The next story being in London, it is full of location panels. Alas, none of them are worthy of being shown. You can't just draw a famous landmark, you have to do the layout properly, pay attention to the details - lot's of wasted opportunities for location shots in this story.
It all starts very peacefully as Ben and Alicia play tourist.
As you can see in the panel above, Ben is a celebrity whose arrival in the U.K. does not go unnoticed.
Ben and Alicia are here to see a Dr. Kort about Deathlok's condition, what they find is a house in shambles.
Alicia finds traces of blood on the floor and that sets her to screaming. Her cries has the Thing hurrying to her side but it also brings unexpected help.
He is Shang-Chi, the vaunted Master of Kung-Fu and he thinks Ben is a monster about to attack Alicia. This bears some explaining. How could Shang-Chi not recognize the world famous Thing? A member of the Fantastic Four? As we have seen, Ben was even in today's London newspapers. The answer is that Shang-Chi is a bit of a "hot house flower" - narrowly, and superbly - trained in the discipline of the martial arts to the exclusion of a lot of things, apparently including current events and world affairs. Ah, the price one pays for expertise.
So we are now mute witness to the travesty of a martial artist forced to take on a cosmic-powered superhuman. As expected, Shang-Chi hits the Thing every which way to no avail. Then. . .
Ben has Shang-Chi on the ground but a little judo goes a long way to unbalancing the Thing.
Here, a furniture projectile is dodged with unerring swiftness.
Maybe it is Shang-Chi's power of observation, as he says, or maybe it is the realization that he cannot possibly win a fight with the Thing. In any case, Shang calls an end to it.
From here on end it is an alliance and the pair confront the abductors of Dr. Kort:
Hydra.
Basically, Shang-Chi and the Thing come up against a small army of costumed men with sidearms - not a problem for these two. They defeat Hydra and hie off with the Doctor to see to Deathlok's condition. They leave behind a Hydra base in shambles and a question: What did Hydra want with Dr. Kort in the first place? The answer is this.
What is that? A serum. An essential component to create what is intended to be the first in series of Hydra super soldiers. And who might this prototype Hydra soldier be you ask? Take a look:
The last panel in the story and it's a mindblower: the introduction of Jessica Drew. Spider-Woman would start with some fanfare in her own series - not very successful really. She would hang around in the Marvel universe through the 80s and break out as a major Avenger in the 2000s. And here is where it all began!
