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Rereading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. Writer-artist John Bryne continues his run in issue #237 by establishing some subplots and throwing in some sci-fi wackiness.

The FF return to headquarters following the events of last issue. Johnny flies off to check in with his new girlfriend Frankie Raye, while the other three members of the team discuss what to do with Dr. Doom, who’s lying there on the roof in suspended animation. (Ben describes Doom as all of his circuits being shorted out.) Reed seals the comatose in a pitch-black stasis field, so powerful that not even photons of light can escape it.

Ben and Alicia have a heart-to-heart, as Ben is still smarting from being able to live a human life (sort of) in Liddleville last issue, and he pity-parties about being a monster. Ben works out using the high-tech weightlifting tech in the Baxter Building, and feels better. Reed checks on some unusual meteor activity in his lab, but Sue insists he leave and go out to dinner with her. To his credit, he actually does go with her this time.

Johnny arrives at Frankie’s apartment, and meets Frankie’s scantily-clad roommate, Julie Angel. Julie, an aspiring actress, leaves the two of them alone. Then Frankie greets Johnny. She’s still in her bathrobe, and in tears. She says she has to show Johnny something, but she’s afraid he’ll think she’s crazy. Johnny promises to help, so she shows him her secret by… peeling off her bathrobe right in front of him! (Wha-hey!) We don’t see what Johnny sees, but the caption tells us, “He knows!”

Cut to Reed and Sue horseback riding in Central Park (you can, what, just rent horses there?), only to have their nice afternoon out interrupted by an alarm. Reed follows the alarm to a nearby jewelry store, which is being robbed. He makes short work of the robbers, but then meets their leader, a nine-foot-tall alien woman named Spinnerette. She speaks in an alien language, which causes Reed to lose consciousness. Sue leaves Franklin in an alley (!) and tries to sneak up on Spinnerette. The alien woman can sense her, and knocks her out as well.

Franklin is upset, and energy crackles around him. This affects Spinnerette, knocking her over. The crooks carry her off, and the police arrive just as Reed and Sue awaken. The jewelry store owner says the crooks took what they wanted, but Spinnerette only showed interest in a strange necklace, made of an aluminum-lead alloy that can only be formed in zero gravity (?).

Another alarm goes off, courtesy of Spinnerette and her gang. Reed snatches one of the gang members. He explains that Spinnerette stole a solar cell from a calculator. He then further explains that he and the other guys were originally a bunch of bums, camping out in a junkyard (in Manhattan?) when they were approached by this alien woman. They were the only ones not knocked unconscious by her voice, and she was interested in a silver watch one of them had stolen. Upon hearing this, Reed says, “It all makes sense.”

Reed rushes back to the lab and picks up his universal translator, which we’re to believe he’s had for a long time now, and then back out into New York. They find Spinnerette surrounded by police. Sue traps Spinnerette inside a force field, thinning out the air inside it. This disorients her, and Reed deduces that Spinnerette is “sobering up.” Her real name is Solon Stabilizer, and the high oxygen content in Earth’s atmosphere made her drunk upon arrival on our planet. Reed and Sue take Solon to Long Island (!) where her ship is hidden. She needed the power source and the metal alloy to repair her ship.

Inside the ship, we meet Solon’s fellow aliens, which look just like her. Solon takes a moment to explain that they breed by cloning (TMI!) and that she uses her powers to prevent sickness among her crew in zero gravity. The aliens fly off for the E.T.-style happy ending. We won’t know what’s up with Johnny and Frankie until the next issue.

Unstable molecule: Apparently, Reed has used his universal translator anytime the team has met aliens, and we just haven’t seen it until now. Also, Reed says he plans to meet with the Latverian assembly to deal with Dr. Doom legally, instead of leaving him trapped in the lab.

Fade out: Sue’s getting Reed out of the lab to spend time with her has become less henpecky and more playful. She leaves her civilian clothes on during the fight instead of changing to her FF uniform.

Clobberin’ time: Ben’s weightlifting gizmo is an isometric exerciser, that uses an adamantium rod combined with magnetics to use his own muscle power against him. Sounds legit.

Flame on: On the way to Frankie’s place, Johnny self-reflects, wondering if he has taken his past girlfriends for granted, and whether he is ready for a more serious relationship.

Four and a half: Franklin’s powers re-manifest in a big way, but Sue seems only a little bit concerned about this. Remember when his powers almost destroyed the universe?

Commercial break: Is it me, or are Tarzan, the Lone Ranger, Tonto, and Zorro all the same guy?

Trivia time: According to the Marvel wiki, this is the one and only appearance of Spinnerette. She did, however, become something of an inside joke around Marvel. Whenever the editors would be accused of not creating new characters anymore, they’d respond, “What about Spinnerette?”

Fantastic or frightful? Another Twilight Zone-type standalone story. While the sci-fi plot is kind of hokey, the various character beats in between show just how well John Byrne understands the FF.

 Next week: She’s a hottie.

****

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. This was the series’ 20th anniversary, so we get a double-sized issue and an… interesting backup story. We’ll get to that in time, but first here’s Byrne’s tribute to the comic’s history.

We begin with a retelling of part of the FF’s origin, with them sneaking aboard their spaceship, taking off, and getting caught in the cosmic rays. Just as their powers start to emerge, Johnny wakes up — it was a dream! As Johnny goes about his morning for the next couple of pages, we discover that he, Reed, and Sue are not the Fantastic Four, and living in Liddleville, a quaint, old-fashioned small town.

Ben is here too, as a human, where he is married to Alicia. They run the local café. Alicia can see, and her stepfather the Puppet Master is not an evil supergenius, but a loving father figure.

The next night, Sue has a nightmare in which Ben transforms into the Thing. The next morning, Reed, Johnny, and Ben compare notes. Ben has been having the dreams too, imagining the four of them as superheroes. At the local university, where Reed teaches, he and a professor named Vaughn are working on a particle accelerator. Vaughn tells Reed is not qualified enough to work on the machine, and he sends Reed back to the classroom. Alone in the classroom, Reed nods off and has a dream about the Fantastic Four. He sees them at the Baxter Building, where a strange force takes over their minds. Possessed, they travel to a medieval castle in the Adirondacks (?) where the Puppet Master is waiting for them.

Reed wakes, deducing the dreams are real, and their lives in Liddleville is an illusion. Thinking his consciousness has been transferred to a robot body, Reed cuts himself in the arm, only to feel the pain and bleed all over the place. (Harsh!) Reed reunites with his teammates/family at his house, still insisting that somehow the Puppet Master has their minds trapped in artificial bodies. They all confront the Puppet Master who, after Ben roughs him up, confirms that they are all puppets (or “synthe-clones” as he puts it). He says he did all for Alicia, so she could have the happy life she always wanted. Puppet Master says he needed help to do this. Cue Doctor Doom — a gigantic Doctor Doom who fills the entire sky over the town in a two-page spread.

Cut to Dr. Doom’s lab, where he has the FF, Alicia, and Franklin catatonic and hooked up to a table with the miniature town of Liddleville on it. Doom says he will let the heroes live out the rest of their lives in Liddleville while he plots to retake the throne of Latveria without their interference. He also admits that he played the role of Vaughn, just to mess with Reed for his own amusement. Our heroes return to the Liddleville Puppet Master, who says he uses a transferal circuit in his ring to transfer his consciousness back and forth to his body. Reed swipes the ring, but discovers that Doom has already deactivated it.

There’s a lot of drama, as Reed tries to figure out how to return everyone to their bodies. Ben and Alicia don’t know what to make of this, not sure whether they want to go back to a life where she is blind and he’s a monster. Reed figures out that he can use the particle accelerator, which actually works, to recreate the cosmic ray storm that gave them their powers. Ben shows up and volunteers. The machine successfully turns him back into the Thing. Alicia remembers what Ben looks like because she had touched his face so often in the past, so she does not react to him as a monster, but instead kisses him on the lips. (wha-hey!)

The FF get their powers back, and Doombots (Doombot puppets?) attack. After some fighting, the FF defeat them and then escape Liddleville. They’re now running around in Doom’s lab, all teeny-tiny. They use the water from the Liddleville river to flood the floor of the lab, and then Sue flies through Doom’s castle to find him. He’s seated as his piano, unmasked, playing a mournful tune.

Sue sneaks a peek at Doom’s face (we don’t get to see it) and tries to fight him. He traps her under a glass, like a bug, and then returns to the lab. He doesn’t fall for the electrocuted water on the floor, and zaps one of the wires to shut off the power. This is all part of Reed’s plan, however. Johnny flies around Doom to distract him. With an especially powerful punch, Ben knocks Doom off his feet. He gets blasted by some energy, which I guess was from his laserblast earlier combined with whatever device Reed whipped up. It’s confusing. The gist of it is that this energy blast returns the FF, Alicia and Franklin to their bodies, while trapping Doom in Liddleville, his consciousness inside the Professor Vaughn puppet. Puppet Master’s real body is nowhere to be found. The residents of Liddleville, led the by the Puppet Master, chase “Vaughn” out of town.

Then there’s the backup story. Although advertised as a new story by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, this is actually compiled by storyboards Kirby drew for the late ‘70s Fantastic Four cartoon. It’s a crude retelling of Fantastic Four #5, but with H.E.R.B.I.E. the robot in place of the Human Torch. It doesn’t look like Kirby art at all. (There are a lot of conflicting stories about how/why this backup came about. The gist of it is that Kirby didn’t want anything to do with this comic, or at least did not approve of using the storyboards. He was allegedly going to be included on the cover next to Stan Lee, but was taken out at the last minute. Whose decision that was depends on which version of the story you read.)

Unstable molecule: Reed is definitely the hero in this one, figuring out Doom’s plan, and outthinking his enemy, even in this impossible situation.

Fade out: After “unofficially” seeing Doom’s face in issue #197, Sue sees his face for real for the first time in this one.

Clobberin’ time: It seems odd that Ben would open a café, since he’s not shown much interest in being a cook or a business owner in the past. The café serves pizza, so maybe that’s a reference to how he’s such a hardcore New Yorker. His past as a college football star gets mentioned.

Flame on: Johnny’s new life in Liddleville is as a mechanic. His car’s license plate is “HOT 1.”

Fantastic Four and a Half: Franklin takes seeing his folks in action in stride, referring to Doom as “the bad man.”

Fantastic Fifth Wheel: It’ll come to no one’s surprise that H.E.R.B.I.E. is totally useless during the backup story. All he does is fly around and say “My sensors compute [states the obvious].” Shouldn’t he have laser cannons or something? (And would you believe we’re still not done with H.E.R.B.I.E.?)

The cover features a bunch of Marvel heroes surrounding the FF. These include future alternate member She-Hulk, who is placed right between Reed and Sue, somewhat presciently. The cover also has appearances by former alternate members Power Man and Impossible Man, and future alternate member Storm.

Commercial break: This cost eight bucks?!?

Trivia time: This issue later got a direct sequel in Micronauts #41, where it’s revealed that the Doom puppet turned around conquered Liddleville, and turned it into his own puppet version of Latveria.

Puppet Master previously appeared in Marvel Two-In-One #74, where he attended the FF’s Christmas party (!) and promised to heal his relationship with Alicia. That kinda/sorta leads into his motivation to create Liddleville.

A backup story in a previous Marvel annual explained that Dr. Doom’s servant Boris is the one who revived him after he was driven insane in issue #200. During this time, Doom also showed up in issues of Amazing Spider-Man, Iron Man, and even Dazzler, all scheming to take back Latveria.

Fantastic or Frightful? A really cool Twilight Zone-type story. John Byrne lets the story play out at a leisurely pace, so we spend a lot of time with the powerless FF just hanging out in Liddleville like normal folks, which offers a lot of nice character moments. This is probably the best Puppet Master story ever done, with a clever use of his powers. Here we have John Byrne pushing the art of comics in new directions, giving the whole issue a genuine cinematic feel.

Next week: Out for a spin.

****

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

****

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. Writer-artist John Byrne takes into space in a big way in issue #235, answering the question, “How do you fight an entire planet?”

This issue’s first page has no dialogue or captions, other than the title and credits. All we see is the Thing walking through a tunnel of purple goo, with a big machine on his back. We don’t get the context of what’s happening until the next page. He’s suffering extreme heat, and he says he has to get to the “core.” From there, we go into a flashback, going over what happened in the last issue. The FF are investigating some strange earthquakes, only to deduce the cause as an attack from outer space. They flew into space, where they were confronted by… Ego, the living planet!

Ego shoots down the FF’s ship, even while Reed is astonished at how the surface of the planet is Ego’s “skin.” On the surface of the planet, the team comes across a gigantic “siderial propulsion unit” which Ego uses to travel through space. Ego tries to keep them away from the device by blasting them with psychic energy. He then summons a bunch of anti-bodies (big purple humanoid monsters) to fight the FF. The FF fight the antibodies and reach the propulsion unit. Reed says the device is not part of Ego’s body, but was attached to him by his enemy, the person he has come to Earth to destroy. Reed then says he’s seen this technology before.

Cut back to Earth, where Johnny’s new romantic interest Frankie Raye is just getting out of the shower. Wha-hey! Okay, all we see are her legs and her bare back, but remember this is the era in which sex and violence were upped in a big way in this comic (and comics in general). There are no clean towels in the bathroom, so Frankie has to walk around her apartment naked to get one. She spots herself in the mirror, and is shocked at what she sees. The caption merely states, “She knows!” (We won’t find out what she knows for quite a while.)

On the surface of Ego, Ben and Reed remove a “mini-pack” from the propulsion device. Then, they leap into a hole that Ben describes as bigger than the Grand Canyon, but Reed says it’s just one of Ego’s pores. (!) The heroes travel deeper into Ego’s body (ew) and after only a few minutes, they find Ego’s brain. “I can feel it thinking!” Sue says. But wait, this is only a decoy brain, to throw off intruders. (?) The team ventures farther into Ego, but heat and pressure cause Reed, Sue and Johnny to turn back, leaving Ben alone.

After much travel inside the planet, Ben finally reached Ego’s true brain. The brain makes Ben see Ego’s origin. Right after the big bang, a “clot of star stuff” congealed into a living consciousness, which we now know as Ego. Ben then sees a vision of Galactus, Ego’s natural predator. Then there’s a short recap of Thor’s encounter with Ego (told in previous Thor comics), and how Ego refused to let aliens settle on him, and how Galactus “vanquished” Ego to deep space. Ego has come to Earth because it’s the last place Galactus was seen (in Fantastic Four #213).

Ben throws the mini-kit at Ego’s brain, and makes his escape. This somehow causes the propulsion device to misfire, so Ego flies away from Earth and toward the sun. Ego dissolves when getting too close to the sun, and Ben is flung into space. It looks like it’s over for Ben, but then the FF’s ship flies by and saves him. Ego has been destroyed, and the FF head home.

Unstable molecule: Reed is fascinated by Ego’s bio-construction, but then doesn’t seem to mind when Ego is killed right in front of him. Guess it was either that or save the Earth.

Fade out: Sue can’t turn invisible while on Ego’s surface, because he can sense everywhere she steps. She instead uses a force field to fly over the surface.

Clobberin’ time: While Ben marches alone toward Ego’s brain, the captions wax eloquently on the courage and strength of character of test pilots. There’s even a quote from Tom Wolfe’s book The Right Stuff, which would become a movie two years after this issue was published.

Flame on: Johnny says the constantly-changing surface of Ego reminds him of “Broomhilda.” Anybody have any guesses what he’s talking about? He doesn’t appear to mean the classic myths of Brynhildr, or the beloved comic strip witch.

Commercial break: The most horrible monster of all time!

Trivia time: No, Ego isn’t dead. In his next appearance, in Rom #69, it’s established that sun’s energies restored him to his original glory. Instead of going after Earth again, he gets mixed up with those no-good Dire Wraiths. Later, a surprise plot twist in a Silver Surfer issue reveals that Ego is actually one of the Elders of the Universe, the oldest and most powerful beings in the universe.

Fantastic or frightful? Can’t think of anything bad to say about this one. Another great Star Trek-type story, with eye-popping artwork throughout. You get a fun sense of saving the Earth as being just another day at the office for our heroes.

Next week: Not quite Smallville.

****

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. Writer/artist John Byrne continues to give the series a strong sci-fi feel, this time with a Spielberg-style “magic in the suburbs” story in issue #234.

We spend the first couple of pages of this issue with a man named L.R. “Skip” Collins. He’s described as “mired in mediocrity,” but also “the most important man that ever lived.” He lives in an ordinary house, works an ordinary job, and can’t get through to his long-haired hippie-type son. As he drives to work, he realizes he’s a half-hour late, and, just like that, he goes back in time a half hour, to make it to work on time. When locked out of the office, the office key telekinetically opens it from the inside, just after he thinks it. Skip’s boss then tells him he’s going on a business trip to New York.

While on the plane to NYC, Skip flashes back to being exposed to a nuclear blast in 1955, when he was in the army. In New York, he sees the tourist sites, including the Baxter Building. There, on the street, he sees Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Girl walk by, and he follows them. The two of them come across a collapsing building, where Reed saves a falling girl, and Sue uses her force fields to deflect debris.

This is the only beginning, though, as a full-blown earthquake strikes New York. Reed and Sue rush toward the danger, with Skip still following them. Cut to Ben, who is drinking in a NYC Irish pub (and of course the bartender just happens to be named “Mick” ugh…) when the quake trashes the place. Johnny, meanwhile, is with Frankie Raye. He promises to show her that he’s more than just a superhero, and then they make with the kissing. Too bad he has to fly off as soon as the quake hits. He uses his flame to create a pocket of hot air to rescue some falling people.

Everyone regroups at the Baxter Building, where Reed learns that Paris and London are also beset by earthquakes. Reed stays behind in the lab to investigate, while Reed, Sue and Johnny head out into the city for several more pages of the using their powers to help people. That’s when Ben, while on the Brooklyn Bridge, spots Skip watching them. It appears that a chunk of debris knocks Skip into the water. Ben jumps into the water to save the man, but can’t find him. Reed then calls everyone back to headquarters.

Reed deduces that the earthquakes are gravity waves caused by an attack from outer space. The team boards the FF personal rocket, and blasts off into space. Out in the city, Skip, who is somehow OK, sees this, and wishes the city could be back to normal. Just like that, waves of energy flow out of skip, transforming the city back to its pre-earthquake state. Thinking the whole thing was a dream, Skip wanders off back to his hotel.

In space, the FF fly their rocket through the remains of a bunch of destroyed planets, and then into a giant gaseous cloud. Reed calls this a bizarre biological eco-verse — and it’s dying! At the center of the cloud they find… Ego the living planet! Ego says he has traveled across the universe to kill his enemy, and will destroy Earth along with it.

To be continued!

Unstable molecule: Reed not only does the science thing, but he co-pilots the ship alongside Ben.

Fade out: Sue’s continues to show her force fields being more powerful than we’d previously seen, using them to clear huge swaths of debris away from citizens in danger.

Clobberin’ time: While at the bar, Ben says he always stops after one drink, because a guy his size can’t afford to get tipsy.

Flame on: Frankie Raye has more or less come around on liking Johnny again, but there’s more complications to come with the two of them.

Commercial break: Is this legal?

Trivia time: This is Ego the living planet’s first appearance in Fantastic Four. He had previously only appeared in several Thor comics, most memorably in the completely insane Jack Kirby story that debuted him.

Fantastic or frightful? The Marvel Wiki has almost no information on Skip Collins, so what are we to surmise about a godlike, reality-bending character who shows up and then wanders off never to be seen again? He’s definitely a forerunner to what Marvel writers would do with Molecule Man a few years afterward, but as far as this issue goes, it’s more of an oddity than anything else. Byrne’s art continues to be excellent, though.

 Next week: Leggo my Ego!

****

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. In issue #233, John Byrne is already trying some experimental storytelling, with this only his second issue as writer/artist.

The issue begins with some dark atmosphere as we’re introduced to Deeden prison, a “hellhole” that most people have never heard of. Inside, George David Munson is on death row, and about to be executed. He’s all emotional, saying that although he’s done terrible things in the past, he’s innocent of the crime that put him in jail. Just before going to the chair, Munson talks to a priest, and leaves behind a letter addressed to Johnny Storm, the Human Torch.

The priest later arrives at the Baxter Building, to deliver the letter in person. Sue meets him in the lobby, and walks him through the building’s security to get up to the FF’s headquarters. Once there, they’re interrupted by Ben and Johnny bickering. They fight for a couple of pages, for an old-fashioned “excuse for the characters to show off their powers for new readers” thing. The priest, who we finally learn is named Father Vito, gives Johnny the letter. In it, Munson explains that he knew Johnny back in high school and now he wants Johnny to clear his name. Johnny remembers being bullied by Munson, and says he’ll look into it.

Johnny travels to Glennvile, which is where we’re told he went to high school. He checks in with the local courthouse, and goes over the facts of the case. We get a flashback to Munson’s crime, told wordlessly in black-and-white panels. It was a robbery that went wrong, and Munson was accused of killing someone as he fled the scene. There were fingerprints and eyewitnesses saying he did it, but Johnny can’t figure out why a two-bit thug like Munson would have used a silencer.

Johnny investigates at the liquor store where the crime happened, but the store manager refuses to cooperate. When the manager sneaks away to a pay phone at night, Johnny corners him. The man tries to burn a piece of paper he has on him, but Johnny controls the fire and saves the paper. He takes it back to New York, where Reed’s high-tech, futuristic computer can identify the number. (Reed invented caller ID!) The number leads to a warehouse in NYC’s Garment District, where Johnny attacks a bunch of crooks. Johnny “interrogates” one of them by burning off half of his hair, until the guy gives up an address.

Johnny flies to the address, a fancy skyscraper penthouse. It’s owned by the Maggia (a.k.a. the Marvel Universe’s version of the mafia) and inside is weirdly-disfigured crime boss Hammerhead. He has a plan to unite all the Maggia families under his leadership. Johnny interrupts, demanding info about Munson. Hammerhead has a bunch of death traps in the room, but they’re designed to trap Spider-Man and not the Torch, so Johnny easily escapes them. Hammerhead then reveals that he’s wearing an exoskeleton that gives him super strength. He and Johnny fight for a few pages. Johnny has him overpowered, but Hammerhead escapes in the end.

The police arrive and arrest all of Hammerhead’s Maggia pals. A detective praises Johnny’s detective work, but Johnny says he “fudged up,” because he still has no evidence to clear Munson’s name. The detective says Daredevil recently gave the cops all of the Kingpin’s criminal records. Because, in the Marvel Universe, the Kingpin somehow benefits from every single crime in New York. We abruptly cut to an epilogue, where Johnny meets Munson’s mother at Munson’s grave. Johnny explains that the murder was really committed by the liquor store manager, a man with Maggia ties, who killed the former manager so the Maggia could take over the store. The manager has been arrested, and Mrs. Munson tells Johnny he is a hero.

Unstable molecules: Reed has installed new security measures at the Baxter Building, including voice recognition and bio-scans of anyone in the building, to confirm that visitors don’t match any of the FF’s known enemies.

Fade out: Sue debuts a new, shorter hairstyle in this one. Sue’s hair will continue to be an ongoing minor controversy throughout Byrne’s run.

Clobberin’ time: Ben is mad at Johnny because Johnny snuck a photo of Christopher Reeve in his room, with a note saying that’s what heroes are supposed to look like. So, DC Comics and/or the Superman movie exist in the Marvel Universe?

Flame on: At the courthouse, Johnny verifies his identity by demonstrating his powers with fire tricks, instead of, say, showing a driver’s license. Perhaps Tony Stark really was onto something with that whole registration thing.

Commercial break: I wonder why more advertisements aren’t this obviously hand-written:

Trivia time: This issue follows up on two other Marvel stories. Hammerhead was presumed dead after his helicopter crashed in Amazing Spider-Man #159, and Daredevil stole the Kingpin’s financial records in Daredevil #172. When Hammerhead next appears, in Power Man and Iron Fist #92, he’s already been apprehended by police and headed for jail.

More importantly, this issue’s Bullpen Bulletins page is the first appearance of…  Puzzle Man! He was supposed to be the “star” of the Marvel Fun and Games comic, which, to my knowledge, was never released. So we never got to see Puzzle Man in his full glory. I like to think he’s running around somewhere in the Marvel Universe, solving cruciverbalist-related crimes.

Fantastic or frightful? I get it, mysteries are tough. Writing a mystery is both a specific skill and a specific mindset. This is a good attempt at a mystery, but it’s just that — an attempt. Still, it shows how a good writer can come up with challenges for a super-powered main character. These fights are no sweat for Johnny, but solving the case really tests him in ways we’ve rarely seen. The artwork is where the issue really shines, from the super-creepy prison opening to Johnny using his powers in creative ways. Overall, we can file this issue under “interesting experiment.”

Next week: Hey, where’s Jack?

****

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. This week, with issue #232, the series begins one of its best runs, if not one of the finest runs in all of comics, thanks to writer-artist John Byrne.

After a decade of repetitive, go-nowhere storylines, the latest regime change at Marvel decided to start taking Fantastic Four seriously again. Artist John Byrne shot to meteoric fame after working with Chris Claremont on Uncanny X-Men, which was then experiencing white-hot popularity. Byrne had so much clout that Marvel gave him the keys to the kingdom — creative control over Fantastic Four, once its flagship title.

For most of the 1980s, Byrne wrote, penciled, and inked FF. Byrne often went back to the Lee/Kirby classics and put a modern, more sophisticated take on them. Heavily influenced by sci-fi film and television, his art work has a strong “Spielbergian” bent. Also, as is the case with many comics from the ‘80s, the sex and violence were upped in a big way.

John Byrne’s self-portrait, from the 1980 book THE ART OF JOHN BYRNE, OR OUT OF MY HEAD.

Byrne is also controversial. Never hesitant to speak his mind, comics history is full of stories about who Byrne got mad at and who got mad at him. Any research into Byrne’s history devolves into a bunch of “he said/she said” stories. Therefore, he often rubs fans the wrong way. Me, though? I’m a big, big fan. I’m way more interested in Byrne’s masterful storytelling than I am in discussing whether he is a jerk.

Enough generalities. Let’s talk about issue #232. We begin with Diablo, the evil master of potions, giving a big speech while conjuring clay figures of the FF. It’s a deliberate throwback to Dr. Doom playing chess with little FF figures in his first appearance. Diablo doesn’t say why, exactly, he wants to destroy the FF, but I think we can assume that it’s because they’ve defeated him in the past. Then, there’s a twist, as Diablo’s landlady knocks on the door, and we realize he’s not in some evil lair, but a crappy little apartment. Diablo is disguised as “Mr. Olbaid” (get it?) and he chases her away. Then he summons some creatures he calls his “little ones” and sends them on their way.

We then check in on Sue, who is getting her hair done at a fancy salon with a, let’s say, flamboyant hairdresser. (Sue’s ever-changing hairstyles will be an ongoing thing during Byrne’s run.) A giant stone monster rises up from under the street. It’s a talkative monster, saying he’s there for Sue and “woe betide those who stand in my way.” Sue tries to get to her FF flare gun, but the monster covers her with quick-drying cement (the cartoon kind that goes rock-hard instantly) before she can get to it.

Then we go to Ben, who is at the movies with Alicia. A water monster attacks him, enveloping him in a giant blob of water, with nothing for him to punch, and threatening to drown him. He tries to dig down into the sidewalk, still not escaping the water. Cut to Johnny, who is in Central Park reuniting with on-again/off-again romantic interest Frankie Raye. She tells him that there is more to her than he knows. Before she can go on, they’re both swept up into the air by some powerful wind. The wind throws them to the ground, and then takes the form of a tornado with a human-like shape.

Next we go to Reed, working in his lab. He’s tracking peculiar energies throughout the city, only to be attacked by a fire monster. He thinks it’s Johnny at first, but then creature introduces itself as the Living Flame, and Reed somehow deduces its fire is “elemental flame” which I guess is different from normal flame. Reed stretches into a bouncing ball shape and escapes the building. He then stretches into parachute shape to float to Central Park, where Frankie sees him and gets his attention. Reed and Johnny do the “switch combatants” thing, with Johnny fighting the Living Flame, and Reed pretending to flee from the tornado monster.

Back with Sue, she uses her force field to expand the space between her and the cement, freeing herself in a total badass moment. She then escapes by sliding along her force fields the same way Iceman slides around on his self-made ice bridges. Ben, still trapped in water, finds his way to a sporting goods store in hopes of saving himself with scuba gear. The water monster responds by trapping a civilian in the water. Fortunately, Sue shows up and traps the water monster in a force field. Now it’s their turn to play the “switch combatants” game, as Ben goes after the rock monster and clobbers it real good.

More fighting! Reed uses a portable generator to electrocute the water monster. Sue traps the air monster in a force field, and then destroys it by compressing it into a single drop of water which makes it no longer exist. (It doesn’t make sense to me, but what do I know about elemental monsters?) Johnny, meanwhile, remembers that fire cannot exist without oxygen, so unleashes his nova flame, burning up all the oxygen around him, destroying the Living Flame.

Back at the Baxter Building, Reed says he knew the monsters were supernatural elementals, and that only Diablo could have summoned them. He picks up the phone and calls someone for some magical help. Later, at night, we see Diablo in some seedy back alley, where’s he’s apprehended by Reed. Diablo has a case with four small statues, which he used to summon the elementals. Reed says the statues are stolen and wanted by Interpol. How did Reed find Diablo? Dr. Strange is also there, having used his magic (the Eye of Agamotto, one assumes) to track the villain down. “Oh the ignominity!” Diablo says. Reed thanks Strange for his help, and then takes off, to take Diablo to the police.

Unstable molecule: Dr. Strange refers to Reed as “Professor Richards.” When did Reed get a teaching gig?

Fade out: There’s much debate on the internet about when, exactly, Sue started to use her force fields for transportation. This might not be the first time, but it announces in a big way that she can use them for getting around, like flying.

Clobberin’ time: The movie Ben and Alicia go to see is The Elephant Man. He gets all teary-eyed, saying “It had its moments.”

Flame on: Johnny starts up his romance with Frankie Raye again, and she’ll be a big part of the book from here on.

Commercial break: Learn law enforcement!

Trivia time: The inker for this issue is credited as “Bjorn Heyn,” which is, obviously, an anagram for “John Byrne.”

This story unofficially crosses over with new material added to Classic X-Men #39, where Diablo, in his disguise as Mr. Olbaid, passes Storm on the street and thinks “Pretty girl!”

Sue’s Liberace-esque hairdresser is named Milo Tindolini. To my knowledge, he never appeared again. Just imagine if he had became a regular Marvel supporting character, the guy who does the hair for all the Marvel heroes.

Fantastic or frightful? Byrne kicks things off with a simple story, but an effective one. Each member of the team gets a moment to shine, using their powers in creative ways, and the elemental monsters are a powerful threat. In short, a fun romp.

Next week: Dead man walkin’.

****

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. For several weeks, we’ve been zipping through the “middle years,” after Jack Kirby and before John Byrne, and now we’ve reached the end. As the saying goes, what a long strange trip it’s been. It’s fitting, then, that we get one last burst of “middle years” weirdness, as famed creators Doug Moench and Bill Sienkiewicz conclude their run on the book.

Issue #225: The FF are at the North Pole, where the immortal Viking Korgon is not so immortal anymore, but instead is dying. His failing powers caused power blackouts all over the world, hence the FF’s involvement. The other Vikings explain that Korgon’s radiation powers are what provide life to them, in their hidden dome. Reed agrees to help, and gets to work in the Vikings’ science lab, in the hopes of finding a cure.

You can’t mention Vikings in the Marvel Universe without Thor, so we cut to Asgard, where Odin has taken notice of this. He sends Thor to investigate this Korgon guy. Reed succeeds in healing Korgon, and the Vikings hold a big party to honor the FF. Korgon replenishes the dome for another hundred years, and then asks Reed to make him human again. This procedure backfires, and Korgon becomes even more powerful. Enraged, he attacks Reed. Thor arrives, and everyone fights for a while. When Korgon threatens to destroy the entire dome, Thor summons Odin’s help. Odin appears and takes away Korgon’s powers. Korgon admits to his people that he’s not really a god, and the superheroes leave the Vikings alone, to work things out for themselves.

Issue #226: A giant robot attacks a train in the Carpathian mountains, stealing a fortune in gold on board. The FF see a news report on them and wonder if their new friends Carson, Genji, and Savage are involved. (The FF recently met these three characters in Marvel’s Shogun Warriors comic.) In a case of perfect timing, Carson, Genji and Savage show up at the Baxter Building. These three pilot the giant Shogun Warrior robots, until this new robot came along and destroyed them. The pilots are now asking Reed for help.

The FF and the robot pilots travel to the Far East, where they find this new robot attacking a city. The FF fight the robot while the pilots find its stash of stolen gold. It finds them, introducing itself as… the Samurai Destroyer. Its pilot is a simple explorer who found the Samurai deep beneath the Earth. He rebuilt and plans to use its power to do anything he likes. Everybody fights the Samurai, while the three pilots get inside it and take out the explorer. They then blow up the Samurai. Without their giant robots, the three pilots decide to go their separate ways, saying you don’t need a robot to be a hero.

Issue #227: Reed gets a phone call from old colleague in Lost Lake, Pennsylvania, about a mysterious meteor that crashed there. He says this is a good excuse for the whole team to use this as a vacation. Upon arriving, the heroes are attacked by a giant pterodactyl, that was once a bird before it was exposed to the meteor. After fighting off the creature, Reed deduces that aliens similar to prehistoric trilobites caused the change.

After more “we’re on vacation” comedy shtick, Reed and Ben fight a wolf transformed into a giant monster wolf by the trilobites. Ben swims to the bottom of lake to find the meteor, and he fights an alien-transformed sea serpent. Unbeknownst to the others, a trilobite attaches itself to Sue. She starts turning into a monster, but Reed appeals to the humanity still lingering inside her, saying he knows she still loves him. This is enough for him to get in close and remove the trilobite. Reed deduces that fossil fuels are the aliens’ weakness (!) and the town returns to normal. Except in the last panel, we see some of the trilobites survived.

Issue #228: Johnny is all excited because he has a date with Lorrie, the girl he met at the racetrack a few issues back. Reed, meanwhile, wants a neurologist to look at Franklin in case his powers return, but Sue is worried Franklin is too young for such a thing. The FF and Franklin and even Lorrie all go to see this doctor, Jankovitz. He wants to use a biofeedback technique to tap into Franklin’s mind. Johnny and Lorrie leave them to it to go on their date, taking the Fantasticar to makeout point!

In the lab, Franklin’s mind produces a ball of energy, which leaves and travels to makeout point, where it zaps some guy picking a fight with Johnny. Fueled by psychic energy, the guy, named Franco, lashes out with Franklin’s subconscious anger. In the lab, Sue switches off Jankovitz’s biofeedback machine, which causes Franco to return to normal. Reed thanks Jankovitz for his help, but says he must take care of his son himself.

Issue #229: While our heroes are enjoying a day out in New York, the city is temporarily enveloped in darkness. Reed investigates, only for a mysterious man to emerge from a portal of darkness in the sky. The guy attacks, but he absorbs light, sound, and mass into his body, making it impossible to fight him. After a lot more fighting, the man communicates with Reed telepathically. He calls himself the Ebon Seeker, and he escaped from the heart of a black hole, and that there is a device on Earth that is killing his world.

Our heroes try to fight back, but the Ebon Seeker blasts them, trapping them in pure darkness. Just when it seems that all is lost, they’re contacted by an angelic woman calling herself Fire Frost. She says she’s seeking the Ebon Seeker in the hopes of preventing a cosmic cataclysm. Also, she’s his lover!

 Issue #230: Fire Frost tells the FF the origin of the Ebon Seeker, and it’s so long-winded and convoluted that I’m not even going to try to recap it. Something about aliens and lost souls and a black hole and the ever-expanding nature of the universe… I don’t know. The FF return to New York (how?) and head straight for the Baxter Building and the Negative Zone portal. Reed hopes the Negative Zone’s energies will have a reverse effect on the Ebon Seeker’s dark energy. The Ebon Seeker finds them and attacks. Reed flips a switch, and an entire NYC city block is sucked into the Negative Zone. The Avengers have a cameo for absolutely no reason.

Fire Frost confronts the Ebon Seeker. She convinces him not to destroy, but to accept his fate. He does, and the two lovers fly off into the darkness together. Reed gives a speech about the NASA Voyager probe and its mission to explore deep space, and only after that does he say they’re likely trapped in the Negative Zone… forever!

Issue #231: New Yorkers panic as Reed tries to find a way back to Earth. A snooty construction boss named Lew Shiner leads the rabble in protest. Not far away, a sinister alien named Stygorr has discovered the chunk of New York in the Negative Zone and wants to claim it as his own. The FF fight Stygorr while Shiner tries to demolish the Baxter Building. Through a complicated series of events, Stygorr and Shiner collide into each other. Their positive-versus-negative energies create an anti-matter explosion which returns the NYC block back to Earth.

Johnny is reunited with Lorrie. She tells him that he’s a great guy, but she’s just not ready to be serious with anyone. While his teammates celebrate returning to Earth, a lonely Johnny mopes.

Unstable molecule: Reed gives a long-winded “explanation” of how the Negative Zone works, including its relation to sub-space, and the introduction of the Distortion Area, that weird area characters pass through on their way to and from the zone.

Fade out: Sue has something of a breakdown at one point, saying that she always wanted to settle down and have a normal family. She then comes around, saying that although they’ll never be normal, she’ll always love her family.

Clobberin’ time: Ben and Alicia go to a Broadway show (Evita, based on the posters in the background) where he does the self-pity thing, saying she’s too good to be with a monster like him. She tells him how much she loves him, and all the theater-goers give the two of them a round of applause.

Flame on: Johnny’s date with Lorrie also includes taking her to a burger joint in the Fantasticar. He also takes her for a flight using his powers. Lorrie kisses him several times before deciding she’s not into him, which is kind of a jerk thing for her to do.

Four and a half: Franklin sees his parents fighting the bad guys on the TV news. This is a big moment for him, as it’s his first realization that they put their lives on the line and are in danger on a regular basis.

Commercial break: Check out Frank Miller drawing Dr. Strange!

Trivia time: The Shogun Warriors! This was another toy line that Marvel got a comics license for, like their Transformers comics. There were about twenty characters in the toy line, but the main three in the comic were Raideen, Combatra, and Dangard Ace. I guess the license ran out, because the characters aren’t referred to as Shogun Warriors in this Fantastic Four issue, and we only see the pilots, not the mechs. The pilots never appeared again in the Marvel Universe, except for Genji, who popped up in one panel in Avengers #300.

Fantastic or frightful? I was really enjoying these Moench/Sienkiewicz issues until I got to the Negative Zone/Ebon Seeker three-parter, which is confusing to the point of being incomprehensible. I applaud them for giving it a go and trying something new with the series, but it just didn’t work. Still, it’s a good place to bring the middle years to a close, with some real talent on the book attempting something new and experimental. That opens the door for a creator with a signature voice, one whose work on Fantastic Four will help define this comic and these characters for the rest of time.

Next week: Byrne, baby, Byrne.

****

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’re still hula-hooping our way through the “middle years,” after Jack Kirby but before John Byrne. This batch of issues finds the series in an interesting place, with writer Doug Moench and artist Bill Sienkiewicz taking over the book.

Issue #219: There’s tension among our heroes as they bicker while trying to work together in Reed’s lab. Sue blames it on stress. Meanwhile, down in Atlantis, Namor is attacked and a bunch of guys steal the horn he uses to control sea creatures. The thief is Captain Barracuda, high-tech pirate. He summons Giganto, the whale-like monster from way back in issue #4, and a bunch of other giant sea monsters to attack New York. Namor and the FF agree to set aside their differences and work together.

Everybody fights the monsters, eventually breaking into Barracuda’s submarine. Sue uses her force fields to prevent him from using the horn again, and he admits that he’s doing all this just to steal money from all the New Yorkers. Namor punches him out. Namor returns to Atlantis and the FF reaffirm their friendship.

Issue #220: Our heroes are out and about in New York when they come across a bunch of strange power outages. The Avengers contact the FF. Iron Man says he just got off the phone with the president (!) who informed him that the power outages are happening worldwide. To investigate, the FF take off in their private rocket, blasting off into space.

There’s a two-page flashback to the FF’s origin. Then they experience another power outage, bringing them in for a landing near the North Pole, in a frozen wasteland. There, they discover a giant alien device, crawling with aliens. The device causes a giant crystalline tower to emerge from beneath the ice.

Issue #221: Reed, Ben, and Johnny fight the aliens while Sue invisibly tries to sneak inside their tower. The aliens are able to adapt instantly to the heroes’ powers, able to counterattack anything the FF throws at them.

Inside, Sue confronts the aliens’ leaders, who can sense she’s there even when invisible. Turns out the aliens crash-landed on Earth millions of years earlier, and needed to reverse the planet’s polarity in order to go back home. Now, their drones (the ones doing the fighting) have found a way to reverse the polarity, so the leaders have woken up. When they learn intelligent life has evolved while they slept, they call off the fight and stop the polarity. This also stops all the blackouts. Reed repairs their ship, because of course he does, and the aliens depart as friends.

Issue #222: After a couple of pages of the FF horsing around at home, we cut to Nicholas Scratch, evil sorcerer and former mayor of New Salem, a hidden town of magic-users. He’s been exiled to the “Dark Realm” but he finds a link back to Earth. At the Baxter Building, Sue and Franklin play hide and seek, only for him to wander to close to the Negative Zone portal. He gets zapped, suspended in mid-air in some sort of energy field. Sue fires one of those “4” flares into the sky, and the other FFers make their way through New York to join her.

Turns out Franklin has been possessed by Nicholas Scratch, with Scratch manipulating him from the Dark Realm. Franklin/Scratch uses magic to make all the contraptions in Reed’s lab come to life for some fighting and action. Johnny flies to Dr. Strange’s place for help, but the Doc isn’t home. This, however, draws the attention of one Gabriel the Devil-Hunter. The FF travel to Whisper Hill seeking advice from supernatural nanny Agatha Harkness, and Gabriel arrives to join them. Gabriel performs what he calls an exorcism, which allows Scratch to speak to our heroes. He says Franklin’s soul is trapped in the Negative Zone with him, and the portal can only be reopened from his side.

Issue #223: After a tiresome five pages recapping the previous issue, we rejoin the FF en route to New Salem, with Sue using her force fields to keep Franklin/Scratch’s powers in check. In New Salem, we’re reunited with the Salem’s Seven, a team of super-powered magic types, who are still loyal to Scratch. They get loose and run amok. The FF arrive in town, to find the townsfolk all knocked out from a plague of Scratch’s doing, and then our heroes fight the Salem’s Seven.

Then there’s a bunch of weird magic mumbo-jumbo where Harkness and Gabriel allow the FF to enter Franklin’s mind and confront Scratch. They are able to free Franklin thanks to the power of love. Harkness removes all of Scratch’s powers somehow, and then says she’s going to stay behind in New Salem, and no longer be Franklin’s nanny. Everyone says goodbye, and goes their separate ways.

Issue #224: A strange pink mist flows through the sky in New York, causing the FF’s powers to go haywire. Reed deduces that the cause is an unknown isotope located at the North Pole, so everyone travels back to the arctic. There, they are attacked by a bunch of high tech Vikings (!) driving motorcycles armed with laser weapons (!!).

Reed tries to reason with the Vikings, learning that the mist is affecting them as well. To learn more, the FF let the Vikings take them hostage. The Vikings introduce the team to their leader, Korgon, the blind god of fire, who is dying. Korgon says the mist was caused by him trying to replenish the energy that keeps the Vikings alive in the snowy wastes. He further explains that he was once a Viking many centuries ago, who was struck by a meteor, gaining super-powers and immortality from its radiation. Now his immortality is failing, so he tells the FF that they must cure him… and if they refuse, he will kill them!

To be continued!

Unstable molecule: Reed stretches to giant size to act a big ramp for people to slide out of a building during the craziness in New York. Marvel artists are usually pretty good in keeping Reed’s mass fairly consistent (in comic book terms, at least), but here’s almost Godzilla-sized.

Fade out: Sue practices using her force fields in the shape of pincers, so she can grab objects and move them around, as if with telekinesis.

Clobberin’ time: With everyone’s powers going nuts, Ben doesn’t become human again. Instead, he gets small patches of skin in place of his usual rocks. It’s kind of gross. Also, Ben’s skills as a pilot come back into play when he brings the team’s crashing rocket down for a safe landing.

Flame on: While at a racetrack, Johnny flirts with a pretty girl named Lorrie, who invites him back to her place to join him in her Jacuzzi. Wa-hey! Too bad he has to fly off and battle evil instead.

Five and a half: Franklin has gotten a lot older now (they grow up so fast) and he’s speaking complete sentences instead of toddler gibberish. One scene has him reading a Marvel Moon Knight comic.

Commercial break: Hulk slippers!

Trivia time: Gabriel the Devil-Hunter previously appeared in Marvel’s black-and-white magazines, Haunt of Horror and Monsters Unleashed. Writer Warren Ellis tried bringing him back during his Hellstorm revival in the ‘90s. That story ended with Gabriel’s mind getting wiped and leaving him a drooling vegetable, and to my knowledge he hasn’t been seen since. Here’s hoping somebody at Marvel can bring him back to his ol’ devil-hunting ways.

Captain Barracuda was a recurring character in the Sub-Mariner solo comic. He talks in old-timey pirate speech, yarr.

Fantastic or frightful? Sienkiewicz’s art isn’t that crazy experimental style he had in New Mutants, but he does some interesting stuff here, with a lot of shadows and rounded, organic shapes. After several regime changes at Marvel, there seems to be an interest in giving a damn about the Fantastic Four again. The early Sienkiewicz art is really good, but the stories continue to be generic. The best moments are the FF hanging out at home or messing around in New York, before the adventure starts. The adventures themselves are a mishmash of sci-fi/fantasy silliness that’s more confusing than cool.

Next week: Brain parasites and ego-spawn!

****

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’re still potato-farming our way through the “middle years,” after Jack Kirby but before John Byrne. Byrne is here in parts, doing some penciling in these issues, but he’s not running the show yet.

Issue #214: Reed and Sue are on the verge of death, after a Skrull aging ray turned them into old folks. Ben was critically injured in a fight against Terrax. All three are in suspended animation at the Baxter Building, leaving an angst-ridden Johnny all alone. Johnny tries contacting Tony Stark and then the Avengers, but they’re not home. He then flies up to the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, where Dum Dum Dugan says Stark is working on converting toxic waste into usable fuel. Back home and alone again, Johnny is contacted by Princess Astra of the Andromeda Galaxy, who the FF met back during the start of this arc. Nova is still fighting the Skrulls out in space, and Astra does not have a cure for Johnny’s teammates.

Johnny feels helpless, and then a Skrull attacks. Turns out he snuck into the building some time ago and has been hiding inside since then. He’s another Super Skrull, with the combined powers of the FF. Fighting! Johnny and the Skrull battle out of the building, across the sky, and then down into the NYC sewers. Johnny thinks he’s killed the Skrull, but no — it was just a Skrull robot! He had the aging ray on him, so Johnny takes the ray to Reed. He wakes Reed up in the hopes that Reed can reverse-engineer the ray. At first, it doesn’t appear to work, but then Reed, Johnny, and Ben wake up, feeling stronger and younger than ever. They renew their oath to use their powers for the good of mankind.

Issue #215: Reed is working in his lab with a scientist named Randolph, when it explodes. This crisis is another excuse for the characters to show off their powers for a few pages. The FF drop Randolph off at his house, where he’s attacked by street punks who think he’s rich. On the way back to the Baxter Building, where they are attacked by Blastaar the Living Bomb-Burst, who has emerged from the Negative Zone portal. They fight their way outside and into the sewers again, where Blastaar escapes.

Randolph contacts the FF, telling them he’d been beaten up by the street toughs. Reed rushed to Randolph’s house, to discover that Randolph exposed himself to an “evolution accelerator” to cure his wounds. He’s now been transformed into a tall, golden, godlike being. He uses his new mental powers to turn the street thugs into rats, as Reed looks on in fear.

Issue #216: Randolph walks on air through Times Square, shocking the crowds while on his way to the Baxter Building. Blastaar, hiding in an alley, wonders what he can learn from this new creature. Blastaar attacks Randolph, and then the FF when they arrive on the scene. Blastaar promises to reveal to Randolph the “truth” about the FF, and somehow the highly-evolved Randolph believes him. He freezes the FF in their tracks and takes Blastaar to the Baxter Building.

Inside the building, Randolph knocks Sue unconscious while she tries to protect Franklin. Blastaar tries to (of course) blast his way back into the Negative Zone. Franklin’s eyes glow red and yellow, and he seemingly sends Blastaar through the portal back into the Negative Zone. Inspired by this, Randolph leaves Earth, saying he will “probe the supreme vastness of the universe.” It’s then not-so-subtly hinted that H.E.R.B.I.E. the robot was the one who originally let Blastaar out of the Negative Zone to begin with.

Issue #217: After being invaded so many times recently, Reed works on repairs and reinforced security for the Baxter Building, while Sue is more concerned about Franklin, who is back with supernatural nanny Agatha Harkness. Johnny heads off to a nightclub, where he’s mesmerized by Dazzler, a mutant singer who can transform sound into light.

Sue, in her bedroom, is attacked… by H.E.R.B.I.E.! The little guy proves to be quite the fighter, almost breaking through her invisible force fields. He also hacks into the building, using all of its tech to trap Sue. H.E.R.B.I.E. next attacks Reed and Ben, almost trapping Ben in the Negative Zone. H.E.R.B.I.E. says because he was built aboard Nova’s ship, his programming merged with the villain Dr. Sun, who was aboard the ship at the time. After more fighting, Reed and Ben manage to rid their computers of Dr. Sun’s influence, and H.E.R.B.I.E. is himself again. Then, darkly, H.E.R.B.I.E. commits suicide (!) by blowing himself up (!!) so this can never happen again.

Issue #218: This one begins with Spider-Man climbing up the side of the Baxter Building. But wait… this isn’t Spider-Man! It’s Paste-Pot Pete, um, I mean the Trapster, in disguise as Spider-Man. His teammates in the Frightful Four have taken the real Spidey hostage, and are watching from a distance. We’ve got the Wizard, Sandman, and new member Electro. The Trapster pretends to befriend the Human Torch, only to knock him out. Trapster then fights Ben and defeats him by electrocuting him.

The rest of the Frightful Four get inside the building. They chase Sue around, and then attack Reed. The real Spider-Man escapes and joins the fight. He and Reed take out the Frightful Four rather easily. Spidey remembers that, as Peter Parker, he was in the middle of talking to a lovelorn Debra Whitman when he was kidnapped, and he rushes off to be with her again.

Unstable molecule: Making Reed younger was allegedly a way to keep him in Marvel continuity without losing his history as a WWII vet.

Unstable molecule: The Frightful Four attack Sue when she’s in her nightgown. Because it’s not made of unstable molecules, it doesn’t turn invisible when she does.

Clobberin’ time: After constantly complaining about how much he dislikes H.E.R.B.I.E., Ben comes around in the end, saying “the little squirt was all right in the end.”

Flame on: Johnny has a real identity crisis when he’s alone, thinking that he’s the least useful member of the team. He uses his flame for precision welding on the Skrull weapon, which is what it takes to save his teammates’ lives.

Five and a half: Franklin’s potentially world-ending super powers make a huge return, with him tossing Blastaar into the Negative Zone. Sue is the only one who seems concerned about this. His “4 1/2” sweater makes its first appearance.

Fantastic fifth wheel: So H.E.R.B.I.E. the robot gets his brain hijacked and then kills himself. It’s pretty obvious that the Marvel writers weren’t happy about having to include the little guy in the comic to align with the TV cartoon. The joke’s on them, though, because this actually isn’t the last we’ll see of H.E.R.B.I.E.

Commercial break: Aww, look at them try to market Star Trek: The Motion Picture as if it’s Star Wars. Also, other than the Klingon, were any of these aliens actually in the movie?

Trivia time: According the Marvel Wiki, Randolph’s superhero name is the Futurist. To date, he has only appeared one other time, in a 1990 Quasar story.

The Spider-Man story is a direct continuation from Spectacular Spider-Man #42, which goes into detail how Spidey was captured by the Frightful Four, not to mention Peter Parker’s friend Deb Whitman being all forlorn and lovelost.

Dazzler’s cameo was part of a big marketing push to introduce that character. Dazzler was allegedly co-created with a record company, so there was a lot of pressure on to promote her as the next big thing. As such, during this time she did cameos in Spider-Man, X-Men, and Fantastic Four before getting her own series. She later joined the X-Men and is currently a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent.

A billboard in the Times Square scene reads “Epic.” This was a promotion for Marvel’s Epic Illustrated, another of many attempts by Marvel to break through to the apparently more lucrative magazine market. I looked, but I can find no evidence of a real Times Square billboard for Epic Illustrated in 1979, but if there was one and if anyone has a photo of it, send it my way.

Fantastic or frightful? I always dislike it superhero stories where the heroes are just hanging out at headquarters only for villains to show up at their doorstep to pick a fight, and that’s what keeps happening in this batch of issues.

Next week: Childhood’s end.

****

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’re still befuddling our way through the “middle years” after Jack Kirby but before John Byrne. Actually, we do get Byrne in this bunch of issues on inks and occasional breakdowns, but Marvel won’t give him creative control over the series for a while yet. Consider this a hint of things to come.

Issue #207: While Reed, Sue, and Ben are in space caught in a war between the Skrulls and the Xandarians, Johnny has gone back to college, where he’s secretly being mind-controlled by an evil genius named the Monocle. As such, the issue begins with a hypnotized Johnny flying around at night committing crimes for the Monocle. We then meet photographer Peter Parker, who was recently fired from working at the Daily Bugle, and gets a staff job with its competitor the Daily Globe. Peter is assigned to take photos at Johnny’s school, where he investigates the mysterious goings-on. That night, seeing the students walk around while hypnotized, Peter transforms into his alter ego, the amazing Spider-Man and takes photos of mind-controlled Johnny committing crimes. He then confronts Johnny, showing him the pics.

Spying on their conversation, the Monocle sends the student body to kill the heroes. Johnny and Spidey fight their way to the Monocle’s office, where the Monocle takes over Johnny’s mind, forcing him and Spider-Man to fight each other. Spidey traps Johnny in brand-new fireproof webbing (!) and Johnny gets his senses back. The Monocle flees in his personal rocket ship (which is parked out in the open on school grounds). The Monocle’s mysterious employers, seen only in shadow, promise to retaliate. They then reveal that they’ve taken Medusa prisoner.

Issue #208: Out in space, Sue uses her force fields to protect her and her teammates from being killed after Nova mistakenly fired on their ship in issue #206. Nova takes them aboard his ship. Ben recognizes the Sphinx, a supervillain currently working with Nova, and they almost come to blows. The Sphinx senses the presence of Xandar’s living computer, and teleports off the ship. Reed tries to stop him, but then he feels the effects of the Skrull aging ray that hit him a few issues back, making him rapidly get older. On Earth, Johnny uses Reed’s ion ray to teleport him to Xander, where he’s reunited with FF and Nova’s crew.

Then, the Prime Thoran, a Xandarian infused with the power of the living computer, declares war on Skrulls. Fearing the ensuing battle will destroy Xandar, the FF and Nova jump into the fray. They’re stopped by the Sphinx, who has also tapped into the computer, which has granted him godlike powers. Everyone fights the Sphinx, which gives Nova’s gang of sidekicks a chance to show off their powers. The Sphinx wipes the floor with everyone, and then announces he will destroy the Earth, because it was his prison for thousands of years. As he flies off, Reed says there is only one person in the universe powerful enough to stop the Sphinx: Galactus!

Issue #209: Everyone gathers around Reed as he invents something. It’s H.E.R.B.I.E. the robot! H.E.R.B.I.E. is here to chart courses through space and perform complex calculations at high speed, to help our heroes locate Galactus. Skrull Empress R’Klll withdraws the troops after being defeated by the Prime Thoran (we don’t actually see the battle), and Nova fears the Skrulls are regrouping for a counterattack.

The FF encounter a spaceship graveyard and an alien insect named Grogarr. His fellow bugs attack the FF, and he gives his life to save our heroes. The FF survive the battle with help from H.E.R.B.I.E., and make their way deeper into unknown space.

Issue #210: After fighting their way through some asteroids that almost kill Johnny, the FF arrive at Galactus’ ship, the same reality-bending one we saw way back in issue #49. Reed explains that Galactus “metamorphosed” back to life after seemingly being killed the last time we saw him. Our heroes break into the ship and immediately attack Galactus, who barely acknowledges their presence.

Reed comes up with a plan. The FF set free all the alien animals in Galactus’ personal zoo (he has a personal zoo!), which succeeds in getting the big guy’s attention. Galactus says he’s aware of what the Sphinx is up to, and that he made Reed a vow never to return to Earth. Reed says that if Galactus defeats the Sphinx, Reed will allow him to rescind his vow. Galactus accepts, and says that the FF must find a new herald for him before he can continue.

Issue #211: Galactus teleports the FF (and H.E.R.B.I.E.!) to an alien world, where they’re attacked by robot “Warmen.” They’re taken captive and brought before the planet’s evil dictator, Tyros the Tamer! (“Tamer?”) He threatens to make Sue a part of his harem. The FF fight him, with the Skrull aging ray showing its effects on Reed and Sue big time. They defeat Tyros and are teleported back to Galactus.

Galactus gives Tyros the power cosmic, transforming him into his new herald and renaming him Terrax. Galactus threatens to turn Terrax into a worm if he does not obey, and Terrax swears loyalty to his new boss. Galactus then says it’s time to save the Earth from the Sphinx, so he can devour the Earth himself.

Issue #212: After three pages of recaps, Terrax arrives on Earth and fights the FF for a bit. The aging ray knocks Sue unconscious, and Reed, now wrinkly and grey-haired himself, puts her in suspended animation in the Baxter Building. Terrax and H.E.R.B.I.E. search for the Sphinx, who has created a “disturbance” to hide from Galactus. The Sphinx has returned to Egypt, where he flashes back to his origin, and how he gained his magic powers and his immortality. He uses his godlike powers to recreate ancient Egypt in all its former glory.

Galactus shows up and confronts the Sphinx. (Galactus actually says, “Sphinx! You speak in riddles.”) On board Galactus’ ship, Reed tinkers with some machines when Terrax returns, threatening to destroy the FF.

Issue #213: Terrax mops the floor with the FF, knocking out Ben. Galactus and the Sphinx fight, blasting each other with their cosmic energies. Terrax defeats Ben and Reed, only for Johnny to freeze him with “liquid oxygen.” H.E.R.B.I.E. takes Ben to the Baxter Building and puts him in suspended animation next to Sue. Galactus manages to defeat the Sphinx by absorbing all of the Sphinx’s powers. He then sends the Sphinx back in time to the day he got his immortality, so that his “curse” is to live his long life all over again.

Reed and Johnny arrive with the Ultimate Nullifier, the weapon with the power to defeat Galactus. The Watcher shows up as well, to observe. Reed says he rebuilt the Nullifier from machinery found in Galactus’ ship. This is enough for Galactus to hear, and he leaves, swearing again to never return to Earth. Reed then explains that the Nullifier is a fake, and that the Watcher was bending his “non-interference” rules by not allowing Galactus to detect the truth in Reed’s thoughts. Just when it looks like all is well, Reed collapses. The aging ray has finally done him in.

To be continued!

Unstable molecule: Reed constructs H.E.R.B.I.E. from blueprints he had memorized, and using alien tech. Power-wise, he stretches to liquid-like consistency to slip through the Sphinx’s fingers.

Fade out: Sue’s quick thinking saves everyone after their spaceship blows up.

Clobberin’ time: Although we were told a few issues back that Ben had gotten stronger, he spends these issues getting the crap beaten out of him, by the Sphinx, by Terrax, and even by those Warmen guys.

Flame on: Johnny experiences quite a malaise in these issues, questioning his place in the world. He wonders what his life and his identity might be without his powers or the FF.

Fantastic fifth wheel: Freakin’ H.E.R.B.I.E. the robot. H.E.R.B.I.E. was created for the 1978 Fantastic Four Saturday morning cartoon. A different company had the adaptation rights to the Human Torch, so H.E.R.B.I.E. was created as the Torch’s TV replacement. (Stories about producers not including the Torch for fear that children might set themselves on fire are not true and have been debunked several times.) These issues even address the fact that there’s an FF cartoon, which also aired in the Marvel Universe. Johnny says he’s not on the show because he wasn’t there the day the contracts were signed.

The subplot about Medusa being kidnapped won’t be mentioned again for a long, long time.

Commercial break: Save money with the Hulk!

Trivia time: Spider-Man leaving the Daily Bugle and joining the Daily Globe kicked off an ongoing subplot for him, which is odd that it happens in the pages of Fantastic Four instead of his own comic.

Fantastic or frightful? There’s a real Star Trek feel to these issues, with an “in each episode we visit a different crazy planet” structure. Galactus is written much more in character than in his last few appearances, the Sphinx turns out to be a credible menace, and Spidey/Torch team-ups are always great fun. All that business with Nova and the Xandarians fighting the Skrulls just gets left behind, as if the writers forgot about it. So, a mixed bag of issues overall.

Next week: Home alone!

****

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