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Rereading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. We’re 271 issues into this comic, and it’s not until now that Reed Richards gets a proper backstory.

We begin with a birthday party! Sue, Johnny, She-Hulk, Franklin, Wyatt, and Alicia (who is of course Lyja the Skrull in disguise) all surprise Reed with a cake while he’s working in his lab. We get a return of the excuse-for-them-to-use-their-powers-for-the-first-few-pages as Reed stretches his lungs to generate a huge gust of air to blow out the candles, She-Hulk tosses Reed around playfully, and Johnny reveals he used his powers to light the candles. It’s all fun times, but Sue can tell something is troubling Reed. She takes him aside, and he admits, “I can’t remember my mother’s eyes.”

Reed goes on to explain that his mother died when he was seven, but he’s always remembered her eyes. Until now, that is. This and other small gaps in his memory have him concerned. He suspects it has to do with that time his brain was transferred into that alien computer when the FF was in the Negative Zone. Reed says he’s traced the memory loss back to a specific memory, a time shortly before he and the others went to space and got their powers. Reed remembers this as “That terrible day when I battled Gormuu!”

From there, a big chunk of this issue is a flashback told in the style of a 1950s monster comic. Young Reed and Sue are dating and living in Central City, California. When out for a drive on night, a spaceship crash lands near them, and out walks Gormuu, a giant green alien. The Air Force is immediately called in, but all their missile attacks just make Gormuu grow larger. While the U.S. and the Russians debate whether to nuke the monster, Reed goes back to the crash site and explores the inside of Gormuu’s ship. He gets an idea.

Sue and Ben catch up with Reed, who is making a giant energy weapon. (The caption gives “The Rocket Group” as this location.) Ben says the energy beam will just make Gormuu stronger, and he thinks Reed is crazy. Reed punches Ben out (!), and he fires the weapon. It works, and Gormuu gets larger and larger. Instead of getting stronger, though, it makes him weaker, as his mass gets stretched out farther and father, until he’s little more than a disembodied phantom out in space. Reed says he’s even more invested in getting his space rocket completed, that now it’s more important than ever for mankind to explore the stars. He asks Ben to pilot the rocket.

Back in the present, Reed shows some guilt about Ben being trapped as a monster, and additional guilt about Ben staying behind on Battleworld after the Secret Wars ended. He says he lied to Ben, and Sue knows this, but we’re not told what this lie was, exactly. Returning to the matter at hand, Reed says there’s only one way to restore his missing memories. The whole extended family suits up and heads for California, to Reed’s childhood home.

The Fantasticar arrives at the Richards Estate, a gigantic modern-looking mansion. Everyone comments on the warmth and sunshine. Our heroes are greeted by Mr. and Mrs. Peacock, the “family retainers” who keep up the house (a butler and maid, basically). Everyone gathers around for dinner, where Reed explains that his father mysteriously left for parts unknown three years before the FF got their powers. He left Reed a substantial inheritance, which he spent on the first FF rocket, and a separate self-perpetuating fund for the mansion, in case he returns. Mr. Peacock says everything is fine at the mention, “Except for the ghosts, of course!”

Yes, Peacock has occasionally seen ghosts in shapes of Old West cowboys over the years, with the most recent just a few days earlier. Investigating means breaking into Reed’s father’s lab, which has been sealed since he left. Sue turns part of the high-tech door invisible, and Johnny precision-burns through it in just the right spots to open it. Inside, they find a time machine almost identical to Dr. Doom’s time machine (the one we’ve seen on and off since issue #5). Reed theorizes that his father somehow invented time travel before Doom did, and that this explains Peacock’s “ghosts.” Reed further theorizes that his father intended to travel into the future, but instead traveled sideways, landing in an alternate Earth. Reed then announces he’s going to find this other world and bring his father home.

To be continued!

Unstable molecule: For the first time, we learn about Reed’s parents and his upbringing, not to mention a long-winded description of his family’s finances. The rocket that sent the FF on their fateful first flight cost $2 billion. Additionally, there are forty candles on Reed’s birthday cake, but the Marvel Wiki insists that Reed’s age is “a matter of interpretation.”

Fade out: Sue debuts her new, shorter hairstyle in this issue. Allegedly, the comics reader who won “Sue’s Coiffure Contest” never left a name, so Marvel couldn’t contact him or her. It’s the great mystery of our time.

Clobberin’ time: In the flashback, Reed punches Ben in the face during their fight. They make up later on when Reed asks Ben to pilot the rocket.

Flame on: Johnny bemoans how the surgeon-like precision burning is “absolutely no fun” and that he was tempted to hit the beach instead.

Fantastic fifth wheel: She-Hulk mentions that she’s been tanning on the roof of the Baxter Building. That’ll come back to bite her a few issues from now.

Four and a half: Upon arriving in California, Franklin runs off by himself and immediately finds his way to a cookie jar in the kitchen. Some readers have theorized that this might mean a return of his psychic powers.

The Alicia problem: Alicia/Lyja mentions “foliage,” “plants” and “flowers” in one sentence. Could this be Lyja still figuring out the English language? She can’t be using a translator device, or else Reed and company would know it.

Commercial break: The original!

Trivia time: This issue changed Marvel continuity in a big way. Prior to this, continuity officially began with Fantastic Four #1. After this, however, all the monster tales and other comics from the 1950s are considered Marvel “pre-history” and part of the Marvel Universe. A bunch of the old monsters have later shown up again, including giant dragon Fing Fang Foom and Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy. In fact, several panels in this issue’s flashback are faithful recreations of Groot’s first appearance in Tales to Astonish #13, way back in 1960.

The Gormuu flashback would later be revisited in a Marvel miniseries called Conspiracy, retold from the point of view of the character General Hamilton.

Fantastic or frightful? The flashback scene is retro fun, and writer-artist John Byrne does a superb job of meshing his style with ‘50s comics style. The rest of the issue is also great, no action but a ton of character moments that really make the heroes feel like family.

Next week: Adios, space cowboy.

****

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Rereading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. Continuing from the previous issue, #270 finds our heroes in the midst of difficult personal change while fighting one very big bad guy.

Previously, Reed, She-Hulk and Wyatt Wingfoot took off to battle gigantic world-conquering alien Terminus, while Sue stayed behind, still distraught after her miscarriage. Before getting back to any of that, this issue begins with Johnny and Alicia (who is of course Lyja the Skrull in disguise) at Johnny’s new apartment, having a heart-to-heart. Johnny says living on his own made him realize how dependent he’d been on Sue. Alicia/Lyja says she can relate, because her stepfather, the sinister Puppet Master, was way overprotective of her for most of her life. She and Johnny are both learning how to be independent. She further says she understands and forgives Ben for not returning to Earth, and how, without him, she’s turned a corner in her life. She leaves Johnny, but not before giving him a “thank you” kiss. (Or maybe it’s more than that.)

At headquarters, Franklin finds Sue in Reed’s lab, which she destroyed in a fit of anger. She assured Franklin that she’s OK, while also struggling to communicate the fight way to him to describe how she feels. She uses the “4” flare gun to signal Johnny, but he’s flying around NYC too distracted with thoughts about Alicia to notice it. Then there’s a short scene in Houston, where a politician and a bunch of scientists express concern over the massive crater somewhere in the American Southwest, emphasizing that members of the Fantastic Four are on the scene.

In that crater, She-Hulk, Reed, and Wyatt survived an attack from Terminus, and they regroup. Terminus destroys vast miles of land, commenting that the people of Earth won’t make good slaves (yeesh). Terminus pulls out a small capsule containing a tiny alien. The alien complains that Terminus didn’t give him enough time to find a world with plentiful resources, and Terminus just tosses him to the ground. Terminus says all he cares about is wealth, loot, and power. There’s even more mass destruction as Terminus rips up the surface of the Earth and fills the sky with swirling molten lava.

Reed and company find the small alien, who from their perspective is twice as big as a human. The alien says he lied to Terminus, and that he believes there are “cosmic energies” around the Earth signifying heroes with the ability to stop Terminus. The alien dies, and our heroes wonder how to defeat Terminus. She-Hulk makes a crack about hitting him with the whole planet, and this gives Reed an idea.

Terminus marches toward a nearby city, only to be distracted when She-Hulk throws the remains of the FF’s jet at him. Reed takes advantage of the surprise by stretching up to Terminus’ head and attaching a device to it. Terminus shrinks down to small size and is sucked deep into the Earth. Reed says this is his acceleration device he showed off in the last issue. It gave Terminus a velocity of twenty thousand miles per second in an instant, against the direction of the Earth. Terminus isn’t defeated, however. Instead, it will take him months to climb back up to the Earth’s surface. The ground then collapses, so that Wyatt and She-Hulk fall against each other for some flirtatious banter.

The issue ends as we wrap up Wyatt’s subplot, where he turns down the offer to be his tribe’s new chief. Although his tribal elders have great wisdom, he says, they haven’t seen the things he’s seen on his adventures. Reed says Wyatt will always have a place with them in New York, among the Fantastic Four.

Unstable molecule: A lot of readers over the years have wondered why Reed doesn’t just pull out this crazy acceleration machine any time there’s a villain or giant monster. Based on dialogue in this and the previous issue, we can surmise that the tech is both unstable and highly dangerous.

Fade out: In the midst of Sue’s sadness, she considers how others have been referring to as the FF’s most powerful member, and she starts to think of herself that way, too.

Flame on: Johnny has had workers divide up his loft into rooms, including an upstairs bedroom. There’s also a large skylight, for quick entrances and exits when flying.

Fantastic fifth wheel: This issue officially begins the She-Hulk/Wyatt romance, which is going to be a “thing” between them for quite some time.

Four and a half: This issue establishes that Franklin is five years old at this point.

The Alicia problem: The story goes that Lyja was meant to infiltrate the FF, only that she fell in love with Johnny for real. Their dialogue in this issue could be interpreted either way. I’m thinking it makes more sense for her to fall for him genuinely. Even though it’s early for that, a lot of what’s going to come later makes sense if we go with this now.

Commercial break: I love that, instead of a tagline, The Last Starfighter’s poster has three paragraphs of text:

Trivia time: After being defeated so quickly in this issue, Terminus would later go on to menace the Avengers several times, where he finally achieves the mega-villain status promised by this story. He even got to star in his own Marvel crossover event, The Terminus Factor. He also has the distinction of crashing the DC Universe and fighting the Justice League in JLA/Avengers.

Although H.U.B.E.R.T the robot doesn’t appear in this issue, the letters page reveals that his name stands for “Hyper-Ultronic Brain-Employing Randomized Tracings.” Freakin’ H.U.B.E.R.T. the robot.

Fantastic or frightful? Again, the issue doesn’t address the seemingly millions of deaths caused by Terminus before he’s abruptly defeated. This arc is really about all the little character moments, such as Johnny and Alicia bonding, and Wyatt’s big turning point. John Byrne’s art continues to be terrific.

Next week: Pre-history.

****

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. We get a brand new villain and tons of family drama in issue #269.

We begin with a visit to Johnny’s old pal Wyatt Wingfoot. He’s driving around the “Great Western Desert” on a high-tech three-wheeler. We learn his grandfather Silent Fox has died, and Wyatt is in line to be his tribe’s new chief. He ponders all the globe-and-outer-space-trotting adventures he’s had. Then, a giant red beam shoots down from the sky. It’s half a mile wide and moving at ridiculous speed, leaving a giant crevasse in its wake.

In New York, Johnny is having a casual lunch with Sharon Selleck, the girl who kissed him a few issues back. Johnny is distracted when he sees Alicia walk by, and he leaves Sharon to join Alicia. Alicia, who is of course Lyja the Skrull in disguise, says she’s gotten turned around while on way to a museum lecture. Johnny accompanies her, leaving Sharon to wonder if there’s something going on between them. Also note that Sharon is dressed in her finest ‘80s fashions:

At the Baxter Building, Sue sits by herself, grieving the loss of her unborn child. She puts on a brave face for Franklin, who wants to go back to their house in Connecticut. In Reed’s lab, he and She-Hulk are doing an experiment, which we spend a couple of pages on. Reed places a tennis ball into a device, causing it to implode. Reed (sort of) explains that the machine combines an averaging of relative objects, making the ball temporarily move through space at the exact same speed as the sun. This destroys the ball, but Reed theorizes that, once perfected, this technology can solve the world’s energy problems, etc.

Reed gets a call from Wyatt about the energy beam, and the beam coincidentally hits NYC at that moment. The beam destroys New Jersey (!) but stops at the river before it can harm Manhattan. Reed then gets a call from the U.S. president, whose face we don’t see, asking what’s going on. Reed says he and She-Hulk will meet with Wyatt at the spot where the crisis began. Sue wants to come with them, but Reed says it’s still too soon after the miscarriage, adding that he will nonetheless call on her if he needs her. They leave, and Sue gets hugely angry, unleashing her force fields and destroying everything in the lab.

Reed and She-Hulk fly across the country in the FF’s transonic jet, seeing more and more destruction caused by the beam. Reed says it took an advanced intelligence to project the beam across space to strike the Earth at just the right time and location. A giant vessel of some sort flies by them and crash lands nearby. Reed and She-Hulk investigate. The ship is red hot, so they can’t get too close.

Wyatt joins the FFers at the scene, introducing himself to She-Hulk. Reed deduces that the beam burned a pattern across the continental U.S., in some sort of alien language. Reed runs the message through his universal translator. It adorably prints out the translation on a small strip of paper. The message reads, “I claim this world – Terminus.” Just as She-Hulk asks who Terminus is, the spaceship rises, revealing that it isn’t a spaceship. It’s a giant metal-clad alien proclaiming, “I am Terminus. I am master of this planet!”

To be continued!

Unstable molecule: When She-Hulk, a lawyer, is baffled by all the science-talk, Reed counters by saying that the intricacies of law have always been like an alien language to him.

Fade out: Sue is in a dark, dark place in this issue, and things are only going to get darker and darker for her.

Clobberin’ time: She-Hulk’s joining the team has been made public in news articles, but the public at large doesn’t know that Ben is not on Earth. Sharon Selleck wonders why Ben isn’t around.

Flame on: Speaking of which, say goodbye to Johnny’s almost-girlfriend Sharon. The Marvel wiki informs me that she was never seen again after this.

Fantastic fifth wheel: She-Hulk insists on being called Jen when at headquarters, but not in the field because she has a secret identity to maintain. Except that in the last issue, she said she doesn’t have a secret identity. So, what changed?

Four and a half: Franklin is coping nicely after everything that’s happened, saying he prefers living in Connecticut than at the Baxter Building. He still has something of a crush on She-Hulk.

The Alicia problem: If Lyja’s mission is to secretly infiltrate the FF, then her walking by Johnny’s lunch date with Sharon was no coincidence. Her getting lost could be a trick to get Johnny’s sympathies, or it could be because Lyja is getting used to the blinding contacts she wears.

Commercial break: Up to 3 million years old! “Daggar” shaped!

Trivia time: The last time we saw Wyatt Wingfoot in Fantastic Four was issue #193, in which he was travelling the country with a Nascar-style racing circuit. His only other appearance between then and now was Marvel Two-In-One annual #6, which introduced Native American superhero the American Eagle. Wyatt’s uncle and chief, Silent Fox, only had three appearances prior to this, most prominently seen in Fantastic Four #80. As part of the second wave of new Marvel characters in the late ‘60s, Wyatt was supposed to get his own spinoff comic alongside Black Panther and The Inhumans, but for some reason it never happened.

Famed sci-fi author Larry Niven gets a “scientific advisor” credit in this issue. Your guess is as good as mine.

Fantastic or frightful? The big problem here is that Terminus’ beam cuts up huge portions of the continental U.S., causing countless millions of deaths, and this is never mentioned in the Marvel universe again. That frustration aside, this issue is more about character building than it is about Terminus. She-Hulk is more a part of the team, Johnny and Alicia begin to bond, and Sue descends farther into darkness. Great stuff, really.

Next week: Big versus little.

****

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. She-Hulk joined the team three issues ago, but it’s not until issue #268 that we get to see her do some actual Fantastic Four-ing.

We begin with the FF and Alicia (who is of course Lyja the Skrull in disguise) gathered around Sue’s hospital bed. The caption reminds us about the miscarriage in the previous issue. Reed consoles Sue, saying that she shouldn’t blame herself, and that everything that could have been done was done. In the hallway outside, Dr. Octopus starts to freak out, so Bruce Banner transforms into the Hulk. Before they can start fighting, Reed breaks them up to protect all the hospital patients. Reed convinces Doc Ock to go back to prison (except that he just came from a psychiatric hospital?) voluntarily. Johnny offers to take She-Hulk to the Baxter Building and give her the grand tour.

Johnny demonstrates how the FF’s signal belts can summon a Fantasticar on autopilot. On the way to the Baxter Building, She-Hulk recaps her origin story (she got her powers after a blood transfusion from her cousin, the Hulk) and she says she doesn’t maintain a secret identity, it’s just that no one ever asks. Along the way, we see one of the Jack Kirby-style photo panels, only this one somehow includes the Baxter Building in the NYC skyline. How’d they do that?!? Johnny shows her the various security devices at the Baxter Building, include scanners on the outside, and big red buttons on the inside that shut off all external communications in case the building has an intruder. (Foreshadowing!)

The tour concludes with a part of the Baxter Building we’ve never seen before: The trophy room. Johnny says this is where Reed keeps items from their adventures that are either unexplained or too dangerous to keep anywhere else. The trophy room also features the mask of Dr. Doom on display, after Doom seemingly died in issue #260. (This issue confusingly skips over how Doom unexplainedly came back from the dead and died again during Secret Wars.) Johnny makes a joking comment about Doom zapping the FF even from beyond the grave. (More foreshadowing!)

Cut to Belle Porte, Connecticut, where Reed and Sue have been living as their secret identities to raise Franklin. They haven’t been home for a while, and a neighbor lady named Alma is snooping around the house peeking in windows. Alice, the babysitter, walks by and accuses Alma of spying on all the neighbors. That abruptly ends as we go back to the Baxter Building. Johnny and She-Hulk discuss how Reed and Sue won’t be up for super-heroing for a while, but the FF won’t be officially breaking up.

An alarm goes off, coming from the trophy room. It appears that someone has broken in and stolen Doom’s mask. Johnny and She-Hulk are blasted with electrical energy. It’s coming from Doom’s mask, which is somehow flying around by itself, shooting electric beams out of its eyes. It flies too fast for Johnny to hit with fire, or for She-Hulk to get a hold of. It then protects itself with a concussive field so powerful that it knocks She-Hulk out of the building. She manages to fall in such a way to minimize damage to the street below.

Reed shows up, and joins the battle. He deduces that the mask is being animated by an outside source, so he presses one of the big red buttons. This makes the mask fall to ground, lifeless. Later, after examining the mask in his lab, Reed says the mask was not following a pre-programmed routine, but was being controlled by someone. Could Dr. Doom still be alive?

Unstable molecule: Reed convinces Dr. Octopus to return to “prison” by threatening him. He says if Ock doesn’t turn himself in, Reed will come after him.

Fade out: Sue is dealing with miscarriage, reinforcing the idea that a “normal” tragedy could happen, after all the FF’s wild adventures.

Flame on: When the lights go out inside the trophy room, Johnny uses his fire to provide light. This is an extremely obvious use of his power that we don’t see from him often.

Fantastic fifth wheel: She-Hulk is still nervous about living up to the FF name, worried about others thinking that she’s a joke. There’s no interaction between her and the Hulk in this one, but, really, they don’t hang out very much.

The Alicia problem: At the hospital, Lyja thinks “If only there were something I could do, something I could say…” which definitely has a double meaning once you know she’s a Skrull.

Commercial break: Crank up the power!

Trivia time: How ‘bout that photo cover? Marvel experimented with a bunch of these in the mid-‘80s, with photo covers on issues of Amazing Spider-Man, Marvel Team-Up, Dazzler, and probably others I’m not aware of.

The mystery of Doom’s mask isn’t going to be resolved for quite a while, so don’t hold your breath.

Fantastic or frightful? This issue does a good job of balancing the sadness of the miscarriage with crazy superhero action, and it gives us a good sense of what She-Hulk will bring to the team. Not a lot of substance happens, but it’s nonetheless a well-written, well-drawn issue.

Next week: You’ve been targeted for termination.

****

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. We’ve reached issue #267 and ooohh, this one’s going to be hard to write about.

Pregnant Sue is in the hospital, dying of radiation poisoning. Fellow scientist Walter Langkowski (a.k.a. Sasquatch from Alpha Flight) says only the genius of Dr. Octopus can save her. Bruce Banner (a.k.a. the Hulk) retells the origin of Doc Ock for Reed (and the readers). Otto Octavius was once a brilliant scientist who built some metal arms to help with dangerous experiments. After an explosion, the arms were fused to his mind so can control them with his thoughts. Also, he became psycho evil. Sue wakes, and says she can tell Reed is up to something — something possibly dangerous. Reed says nothing will stop him from returning to her and their child.

Reed takes a Fantasticar to the South Brooklyn Psychiatric Facility, where the administrator lets him see Doc Ock. Ock is not the mad genius that we last saw, but meek and childlike inside his room, separated from his metal arms. Reed appeals to Ock’s early days as a doctor, emphasizing that only he can save Reed’s wife. Ock sheds a tear, and agrees to help. The psychiatrists say that Reed has accomplished months of therapy in this one conversation.

Reed takes Ock back to the hospital in the Fantasticar. They pass a Daily Bugle billboard with the classic “Spider-Man: Hero or menace?” headline. Doc Ock sees the billboard and starts to freak out. Cut to a secret NYPD facility where armed guards are transporting Ock’s metal arms. The arms spring to life, fighting all the guards. The arms make it up to the street and quickly find the Fantasticar, attacking Reed. The arms are quick and bendy, making them an even match for Reed’s stretching. The arms force Reed into a building and pin him against a wall.

Ock seems in a daze at first, but then reunites with the arms, acting like the good ol’ Dr. Octopus we all know from Spider-Man comics. He does a big villain speech about wanting to kill Reed. Reed then notices the manual controls for the arms are still moving, even though Ock controls them with his mind. Reed stretches his fingers into the controls, so that the arms cannot move. He then pleads with Ock again to help Sue. Reed then releases the arms as a show of trust.

We don’t learn Ock’s reaction, instead cutting back to the hospital, where Johnny and Alicia, who is really Lyja the Skrull in disguise, are both in tears. Johnny thinks “It can’t have ended like this,” and he says he can’t believe that they could be undone by something so normal after all their cosmic adventures. Lyja begs him to stay strong for the sake of his family. Reed arrives with Dr. Octopus, who has agreed to help. Reed asks Johnny what’s wrong, but Johnny’s so distraught that he cannot answer. Reed asks Sue’s doctor what’s wrong. And then… and then…

We turn the page, and there’s one small panel surrounded by all blacks. The doctor says Sue is doing well, but “she lost the baby a little over thirty minutes ago…”

Damn.

Unstable molecule: A lot of folks over the years have used this issue to criticize Reed, arguing that he shouldn’t have run off to have a superhero battle while his wife and baby were sick. The counterargument is that he’s doing this for Sue and the baby, a last-minute act of desperation to save them. I’m in the “there’s no right or wrong answer” camp, and it’s my opinion that not even Mr. Fantastic could have stopped the inevitable.

Fade out: It’s officially established in this issue that radiation is afflicting Sue because the baby was conceived when she and Reed were in the Negative Zone.

Flame on: Johnny is especially heartbroken, presciently predicting how much this has cost the team.

Fantastic fifth wheel: She-Hulk again frets about not being able to help despite all her awesome strength. She says she hopes being a member of the FF will give her some respectability, in the hopes that people won’t see her as a joke.

The Alicia problem: The story goes that with Ben away, Lyja turned her attention to Johnny instead. We see this in action as she stays by his side at the hospital. Although her mission is to infiltrate and then destroy the FF from within, she encourages Johnny to keep the team together. I guess she didn’t want her cover blown so soon.

Commercial Break: Home computers!

Trivia time: How did Dr. Octopus get into a psychiatric hospital so soon after Secret Wars? In a lengthy Spectacular Spider-Man story arc that happened before Secret Wars, Ock lost his mind in a big way. This issue and Secret Wars are merely building off of that. He gets over his fears of Spider-Man in Web of Spider-Man #4-5, and he’s back to full-on mad scientist/criminal mode by the time we get to the Sinister Six reunion in Amazing Spider-Man #334.

When retelling Ock’s origin story, writer-artist John Byrne faithfully recreates several panels from Ock’s first appearance in Amazing Spider-Man #3.

Fantastic or frightful? To begin, the fight between Reed and Ock is great, emphasizing how similar their powers are. But seriously, the important thing here is Sue’s miscarriage. This is a major event that’ll affect the course of these characters’ lives for years to come. I’m still not sure what to think.

Next week: Face the face.

****

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 #266, just after She-Hulk has replaced Ben on the team, we get… an entire issue devoted to Ben?

She-Hulk is at the hospital, where a pregnant Sue has been taken after she was afflicted with deadly radiation. Reed has gathered a group of radiation experts for help — Dr. Bruce Banner (a.k.a. the Hulk) Walter Langkowski (a.k.a. Sasquatch of Alpha Flight) and Michael Morbius (a.k.a Morbius the Living Vampire, a Spider-Man villain). Sue is sleeping now, while the experts try to sort out what’s wrong.

She-Hulk and Alicia (who is secretly Lyja the Skrull in disguise, let’s not forget) chat in the hallway outside Sue’s room. Alicia/Lyja says she’s not hurt by Ben staying behind on Battleworld, because Ben’s happiness is what’s important. She says her mind keeps flashing back to an incident involving Ben and Sue, and how the two of them are “connected” Somehow.

From there, the majority of this issue is a flashback to “a time not long ago” when Ben was still on the team. He and Alicia enjoy a walk in Central Park one summer day, enjoying ice cream cones (aww…). This is a Marvel comic book, so you know there’s going to be trouble. A woman whose face is obscured by a black veil, stops an armored truck nearby and robs it with a group of men working for her. Ben puts a stop to it, but the woman raises her veil and shows him her face. He is immediately hypnotized to do her bidding. The woman calls herself Karisma. She commands Ben to help with the robbery. He does, acting like he’s never met Alicia before.

Sue is just down the street, wig-shopping (!) and she jumps into action when she sees police cars go by. She finds the police fighting Ben, and convinces them to stand down so she can confront him. Ben thinks Sue is out to get Karisma, so he attacks. Big fight! Ben knows how Sue’s force fields work, so he comes up with all sorts of ways to get around them. This forces her to come up with new ways to use them to keep Ben off guard. It’s a terrific fight, and you get the sense that Ben and Sue are evenly matched. Ben has a moment of weakness as Karisma’s influence starts to wear off. This gives Sue just enough time for her to turn invisible and get away from him.

Karisma shows her face to Ben again, putting him back under her control. There’s a flashback (within the flashback???) that reveals she was once a cosmetics scientist who created makeup so alluring that it possessed men’s minds. When her male-pig bosses wouldn’t fund her experiments, she turned to a life of crime. Ben and Sue fight some more, and just when it looks like he’s won, Sue turns Karisma’s veil invisible. We see her makeup is not alluring, but a total mess.

This doesn’t have the effect Sue wanted, though, because it puts all the men in the area Karisma’s control. They become a mindless mob, about to kill Sue. She then turns Karisma’s entire head invisible (!), giving the men their minds back. Sue wraps up Karisma’s head in her cape, and the cops haul her away with the promise that a female police officer will remove the makeup. Sue makes a joke about Karisma being “cosmetically aware” and that’s that.

Back in the present, Reed meets with She-Hulk and Alicia/Lyja. He says there’s no good news. Sue is dying, and the experts have come up with nothing. Then Langkowski says there’s one more person they haven’t reached out to yet, someone who knows radiation better than anyone. That someone is Otto Octavius, a.k.a. Dr. Octopus.

To be continued!

Unstable molecule: There’s a goof in this issue that has Bruce Banner saying “My wife is at death’s door,” when this was clearly supposed to be Reed saying it.

Fade out: It’s assumed that Sue was shopping for wigs for use in her and Reed’s new secret identities in Connecticut. She uses her force fields to trap Ben, to use as a battering ram against him, and she makes tiny ones to trip him up.

Clobberin’ time: Ben is so familiar with Sue’s force fields that he can tell she’s weakened just by touching one of them.

Flame on: Johnny is a no-show in this issue. We’re told he’s flying around in hopes of contacting other radiation experts.

Fantastic fifth wheel: She-Hulk frets about how she’s unable to help, despite her awesome strength.

The Alicia problem: How does Lyja know all this? It’ll eventually be revealed that she studied the FF’s lives in detail. The better question is why does she tell this story? Let’s speculate that with Ben away, she turned her attention to the weakened Sue.

Commercial break: Nightmare fuel!

Trivia time: It’s pretty obvious that this is an inventory issue, written and drawn ahead of time as filler in case the book falls behind deadline. There’s some mystery online as to whether it was used this time because of deadlines, or if writer-artist John Byrne just up and decided to use it because he liked it.

Karisma would eventually return in a Captain America story, where she joined a group of female villains, the Femizons.

Why didn’t Reed contact Dr. Strange for help? The comic doesn’t say, but the concurrent issue of Dr. Strange from this time has the doc receiving a serious blow to the head when fighting a guy named Pohldahk.

Fantastic or frightful? A fun issue, but an inconsequential one. I like the Sue/Ben fight a lot, but it remains frustrating to have this placeholder after all the momentum built up from the Secret Wars.

Next week: The sadness begins.

****

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