Volcana + Molecule Man

[skemono]

As requested, here's a post with some Molecule Man & Volcana scenes, taken from Secret Wars and Secret Wars II (aka the best event comic ever).




We start in Secret Wars 3, where Dr. Doom bestows superpowers upon the women who would later (as in, two pages later) be known as Volcana and Titania.







And so he does! Doom's forces attack the heroes, forcing them to flee their base. We pick up in Secret Wars 4, where the villains are preparing to pick off the retreating heroes.







Welp, with the heroes all squished dead, Owen and Marsha get to know each other some more in Secret Wars 5.





The thing they're all looking up at is Galactus's worldship arriving, which Doom sneaks into. Doom then sends Owen (and some others to guard him) to start some volcanoes to spoil Galactus's lunch. Professor X, spying that Doom has plans but not knowing what they are, sends some of his X-Men out to stop them in Secret Wars 6.




With Molecule Man gravely injured, Dr. Octopus convinces the others to retreat to get him medical care. In Secret Wars 7, Marsha sees Owen is hurt and goes to his side. Meanwhile the X-Men give chase to the retreating villains.





The villains manage to get away and back to Doombase.



Wait wait wait--did a comic just acknowledge that some doctors have specialties?? Astonishing. Anyway, in Secret Wars 8 the heroes storm Doombase, and Marsha sits by Owen's side to protect him.





Anyway. A lot of stuff happens after that, culminating in Dr. Doom stealing the Beyonder's powers, but none of that involves Owen & Marsha, so let's skip to Secret Wars 11. This is after Doom has taken the Beyonder's powers and is talking with the heroes. Watching them, the villains get the idea that Doom is betraying them to the heroes. Molecule Man doesn't take that well.







We pick up in Secret Wars 12, with a Denver suburb floating through space towards Earth... probably.







And that's the last we see of them in Secret Wars, so presumably they made it home without a problem. But wait! There's a sequel! At the beginning of Secret Wars II 1, the Beyonder crashes on Earth, near our lovebirds.







The Beyonder goes out and learns how to pee (thanks, Spider-Man!), how to eat, and other things. In Secret Wars II 3, while he's still in his impressionable phase, he gets picked up by Vinnie, a mobster who uses the Beyonder to expand his operations. Eventually Vinnie tells the Beyonder that he doesn't have the same limits as Vinnie, so he shouldn't be cooped up to low-level stuff like Vinnie. Taking this to heart, the Beyonder decides to take over the Kingpin... then the country... then the world! And then the universe!





Yeah, I'm diverting from the Owen/Marsha focus of this post, but it was to set up this page:



I love this page so damn much. "They watch TV... of their own free will!" Bellow that in your best dramatic narrator voice.

Anyway. In Secret Wars II 4, the Beyonder drops by Owen & Marsha's apartment to get tips on love, so he can woo Dazzler (it doesn't go well).




Love didn't work out, so in Secret Wars II 6 the Beyonder decides to become a hero, siding with the forces of life! Being the Beyonder, he decides to do this by literally killing Death, so that nothing can die anymore. The Watcher wants to get Molecule Man to help stop him from doing that.





There's more Owen in that issue--he shows up to berate the Beyonder for getting rid of death--but it doesn't involve Marsha much, so let's skip to Secret Wars II 7. There Owen notices that Eternity & Mephisto are teaming up to murder the Beyonder, and while in previous pages he was all "Ah, he'll be fine", here he admits he's scared of him and kinda wants them to succeed.




Naturally it doesn't work, so there's a Secret Wars II 8. And hey, that's got a lot of Owen & Marsha! The Beyonder shows up at their apartment so angry at the rest of the universe that he's planning to just blow it all up.




Their therapy session doesn't go so well.




Worried that he's serious, Owen first tries making a forcefield to keep them safe, but the Beyonder laughs and shatters it. So then he decides to try running away... from the entire universe.







(By the way, issue 8 is 27 pages, so at almost 9 I should still be in the clear for the 1/3 rule.)

So, that was heartbreaking. Let's move on to Secret Wars II 9 and hope they wrap things up.




They get the information from Volcana's mind and then send her back home.





Writer: Jim Shooter
Artists: Michael Zeck (Secret Wars 3, 6-8, 11-12); Bob Layton (Secret Wars 4-5); Al Milgrom (Secret Wars II 1, 3-4, 6-9)

Comments

[q99]

-Wait wait wait--did a comic just acknowledge that some doctors have specialties??-

You must be hallucinating.

[randyripoff]

Next thing they'll be telling you that all lawyers handle defense cases, prosecutions, contracts, tax law, estate law, etc. Why that's just crazy talk1

[q99]

I know, right? Definite sign of heat stroke, or perhaps carbon dioxide buildup causing faintness and delusions!

[starwolf_oakley]

Skeeter/Titania is on my Wish List for the MCU. But she goes from "smash smash smash" to someone with her own larger ambitions.

[q99]

A good couple, I like them :)

Though the 'unlock greater powers' stuff seems unnessesary for me, and I rarely like when that sort of thing is done. Especially with someone so strong to begin with.

[obsidianwolf]

It has kind of been Owen's hat for a long time that his limits are mainly his many issues. I mean the time Marsha left him after she found out when he died he'd left her a tiny portion of his power (Which she subconciously used to tune up her own powers giving her a super strong stone form and a sandman style volcanic ash form.) he had a psychotic break and actually managed to yank the Beyonder out of Kosmos and then proceed to beat on him across multiple levels of reality. Implying that piece of cosmic cube + standard fictional Humanity is special = potential power might actually be limitless.

[q99]

Sure, but Doom's place hand-on-head thing is a pretty cliche way to get past such limits. I like the personal-epiphany way much better for this kind of thing.

[icon_uk]

They do make a cute couple, and I DO like that Marsha ia NOT a waif like slyph, but actually HAS proportions in an area other than her boobs, and maintains that look.

Volcana and Titania were rather... random additions to the MU, and it's not like they ever got action figures or the like, though it says something rather sad about the MU at that time that they didn't seem to be be able to think of heavy hitter female villains to use (Mystique and Moonstone would have been handy additions IMHO), but Owen and Marsha are cute, in a lovey-dovey sort of a way, so I'll let that slide.

Villains on the level of the Wrecker and the Absorbing Man pretending that Piledriver wasn't even there after he pushes Volcana and Molecule Man than one time too many, and getting at the very least, what he deserves (Well, a start) is sort of impressive.

And for a fun round up of Secret Wars and Secret Wars 2 (and the reason that either title even exists), there's a fun podcast about it here

[drtechnobabel]

I just love that it took the Beyonder threatening to destroy the multiverse for Owen and Marsha to care about what the Beyonder was doing on Earth. Even when he was enslaving everything to his will on the molecular level, they basically just shrugged and said 'eh, he'll get over it'.

[gnarll]

I always loved the scene where Piledriver is trying to pick on Owen, and expecting the other guys to back hm up. And they, knowing who the Molecule Man is, are talking about the weather and trying to stay out of it. I always imagined them to have tight, terrified voices.

Interesting facts: Titania can change back to human form, she just never wanted to.

The provocation power of the word "Nerd" has changed a lot since the 80s.

Don't mess with the Molecule Man generally, but especially not when he is trying to show off for his girlfriend.

[icon_uk]

And those that aren't pointedly talking in tight terrified voices are probably whistling as innocently as they know how...

Also, we have a scene where two of Marvels more powerful villains stand around comparing the size of their balls....

(Look, SOMEONE was going to make that joke sooner or later)

[docfilth]

I know it's been retconned that Titania has issues, but in this she just comes across as totally psychotic.

[tigerkaya]

This awesome! thank you.

[philippos42]

The first one is pretty silly, but I like Secret Wars II better than most crossovers of that type. It kind of meanders through the Marvel titles, instead of dragging everyone to itself, and it plays with big scary philosophical issues, and at the end things go back to what was there before, because that's what works.

And I realize now that Shooter was actually arguing against the desire for Nirvana in one of those scenes. Nicely done!

The Beyonder sticking with his Captain America x Michael Jackson look as his own is kind of interesting as an example of how we settle on our presentation of identities.

[ogrebear]

Owen and Marsha are one of my fav MU couples, they just worked together fine and came through thick and thin together. I always hoped they would procrete, instead they fell victim to Marvels writers who split them up and made Owen go mad.

For one of the most powerful beings in the MU Owen got short shift. As for Marsha she would have been perfect for Colorado's 50 State Team! Instead I think she turned up recently as a Villian with Titania- such a waste.