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Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. Issue #350 begins a four-part tale that is controversial but also wildly ambitious.

 This story arc is controversial for rewriting (or not?) Dr. Doom’s history. Also, Kristoff is prominently featured. Comic book fans often name Kristoff as one of the all-time worst Marvel characters, citing this story as one of the reasons why. It’s also been criticized for being too confusing, adding time travel and cosmic beings into the mix, while also being a major shakeup for the main FF characters. On the plus side, though, it’s writer-artist Walt Simonson pushing the limits of comic storytelling with some really experimental stuff. Just hang in there, we’ll get through this.

 So, Kristoff is a child brainwashed to believe he is Dr. Doom. Wearing a Dr. Doom-shaped suit of armor (!), Kristoff succeeded in taking over the Latverian throne and convincing the world he’s actually Dr. Doom. The real Doom, meanwhile, has been running around the Marvel Universe with various plots to retake his kingdom. As issue #350 begins, Doom eschews all the sneaky plots and launches a frontal attack on the Latverian castle. It’s several pages of fighting between the two of them. They’re interrupted by a third Dr. Doom, wearing a new suit of armor. This is the real Doom, the attacker is just a Doombot acting on its own. (This new armor, by the way, is made of enchanted Promethium metal, which Doom got in an issue of Excalibur just before this.)

 Doom says a code word, “Ouroboros,” which is the trigger that undoes Kristoff’s brainwashing. Doom takes off his mask and shows his scarred face to Kristoff (but not to the reader) to prove he’s the real one. Doom says he’s been far away for a long time. Now back in charge, Doom’s first action is to sit down at the computer and see what the Fantastic Four has been up to in his absence. He is surprised to learn that Johnny is married to Alicia, Ben is human again, and Sharon has joined the team as a Thing.

 You might be thinking these are continuity errors, as Doom has encountered the FF several times since the wedding, and he’s faced off Kristoff a few times without using the code word. The explanation is that Walt Simonson wrote this issue to establish that past stories of a kingdom-less Doom trying and failing to retake the throne didn’t feature the real Doom, but inferior Doombots. But Simonson leaves it up to the reader to decide which appearances were the real Dr. Doom and which were Doombots, casting doubt on every Dr. Doom appearance from at least issue #278 to the present, if not earlier. Yeesh.

 At FF headquarters, Ben has been hanging out wearing his Thing-shaped exoskeleton in the hopes of making Sharon feel more comfortable about being a Thing, now she’s developed a desire to be human again. It doesn’t work, as she feels even worse, demanding a cure from Reed. Reed says a cure might not be possible. Sharon leaves, and encounters a stranger on the street who offers her help. Intrigued, she follows him to a nearby hotel, where Dr. Doom is waiting for her. Doom offers to cure her, saying the knowledge of genetic engineering he will gain from doing so will help turn around Latveria’s economy. Sharon will not get any money, but she will be human again, so she agrees.

 Days pass, until Doom is ready. Using a combination of science and magic, he finally turns Sharon human again. While Sharon is unconscious, Doom explains to Kristoff (who is his sidekick now, apparently) that the money talk was false, just to ensure Sharon’s trust. At headquarters, Ben is overcome with worry about Sharon. Desperate to take action, he sneaks into Reed’s lab and steps into one of Reed’s machines in an attempt to turn himself back into the Thing. He tells the others that he did it so Sharon wouldn’t feel so alone. A robot shows up out of nowhere, inviting the FF to Castle Doom, to meet with Doom and Sharon.

 At the castle, the FF are attacked by Doombots, and separated into four rooms, each one containing a trip designed to negate their powers. Johnny is underwater, Sue is gassed into unconsciousness, and Reed is caught a corridor with shrinking walls, giving him no room to stretch. Ben reveals that he’s the Thing again, saying “I gave up my humanity for Christmas!” which I guess establishes that this isn’t his exoskeleton.

 Ben finds Sharon still asleep. He is ambushed by Dr. Doom, and there are several pages of them fighting. Ben transforms from his rocky form to his stronger spikey form, and is about to defeat Doom. Then Sharon wakes up and electrocutes Ben, so he cannot harm Doom. Doom knocks ben out. Reed shows up, having escaped his trap. Doom challenges Reed to battle, with the lives of Ben, Johnny, and Sue on the line. He produces two time machines, small enough to be worn on their belts, which will allow them to time travel “between the seconds” where they will fight. The two of them disappear outside of time, and that’s…

 To be continued!

 Unstable molecule: Reed says he escaped Doom’s sealed room thanks to “old masonry and a sharp belt buckle.” Two issues from now, we’ll learn that was a lot more to his escape than that.

 Fade out: Sue mentions that she trains “relentlessly” in the gym to be prepared for battles, which helps her against Doom’s robots.

 Clobberin’ time: Before turning back into the Thing, Ben takes a second to look at his human hands one last time, a moment of genuine sadness among all the superhero action.

 Flame on: Once again, Johnny is defeated by water, despite him having overcome that weakness several issues back. Maybe they’re drawing a difference between being wet and being fully submerged in water.

 Fantastic fifth wheel: The comic remembers that Sharon is a budding scientist, so she is able to be persuaded by Dr. Doom because she admires his science genius.

 Four and a half: In one scene, Reed performs tests on Franklin to determine what Franklin’s super-powers currently are. We’re not shown the results of those tests.

 The Alicia problem: If Dr. Doom knows that Alicia is really Lyja the Skrull in disguise, he doesn’t say so in this issue.

 Commercial break: I wonder who won this thing, and what it actually looked like:

 Trivia time: The “Dr. Doom was really a bunch of Doombots for the last hundred issues” thing continues to be a controversy among fans all these years later. It’ll later be addressed again as being mere propaganda on Doom’s part, but that doesn’t seem to be the intent of this issue.

 According to the Marvel Wiki, the robot who deliver’s Doom’s message to the FF is named “Message.”

 Fantastic or frightful? This issue has a lot of action and a lot of big drama, but it’s brought down by the Doombot retcon, and by how the rest of the characters other than Ben don’t seem to care at all about Sharon’s disappearance. File this one under “good, but could have been better.”

 Next: Time twisty.

****

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Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. Just after introducing the New Fantastic Four, their story already wraps up in issue #349.

Recap: De’Lila is a telepathic Skrull fugitive. She’s come to Earth in search a device called an ITT, which she hopes to use to assassinate the Skrull emperor. She’s being pursued by a group of Skrulls who have taken over the minds of the monsters at the Mole Man’s Monster Island to attack the Earth. De’Lila successfully incapacitated the Fantastic Four, and tricked Spider-Man, Wolverine, the Hulk, and Ghost Rider into becoming the New Fantastic Four (with a capital N) to fight the Skrulls. As this issue begins, De’Lila has mind-controlled Reed to do her evil bidding, and they’re confronting the New FF, the Skrulls, and the Mole Man in caves beneath Monster Island. Got all that?

The issue begins with De’Lila revealing to everyone that she’s not really Sue. She tries to convince the New FF that she’s on their side, and the other Skrulls are their enemy. The Mole Man believes her, saying he has sympathy for those who are ostracized. Ghost Rider, however, says he can sense evil and treachery in De’Lila’s words even without using his penance stare. De’Lila and Reed escape deeper into the caves, as Spider-Man deduces that Reed is not a Skrull but the real Reed under mind control. The New FF and the Mole Man venture deeper underground in pursuit.

De’Lila slows down the New FF by setting off a bomb, burying them under tons of rock. Hulk does his Secret Wars trick of holding up just enough rock to save his fellow heroes. Ghost Rider uses his super-cool flaming chains to burn a path through the rock. De’Lila full-on seduces Reed with a big ol’ kiss. She explains that the ITT isn’t one device, but a whole army of “Inorganic Techno-Troids” buried beneath the Earth.

At Four Freedoms Plaza, the Fantastic Four are now awake, to find that De’Lila has tied them together in such a way that if one of them uses his or her powers, there’s risk of harming the rest of the team. Franklin shows up having merely slept through De’Lila’s attack, and he frees the team. Roberta the robot receptionist recalls Reed’s “tell it to the marines” comment from last issue, and that somehow inspires her to track down Reed’s location at Monster Island.

Back in the caves, De’Lila and Reed find a buried spaceship, the source of the ITTs, discovering it to be long-lost Deviant technology. (The Deviants are cosmic characters from Marvel’s Eternals comics.) Reed, who still has some use of his brain despite being mind-controlled, theorizes that all the monsters on Monster Island might be long-lost Deviants. The New FF shows up, and De’Lila holds Reed hostage, forcing the Hulk to use his strength to break into the ship and retrieve the ITT.

With the New FF’s help, the Hulk retrieves an egg, which I guess will hatch into the ITTs. (It’s getting confusing up in here.) The Mole Man is the next to show up, alongside an army of Moloids, demanding that the egg belongs to him. Then the original FF show up (perfect timing!) to join the fight.

A big fight breaks out. De’Lila shape-shifts into Mary Jane Watson in an attempt to distract Spider-Man. It only works for a second, until he gets the egg away from her. It ends up with two of the monsters, a male and female. The egg hatches, and out comes an ITT (just one, not an army) in the form of a three-armed robot. The ITT imprints on the two monsters, who appear to adopt it as its child.

Reed and De’Lila kiss again, shocking his teammates. He then regains his stretching powers, and punches out De’Lila. He reveals that he still had some mental control, fighting against her telepathy the whole time. When she kissed him, he pickpocketed the disputer device she used to keep him from using his powers. Reed then kisses the real Sue, reassuring her that she’s the only one for him.

Ghost Rider further defeats De’Lila by giving her his penance stare (so cool) and the Skrull soldiers take her into custody. The Mole Man and the New FF call a temporary truce, as a Hulk vs. Moloid army fight would like destroy his entire kingdom. As the heroes leave, we see the Punisher flying overhead in a black helicopter with a skull painted on the side. (Where’d he get that?) De’Lila had also summoned him to join the New FF, but he sees his help isn’t needed, so he flies off. Cameo!

Unstable molecule: Once again, it’s inconsistent whether Reed’s genius gives him the ability to resist mental telepathy. This issue does not that De’Lila is a “low-level telepath.”

Fade out: When Sue sees De’Lila kissing Reed, she threatens to flat-out murder De’Lila. It’s established that Sue has a dark side, but would she really have followed through with that threat?

Clobberin’ time: Ben, wearing his Thing-shaped exoskeleton, fights side-by-side with the Hulk, despite their ongoing. Hulk even says he’s glad to see Ben.

Flame on: Alicia asks Johnny what form De’Lila took to trick him. Johnny lies and says it was Alicia, not admitting he’s still obsessed with Nebula after Nebula took over his mind a few issues back. (So much mind control in these comics.)

Fantastic fifth wheel: After this story, Wolverine went on to have some time travel adventures in his solo series, followed by a space adventure in X-Men, where fought a bunch of Skrulls again. Not to be outdone, the Hulk’s next adventure in his series was also to fight a bunch of Skrulls!

This Ghost Rider is the recently-debuted Danny Ketch version. Along with his role in the New FF, his next adventures were fighting the Wrecking Crew with Thor, fighting the Hobgoblin with Spider-Man, and fighting demons alongside Dr. Strange.

It was back to business for Spider-Man after this. Along with his Ghost Rider team-up, he fought Cardiac, Carnage, and a bunch of classic villains given new gadgets from Justin Hammer.

Four and a half: It’s awfully convenient that Franklin was merely asleep during De’Lila’s initial attack on the FF. Perhaps that’s just his cover story, because in this month’s issue of Power Pack, he and the Power kids were busy fighting — are you ready for this? — the Adolescent Microwaved Shellshocked Amphibians.

The Alicia problem: Alicia, who is secretly Lyja the Skrull in disguise, is the one who tells the FF that De’Lila “must be a shape shifter.” Takes one to know one.

Commercial break: The Silver Surfer video game, famous for being so hard that it’s unplayable.

Trivia time: This New Fantastic Four story arc would later be revisited in the 2010 Spider-Man/Fantastic Four miniseries. That story takes place minutes after this one, where De’Lila briefly escapes and causes trouble about the Skrull ship until the heroes put her in her place again, all while a mysterious time traveler takes a “sample” from the ITT back to the future. The miniseries ends by revealing the time traveler is Kristoff, who in 2010 is hoping to retake the Latverian throne.

The Marvel Wiki insists that the male monster who co-adopts the ITT is Giganto, the same monster that famously appears on the cover of Fantastic Four #1. While Giganto had numerous appearances after this, this story arc is the last time we see the ITT. I guess we can assume the ITT is just lumbering around Monster Island with the rest of the monsters.

Fantastic or frightful? A fast-paced, plot-heavy issue with the character development only happening on the edges of the story. It becomes about the Reed-Sue-De’Lila triangle, so that the New Fantastic Four are reduced to mere cash-grab guest stars and not a real team at all. Wolverine fans will be especially disappointed to see him not pretty much nothing. On the plus side, Art Adams’ artwork is terrific, and there is an overall “high adventure” feel that we want from Fantastic Four — new or original.

Next: One Thing leads to another.

****

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

Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. We met them in the last issue, now in issue #348 we see them in action. Spider-Man, Wolverine, Hulk, and Ghost Rider — the New Fantastic Four!

To recap: De’Lila is a Skrull fugitive who has succeeded in incapacitating the Fantastic Four. A battleship full of Skrulls is on Earth to pursue her. They have taken over the minds of all the monsters on Monster Island to help them catch her. Posing as Sue, De’Lila has tricked Spider-Man, Wolverine, the Hulk, and Ghost Rider into thinking that the rest of the FF are dead. The four newcomers are now the New Fantastic Four (with a capital N) and are off to fight the Skrulls.

The New FF take off in a Fantasticar with the Hulk piloting (is the grey Hulk a pilot?) while Spider-Man has a scanner tracking the source of the monster invasion. Wolverine says they’ll trust the rest of the world’s armies and superheroes to deal with the monsters themselves. On Monster Island, the Mole Man shows while investigating what happened to his monsters. He finds the Skrull ship parked there.

De’Lila wakes Reed, and it’s revealed that she’s not just a Skrull, but a telepathic Skrull. She uses mind control on Reed, saying she needs his help to find an egg. Inside this egg is an “Inorganic Techno-Troid,” or ITT for short. The ITT is so well-hidden, only Reed’s science genius can find it.

Stories come in about the monsters attacking all the world’s major cities. In Washington DC, the New FF fight a big insect-like beast as it attacks an airplane. Hulk and Ghost Rider do all the punching while Spidey saves everyone on the plane. Once the fight is done, the New FF continues following the energy source, into the Bermuda Triangle. On Monster Island, the Mole Man creates a sinkhole to suck the Skrull ship underground.

De’Lila and a still mind-controlled Reed track the ITT to a location in the Catskill mountains. They find a hidden tunnel in one of the mountains. On Monster Island, the New FF have also found a hidden tunnel, leading to the underground chamber where the Mole Man, one of his giant monsters, and an army of Moloids are confronting the Skrulls. There’s a bit of comedy as the monster steps on the Hulk’s foot (!) causing the Hulk and Wolverine to fight it.

The Skrull captain tries to escape by shape-changing into the form of a rock, until the Hulk and Wolverine threaten to destroy all the rocks. Ghost Rider uses his penance stare (sweet!) on the captain, who reveals his crew is in search of some Skrull rebels who intend to assassinate the Skrull emperor.

One of the Skrulls then notices Spider-Man’s scanner — the one De’Lila gave him — recognizing it as Skrull tech. Spidey and Skrull realize that Sue is really De’Lila in disguise. That’s when De’Lila and Reed show up. (Does this mean the cave in the Catskills leads directly to an island in the Bermuda Triangle? The comic doesn’t say.) Reed, still being mind-controlled, says the only way the New FF will get Sue is through his dead body. The Hulk, believing Reed is also a Skrull in disguise, answers, “It looks like you’re going to get your wish.”

To be continued!

Unstable molecule: Reed still has some thoughts to himself as he’s being mind-controlled. He thinks De’Lila is “exciting” (!) and he tells Roberta the robot secretary (remember her?) to “tell it to the marines” as he leaves. This is foreshadowing for the next issue.

Flame on: While he’s unconscious, Johnny is shown with a large grey hood covering his head. I guess we’re meant to think this prevents him from using his powers.

Fantastic fifth wheel: There are two schools of thought on the New Fantastic Four. One is that they’re a blatant cash grab. The other is that they’re a parody of a blatant cash grab. (This issue’s cover boasts “The world’s most commercialest comic magazine,” suggesting that Marvel is in on the joke.) The big question for this blog is whether the New FF means these four can now be considered alternate members of the Fantastic Four. It’s always been my opinion that the New FF is its own team, separate from the regular FF. Ben would agree, it seems, because in the Thing series from 2006, Spider-Man mentions the New FF, and Ben says, “You think that counts?”

Commercial break: This never worked, did it?

Trivia time: The New FF would later re-team to fight the Sinister Six in Amazing Spider-Man, with Sleepwalker taking Ghost Rider’s place. The New FF also appeared in Secret Defenders and Fear Itself. In the video game Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, it’s possible to play as the New Fantastic Four, with the game’s narrator announcing them as such.

Fantastic or frightful? This is such a fast-paced issue with so much going on that there’s little sense of how this new team works as a team. It’s a bad issue for Wolverine fans, as Wolvie keeps getting sidelined in favor of the other three. On the plus side, the issue is packed with a lot of humor and action — and who doesn’t love giant monsters?

Next: Battle “four” all.

****

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

Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. One of the most famous (infamous?) FF stories of the 90s is the New Fantastic Four (with a capital N), which begins in issue #347.

Art Adams temporarily takes over artwork duties from Walt Simonson, who is still scripting. Adams brings his trademark cartoony style to FF. We begin with a damaged spaceship crashing on Earth. An alien woman, whose face we don’t see, survives the crash and swears revenge on those who forced her to come to Earth.

At FF headquarters, Reed and Sue are playing with Franklin, who appears to have recovered nicely from the events of Days of Future Present. Johnny is spending most of his time in isolation, not speaking to Alicia (who is secretly Lyja the Skrull in disguise). This is because Johnny is still haunted by thoughts of Nebula, after she took over his mind a few issues back. Similarly, Sharon doesn’t want to spend time with Ben, because she’s having a tough time being a Thing after temporarily becoming human again in the last few issues.

Out in space, a Skrull battleship is on the way to Earth. The Skrulls are in pursuit of a fugitive named De’Lila. Although not stated outright, it’s clear that De’Lila is the space woman from the opening scene. Back at HQ, De’Lila takes the shape of a beautiful woman to seduce/sneak her way past security. Using a stun device she wears as a ring, she works her way through the whole team. She shape-shifts as Nebula to stun Johnny. She shape-shifts as Alicia to stun Ben. She shape-shifts as Ben to stun Sharon, and she shape-shifts as Namor to stun Sue. Finally, she shape-shifts as Sue to stun Reed, but the stunner doesn’t work as well on Reed’s elastic form. They fight, until she succeeds in knocking him out.

The Skrulls arrive on Earth, tracking what they say are some “Skrull-like” creatures. It’s all the monsters on Monster Island, which you’ll remember is the home of the giant creatures controlled by the Mole Man. The Skrulls use “slave darts” to take over the monsters’ minds and use them to help find De’Lila somehow. Underground, the Mole Man learns about this and swears revenge.

At HQ, De’Lila is still in the form of Sue, sees a news report about giant monsters on the move, and she knows this means her pursuers have come for her. She starts researching other Marvel heroes. Later, Spider-Man shows up, saying his spider-sense has somehow drawn him to FF HQ. He meets Wolverine and the Hulk outside the building. They have similarly been drawn there. A security guard meets them at the door, saying Sue (really De’Lila) had summoned four heroes, and wonders where the fourth is. On cue, Ghost Rider comes riding up.

Note that this is Danny Ketch, the second Ghost Rider, who had just recently been introduced. The other characters don’t yet comment on this. There’s a little bit of action as Spidey, Wolverine and the Hulk chase Ghost Rider into the building. There, they meet De’Lila in disguise as Sue, who convinces them that Reed, Ben, Jonny, Alicia, and Sharon are all dead. Ghost Rider kinda/sorta confirms this, using his ability to sense whenever innocent blood has been spilled.

De’Lila explains that she summed the four heroes with Reed’s “mental alarm resonator” for help. Further, De’Lila says the FF’s killers are the ones who summoned the giant monsters. She gives Spider-Man a “sub-photonic spectro-analyzer” to help them find these assassins. Spider-Man, Hulk, Ghost Rider, and Wolverine agree to work together, with Wolverine announcing, “Just call us the New FF.”

Unstable molecule: We see Reed in the lab, working on the Rad-D device, which kicked off the time-travel plot back in issue #337. He says his modifications will give time travelers an emergency exit immediately back to the present in case anything goes wrong.

Fade out: Sue mentions she learned that Namor had recently devoted himself to saving the environment, referencing Sue recently guest-starring in Namor #3-4.

Clobberin’ time: Ben buys Sharon tickets for the Desert Rose Band, a real-life country/rock hybrid band formed by Chris Hillman, formerly of the Byrds. Not sure why this reference made it into the comic, but okay.

Flame on: Johnny is so overwhelmed with thoughts about Nebula that he burns up a book in his hands. Alicia/Lyja doesn’t seem too alarmed by this.

Fantastic fifth wheel: This story arc finds members of the New FF just wrapping up some big stories individually. Spider-Man just recovered from the Powerless storyline that had him be an ordinary human for a while. Wolverine just got his freedom back after being a prisoner in Genosha during X-Tinction Agenda. The Hulk is here dueling three personalities — his smart-but-brutish grey form, good old Bruce Banner, and the classic “Hulk smash” green Hulk. Danny Ketch just recently became Ghost Rider, and is still mourning the death of his sister Barbara.

Four and a half: Reed has a line of dialogue about giving Franklin “the power of his birthright.” I’m assuming this refers to Franklin absorbing the powers from his future self during Days of Future Present. Also, in Power Pack the same month as this issue, Franklin begins public school, where he’s smart enough to attend class with kids a few years older than him.

The Alicia problem: Lyja can tell right away that De’Lila is a Skrull, and De’Lila takes out Lyja with a punch instead of the stun device. Is it possible that De’Lila figured out Lyja’s secret?

Commercial break: This game was prominently featured in an episode of Stranger Things. Now I really want to see the Stranger Things kids wearing these sweaters.

Trivia time: It’s not mentioned in this issue, but all Skrulls have recently regained their ability to shape-shift. It happened in the second Kree-Skrull war, in which the Silver Surfer, the Super-Skrull, and Skrull Empress S’Byll restored their powers.

Fantastic or frightful? Is this story arc an obnoxious cash grab, a mere excuse to get a bunch of better-selling Marvel characters in this book? We’ll dig deeper into answering that in upcoming issues. As far as this one goes, I’d argue that it does a good job up upping the stakes, making readers feel that four heavy hitters are needed.

Next: Mutants and Hulks and demons, oh my.

****

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