This story has the Thing being kidnapped for the second time in Marvel Two-In-One. The first was during his adventure with the Black Widow.
When he regains consciousness, Ben is in shackles but he is witness to a remarkable escape of a fellow prisoner.
Iron Fist is one of two notable Marvel heroes specializing in the Oriental martial arts, the other being Shang-Chi. The Iron Fist's unique capability is just that - an iron fist. He can focus his chi (soul force) into his right hand making it and I quote: "unto a thing of iron".
It turns out that both heroes are in transit to an Asian location and there tickets being extra-cheap economy class, they are unceremoniously dumped from the air to their place of destination.
Also known as the "Revoltin' development" panel.
Just to reinforce that we are in 'a time of seconds'. The Thing falls from the sky a second time.
The first being in the Doc Savage adventure. Luckily Ben can safely hit the ground from flying height any day of the week. Danny (Iron Fist) manages to snag some jungle vines for a safe landing.
Soon after their hard landing they are attacked by a strange weapon.
Referred to by Iron Fist as a Ja-dagna, an American Indian war club, the weapon looks extremly high tech to me. I was intrigued enough to look it up and yes, the Ja-dagna is a ball-headed wooden war club of the Chippewa and Ojibwe Native American tribes. It looks like this.
After the club makes it's appearance the attack begins in earnest. It's not much of an assault though, these attackers have massively underestimated the combined capability of the Thing and Iron Fist.
Specially this poor fool.
After some rough hiking our pair comes across a breathtaking sight.
As expected - and in true kung-fu movie tradition - they meet with resistance coming on. The resistance comes in the form of martial artists, which means our pair can pretty much shrug them off.
Iron Fist comes up against a swordsman and Danny has an opportunity to demonstrate the power from which he takes his name.
I'm very dismissive of the martial artists but when I was going through the sequence below I wondered if the Thing's rocky hide can be penetrated by really sharp blades.
After all the ruckus it is explained to both Danny and Ben that they were kidnapped in a strange bid to ask for there help. Ironically, to rescue somebody else who had been kidnapped. The return of this person - a princess - could prevent an all out war between two countries.
It's a matter of the Thing and Iron Fist leading a much smaller force against a rival army - which both do handily. The only worthwhile panel is the Thing taking out the leader of the rival army.
I actually pity this rebel chief, going up with a simple axe against the likes of the Thing and the Iron Fist. On the plus side he also has those trendy armored leggings favored by the Asgardians - there is that.
The princess finally freed, we come to a heart-rending backstory.
Ah, you royals. Forced to give up real love in exchange for incredible wealth and power. You lucky bastards.
In the end the princess is forced to marry a very much older monarch for political peace.
Excellent outfit..
The story ends with these panels.
A bit of a surprise really. I would think a Marvel comic would go for the "happy" ending of resolving the "problem" of an "arranged marriage". But it doesn't. And you know what? That's - realistic. Because that's life isn't it? Sometimes doing the right thing sucks. It's a hard lesson for younger readers but older readers will simply nod their head.
