macmcentire

Rereading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. The Silver Age was coming to a close by this point, and comics were breaking out with smarter, more sophisticated storytelling. This is evident in the arc that begins in issue #84, which brings back Dr. Doom.

The FF are in a crazy-looking “gryo-ship” on their way back from visiting the Inhumans last issue. The ship is a gift from Black Bolt to help them get home. Somewhere over Europe, though, their flight is interrupted by a bunch of S.H.I.E.L.D. fighter jets. Nick Fury and his mustachioed sidekick Dum-Dum Dugan order the FF to land.

Elsewhere, an old man is running through a bunch of underground catacombs saying he must escape. He reaches the outside, finds himself on a beach, and is overjoyed that he’s made it. But wait, someone with a gun is waiting for him. It’s Doctor Doom. He says he won’t stand for a single one of his subjects to leave his kingdom. Doom shoots the guy, but doesn’t kill him. He further speechifies about all he’s done for the people of Latveria – he’s given them food, shelter, and everything they could ever want, all in exchange for nothing but their total obedience.

Elsewhere, at a fortified base, Fury tells the FF that a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent has gone missing while investigating reports of a secret army in the area. He shows them a giant robot arm the agent recovered. Because this is a Marvel comic, the arm immediately comes to life and starts shooting up the place. Johnny destroys the arm, and Fury explains that only Dr. Doom has robotics tech this advanced. Reed agrees to help.

From there, the FF are in a car driving through “Communist-controlled central Europe,” where the cross the border into Latveria. The border guards surmise that the Americans will disappear in Latveria, never to be seen again. Inside the car, Reed says he knows they’ll likely be captured by Dr. Doom, but that’s the best way to learn what Doom is up to. Once inside Latveria, the car is torn apart by being on a magnetized highway (science!) and Doom’s robots attack. Reed says not to resist, but Johnny and Ben fight anyway, only to be knocked out by some gas. Doom arrives on the scene – hilariously wearing a gas mask over his regular mask – and says the FF will be his prisoners, forever.

Reed, Johnny and Ben wake up in what appears to be a luxurious hotel. Johnny wants to find Crystal, while Reed tries to deduce why Doom has put them there, instead of in his dungeons. Watching all this on a viewscreen, Doom speechifies that while the FF slept, he gave them hypnotic suggestions, so that now they have mental blocks preventing them from using their powers. Doom says there will be a festival to celebrate his victory over the FF, adding that there is a penalty for anyone who looks discontent.

Crystal contacts Johnny on a weird-looking phone. She says she’s all right, and that all the people are happy, while seemingly also afraid of something. Outside, there’s a huge festival, with all the Latverians celebrating the FF’s arrival. Johnny and Crystal are reunited, and our heroes are perplexed by this hospitality. Ben jokes that maybe Doom has found religion, but Reed theorizes that the Latverians are merely puppets on Doom’s strings. Reed says he’s going to make a run for it and cross the border, but he’s zapped by one of Doom’s devices right on the spot. (So, is the border right there?) Doom appears on a screen and tells Reed that no one leaves Latveria. “You will remain here,” he says, “and be eternally happy!”

To be continued!

Unstable molecule: S.H.I.E.L.D. comes to Reed when they have a Dr. Doom problem, establishing Reed as the authority on all things Latverian.

Fantastic fifth wheel: Crystal comments that part of the FF’s “basic rule” is that none of them can ever stand too close to each other, because that would make them easy targets. I’ll be pretty surprised if this “basic rule” ever gets a second mention.

Clobberin’ time: Ben’s struggling to remain standing when breathing in the knockout gas is a great moment for him. He goes down fighting.

Flame on: Proving himself to be a real “hot-head” (heh) Johnny is quick to jump into action without thinking in this issue, picking fights and destroying stuff when Reed cautions him not to. Doom’s robots stop him with an electro-pistol.

Commercial break: What, exactly, kind of martials arts are these?

Trivia time: Who’s this “Dum-Dum” guy? That’s Dum-Dum Dugan, Nick Fury’s sidekick and supporting character of pretty much any S.H.I.E.L.D. story. Not sure how his handlebar moustache and bowler hat are secret agent material, but he’s a tough guy so he can get away with it. Dum-Dum was played by Neal McDonough in the movie Captain America: The First Avenger.

Fantastic or frightful? Not much happens in this one, just setting up future issues. There’s a lot to say about what’s coming, so we’ll keep this one short. It’s an interesting look at Doom’s personality. As ruler, he believes he’s making his people happy, but only as long as he orders them to be happy. A fun issue, but the good stuff is yet to come.

Next: The true face of tyranny.

****

Want more? Check out my book, CINE HIGH, now available for the Kindle and the free Kindle app.

Rereading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. Last issue saw Crystal become an official member of the team, so this week, in issues #82-83, we check in with her family, the Inhumans.

The start issue #82 tries to shock us by Crystal announcing that she’s leaving the team. But no, she’s not leaving-leaving, she says she needs her family’s permission for to be a member of the FF. Her family, remember, is the Inhumans’ royal family. She summons the Inhumans’ giant teleporting dog Lockjaw, to transport them all to the Inhumans. But wait, a bunch of Alpha Primitives are here as well, jumping through Lockjaw’s “Interdimensional screen.” The Alpha Primitives are the Inhumans’ “drone race” and they attack for seemingly no reason. The FF fight back, but not before the Alpha Primitives grab hold of Crystal. They and Lockjaw disappear with her. Reed says he’ll prepare the FF’s rocket to travel to the Inhumans’ city and find out what’s going on.

Elsewhere, a freaky blue-skinned guy reports to his master, saying the Alpha Primitives succeeded. His master is Maximus, who, we learn, has staged a coup, and now sits on the Inhumans’ throne. He has Medusa next in chains next to him, as a symbol of his triumph (her super-powered hair has been coated with a special chemical, so she can’t use it to fight back). He’s also decked out in some truly crazy silver armor. Crystal is brought before him, and Medusa explains that he defeated the royal family by sapping their will with his high-tech “hypno-potions.” Maximus then reveals Black Bolt, Karnak, and Triton trapped in a big glass cage. I imagine their wills are still sapped, because otherwise Black Bolt and Triton should’ve had no problem breaking out of there. Also, Triton has apparently gotten over his “always has to be in water” problem. He’s not even wearing those tube doo-hickeys anymore.

The FF take their rocket to the Inhumans’ city, located in the Himalayans, with Ben doing comedy “back seat driver” shtick along the way. They land, where portions of the now-destroyed great barrier are still scattered about. Our heroes make their way into the city, escaping a couple of death traps, and then battling Zorr, a super-powered primitive. Basically, he’s a huge robot gorilla. (Robot gorilla!) While fighting, Zorr catches everyone up to speed, letting the FF know that Maximus is in charge. He manages to knock Reed, Ben, and Johnny unconscious.

Maximus watches the fight on a viewscreen and of course he gloats about how great he is. Karnak, whose power is to find the weakness in any surface, can’t find one in the cage, saying it’s not glass, but that it’s made out of a substance he’s never seen before. Crystal tries to use her powers on Maximus, but he’s protected by a “sub-ionic” force field. Maximus then reveals his plan – he has a huge “hypno-gun” which is powerful enough to blanket the entire planet in hypno-rays, bringing the whole world under his control. And that’s the cliffhanger.

Issue #83 begins with Reed, Ben and Johnny trapped in similar cage as the Inhumans. Johnny can’t burn his way out, and Reed theorizes that the cage is powered by a hypnotic field, and that they’ve merely been made to believe escape is impossible. Maximus prepares for his coronation, and we see some other Inhumans serving him. We get a return appearance of Aireo, not seen since issue #47, and Leonus, an Inhuman with a blond beard and metal hands. There’s also a centaur-like Inhuman and a plant-like Inhuman with branches growing from his forehead like horns. In other comics, it’s revealed that the Centaur is named Stallior and the plant guy is Timberius. Pun names!

The Inhuman royal family, still trapped in their cage, pleads with Black Bolt to use his powerful voice to escape, even though that might kill the rest of them. Black Bolt instead concentrates his voice with perfect pitch, shattering just one small part of the wall. This is enough for the Inhumans to escape. This also frees Medusa – so it wasn’t a chemical, but another hypno-trick. The Alpha Primitives attack, and there’s a couple of pages of the Inhumans fighting them. Then, the Inhumans march on, in hopes of destroying the hypno-gun.

We check in with Sue for half a page. She’s looking after the baby, and says that she and Reed still haven’t chosen a name. (I’ve read ahead a little, so I can tell you that we’re not going to learn the baby’s name for quite some time, so settle in for the long haul on this subplot.) Reed, Ben, and Johnny are still trapped in their cage. Reed convinces them to escape not by punching their way out, but by concentrating. They break the hypno-programming with their strength of their own thoughts, and they’re free. Zorr attacks again, but this time the FF acts quickly, taking him down before his built-in hypnotic inducer could work on them again.

Maximus fires his hypno-gun and it starts to work, as he can feel the minds of everyone on Earth bending to his will. Then he gets greedy, saying he’ll next aim the gun at space and rule the entire universe. Too bad Crystal shows up and destroys the gun with her powers. The Inhuman populace, no longer under hypnotic control, starts to revolt, but Black Bolt stops them from rioting. Maximus and his followers escape into space on board a spaceship, and Johnny and Crystal reunite with a kiss. (We never find out if the Inhumans gave their permission for Crystal to join the FF. I guess that’s implied.)

Unstable molecule: So, Reed has got to have some kind of latent telepathic abilities, right? He out-brained Dr. Doom in annual #2, he communicated with Galactus across space with his thoughts in issue #75, and now he breaks free of high-tech hypnotism just by concentrating.

Fantastic fifth wheel: Crystal starts the story needing to be rescued, which isn’t so great, but she ends it by destroying Maximus’s giant weapon in a great “girl power” moment.

Clobberin’ time: Ben is pretty much comic relief in this story, tossing more wisecracks than punches.

Flame on: Johnny has to tell Crystal not to hug him until after his flame has died down. You’d think she’d know that. Also, an earlier issue had her walking through flames unharmed, so why wait?

Commercial break: Not sure what this has to do with James Bond, but here you go:

Trivia time: The FF were busy during these two issues, as they guest starred in Avengers #60, Silver Surfer #5, and Sub-Mariner #14 at the same time.

Fantastic or frightful? This is basically an Inhumans story guest-starring the Fantastic Four. The closest thing there is to a main character is Maximus, as he’s the only one with any real arc. The other characters are all just running around aimlessly. Describing all the tech with the “hypno” prefix doesn’t help. There are some fun Kirby designs, but other than that, this one’s something of a misfire. The really good stuff starts next week.

Next: Doom… and Dum-Dum!

****

Want more? Check out my book, CINE HIGH, now available for the Kindle and the free Kindle app.

Rereading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. Issue #81 introduces a new status quo for heroes. (Or does it?)

We begin with a splash page of Crystal wearing a blue FF uniform, rather than usual yellow costume. She says now that Sue is home with the baby, someone has to take her place on the team. Then we get this issue’s variation of the “excuse for the character to show off their powers in the first few pages” thing, except this time it’s Crystal showing off her powers. Nonetheless, her power set remains frustratingly ambiguous. She throws Ben and Johnny around the room with a gust of wind, saying she can “harness natural forces” and bend them to her will.

Reed shows up, reports that Sue and the baby are doing well (we still don’t know the baby’s name at this point) and he questions Crystal about the costume. He says she’s too young to join the team, but she says she’s the same age Sue was when the team was formed. This “passage of time” moment is interesting, in that it reveals that the characters have been doing this for years, something that doesn’t quite come across when reading issues in bulk, but did when you picked them up only once a month.

Then we visit the Wizard, in his hideout, where he has built another pair of super-powered gloves, which he says will give him the combined powers of the Fantastic Four. He’s downright obsessed with the FF, going on and on about how he wants to defeat them.

Inside Reed’s lab, the Wizard’s old gloves, which the team confiscated in issue #78, disappear in an “electro-wave.” Reed knows this is the Wizard trying to bait our heroes into a trap, but Johnny doesn’t listen. He takes off, flying around New York, looking for a fight. He finds the Wizard destroying an abandoned warehouse (Oh, Marvel’s New York, you and your abandoned warehouses). They fight, and the Wizard shows that he’s now faster than Johnny, and he has the strength to tear off a church steeple and throw it at him. Johnny destroys the steeple with a “bullseye heat blast” and worries that the Wizard has become too powerful.

Reed, Ben and Crystal head to the scene in the Fantasticar. Ben makes a wisecrack about Johnny, but Crystal is so serious she can’t tell Ben is only kidding. They meet up with Johnny and… fighting! The Wizard throws a water tower at our heroes, but Ben wallops it and Crystal deduces that it will fall harmlessly into the nearby river. The Wizard attacks again, but Crystal uses her “elemental force” on his anti-grav devices, sending him flying all over the city. He recovers and sends shock waves after her, which she stops by creating counter-shock waves. She then unleashes lightning bolts down onto him and fills his lungs with smoke. Johnny wraps up the Wizard is a fire lasso and Ben throws a piece of debris at the bad guy. The Wizard falls under the water, knows he’s been defeated, and flees.

Instead of pursuing the villain, Reed just does a “We haven’t seen the last of him!” He then apologizes to Crystal, and welcomes her as a full-fledged member of the team.

Unstable molecule: Aside from piloting the Fantasticar, Reed does nothing during the fight. I guess he’s being cautious now that he’s got a kid at home.

Fantastic fifth wheel: Crystal is the team’s first alternate member, setting the precedent for all kinds of “fill-in” guest heroes in the future. She reveals that she’s Medusa’s younger sister, which explains her role in the Inhumans’ royal family.

Clobberin’ time: When Crystal confronts Ben about making fun of Johnny, Ben comes clean and admits that he’s really the Torch’s biggest fan.

Flame on: Johnny is awfully eager to fight the Wizard. Remember, though, that the Wizard was Johnny’s arch-nemesis during his solo stories in Strange Tales, so there’s a lot of history there.

Commercial break: Clean AND fuzzy?

Trivia time: This issue contains an announcement that Marvel won big at the Society for Comic Art Research and Preservation Awards. Fantastic Four won Best Adventure Comic (Group) and Best Super-powered Group. Stan Lee won Best Writer and Best Editor, Jack Kirby won Best Pencil Artist, Joe Sinnott won Best Inker, and Dr. Doom won Best Villain with more than 50 percent of the vote. Way to go, FF!

Fantastic or frightful? The Wizard in this issue is just a generic villain, somebody who’s here just so the heroes have someone to fight. Similarly, the regular FF heroes are made to look weak and uncoordinated, only so Crystal can look awesome by comparison. The good news is that Crystal is pretty awesome. Her powers are still vaguely defined, but her steel intensity during the fight makes her a good balance against Johnny and Ben’s humor. Welcome to the team, girlfriend.

Next: A maximum makeover.

****

Want more? Check out my book, CINE HIGH, now available for the Kindle and the free Kindle app.