Thing's team-up era.
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Reprints
Reprinted in The Comic Reader #97 (1973), The Mighty World of Marvel #51 (1973), Marvel Treasury Edition #5 (1975), Une Aventure des Fantastiques #20 (1979), Mighty Marvel Team-Up Thrillers #[nn] (1983), A Saga de Thanos #1 (1992), Hulk vs. Thing #[nn] (1999), Biblioteca Marvel: Hulk #20 (2004), Essential Marvel Two-in-One #1 (2005), Marvel Feature #11 [Marvel Legends Masterworks Figure Reprint] #[nn] (2005), Marvel Firsts: The 1970s #2 (2012), Marvel Masterworks: Marvel Two-in-One #1 (2013), Marvel Two-in-One Epic Collection #1 (2018), Marvel Two-in-One Omnibus #1 (2025)
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