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Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. Continuing our journey through Marvel Knights: 4, which was intended as a (somewhat) more grown-up interpretation of the FF. This is issues 15-24. The remainder of the series can wait until next week.  

Just as Franklin hits the winning run in his Little League game, weird temporal events happen all over the world. Reed is later contacted by the otherworldly bureaucrats of the Time Variance Authority. Mr. Mobius of the TVA says Earth is the epicenter of temporal problems throughout the multiverse. They say the problem is caused by the multiverse missing eight minutes of time. The FF hop on their time platform to investigate, with Reed promising Franklin this will only take a few minutes. The timestream fractures while they’re in transit, though. The heroes get split up in the timestream, while a man who says he is Ramades, son of Kang, shows up in the Baxter Building, claiming to have killed the FF thousands of years earlier.

As the next issue begins, the man says he didn’t kill the FF so much as he stranded them in the desert in ancient times. Cut to Reed, Sue, and Ben doing the desert survival thing while Johnny is missing elsewhere. In the present, Ramades extends his influence with an army of mummies, taking over the world’s governments. Then Reed’s long-lost father Nathaniel appears, saying he’s been looking everywhere for Reed.

While all this is going on, Johnny is in an alternate future where Dr. Doom has conquered the Earth. He’s rescued from Doombots by an adult Valeria, who has Sue’s powers. Johnny joins her resistance movement to fight Doom. They fight their way into Doom’s castle to Doom’s time machine, and Valeria gives her life so Johnny can use it to escape. In the past, Nathaniel brings dire warnings about Ramades, while Sue is frustrated about Nathaniel never being a good father to Reed. After an argument, Nathaniel transports everyone back to the present, right into Ramades’ hands.

Franklin, the help of a brand new H.E.R.B.I.E. the robot, finds a device containing the missing eight minutes of time. Our heroes reunite in the present and battle Ramades’ army. Franklin hits the eight minutes of time like a baseball. Ramades is trapped inside the eight minutes, and the TVA bureaucrats press an actual “reset” button to restore the timeline. Reed asks Nathaniel to stay and be proper father and grandfather to his family. Nathaniel refuses, saying “I’m too far along a certain path.”

The next story arc begins with Inhumans, where Gordon’s daughter Alecto and her friend Renyo steal a spaceship and travel from the moon to the Earth. They fly straight to FF headquarters to ask for help. They’re terrified of something in the Inhumans’ city of Attilan, but they won’t say what. Gorgon (who, let’s not forget, once singlehandedly defeated the entire FF) shows up for kids, and he and Sue fight. Turns out the two kids have a romance going, but they can’t be together because they’re from two different castes.

The kids take off into NYC, with the FF and Gorgon chasing them. While Sue and Gorgon bicker, Johnny finds the kids and brings them back. Gorgon wants to separate the kids upon returning to the moon. Sue wants to offer the kids sanctuary, fearing Gorgon and other Inhumans will harm them. But the FF have no jurisdiction. Black Bolt and Medusa arrive, and the FF return the children to Gorgon. Sue is frustrated because the kids came to them for help, and she feels they did nothing. Alecto undergoes the ritual of the Terrigen Mists, transforming her into a musclebound giant, and newest member of the Inhuman royal family. She tells Renyo “bloodlines are bloodlines” and asks him to never speak to her again.

The next storyline is Reed and Sue’s anniversary, except Reed is unexpectedly called away. Instead, it’s a night on the town with Sue and her girlfriends – Alicia, She-Hulk, Sharon Ventura (!), and Emma Frost of the X-Men (!!!). Sue says she’s never cheated on Reed, but Alicia says there was something going on between her and Black panther. There’s a flashback to the FF’s meeting with the Panther, where he takes her on a tour of Wakanda one night while everyone else is sleeping, and things do a get a little steamy. She goes back to Reed in the end, though. The flashback ends with Reed surprising Sue with her anniversary gift, flowers from another planet, and this is why he was gone all day.

The next story begins with reporter Ben Urich and private eye Jessica Jones recruiting Ben to investigate murders on Yancy Street, committed by a rock monster of some kind. Turns out it’s an ancient golem, brought back to life after being awakened by construction. Ben, with his Jewish background, befriends the monster and offers it a new home, lurking at the bottom of the East River.

 In the next issue, writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa includes himself in the story, as a recently hired Marvel writer struggling to come up with scripts for the Fantastic Four comics, based on the FF’s actual adventures. The FF battle evil duplicates of themselves, which turn out to be the Impossible Man and his partner, the Impossible Woman. The Impossibles kidnap Franklin and Valeria. Aguirre-Sacasa researches old Marvel comics and discovers that the Impossible Man created the Impossible Woman as a clone of himself to experience a similar love Reed and Sue have. Aguirre-Sacasa concludes that something tragic has happened to the Impossibles’ children, and that’s why they’ve taken Franklin and Val. He further deduces that the “tragedy” was merely their kids growing up and leaving home, and the Impossibles felt loneliness for the first time. The FF rescue the kids, who never in any real danger, and then they invite Aguirre-Sacasa to dinner with them and the entire Impossible clan.

Unstable molecule: A flashback scene to Reed’s childhood shows Nathaniel being a jerk dad. More interestingly, it’s a rare glimpse at Reed’s mother, Evelyn Richards. The Marvel Wiki states that she was a scientist alongside Nathaniel, and she died when Reed was only 7 years old.

Fade out: One scene has Sue meeting with Hollywood executives about a potential Fantastic Four blockbuster film. This is a jokey scene that takes shots at the Roger Corman-produced Fantastic Four movie, which was cheaply made and never officially released.

Clobberin’ time: The golem storyline leans heavily on Ben’s Jewish background. It ends on a sour note, as he tells Ben Urich and Jessica Jones to stay away from him.

Flame on: In the alternate future, Johnny fights Dr. Doom, burning so hot that he cooks Doom inside his armor. Except, surprise, turns out that was just another Doombot.

Fantastic fifth wheel: Medusa is friendly and chatty with Sue at first, but when things get serious, she puts on her regal act when speaking on behalf of Black Bolt.

Interesting to see Sharon Ventura show up again. She was written off as living in Wyatt Wingfoot’s tribe’s reservation, where she was learning inner peace and dealing with her PTSD. I guess there’s no reason why she can’t take a teleporter or Fantasticar to NYC for a visit. She does say she thought the FF forgot her number, which strikes me as rather sad.

It’s a little tricky sorting out where She-Hulk is in continuity during this time. She pops up in cameos in Avengers, Defenders, and of course, Fantastic Four. Her next appearance after this will be in the House of M crossover event, and shortly after that, she’ll get her own series again, where she joins the law firm of Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg & Holliway.

Tracking the history of Impossible Man is even trickier, since the character is so often used for parody and fourth wall-breaking stories. The tale of him creating Impossible Woman by cloning himself was told in Marvel Two-In-One #60. Their children, known only as the Impossible Kids, first appeared in Marvel Two-In-One #86, and were prominently featured in the Impossible Man Summer Vacation parody comic.

Nathaniel Richards is back, after unceremoniously being written out of the series during the Onslaught crossover. Since then, he’s been time traveling, having all kinds of adventures that only he is privy to. He’ll be back for more during the Jonathan Hickman run on Fantastic Four.

And, yes, Reed has built a new version of H.E.R.B.I.E. the robot. This one is humanoid, complete with legs. Later, when his head is removed, his head sprouts spider legs so he can get around. Freakin’ H.E.R.B.I.E. the robot.

Four and a half: Franklin continues to be a budding athlete. He plays Little League baseball in the first story arc, and in the next one he’s shown playing soccer.

Our gal Val: The alternate-future version of Valeria is reminiscent of the Marvel Girl version of the character we met during Chris Claremont’s run, although this isn’t mentioned outright.

Trivia time: How are Sue and Emma Frost friends? They met in the manga-style X4 miniseries. I’d thought that was an alternate universe, like all the Marvel Mangaverse stuff, but I guess not.

Fantastic or frightful? Now that the initial premise of the Fantastic Four dealing with real-life problems is over, writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa seems to be using the series to tell whatever kinds of FF stories he likes. So we get a time travel story that tears apart the entire Marvel Universe and puts it back together, some slice-of-life stories, and then a wink-at-the-audience comedy tale. It’s a lot to take in, but I must admit I’m enjoying this series.

Next: Dr. Strangehead.

• * * * *

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Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. Time for a different and more grown-up version of our heroes (or is it?) in Marvel Knights: 4.

What’s all this, then? Marvel never quite figured out how to compete with DC’s edgy Vertigo imprint. There was Marvel Max, featuring adults-only stories starring characters such as the Punisher, Nick Fury, and even Howard the Duck. Max also gave us Alias, with the debut of Jessica Jones. Similarly, the Marvel Knights line gave select characters a “hard PG-13” treatment, beginning with Kevin Smith and Joe Quesada’s Daredevil. Other titles included Black Panther, Inhumans, Wolverine, more Punisher, and a team book simply called Marvel Knights. And then the FF had a turn with 30 issues of Marvel Knights: 4. This was a (somewhat) more grounded and serious take on the characters, running concurrently with the far-out and fantastical stuff Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo were doing on the main series.  

After their controversial takeover of Latveria, the Fantastic Four’s PR hit rock bottom and they lost their fortune. They are so broke, in fact, that they are evicted from the new Baxter Building, and they all need regular jobs. Ben works construction, Johnny tries to get his acting career restarted, and Sue becomes a substitute teacher. Reed withdraws into himself, obsessed with finding a way to turn things back around. He eventually agrees to take a job at a law firm, as their office’s computer tech guy.

Reed is then contacted by mobster Hammerhead, who says the FF were scammed out of their fortune by Terry Giocometti, who recently stole his fortune as well. Johnny, with no acting gigs to be found, once again begins training as a NYC firefighter. Then there’s several issues of the family going on a camping trip, where the encounter an alien who is the true source of the Jersey Devil urban legend. They defeat the alien, and this is a romantic/bonding moment for Reed and Sue.  

The second story arc begins with Johnny struggling to fit in as a firefighter. Then Namor the Submariner shows up unannounced in Sue’s classroom. It’s the same old story. Namor wants to Sue to leave Reed and come live with him in Atlantis. Reed hears about this, and he and Namor fight. Johnny breaks up the fight and enlists the two of them to help the NYFD search for a missing child who fell through a frozen lake. They’re too late to save the child, but they do manage to set aside their differences.

Things get spooky in the next storyline, when all the characters have the same nightmares. Psycho-Man has returned to New York, and he is looking for way to return to his home universe of Sub-Atomica. Then reality itself starts to unravel around the city as Psycho-Man taps into people’s emotions and then makes their emotional states warp their surroundings (or something). The crisis gets so extreme that even the sun is blotted out.

Reed deduces that Psycho-Man is causing all this chaos from inside the Baxter Building. The FF storms their former home to fight back, with Psycho-Man attacking them with more nightmare imagery. Sue confronts Psycho-Man, only it isn’t Sue but Alicia disguised as Sue. This allowed Sue to foil Psycho-Man’s plans while invisible. On the roof of the Baxter Building, Reed and Sue have heart-to-heart chat, where Reed says that although this time in their life has been challenging, their family has “blossomed.” Sue agrees, saying that their family doesn’t really want to be normal anyway.

The next issue begins with FF back in the Baxter Building, as their finances are now again on the upswing. The Puppet Master, meanwhile, has abducted Alicia and coerced a doctor into performing experimental eye transplants to cure Alicia’s blindness. In their wake, Daredevil finds corpses of eyeless bodies around New York. While the rest of the FF are off in space, Puppet Master mind-controls Sue with one of his puppets. He plans on replacing Alicia’s eyes with Sue’s. Alicia manages an escape by using Puppet Master’s mind-controlling clay against him. The FF and Daredevil show up to free the doctor. Reed offers to try to replicate the eye replacement surgery, but Alicia’s answer is simply, “I don’t think so.”

And that’s the issues 1-14 of Marvel Knights: 4. I’ll attempt to cover 15-30 next week. We’ll see.

Unstable molecule: Reed’s talk of hacking the stock market never comes of anything. Seems out of character for him. His rarely seen teaching and lecturing gigs never come up in the job search, so I guess we can chalk that up to the FF’s poor PR during this time.

Fade out: What’s the deal with Alicia impersonating Sue? Remember that when Alicia was first introduced, a big deal was made about her and Sue looking so alike they could be twins. Most Marvelites forgot this detail over the years, but the creators of Marvel Knights: 4 didn’t.

Clobberin’ time: Ben’s subplot as a construction worker is that he’s doing such a good job he’s making his coworkers look bad. It’s at the construction site where he’s the first one to find the sinkholes and tentacle monsters created by Psycho-Man.

Flame on: I’m unclear as to how or when Johnny becoming a firefighter in this series lines up with his firefighter training in the recent Human Torch miniseries. In the mini, though, he trained alongside the firefighters, but never actually got a job with them.

Four and a half: The series begins with Franklin’s birthday party (his age isn’t given), where Reed gives him an old-timey kid’s wagon that was his when he was a kid. Franklin doesn’t like the wagon at first, but later he takes it to school to show off the other kids, revealing he’s proud of his dad.

Fantastic fifth wheel: Crystal is mentioned babysitting the kids on the moon, while the FF still have access to their teleporter in the last few days before being evicted.

Speaking of being evicted, H.E.R.B.I.E. the robot is among the junk seen being carried out by movers. Freakin’ H.E.R.B.I.E. the robot.

Trivia time: Who is this guy Terry Giocometti, who is allegedly behind the FF being evicted and who has wronged Hammerhead? I have no clue. The Marvel Wiki states that this series is the only time he’s mentioned, and that he never actually appears in any comic. (Maybe Hammerhead gave him the old cement shoes treatment.)

While some Marvel Knights and Marvel Max series were designated alternate realities, Marvel Knights: 4 is in regular continuity. The Marvel Wiki states that this entire series occurs between issues 516 and 517 of Fantastic Four.

Fantastic or frightful? Although slower-paced than most superhero comics – dialogue scenes to go on for multiple pages – Marvel Knights: 4 is a great read. The first part is best, as our heroes must deal with “normal life” stuff. The return to the Baxter Building and their wealth is abrupt, feeling like an editorial mandate. The later issues lean toward the horror genre, with the Puppet Master story being especially dark and violent. These feel a little rushed and out-of-place for Fantastic Four. Another mixed bag.

Next: Time keeps on slippin’.

• * * * *

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Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. Occasionally, somebody at Marvel remembers the popularity of the 1930s Human Torch, which rivaled Superman at the time. This leads to attempts to turn Johnny into a bigger deal. That’s the idea behind the Human Torch 12-issue miniseries written by Karl Kesel, and art by Skottie Young, Joseph Dodd, Howard Porter, and Paco Medina.

The first story arc flashes back to Johnny’s high school days in the small town of Glenville. Yes, this is a throwback to the barely-in-continuity Strange Tales solo stories, in which Johnny had small-town superhero adventures, complete with a secret identity. In this retelling, Johnny is the school troublemaker, running afoul of star athlete Mike Snow. Johnny reveals he is the famous Human Torch of the Fantastic Four in front of the whole school, only intensifying his rivalry with Snow. Snow confronts Johnny during a snowstorm, somewhat appropriately. They fight, only for Johnny to lose control of his powers and seriously burn Snow.

In the present, Johnny test-drives a new rocket car while being pestered by sleazy tabloid reporter Sheila Donner. A grown-up Mike Snow shows up at the Baxter Building, still scarred from that fight. He’s now an NYC firefighter, and he asks for Johnny’s help investigating a firefighter who spontaneously burned alive. Johnny and Snow do the detective thing, while Johnny helps the fire department. During a fire, the flames act on their own, targeting a specific firefighter. Johnny concludes that some unseen intelligence is controlling the flame, and that he’s never seen anything like this before.  

While on a training exercise, Johnny and the others are attacked, with the villain making herself known. It’s a woman dressed head to toe in black, calling herself Firefox. She says she wants revenge on the NYFD for not acknowledging her genius fire-controlling tech. Johnny captures her, but she threatens to sue if he unmasks her, violating privacy laws. Johnny flies off with Firefox, where we learn she’s really Sheila Donner. Moreover, the Firefox thing is a ruse to find the real killer, with Johnny faking all of Firefox’s fire effects.

Johnny and Snow fight another fire, while Sheila investigates Snow’s girlfriend Rose, who was spotted at the scene of the murder after denying she’d been there. Snow follows the clues to a warehouse to learn that Rose is the real killer. She was born with fire powers, not knowing if they’re magic or if she’s a mutant. She says she did it all out of her love for Snow. After a fight, Snow is still in love with Rose and he sides with her. They try to make a run for it, with Johnny in pursuit. Rose realizes she can’t ruin Snow’s life, so Rose blows herself up (!) so Snow can have his life back. Later, Snow reveals that that he was burned ended up being a good thing because it put him on the path to being a firefighter. He relocates to Portland, a.k.a. the city of roses.

In the second story arc, Johnny and Jian, his business partner in Fantastic Four Inc., journey to a small town in the Balkans. A science organization called the Locust Project set up shop in a nearby castle with plans to end world hunger, only for everyone to disappear. Johnny and Jian investigate, attacked by automatons and giant spiders. He’s knocked out and awakened in an underground city. He meets the Locust King, named Ambrose, and his daughter Shyla. Johnny is quick to learn that he and the whole underground city have been shrunk down to Ant-Man size, and that’s Ambrose’s plan for ending world hunger.

When Johnny tries to escape, he, Jian, and Ambrose are taken captive by the automatons, under Shyla’s control. Shyla plans to take over Project Locust herself. Johnny leads something of a rebellion of all the people that Shyla has enslaved (!). Hugo, a villager they met at the start of the story, drops a rock on Project Locust an destroys it. The enlarging machine, located outside the city, returns everyone to normal, and back to the Balkan village. There’s a joke about how Jian thinks Johnny is a little bit taller.

The third story arc of the series begins with Johnny responding to an emergency call on one of those big ocean drilling platforms. Scientists there were experimenting with teleportation when the whole thing exploded. Johnny puts out the fire with his powers. He investigates and finds Atlanteans unconscious all around the scene, including… Namorita! This is interesting because Namorita (cousin to the Submariner and member of the New Warriors) is Johnny’s ex-girlfriend. Their romance lasted for years in real-world time, except that their relationship occurred almost entirely off-panel, in both Fantastic Four and New Warriors. These issues of Human Torch are their most significant interaction with one another.

When Namorita comes to, she explains that Atlantis worked alongside the human scientists to show that Atlantis is just as advanced and important as the likes of Wakanda. Turns out this experiment was to open a portal to the Negative Zone. Johnny says this is too dangerous, that merging Earth with the anti-matter of the Negative Zone could destroy everything. Then the portal opens again, powered by someone on the other side.

A female form appears in the portal, and one scientist says that it’s an anti-matter echo of Namorita. There’s a lot of action as the heroes and the scientists try to prevent the anti-matter from clashing with Earth’s matter. Namorita feels drawn to the echo until Johnny drops her into the water. This brings her back to her senses. She fights her ill-defined attraction to the echo while Johnny and the scientists destroy the portal. In th wreckage, the scientists find Johnny and Namorita kissing (wa-HEY!).

Johnny and Namorita have a heart-to-heart talk. He wants them to get back together, and he invites her to move in with him. She insists that she’s her own woman and not merely the Fantastic Four’s sidekick. He says the two of them are like matter and anti-matter, opposites who can’t be together but who are nonetheless drawn to each other.

In the final issue, Ben and Johnny attend a football game at State University, when they’re attacked by Dragon Man. Professor Gilbert, Dragon Man’s creator, thought Dragon Man could be controlled, but now he wants it killed. Johnny and Ben say they won’t kill – not even a giant android dragon. While waiting in Gilbert’s lab, Ben and Johnny discuss how Johnny never finished college even though his grades were excellent. Then Dragon Man attacks again, along with Gilbert’s newest android creation, a beast named Zzord. Dragon Man fights Zzord while Gilbert is revealed to be a Skrull in disguise. Johnny defeats the Skrull while Dragon Man destroys Zzord and rescues the real Gilbert. The dean offers Johnny an honorary degree, but Johnny refuses it, wanting to earn one the real way.

Unstable molecule/Fade out: Reed and Sue only appear in a dream Johnny has when unconscious. At the drilling platform, Reed is unavailable because he’s lecturing in Brussels, and Sue can’t make it because she’s helping refugees in Rwanda.

Clobberin’ time: Ben gets tossed out of the lab during the Dragon Man and Zzord fight, disappearing for the rest of the battle. He says he never would have graduated college without Reed’s help, and the degree meant that he was more than a dumb jock from Yancy Street. The reason why he’s not on the drilling platform is because he was bowling in Brooklyn.

Flame on: Is Johnny Marvel’s equivalent of Superman or not? I’m going to say not. A running thread throughout this series is him wondering if just him on his own is enough to save the day. He really struggles with this in the Project Locust story. One of the reasons why the Marvel Universe is so great is that no one hero is top dog the way Superman is over at DC.

Trivia time: There’s a running joke about how tall Johnny is, whether he’s 5’9, 5’10, or 5’11. Our old friend The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Deluxe Edition settles the debate by stating he’s 5’10.

Namorita has blue skin in this, when she’s normally portrayed as more human-looking. Johnny asks her about this, and she says, “It’ll wear off.” The Handbook states that most Atlanteans have blue complexions, but there are a lot of exceptions, including human-looking ones, and green-skinned ones.

Fantastic or frightful? Although only the first arc is a mystery, Karl Kesel writes the whole thing like they’re mysteries, with a lot of red herrings and surprise twists. This makes the comic a little hard to follow at times. Skottie Young’s art is cartoonish, but not as much as more popular stuff. Old-school fans will like the Strange Tales throwback, but I think the most interesting part is the Johnny/Namorita stuff, finally seeing what was only suggested for so long. So, it’s not perfect, but it’s an entertaining read nonetheless.

Next: Fantastically broke.

• * * * *

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Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. It’s our third and final go-around with Marvel’s “Startling Stories” line, and the second one featuring good old Ben Grimm. The Thing: Night Falls on Yancy Street puts our favorite rock monster through the ringer.

What’s all this, then? Startling Stories were comics for non-Marvel creators to tell Marvel stories in their own styles. This one is written by indie comics sensation Evan Dorkin, creator of Milk and Cheese, The Eltingville Cub, and his packed-with-gags joke strip simply called Dork. Artist Dean Haspiel has had a wild career, dabbling in all sorts of things. He collaborated with Harvey Pekar on American Splendor, and his own works include the long-running Billy Dogma series, The Alcoholic for Vertigo, and webcomic The Red Hook. On TV, he won an Emmy award for his work on HBO’s Bored to Death.

After a short retelling of the FF’s origin from Ben’s perspective, we start with Ben as he stands among the flaming wreckage of what used to be Yancy Street. Then we flash back to the FF fighting Red Ghost and the Super-Apes aboard a satellite. After saving the day, Ben muses about how the routine never ends, and how he’s tired of being the one who always takes a beating for the team. Back home, Ben muses about how he’ll never have a normal life. He visits Alicia, who has a seeing eye dog named Silver. Alicia tries to calm him down, but he’s too angry. He then goes back to the old neighborhood on Yancy Street, where pranksters throw eggs and rotten vegetables at him.

When threatening to beat up the Yancy Street Gang, Ben meets a woman in a dumpster (!) who can look inside the cracks in his rocky skin. Inside, she sees a desert with pyramids, and her and Ben meeting in front of them. Back in the present, the woman, named Hazel, says she’s scavenging dumpsters for items to use in her landscape design business. She found an intriguing stone head. She patches up Ben’s torn coat, in exchange for him giving her a tour of Yancy Street. They go for lunch, and she says he’s a lot nicer than the tabloids. She tells him about losing her parents at a young age, and her life as an artsy type. That night, they go to Coney Island, and Hazel tells Ben she finds him incredibly attractive. Then a mysterious wind kicks up and she insists on going home, all while a shadowy figure watches them.

Issue #2 begins with Ben working up the courage to call Hazel. They agree to meet for an afternoon in Central Park. He ends up running late when the old “flying bathtub” Fantasticar break down on the way. They meet the volunteer group Hazel does landscaping for, and they spend the afternoon working with them. He takes her a flight in the Fantasticar, and he commiserates about being a monster. She tells him, “You’re plenty human.” She wants to kiss him, but they’re interrupted by the “4” symbol in the sky. He drops her off and joins his teammates as they fight Dragon Man.

Later, back at HQ, Ben is relatively chill, feeling happier than he has in a long time. He then gets a phone call from Alicia. He doesn’t want to talk to her. He snaps at Reed, saying doesn’t want to help him, only to use him in Reed’s adventures. He threatens to leave the team. He meets with Hazel back in the part, and she asks him to always stay near her. Then the Sandman attacks, revealing that he’s Hazel’s ex-boyfriend. He and Ben fight for a pages before Ben uses a water tower to turn Sandman into mud. Hazel is heartbroken after having her secret revealed. She asks Ben, “Do you still want to know me?” Before he can answer, he’s attacked by the Wizard, the Absorbing Man, and Paste-Pot Pete, um I mean the Trapster – a new Frightful Four!

Issue #3 starts with the Trapster incapacitating Ben with his super-glue while the others talk about “the Baxter job.” A small army of cops show up, and the Frightful Four fight them. Ben recovers and joins the fight. The Wizard hits Ben with sleeping gas, just as Absorbing Man moves in Hazel. He has a dream of Hazel turning him human again, only for them to get buried in sand. Ben wakes inside an abandoned Yancy Street bowling alley, which is the Frightful Four’s secret hideout. Hazel is there, and she apologizes to Ben for not telling him everything. She feared that if he knew about her and Sandman, he wouldn’t have liked her. Sandman recovers, and the Frightful Four fight for a bit. Wizard breaks it up, saying he has taken “precautions” against disloyalty.

Ben and Sandman argue about Hazel, while the Wizard reveals his plan is to break into the Baxter Building and steal the Ultimate Nullifier, which Reed once used to scare off Galactus. Ben says Reed doesn’t have the Nullifier, but the Wizard doesn’t believe him. The Wizard then offers Ben to turn Ben human again if Ben helps the Frightful Four. Ben refuses and the villains torture him (!). The Wizard then threatens to harm Hazel if Ben doesn’t cooperate. Ben reluctantly agrees. The Frightful Four head into the city, with Absorbing Man staying behind to watch Hazel. Ben’s mission is simply to get inside the Baxter Building, steal stuff, and walk out with it. Inside, he gets a message from Alicia. She wants to know what’s happening between them. In the FF’s trophy room, he finds the Nullifier and walks out with it. He’s then confronted by the Yancy Street Gang, their faces hidden in shadow. They say they want to talk about Hazel.

At the start of issue #4, the Yancy Streeters say Hazel herself is original Yancy Street. Ben chases them off, not wanting them to get involved. He meets us with Trapster, who finds an FF signal flare in Ben’s coat. It’s a distraction, allowing Ben to destroy Trapster’s glue gun. Trapster gives up Hazel’s location. Ben finds the Frightful Four there, and he hands over the Nullifier. The villains fight with each other over who gets to use it, only to Hazel to grab it.

Then we learn that Hazel and Absorbing Man had a deal, she agrees to stick with him to save Ben and Sandman. Absorbing Man then reveals that Hazel has a fascination with heroes and villains with rocky-hard skin. Hazel presses the button the Nullifier, and… nothing happens. Ben says this is a decoy Nullifier, made to bluff Galactus.

Ben and the rest of the Frightful Four team up to fight Absorbing Man, who absorbed Hazel’s diamond earring, making him strong as a diamond. He fights off the other villains, and then he and Ben go at it for several pages, trashing buildings up and down Yancy Street as they fight. Hazel returns, saying that Ben betrayed her feelings, and that she’s siding with Absorbing Man. But it’s a trick – she switched her diamond earring with a glass one, turning Absorbing Man to glass when he touched it. Ben punches out Absorbing Man, but Hazel is injured in the blow. She says, “I never meant to hurt anyone… I just wanted to be happy.” Then, tragically, she dies in Ben’s arms.

Ben wanders the streets alone, ending up back at Coney Island, and wishing all the stars in the night sky would go out, until there is “nothing left at all.” And on that dour note, the comic ends.

Trivia time: It’s impossible to sort out when and where this miniseries takes place, as Dorkin and Haspiel mix and match elements from various eras of FF history into this, to play around with as they please. The Marvel Wiki doesn’t even try, listing this entire story as an alternate universe.

Fantastic or Frightful? Who would’ve thought the creator of the famously mean-spirited Eltingville Club could conjure up such a heartfelt romance as seen in this series? Evan Dorkin writes with his heart on his sleeve this time. Then there’s the action. I breezed through a lot of it in my summary, but the slugfests are great. Cleanly drawn and choreographed, and with the characters using their powers in a lot of neat ways. I wonder if the ending sets up a part two that never happened, but either way this is a terrific read.

Next: Fire and water.

• * * * *

Want more? Check out my new ongoing serial, THE SUBTERKNIGHTS, on Kindle Vella. A man searches for his missing sister in a city full of far-out technology and hidden dark magic. The first three chapters are FREE, so give it a shot! Click here for a list of all my books and serials.

Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. It’s another visit to Marvel’s “Startling Stories” line, which non-Marvel creators told Marvel stories in their own styles. Thing: Last Line of Defense gets to the heart of our favorite rock monster.

What’s all this, then? This one-shot is from writer Ron Zimmerman, who sadly recently died. He has a huge list of television writing and producing credits in multiple genres from the 80s through the 2000s. He went on to write Spider-Man, Punisher, and Captain comics for Marvel. And yes, he was once in a very public relationship with celebrity superstar Cher. Artist Don Kramer mostly worked for DC, drawing JSA, Wonder Woman, Dr. Fate, Nightwing, and more.

The comic begins in New York, in Stan’s Bar (Get it?) where Ben is hanging out with Nick Fury. Fury is asking for Ben’s help, but Ben tells him to call someone else, as he has upcoming vacation plans. Fury says this gig is in Ben’s wheelhouse, and that Ben doesn’t have a choice. He’s to report to Fort Duke army base immediately.

Ben shows up at the base and meets Corporal Charlie Proctor, his driver. They banter while on a long drive through the desert. Charlie asks if being a superhero is fun, and Ben says it often falls on him to do grunt work. There are exceptions, though, and he tells Charlie about one night when the police called him to help fight the Wrecker in Times Square. Ben clobbers the Wrecker and is celebrated as a hero.

Charlie says he’s an army brat, coming from a family of army brats. He envies Ben, saying superheroes don’t have to take orders from anyone. Ben disagrees, telling a story of how the US President once ordered the FF to handle a crisis in Attilan, the Inhumans’ secret city. Reed outfitted Ben with flying rocket shoes for this mission, which malfunction and make Ben look foolish. He meets with Gorgon – who, let’s not forget, once singlehandedly defeated the entire FF. Gorgon says the US Army is threatening the Inhumans. Gorgon is outraged, and he and Ben fight. Karnak and Triton show up, saying that they are preparing for battle against the US soldiers. Ben and Gorgon fight for a bit more before Medusa arrives and breaks them up.

Ben talks with Medusa, asking her to let him talk to the President and to General Thunderbolt Ross to ease the tension. Ben and Medusa are quite flirtatious, saying if they were not already in relationships, they might have something together. They hug and instead agree to remain just friends. Black Bolt then arrives, and thinks the hug is something more. He attacks Ben. They fight, with the other Inhumans cracking jokes from the sidelines. Medusa insists they break up the brawl.

Back in the present, Charlie keeps asking whether Ben and Medusa actually hooked up, and Ben insists they never did. Charlie continues to be jealous of Ben, saying Ben can anywhere he wants and do anything he wants. Ben says it’s not the powers that matter, but what’s in your heart. Then it’s another flashback, to when Sue was pregnant with Franklin. (The Inhumans vs. army plot goes unresolved.) Sue grouses about Reed going on adventures while she stays home, and Ben reminds her how much Reed loves her. Then Blastaar the Living Bomb-burst comes through the Negative Zone portal on a mission to kill both Sue and the baby. Ben fights the villains while Sue contacts Avengers mansion. Blastaar confronts Sue, but Ben protects her, saying that the FF is first and foremost a family.

Back in the present, Ben and Charlie sense an Earthquake, and they see a strange object in the sky. Ben tells Charlie to retreat, adding “That’s an order!”  With him out of the way, Ben prepares for a fight. The object in the sky is the Hulk, on a rampage and coming down from one of his giant leaps. Ben wraps things up by saying, “Time to go to work.”

Clobberin’ time: Sorting out when and where these flashbacks take place is a continuity headache, especially the Inhumans one. Remember that these are stories Ben is telling Charlie, so I’m willing to concede that Ben is exaggerating and/or misremembering.

Fade out: During Sue’s first pregnancy, she spent a lot of time away from the main cast, often not appearing for multiple issues. It’s nice to see that she wasn’t totally sidelined during that time and still got a little superhero-ing in.  

Flame on: Johnny shows up for one scene at the beginning, to say he’s not joining Ben on Fury’s mission. This illustrates how often it falls to Ben to the grunt work.

Fantastic fifth wheel: I don’t recall any sexual tension between Ben and Medusa in the past, but this comic makes a good case for it. Medusa says she feels a kinship with Ben because ordinary humans think he is a monster, and they treat her and the Inhumans the same way. Humorously, Ben compares Medusa to Wonder Woman, explaining to her that’s a character from “the funny books.”

Trivia time: This is the only appearance of Corporal Charlie Proctor, even though the Marvel Wiki gives him his own entry. That’s too bad, as he’s a fun sidekick for Ben.

Gorgon wears just a loin cloth (!), revealing what fans suspected all along, that he doesn’t have human legs, but full-on super-strong horse hooves for legs.

Triton mentions romancing an Atlantean woman named Flama. She has no Wiki entry, so it’s a safe bet she’s never seen or mentioned again.

Fantastic or frightful? The comic starts with emphasis on Ben being the one who always does “grunt work,” but then he makes the point to Charlie that even a basic grunt simply following orders can still be a hero. It’s a quick, lighthearted read, with some truly gorgeous art.

Next: Still more startling.

• * * * *

Want more? Check out my new ongoing serial, THE SUBTERKNIGHTS, on Kindle Vella. A man searches for his missing sister in a city full of far-out technology and hidden dark magic. The first three chapters are FREE, so give it a shot! Click here for a list of all my books and serials.

Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. What if the Fantastic Four were real people, without all the superpowers and whatnot? That’s the scenario in the four-part Unstable Molecules miniseries.

What’s all this, then? Unstable Molecules was part of Marvel’s “Startling Stories” line, where creators not normally associated with Marvel were invited to tell Marvel stories in their own style. This included Richard Corben’s Banner, a horror comic with the Hulk as the monster, and Peter Bagge’s The Megalomaniacal Spider-Man, using the Spidey characters to parody the writings of Ayn Rand. Unstable Molecules comes to us from writer James Sturm, co-founder of the Center for Cartoon Studies in Vermont, and artist Guy Davis, best known for Vertigo’s Sandman Mystery Theater.

It’s Columbia University, 1958. Reed Richards is a scientist studying subatomic particles. Susan Storm and her brother Johnny live in a house in the suburbs. Ben Grimm lives in an apartment in the city with his new girlfriend Myrna. Reed gives a presentation about new particles he has discovered, which could be used to make a futuristic new textile. We also learn about Reed’s former colleague, Dr. Victor Dunne, who claimed to be co-creator of Reed’s new microscope. Reed shoots down other questions, insisting this is not science fiction.

Reed and Sue have been dating, and Reed invites her to a faculty cocktail party. She agrees to go, even though it conflicts with her women’s club meeting that night. She’s also having a tough time raising Johnny on her own, as he’s rebellious and doesn’t want to go to school. He has a crush on neighbor girl Dorrie Evans, shows an interest in cars, and is bullied by some local goons. Ben, meanwhile, works at a gym, training boxers and arranging boxes matches. One match conflicts with his date night with Myrna.  

A government stooge invites Reed to the Pentagon (!) where he meets with General Twining. The general wants Reed to relocate to Huntsville, Alabama, to put his research to use in fighting the Cold War. Johnny learns that a hot rodder named Joey King is back in town, and this spells trouble for everyone.

Issue #2 begins with Sue conflicted over having to sacrifice so much of her time for Reed and Johnny. She bickers with a disapproving old lady who lives next door, and says she feels like a stranger in her own home. This is intercut with panels from Vapor Girl, a superhero comic book Johnny enjoys. Then we meet Sue’s women’s group, who also bicker with each other, with the older women disapproving of the younger ones. One of the women breaks down in tears, hiding some shameful secret.

Sue then learns Johnny and his friend Richard has been arrested after reckless driving around town. Sue tries to contact Reed, only to learn he unexpectedly left town. She then meets with Ben, who is a friend and a surrogate big brother to Johnny. We learn Reed and Ben are former college roommates. Ben was also invited to college cocktail party thanks to his former glory as a college athlete. Sue meets Myrna, who seems jealous of Sue, but Sue invites them both to the party. Johnny is not going to party, as Sue grounds him. He responds, “I hate you.” At the store, Sue runs into the oft-mentioned Joey King, and we learn that once had a fling. There are several pages devoted to Sue drowning in sadness as she prepares for the party, which is apparently at her house.

In issue #3, the narration is from Richard as an adult, reflecting on 1960s Fantastic Four comics and their similarities with Sue and Johnny. Richard has a bit of a crush on Sue. Richard dislikes his low-income single mother, and he dwells on comic book villains always swearing revenge on the heroes. Although Johnny is grounded, he and Richard go for a walk around town, running into the bullies again. They lead the bullies on a chase, eventually stealing the bullies’ car and driving off with it.

Johnny and Richard ditch the car and head to a beach party, where Johnny disappears. He finds Johnny with Joey King, talking about leaving town, and Joey fascination with Sue. Joey is apparently also a Jack Kerouac and/or beat poet type, ranting about love and fire, and Johnny is transfixed by his words. Johnny wants to leave town with Joey, and Richard fantasizes himself as a comic book villain, murdering all the beat poets. The bullies find Johnny and Richard and beat them up.

Issue #4 begins with Myrna breaking up with Ben, kicking over a table and smashing his dishes while she’s at it. Ben hits the bar with his friend Lester, commiserating over how none of his relationships last long. Lester asks about Sue, and Ben says she’s off limits because “She’s my buddy’s lady.” Ben flirts with the waitress at the bar, and he loses his temper when she rejects him.

Then it’s time for the big cocktail party. All the Columbia scientists – except for Reed – mill about in Sue’s house, and she’s even flirty with one of them. Kay, the crying one from the women’s group, is also there. Kay reveals that her husband is the one who draws the Vapor Girl comics, so Sue invites him and his work buddies to join the party. One of Reed’s coworkers tries to grope Sue, but Ben shows up and chases him off.

The comic book artists join the party, including “Stan, Jack, Art and Harvey.” Ben pitches Stan on a monster comic starring himself. Kay’s husband, Roy, jokes around with Sue’s disapproving neighbor lady, who comes over to complain about a car blocking her driveway. Sue goes upstairs to fetch Johnny, only to discover Johnny has run off.

Reed is in a taxi, back in town and heading to the party. He’s planning on proposing to Sue. Sue breaks down in front of Ben, saying she feels Johnny hates him and that Reed treats her like she is invisible. Ben comforts her, and they kiss. At that moment, Reed shows up at the party and goes looking for Sue.

Reed finds Ben and Sue in a partially undressed make-out session (wha-HEY!). He’s furious, calling Sue a “harlot” and Ben a “trainwreck of a man.” Sue throws him out of the house, but Ben is apologetic. At that moment, a black-and-blue Johnny shows up with Joey King, who takes over the party with his wild ways. Johnny tells Sue he’s leaving town with Joey. A fight breaks out, and Ben his knocked out a beer bottle hits him in the back of his head.

Reed takes over the narration, considering unstable molecules, and how everyone at the party is similarly unstable. He leaves with Joey and Johnny, hitching a ride with back to the city. Back in his lab, Reed remarks that systems built on unstable building blocks will inevitably collapse. Upon seeing his own reflection, Reed realizes he was not an observer in events, but a participant. He goes back to studying the unstable molecules, this time, measuring the molecules in their relationships to one another and not as isolated units. He says, “In these relationships, however tenuous and mercurial they may be, that bind our world together.” But his heartbreak shows through his academic exterior as he also mutters, “I trusted you…”

That’s where the comic ends, but there’s a whole other story going on in this miniseries, in which writer James Sturm alleges that these are the real-life characters who inspired the creation of Marvel’s Fantastic Four comics. He begins by saying that Sue and Johnny Sturm (no relation, he says) were important figures in the cold war, with several books written about them. By the time we get to issue #4, though, the text is about how Stan lee, Jack Kirby and others once attended a party in the suburbs that got out of hand, and that this is the event that eventually inspired the creation of Fantastic Four comics. Make what you will of this, I suppose.

Unstable molecule: Reed is unknowable throughout this series, with him and his government work taking place off-panel. Could this series have been part one of a much bigger story?

Fade out: Marvel writers are often criticized for their treatment of Sue, saying this woman should not have to put up with as much as she does. Sue’s depression in this series leans into these critics’ concerns.

Clobberin’ time: Ben credits Reed with pulling strings during WWII to get him out of foxholes and into pilot training. This explains Ben’s loyalty to Reed throughout.

Flame on: Johnny’s fate also remains unknown at the end of the series, leaving town with Joey.

Trivia time: Needless to say, this series is not considered canon, with the Marvel Wiki designating it “Earth-33.”

Vapor Girl never appeared again, although someone at the Marvel Wiki gave enough thought to the character to give her comic-within-a-comic its designation as well, naming it “Earth 33213.”

Fantastic or frightful? A melancholy slice-of-life story that leaves a lot of character arcs feeling unfinished. I’m not sure what to make of it all. It is nonetheless a satisfying read, thanks to sublime artwork by Guy Davis. Outside of the legendary Will Eisner, Davis is the best at depicting ordinary folks doing ordinary things and making it compelling. Davis communicates a lot of drama just out of just the characters’ faces and poses. Just great stuff.

Next: It gets even more startling.

• * * * *

Want more? Check out my new ongoing serial, THE SUBTERKNIGHTS, on Kindle Vella. A man searches for his missing sister in a city full of far-out technology and hidden dark magic. The first three chapters are FREE, so give it a shot! Click here for a list of all my books and serials.