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Re-reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. Issue #35 is mostly silly, but brings about a major change for our heroes.

The tale begins with the Fantasticar landing at State University, which, we quickly learn, is Reed’s alma mater. Reed is there to give a lecture and his three teammates are tagging along. There’s a funny bit where lthe hot college girls swarm around Reed, asking for his autograph, while Johnny mopes because he’s too young for the coeds. He thinks, “I guess a high school kid is like nowhere with ‘em!”

We’re treated to a two-page bit where the FF run into Professor Charles Xavier, and one of Xavier’s students, Scott Summers. Reed is in admiration of the professor, and wonders what Xavier is up to in that school of his upstate. If it wasn’t for one reference Scott makes to looking for mutants, there’s little indication to give readers any sense that this is a crossover with Uncanny X-Men. Folks who’d never read X-Men might’ve had no idea who these two were.

Johnny flips out when he sees a scary shadow, but it’s just some artist’s statue. The artist says he’s imaging a superior life form. Forebodingly, we cut from there to Transylvania, where an explosion rocks the forest. Sinister masked chemist Diablo, last seen in issue #30, steps out of the destruction. He pulls a pellet from his glove, which somehow teleports him to America, so he can seek revenge against the FF. (Where this pellet came from and how it works is conveniently never explained.)

Back at the college, we get several pages of comedy shtick. Ben and Johnny bump into Peter Parker, but this time, there’s a caption letting readers know that Peter is really Spider-Man. Why didn’t Scott and Xavier get a caption? (Also, Peter is sporting a mean widow’s peak. He looks more like Eddie Munster than Peter Parker.)

Ben heads out onto the football field to teach some kids some moves, and Sue explores while invisible. She sees Diablo’s car drive past, and her, ugh, women’s intuition tells her to follow it. Diablo tracks down the artist from earlier, saying senses power in the artist’s creation. (Note that Diablo no longer wears his supervillain tights but is instead in plain clothes, although he’s still clearly the baddie thanks to his evil facial hair.) Diablo has a potion on him which he says can bring inanimate objects to life. It works, and we finally get to see this sculpture – it’s the Dragon Man, a big, scaly, winged monster. (In the great, grand tradition of Jack Kirby’s giant monsters, Dragon Man wears tiny shorts.)

Purely by coincidence, Ben wanders into the room at that moment, to encounter Diablo and Dragon Man. Dragon Man attacks, and Ben is no match. The monster throws him all over the place before flying off. Reed, Sue and Johnny join the pursuit. Dragon Man breathes fire at Johnny, which is too much for him to absorb. Reed and Sue work together to calm the monster down, discovering it’s a misunderstood beastie, and is a simple animal at heart. While she and Dragon Man do the King Kong/Fay Wray thing, Diablo attacks with a freeze potion, which Johnny overcomes with his flames. More fighting! Diablo is a pretty good match for our heroes, with a potion for every occasion. But then it’s poetic justice time as Dragon Man chases Diablo out onto a frozen lake and they both plunge beneath the surface.

The issue’s most famous scene comes on the last page, where Reed takes Sue on a walk down “Lover’s Lane” to see the “Sweetheart Tree.” Both of these locales are right on campus, we’re told. Reed gives a speech about how any couple who hold hands within sight of the Sweetheart Tree will be married within a year. (What is this thing, the Chteah?) Reed and Sue profess their love for each other. Although no question is actually popped, we’ll soon learn that this scene means these two are now engaged.

Unstable molecule: Within seconds of seeing Dragon Man for the first time, Reed immediately deduces that Diablo is behind all this. Wha-huh?

Fade out: Sue seems to have some trouble controlling her invisibility as she strolls around campus, strangely. Her beauty and the beast act with Dragon Man is cliché, but still kind of sweet.

Clobberin’ time: Ben does nothing but complain and then get his butt kicked all issue. Reed has to save him from falling in the frigid lake at the end.

Flame on: Johnny absorbs Dragon Man’s flames, only to discover they are too hot for him. He has to fly up into space to burn off the excess heat. It’s a very rare thing for temperatures to be too hot for the torch.

Trivia time: Dragon Man shows up quite often throughout Marvel history, usually as a gentle giant manipulated by someone else to fight heroes. He’s recently graduated to a full-on FF member in the current run, as part of the so-called “Future Foundation.”

Johnny knows Peter Parker as a young photographer, because the two had met just recently in Amazing Spider-Man #21.

Fantastic or frightful: Reed and Sue are engaged now, and a famous monster is introduced, but other than that, the story is a little ho-hum. The college setting is amusing, but there are all kinds of goofy coincidences that happen only to further the plot along. Not Stan and Jack’s best.

Next week: Party crashers!

****

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

Re-reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. In issue #34, our heroes take on a new villain, but it’s a two-page throwaway joke that makes this one famous.

At the Baxter Building, a mysterious box has arrived for the Thing from the Yancy Street Gang, and there’s a lot of anticipation about what mischief might be inside of it. Our heroes open the box, and… it’s a Beatle wig. Johnny thinks this is hilarious, and he and Ben tussle for a few panels before being broken up by Reed, in this usual “the characters need an excuse to show off their powers for a few pages at the start of the issue” thing. Once everyone’s settled down, Ben tries on the wig, and declares, “I’m a livin’ doll!”

Why is this a big deal? This issue was published at the height of Beatlemania in the ‘60s, and Beatle wigs were a fad within the fad. Folks bought the wigs like crazy, while others still wondered what was up with those mop-tops. The drawing of the Thing wearing the Beatle wig is one of the most reprinted images in FF history (and why shouldn’t it be? It’s hilarious).

Getting to the story proper, we meet Gideon, the world’s wealthiest man, inside his lavish office. There’s a funny bit where one billion dollars cash are being sent back to the mint, because Gideon prefers “only new bills.” Gideon announces his desire to conquer the world simply by buying everything that can be bought. I love that this isn’t a secret plan, but instead he just goes around telling everyone. Three rival businessmen give Gideon a challenge – one week to destroy the Fantastic Four.

Back at headquarters, Gideon’s plan is already under way as Reed discovers workmen dismantling all of the FF’s vehicles. This was ordered by Ben, who was tipped off that Reed has been replaced by a shape-changing Skrull. Ben won’t listen to reason, and the two of them fight.

Meanwhile, Sue stops her suburban house… wait, where did this house come from? She doesn’t live at the Baxter Building with her teammates? Inside, she finds a message telling her that Johnny has been replaced by one of Dr. Doom’s lookalike robots. Johnny conveniently shows up, and Sue confronts him. Johnny stupidly assumes that Sue is being controlled by the Puppet Master, and they fight.

Back at Gideon’s home, he gloats at how well his plan is going. His wife shows up and he snaps at her for interrupting his business. His son Thomas is there as well. Thomas has just bought a Fantastic Four comic book, and has declared that the FF are his favorite heroes. Outside, Sue and Johnny reunite with Reed and Ben out on the New York streets, and all four of them continue to fight. Gideon gloats some more while watching this from a distance. Thomas senses something is wrong, and he rushes out into the city, in the hopes of reaching the Baxter Building and telling the FF what’s really going on.

Remember those workmen? They’re on Gideon’s payroll, and they’re busy setting up a variation of Dr. Doom’s time machine inside the Baxter Building, as a trap for our heroes. Unfortunately, that’s when little Thomas blunders into the building. (So anyone can just go walking into the Baxter Building now? Is there no security? No locks? No alarms? No “Do not enter” sign?) He gets caught in the time machine. Ben tries to save the kid, and both of them vanish, lost in time.

Johnny chases off the workmen as Gideon arrives. Gideon freaks out, thinking he’ll never see his son again, and Reed lays it on thick with the moral speechifying. It’s all for naught, as Ben and Thomas reappear, having been returned to the present thanks to the machine’s “accidental recoil.” (That’s why Gideon is no Dr. Doom. Doom’s time machine actually worked.) Gideon sees the error of his way, agreeing to devote his entire fortune to charity. There’s even a callback to the issue’s start as Ben thinks, “I wonder how that cornball would look in my Beatle wig?”

Unstable molecule: During the fight, Reed escapes by turning his legs into wheels, which are really just big loops. I have no idea how this is supposed to work.

Fade out: Sue holds her own in the fight against her teammates, and later uses her invisible force fields to deflect one of the workmen’s bullets as he shoots at Reed.

Clobberin’ time: Ben survives a fall from a great height by bouncing, parkour-style, between two skyscrapers. Looks like fun.

Flame on: Johnny manages to spot Sue while she’s invisible by looking for her footprints as she runs across her grass front lawn. Good thinking.

Trivia time: Gideon would show up a few more times, but never become a major character. His son Thomas had a much longer history with Marvel, as he will later transform into the hippy-ish rainbow-themed space hero Glorian.

Fantastic or frightful: Gideon is an uninteresting villain, and the Fantastic Four make themselves look incredibly stupid by falling so easily into his trap. The Beatle wig, though, makes up for it.

Next week: The real Monsters University.

****

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

Re-reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. In the last few issues, we’ve seen Stan Lee working to add some genuine human drama to the superhero action, first by detailing Dr. Doom’s emotionally powerful origin, and then by the tragic tale of Sue and Johnny’s father. In issue #33, though, it’s back to wall-to-wall Kirby action with yet another trip to Atlantis.

The undersea action begins (where else?) in Reed’s lab, where he has a giant sea monster on a slab. It’s a newly-discovered form of sea life, he says, that the Coast Guard has given him to study. (This raises a lot of questions about how the Coast Guard operates, but let’s just move on.) The creature normally lives at the darkest depths, but something brought it to the surface.

Elsewhere, a cloaked figure also comes to the surface. It’s Lady Dorma, the long-lost love of Namor the Submariner. She was last seen in FF annual #1, where she and warlord Krang left Namor in exile to lead the Atlanteans to their new home. She’s come to ask the FF’s help. If they don’t come to her aid, she says, Namor will die. Apparently, off-panel, Namor found his lost people and took over once more as their leader. (Krang isn’t mentioned.) Things seem to be going well, until undersea barbarian Attuma shows up, declaring war on Namor. Dorma and Namor had a little lovers’ spat, and so she did a Benedict Arnold (make that a sexy underwater Benedict Arnold) and sold out Namor’s forces to Attuma. Feeling guilt over what she’d done, Dorma traveled to the surface to meet with the FF while Namor’s forces were losing the battle.

Fearing that Attuma will attack the surface world when he’s done with the Atlanteans, Reed agrees to help. He scientifically whips up a convenient “Oxo-spray” for his teammates to breath underwater. This even gives Johnny the power to use his powers in a pocket of oxygen around his skin. (I assume Reed knew there’d be more undersea adventures after their last Namor encounter, so he made this stuff ages ago).

The Four hop aboard their bathysphere (our heroes play Bioshock?) and head into the depths. We get a rare (for this era) full-page splash, with another one of those funky semi-photo illustrations, depicting the ocean floor, complete with goofy-looking fish. Attuma’s forces attack the FF’s ship, and it’s pretty all battle all the time for the rest of the issue.

The bathysphere is destroyed, and the breathing Oxo-spray will only give the FF thirty minutes of breathable air. (You’d think Reed would have mentioned this before they hit the ocean floor.) There’s a weird bit where Reed shapes his body into a giant stingray shape to get everyone across the battlefield. They reunite with Attuma’s forces, using a battering ram on Namor’s encampment. Namor fights back in a big way, trashing the battering ram and sending Attuma’s troops flying. Attuma’s ready for Namor, though, and uses the – are you ready for this one? – “globules of darkness” to blind Namor.

Elsewhere on the front lines, Sue uses her invisibility to do some reconnaissance and sabotage the enemy’s machinery. This frees up Namor to take on Attuma face-to-face, with Namor not even knowing the FF are helping him. He and Attuma duke it out while the FF manage to keep Attuma’s soldiers from interfering. Namor destroys Attuma’s big ol’ sword, but Attuma responds by sprouting a pair of laser beam-firing antennae (sure, why not?). Sue saved Namor’s aquatic bacon by turning him invisible. Namor somehow can’t tell he’s invisible and assumes Attuma has gone mad. Namor fights back and wins the fight.

The breathing devices start to run out of air, and we get two pages of the FF racing back to the surface. After the battle, Namor displays a rare moment of humility by asking for Dorma’s forgiveness.

Unstable molecule: Reed the center of the action for the first half of the issue, leading the journey into the ocean, and then the weird bit where he makes himself into a stingray shape to carry everyone else around.

Fade out: Sue’s power is used for stealth, something I’m surprised we haven’t seen more of. She still admits some feeling for Namor (not out loud, though), but she of course returns to Reed at the end.

Clobberin’ Time: Ben destroys Attuma’s deadly “Ionic ray” without breaking a sweat.

Flame on: Johnny faced with an interesting dilemma in that he can only use flame as sparingly as possible before it goes out underwater. His powers last long enough to save his teammates from an explosive grenade fired by Attuma’s soldiers.

Trivia time: It’s the first appearance of Attuma, obviously, who will go on to become an ongoing problem for Namor and other Marvel characters who visit the murky depths. The Marvel wiki informs me that Attuma’s triple-bladed sword weighs 50 pounds, so there’s that.

Fantastic or frightful? I actually like Attuma a lot. He’s this driven, powerful force. If Aquaman is DC Comic’s King Arthur of Atlantis, then Attuma is the Conan the Barbarian of Atlantis. You could argue that he’s a one-note villain, but that single-mindedness makes him a frightening foe. Add to that some further development in the Namor/Dorma romance and page upon page of big Jack Kirby action, and you’ve got a winner of an issue.

Next issue: “I’m a livin’ doll!”

****

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