Marvel Two-In-One No. 43 The Day The World Winds Down
Oh look, between one issue and the next they thought twice about the ghastly 'Entropic Man' moniker. Victor Conrad is now known as Victorius. Still not a good name, specially since Victorius admitted that he lost to Ka-Zar in a fight. Anyway, Victor Conrad recreated the super-soldier serum and used it on himself explaining his being able to go up against Cap.
Victor - how do I put it? Self-radicalized around the philosophy of Entropy. Searched out the Cult of Entropists and used the Cube to resurrect it's former leader into the ghastly creature known as Jude, the Entropic Man.
The match up is pretty good now. Victorius vs. Captain America and the Entropic Man vs. the Thing. Ring the bell!
The first bout
Heaven forbid something goes on in the Everglades without it's legendary peeping tom taking notice. We even get a nice capsule origin.
Back to the fight
Captain America does "pontificate about fanaticism while wrapped in a flag" doesn't he? Good point from Victorius (that name!).
So the situation so far.
The Thing and the Entropic Man still observers. The Man-Thing reaching for the Cosmic Cube. And the super-soldiers still at it.
Entropic Man is about to go for Cap so Ben jumps in.
The Thing disappears into the Entropic Man's mysterious blackness and re-emerges as Ben Grimm.
Now for the biggest surprise of all: Ben Grimm is convincing the Entropic Man to abandon the whole Entropic philosophy and it seems to be working!
Unfortunately, the learned discussion is interrupted by Victorius with his fists. Sensing correctly that the struggle is too even, Victorius decides to go for the Cosmic Cube to tip the scales somewhat. Unfortunately for Conrad, the cube is in, what seems to be the iron-hard grip of the Man-Thing.
The Entropic Man is not a villain after all. Merely a devotee of death who has realized - thanks to Ben Grimm! - that the living must seek out death of their own volition. Victor, on the other hand, is a devotee of Entropy, so the Entropic Man has no qualms of giving him the death he so desperately worships.
At the very last moment, Victor changes his mind about the whole entropy thing. He de-radicalizes and he gets scared, very scared as the Entropic Man touches him. Victor is still touching the Man-Thing and fear is the trigger that causes the Man-Thing to burn whoever he (it?) touches. The result is this insane explosion. The end result is this.
First, Ben returns to Thing form. Second, Victorius and the Entropic Man leave some kind of crystal manifestation. Third, this crystal, somehow stimulates radical plant growth. We are also shown that the crystal has the power to change the Man-Thing to his human form of Ted Sallis but the mindless Man-Thing doesn't have the wits to hang around for the transformation to complete itself.
And that's it for Cap and the Thing.
Yup, breakfast after a hard night.
Uh guys, where the hell is the Cosmic Cube? Oh well . . .
