Marvel Two-in-One #71
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeMarvel Two-in-One #71 is the debut issue for one of Marvel's most ambitious cosmic villains: Maelstrom, a geneticist of Inhuman-Deviant hybrid heritage whose nihilistic ambitions would eventually threaten the entire universe. The same issue also introduces his three mutate servants — Phobius, Gronk, and Helio — as well as the wraith-like Deathurge in cameo, seeding a cluster of interconnected characters who would resurface as major antagonists across Avengers and Quasar storylines well into the 1990s. Beyond its villain debuts, the issue meaningfully expands the Terrigen Mist mythology by establishing that the anti-Terrigen compound Reed Richards and the Inhuman scientists develop is a double-edged scientific breakthrough — the cure for the Hydro-Men that Maelstrom immediately covets as a weapon against the Inhuman race. It stands as the capstone of the Gruenwald-Macchio creative partnership on the title, closing out a multi-issue subplot about the Hydro-Men that had been building since issue #64 while simultaneously launching what would become one of Marvel's most persistent cosmic villain threads.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Mark Gruenwald (plotter) and Ralph Macchio (scripter) had been co-writing Marvel Two-in-One together since 1978, and issues #71–72 represent the final chapter of that collaboration before Macchio transitioned toward a full editorial career. Gruenwald, who would go on to define Quasar's solo series in the late 1980s–early 1990s, seeded Maelstrom specifically as a character built from Marvel's existing Inhuman and Deviant mythologies — the son of the exiled Inhuman geneticist Phaeder and the Deviant woman Morga — a concept that fit squarely within his ongoing interest in Marvel's genetic cosmology. Penciler Ron Wilson, who had been with the title since issue #12, provided breakdowns, with Gene Day completing the finished art; Joe Sinnott inked the cover. The issue was edited by Jim Salicrup under editor-in-chief Jim Shooter.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First full appearance of Maelstrom (Inhuman-Deviant hybrid villain), created by Mark Gruenwald, Ralph Macchio, and Ron Wilson; cover date January 1981, on-sale October 7, 1980.
- First appearances of Maelstrom's Minions: Phobius (fear-inducer), Gronk (master of adhesion), and Helio (lord of air) — all three debut as the antagonists of the main action at Hydro-Base.
- First appearance (cameo) of Deathurge, the wraith-like agent of the cosmic entity Oblivion, who is glimpsed in the employ of Maelstrom.
- First appearance of Nadar, an Inhuman scientist, as a supporting character among the Attilan Royal Family contingent.
- Crystal is depicted as visibly pregnant with her and Quicksilver's daughter Luna, placing this issue within the continuity leading to Luna's birth.
- The story is structured in three titled chapters — 'The Cure!', 'Hydro-Base', and 'The Raid!' — and resolves the long-running Hydro-Men subplot that began in Marvel Two-in-One #64, connecting Terrigen Mist science to the Hydro-Men mutations.
- The issue marks the final installment of the Gruenwald-Macchio co-writing partnership on the title, a collaboration that had run since approximately issue #51 (1978).
- Reprinted in: Essential Marvel Two-in-One Vol. 3 (2009, black and white), Marvel Masterworks: Marvel Two-in-One Vol. 6 (2021, color), and Spécial Strange #48 (Editions Lug, France, January 1987).
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↩ Reprints [Marvel Hostess Ads] #53 (1980)
Reprinted in Spécial Strange #48 (1987), Essential Marvel Two-in-One #3 (2009), Marvel Masterworks: Marvel Two-in-One #6 (2021)
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