macmcentire

Re-reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. We’re still in the “Middle Years,” after Jack Kirby but before John Byrne. The thing about superhero team books is that, every once in a while, the writers can take one member of the team and give them a solo adventure. That’s where we find our heroes in this bunch of issues.

Issue #190: So the Fantastic Four have officially broken up, and everyone’s gone their separate ways. Ben is staying with Alicia (sleeping on her couch, it’s implied).

Ben and Alicia have an issue-long heart-to-heart where he reads from his diary (!) so we get an entire issue of flashbacks to previous FF adventures. It’s like a “clip show” but with all-new art. Ben destroys the diary at the end, saying he’s never going back to the FF.

Issue #191: Continuing with the breakup drama, Reed is dismantling his lab with the help of S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Parnival. The landlord, Collins, is still threatening a lawsuit, and mailman Willie Lumpkin makes his since-forever return for a teary-eyed goodbye. Sue gets offered a part in a Hollywood movie, and Ben chews out some reporters who think the breakup is his fault.

Parnvial’s workmen try sneaking some vibranium out of the lab, and Reed stops them. Turns out Parnival is really a supervillain named the Plunderer. Reed gets knocked out, but not before firing the team’s “4” flare into the sky. Reed, Sue, and Johnny come running, as Ben declares, “The Fantastic Four are back!” Then of course we get several pages of the FF fighting the Plunderer’s henchmen, and the Plunderer is actually pretty capable, with gadgets on hand able to counter the FF’s powers. Reed, although he still has no powers, manages to outsmart the Plunderer and punch him out. Reed says the breakup is still on, and he puts a “Now renting” sign in front of the Baxter Building.

Issue #192: Johnny has traveled out West, where he reunites with his Native American pal Wyatt Wingfoot. Here’s there to participate in a cross-country road race. Johnny flirts with rival racer Rebecca Rainbow, and he’s being spied on by a mystery man going by “Agent T,” spying on Johnny and reporting an unseen employer. In a subplot, a wealthy man named Arthur Thornhill offers Reed a position in his company.

The big race begins, only to have everyone attacked by the Texas Twister, whose wind powers are a good match for Johnny’s fire powers. With Wyatt and Rebecca’s help, Johnny manages to defeat the Twister. The race promoter, Thaddeus Longhorn, is so thrilled by all the media attention from this that he offers Johnny a lucrative new job.

Issue #193: Ben has offered his “services” to NASA. He’s there when the place is attacked by Darkoth the Death-Demon. (Darkoth, remember, was a guy experimented on and turned into a monster by Dr. Doom.) Darkoth and Ben fight, only for Darkoth to escape. Ben is there to test fly NASA’s new “Solar Shuttle.” That night, he gets an anonymous phone call saying the shuttle has been sabotaged.

Ben meets with the NASA colonel who tells him that Ben’s old flying buddy Desmond Pitt is wanted as a traitor. Ben is upset to hear this, because Pitt once saved his life. Cut to Darkoth, who reveals that he’s been Desmond Pitt all along. He’s hiding out with Diablo, the master of alchemy, who has Darkoth under his control. (Good lord, this is a lot of plot.) Ben takes off in the Solar Shuttle, and things seem to go smooth at first, but then he gets trapped in an energy field. Diablo has trapped the shuttle, but Darkoth helps set it free. Ben tries to land the shuttle, only for it to crash in a fiery explosion.

Issue #194: Everyone thinks Ben is dead, but we wakes up in the middle of a desert. In his hideout, Diablo speechifies a long-winded explanation for how we returned from the future, where he was banished in an issue of the generically-titled Marvel Super Heroes comic, and then got Darkoth to work with him by drugging him, basically. Diablo sends Darkoth out into the desert to attack Ben. They fight for several pages, until Darkoth finally reveals that he’s really Ben’s old pal Desmond Pitt.

Ben finds Diablo’s hideout and they fight. Darkoth catches up to them and switches sides, destroying Diablo’s equipment. Darkoth sacrifices himself to stop Diablo and save Ben. The NASA guys find Ben in the desert, and he mopes about how Pitt saved his life yet again.

Issue #195: Sue is on her own, in Hollywood, making a blockbuster movie. Impossible Man has followed her there, for no reason. A publicity guy escorts Sue to a room where Namor the Submariner is waiting for her. (Strangely, he actually still owns the movie studio he ran way back in issue #9!) Namor says that although he has once again become king of Atlantis, he feels alone. The Atlanteans started worshipping him as a god, so he fled.

The next day, on set, filming is interrupted when a bunch of robots attack. They are the Retrievers of Atlantis, and they’ve come to take Namor back home by force. Sue and Namor fight back, and Sue figures out one of the robots is the power source for all the others. She knocks that one out, and they all go down. Namor flies off, saying he can no longer forsake his heritage. Sue wishes him the best.

Issue #196: Reed has started his new job, working on a top-secret science experiment. At night, he has nightmares about killing his former teammates. Turns out that while Reed sleeps, he’s being monitored by a Dr. Hauptmann. (Longtime readers might remember that name.) In Hollywood, Ben and Johnny pay Sue and Franklin a visit. Sue says she’s worried because she hasn’t heard from Reed. They’re secretly being watched by a masked man outside their window.

Sue, Ben, and Johnny go out for dinner at the Brown Derby (because it’s Hollywood!) where they experience strange hallucinations. The visions are caused by the Invincible Man (who, way back in issue #32, was really the Super Skrull in disguise). With the heroes mesmerized, the Invincible Man takes them captive and transports them to New York. His boss reveals that the Invincible Man’s new identity is… Reed Richards! Reed is under mind control, and has no idea what he’s done.

Sue, Ben, and Johnny are affixed with devices that cause them pain if they try to use their powers, so Reed cooperates for now. His new boss, whose name is not revealed, shows Reed a special solar chamber, filled with mirrors used to capture solar energy. Sue uses her force fields to undo the devices, and the FF break free. They fight their way through a bunch of robot guards, only to discover the real mastermind behind all this is… Doctor Doom!

To be continued!

Unstable molecule: Reed is dissatisfied with his new job, because it’s continuing someone else’s work and not creating new ideas of his own.

Fade out: We’re never told just what movie Sue starred in, but based on the costumes, it was some sort of Robin Hood/Three Musketeers type of thing.

Clobberin’ time: While at Alicia’s, Ben gets a ticking package in the mail. It’s not a bomb, but a retirement watch — another gag gift from the Yancy Street Gang, something we haven’t seen in this book in ages. Also, Ben’s past as a test pilot is prominent in the plot.

Flame on: Johnny’s love of race cars makes a return. He still pining for Frankie Raye in one issue, but then gets a new potential love interest in Rebecca Rainbow in the next. We’ll circle back around to Frankie soon enough.

Four and a half: For most of these issues, Franklin is being baby-sat by supernatural nanny Agatha Harkness. Why did they hire her again, after all the times she’s abducted the kid?

Fantastic fifth wheel: Impossible Man joins Sue in Hollywood for some comic relief. Thundra watches a news report about the team’s breakup, still pining for Ben. Medusa is prominently featured in the flashback issue.

Commercial break: I’d estimate that about one out of every five ads in these issues is peddling Star Wars merchandise:

Trivia time: The Marvel Wiki informs me that Rebecca Rainbow previously appeared in Marvel Two-In-One #8, a.k.a. the “Ghost Rider Christmas” issue. There is an unnamed Native American woman in that story, but I don’t see anything connecting that character to this one.

Fantastic or frightful? This is actually a fun batch of issues! Giving each character a solo tale offers some great character development, and it gives the creators a chance to do something different. A definite improvement over all the clueless wheel-spinning of previous issues.

Next week: The big two-oh-oh.

****

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’re still butt-deep in the “middle years,” after Jack Kirby but before John Byrne, getting pretty closer to the landmark #200.

Issue #184: We begin with several pages of housekeeping after the last few issues, with all the characters messing around in the trashed Baxter Building lab. Reed is in a coma, and still without his powers. Ben rejects the flirtations of both Thunrda and Tigra, saying Alicia is the only woman for him. Johnny flies off, hoping to reunite with Frankie Raye, but he’s shot down by a mysterious sniper. Reed wakes from the coma, and Sue finally tells him that Franklin was abducted. She gives him his old uniform back, and says he doesn’t need powers to lead the team, just his genius.

Reed, Sue and Johnny visit Whisper Hill, home of Franklin’s supernatural nanny Agatha Harkness. The place has fallen into disrepair without Harkness’ magic keeping it up and running. They find Johnny inside, and then they’re attacked by a giant red guy, the Eliminator. He says his “masters” have taken Franklin. Everybody fights! The Eliminator succeeds in defeating the FF. Then, with his directive concluded, he sets himself to self-destruct. Just before he goes boom, it’s revealed that the FF faked their deaths with the help of Sue’s invisibility. Whisper Hill is destroyed, and Reed promises to keep searching for Franklin.

Issue #185: Back in Reed’s lab, which is now completely rebuilt, he tracks the clues from Whisper Hill to a remote spot in the Colorado Rockies. Sue worries that he’s coming apart at the seams, and Reed uses the artificial stretching arms he invented back in issue #39 to recreate his lost powers. The FF travel to Colorado, to a town so small and remote that it’s not on any map. The town is New Salem. The FF, dressed incognito, are greeted by Mayor Nicholas Scratch. Harkness is inside a nearby building, held captive along with Franklin. The FF try to leave town, but are blocked by a huge wall of flame.

The town’s residents reveal themselves to be hooded wizards, and that they’re holding Franklin and Harkness captive. They summon a bunch of stone gargoyles to attack our heroes and… more fighting! The wizards — oh, sorry, they call themselves “witches” — use their magic to take control of their powers. The issue ends with the FF defeated.

Issue #186: The FF are in a big jail cell, where they’re finally reunited with Franklin and Harkness. Harkness says she took Franklin in the hopes of keeping him safe from Scratch, but she was too late. Scratch shows up and says Harkness will be executed for treason. His people teleport Franklin away again, so the FF will comply. Harkness’ crime is that she revealed the existence of New Salem to the outside world. The FF decide to escape, with Sue using her powers to overcome their guards. This puts them in the path of New Salem’s superhuman protectors, Salem’s Seven!

Roll call: 1) Brutacus, the big hairy guy. 2) Hydron, the water/fish guy. 3) Thornn, the yellow spikey guy. 4)Vakume, the robotic walk-through-walls guy. 5) Gazelle, the acrobatic jumping lady. 6) Reptilla, the crazy snake lady. 7) Vertigo, the dizziness-causing lady (who is different from Marvel’s other dizziness-causing lady named Vertigo). There’s several pages of fighting so these new characters can show off their powers. Reed’s artificial arms cause the Salem’s Seven to lose their powers, because they can’t fight anything artificial. The FF then interrupts the execution ceremony, where Reed tells the people of New Salem that Scratch is the real traitor, in that he orchestrated the whole thing by abducting Franklin in the first place. They zap him with the “spell of eternal banishment,” and they let Harkness and the FF leave. Harkness reveals that Scratch was really her long-lost son.

Issue #187: The FF return home to find the Baxter Building has been trashed, and they have an intruder. It’s Klaw, the master of sound! He fights Ben, and Ben discovers Klaw is not alone. He’s working with the Molecule Man, who defeats Ben. Klaw has infiltrated the building to get his hands on Reed’s psi-amplifier, or “psi-am,” so he can transfer his brain into the Hulk’s body (he had just recently fought the Hulk). There’s a flashback explaining how Klaw and Molecule Man met and how M.M.’s powers were restored, and then the two villains fight and defeat the rest of the FF.

Impossible Man, who is still living with the FF for no reason whatsoever, helps fight the villains. While he defeats Klaw singlehandedly, Molecule Man hooks himself up to the psi-am. It looks like it doesn’t work at first, but then we’re shocked to learn Molecule Man’s brain is now in Reed’s body!

Issue #188: Molecule Man goes nuts with power, rampaging all over the place, all while Reed’s brain is trapped in M.M.’s wand. (I don’t even know. Just go with it.) The Watcher shows up, but doesn’t say or do anything. He’s just there to… watch. Molecule Man brings a skyscraper to life, transforming it into a giant monster. There’s a lot of fighting and running around. Reed’s personality starts reasserting itself, and the Molecule Man’s power burns itself out (or something like that, it’s confusing) and Reed is himself again.

Then there’s a lot of drama as Reed announces that he’s officially resigning as a member of the Fantastic Four. “I’m just a man like any other,” he says. Sue leaves as well, saying she’s not going to abandon her husband. Ben and Johnny are left behind, not sure what will happen next.

Issue #189: The issue reprints annual #4 in its entirety, with no new material.

Unstable molecule: Way more drama about Reed losing his powers. First he tries to cope with mechanical arms, but ultimately quits the team. The point is made over and over that it’s not the powers, but his great mind that makes him a hero, but he doesn’t seem to take it at heart.

Fade out: Sue continues to develop new uses for her powers, and manages to single-handedly defeat the Eliminator by faking him out with her invisibility.

Clobberin’ time: After several issues of other women chasing Ben, he turns around this time and says Alicia is the only woman for her. (Does Alicia know this?)

Flame on: Johnny keeps flying off to check in on Frankie Raye, no matter how many times she keeps brushing him off. This perhaps foreshadows the FF breaking up, with everyone feeling pulled in separate ways.

Four and a half: Franklin only exists in these issues so he can get abducted over and over, so the FF can have something to chase after. Agatha Harkness is apparently no longer officially his nanny, as Alicia was watching Franklin the whole time the FF were on Counter-Earth.

Fantastic fifth wheel: Impossible Man keeps walking off and saying he’s never coming back, only to reappear in later issues still living with the FF. He’s more “comedy sidekick” than he is an alternate member of the team, but he defeats Klaw easily enough.

 Commercial break: Own a Texas ranch! (Sort of.)

Trivia time: Future comics writer Kurt Busiek had a letter published in issue #186, where he argued that Sue’s force fields could be used as an offensive weapon, and not just to defend her and her teammates from trouble.

Fantastic or frightful? The series continues to improve, mostly thanks to some great artwork from a young George Perez. Here we can see him transitioning from the Marvel house style to the meticulously-detailed work he’s known for today.

Next week: The big break up.

****

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 self-flagellating our way through the mediocrity of the “middle years,” after Jack Kirby but before John Byrne.

Issue #177: The FF return from their previous adventure in space, with the Impossible Man tagging along for no reason, only to find that the Frightful Four have broken into the Baxter Building and are waiting for them. The Wizard, the Sandman, and Paste-Pot-Pete um I mean the Trapster all fight our heroes while promising that their new fourth member will soon arrive. After several pages of fighting, the Frightful Four takes the FF hostage, and announces tryouts for a new fourth member. A whole bunch of villains are waiting in the Baxter Building’s lobby, all wanting to audition for the part.

The candidates: Osprey, who can fly. Texas Twister, who has wind/tornado powers. Thundra, returning from issue #153, who is super-strong. Captain Ultra, who has tons of powers but faints at the sight of fire. Finally, there’s future Avenger Tigra, who pretends to be a criminal only to rescue the FF. The FF fight all the villains, including a big purple Hulk-like guy named the Brute. Ben fights the Brute into the room with the Negative Zone portal. The Brute opens the portal and sends Ben into the Negative Zone. The Brute transforms into a human, revealing that he’s really the Counter-Earth version of Reed!

Issue 178: Ben confronts a snake monster in the Negative Zone, only to be abruptly returned to Earth, held captive with the FF, Tigra, and Thundra. The Brute gives his origin, in which he, like Reed, traveled into space and was exposed to the cosmic rays. He and the Frightful Four announce that they’re going to hold the FF for a $1 billion ransom. Then, real life bleeds into the comic, when NYC mayor Abe Beame contacts then-president Jimmy Carter, former president Gerald Ford, and, presciently, future president Ronald Reagan, in hopes of saving the FF.

The Impossible Man has been watching TV all this time, fascinated with Earth pop culture. When the TV goes out, he starts running around the Baxter Building causing trouble, which frees the FF. Everybody fights! In the middle of the battle, Reed discovers he’s completely lost his stretching powers. With Thundra and Tigra’s help, the remaining FFers capture the Frightful Four, with the Brute falling through the Negative Zone portal. The FF agree that powers or no, Reed is still their leader. But, there’s a twist! That’s the Brute, who took the real Reed’s place during the battle.

Issue #179: Alone in the Negative Zone, Reed manages to fight off some monsters and seeks shelter on a floating asteroid. The Brute, who had no alternate Sue on Counter-Earth, plots to keep impersonating Reed long enough to dispatch of the FF and run away with Sue.

Ben and Tigra go out for a fancy dinner (!) only to run across a robot, the Metalloid, robbing a nearby bank. The U.S. Army is called in, just for Ben and Tigra to fight the robot in the water out on a garbage barge. The Coast Guard takes away the robot. At home, Sue suspects something is up with Reed. The real Reed, meanwhile, wakes from his Negative Zone slumber to find that Annihilus has found him.

Issue #180: This one merely reprints issue #101 in its entirety, with no new material except the cover.

Issue #181: Annihilus says he wants revenge on Reed, but, after some fighting, Annihilus discovers Reed has lost his powers and offers to help him. The FF, with continued help from Tigra, Thundra, and Impossible Man, helps the Coast Guard look underwater for the Metalloid. At the Baxter Building, Sue confronts Reed and is convinced that it’s not really Reed, so she leaves. She visits Alicia, who has been watching Franklin this whole time. While they have girl talk, Franklin’s supernatural nanny Agatha Harkness teleports into the room and abducts Franklin.

Johnny visits Frankie Raye, only to find her on a date with another guy. She says she can’t stand fire, and that she wants him to leave her alone forever. Back in the water, Ben and company have succeeded in bringing the robot to the surface, where they’re refusing to turn it over to the Coast Guard. A cop interrupts them, saying the robot wasn’t robbing the bank vault, but escaping from it. In the Negative Zone, Annihilus explains that he’s lost his cosmic control rod, so he’s enlisting Reed to get it back. Reed and Annihilus are then attacked by a giant monster, only to learn it is being controlled by… the Mad Thinker!

Issue #182: The Brute, still disguised as Reed, sends Johnny and Ben into the Negative Zone, by tricking them into thinking the robot’s origins are there. At Agatha Harkness’ house, she and Franklin are attacked by mysterious strangers. Sue and Alicia arrive only to see the strangers teleport Harkness and Franklin away. In the Negative Zone, Ben and Johnny catch up with Reed and Annihilus, and everyone fight’s the Mad Thinker’s monster, which is actually a new android of his. Ben and Johnny aren’t convinced that this Reed is the real Reed, and they discover that they’ve been cut off, unable to return to Earth.

At home, Sue tells the Brute that Franklin has been kidnapped. When he doesn’t react, that’s when Sue calls him out, saying she knows he’s not really Reed. The Brute transforms into his monstrous form and attacks Sue. She puts up a good fight, but he overpowers her, and throws her out a window.

Issue #183: Tigra, Thundra, and Impossible Man, who are out and about in New York, save Sue from falling. In the Negative Zone, Annihilus explains that the Mad Thinker’s android absorbed all the power from the cosmic control rod, thus robbing Annihilus of his immortality. Reed proposes working together, using Annihilus’ ship to fight back. In New York, the Mad Thinker says his calculations have shown that all this would happen, and he’s using the fight against the Brute as an excuse to steal all of Reed’s inventions. Impossible Man wanders off, leaving Sue, Thundra and Tigra to storm the building.

The android comes through the Negative Zone portal and attacks the Brute. The android bombards the Brute with cosmic rays, turning him human permanently. In the Negative Zone, Reed fashions a device to find the way back to Earth. They make it, and the FF are reunited. By working together, our heroes defeat the android. The Mad Thinker, who’s been watching all this from a distance, frets about too many x-factors throwing off his calculations, and he runs off. The Brute, who says he’s no longer evil, enters the Negative Zone to return the cosmic control rod to Annihilus, because Reed gave his word to do so.

Unstable molecule: Reed loses his stretching powers, with the argument made that his genius is his “real” power, so he never needed the stretching to begin with.

Fade out: Sue is well on her way from transitioning from damsel to toughest member of the team. First, she’s the one who deduces the Brute’s plan. Then, she fights the Brute by herself, and later leads the fight through all the Brute’s deathtraps in the Baxter Building.

Clobberin’ time: Ben is quite the ladies’ man! In addition to his still loosely-defined relationship with Alicia, both Thundra and Tigra put the moves on him.

Flame on: Johnny’s romantic interest Frankie Raye is now afraid of fire, instead of people with super powers. Many have argued that Frankie’s storyline changed dramatically from what she was originally intended to be, and here we see a sign of that.

Four and a half: Poor Franklin gets kidnapped twice! He’s also being drawn less like a toddler and more like a young kid.

Fantastic fifth wheel: It’s the Fantastic Seven! After the fight with the Frightful Four, Thundra, Tigra and Impossible Man all start living at the Baxter Building and joining the FF on their adventures for no reason whatsoever. It’s reminiscent of Steve Gerber’s then-recent run on The Defenders, in which the “team” consisted of whoever was hanging out in Dr. Strange’s house at any given time.

Commercial break: Bionic battle!

Trivia time: Tigra had recently had a short-lived solo series in Marvel Chillers, and editorial wanted to keep the character around, hence her appearance here. She’d later become a mainstay in various Avengers comics.

This is actually not the first time the Brute appeared. He was previously introduced in an issue of Warlock.

The Mad Thinker’s android is in the Negative Zone, because the FF stranded it there back in issue #71.

Captain Ultra is one of those obscure characters who keeps popping up from time to time in the Marvel Universe. It’ll later be revealed that Captain Ultra is a plumber whose innate superhuman potential was unlocked by an extraterrestrial hypnotist. During Marvel’s “Initiative” storyline, S.H.I.E.L.D. assigned Captain Ultra to be the official superhero of Nebraska.

Osprey doesn’t have as many appearances in Marvel Comics, but for some reason he’s prominently featured in the late ‘80s Marvel Super Heroes role-playing game.

Fantastic or frightful? While still not the best, these issues are another step in the right direction, with a lot of action and twists, and some nice character growth for Sue.

Next week: Lords of Salem.

****

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 marching through the death march of comics that is the “middle years,” after Jack Kirby but before John Byrne.

Issue #171: To recap, Ben is human again, but still fights the bad guys by wearing a super-strong Thing suit that Reed invented. There are several pages of excuse-for-the-characters-to-use-their-powers inside the FF’s new danger room. Johnny, meanwhile, is still dating Frankie Raye. He says he’s leaving the FF for her, because she gets freaked out around superhero types. Then, a strange craft lands nearby and a giant golden gorilla (!) comes out of it. Johnny wants to fly off and fight it, but decides to stay with Frankie and let the cops handle the monster.

The gorilla grows to giant size and (of course) climbs up the building, abducts Sue (sigh…) and rampages on its roof. Reed and Ben try to fight the giant ape, but are outmatched. Johnny can’t take it anymore, so he flies off to help his teammates, upsetting Frankie. Sue uses an “infinitesimal force field” to escape from the Gorilla’s grasp. Sue’s force field then manages to shrink the ape down to its original size, allowing the FF to capture it. It then speaks, saying it’s name is Gorr. Gorr has come to Earth to warn everyone that Galactus is on the way.

Issue #172: Gorr says he attacked only because the Earth’s atmosphere made him panic. He nonetheless attacks the FF again, escapes the Baxter Building, and returns to his ship. The FF pursue him into the ship, which then takes off with them inside of it. Gorr explains that he is originally from Counter-Earth, a second Earth populated by animal-men created by the High Evolutionary. The Asgardian Destroyer, who during this time was Galactus’ herald, discovered the existence of Counter-Earth. Gorr was sent to Earth to bring the FF back, because they’ve defeated Galactus in the past.

The High Evolutionary attacks the Destroyer, and Ben, whose exoskeleton doubles as a space suit, joins the fight. Ben defeats the Destroyer, but it’s too late, because Galactus arrives.

Issue #173: Ben tries to fight Galactus, but get swatted down. Galactus communicates with Reed and the High Evolutionary via mental telepathy. Reed and the H.E. try to appeal to Galactus’ good nature, saying there are millions of lives of Counter-Earth, but Galactus says he has a different perspective, and that it’s his “destiny” to devour entire worlds. H.E. says there are two other planets that might satiate Galactus in place of Counter-Earth, so he sends the heroes off to investigate them.

Reed and Ben end up on the planet Mekka, a world populated with robots, led by Torgo. That’s not the goat-kneed goofball from Manos: The Hands of Fate, it’s the robot from the Skrull gangster planet from Fantastic Four #91-93. Reed and Ben agree not to sacrifice the planet, but the robots take them captive anyway, for fear that Galactus will discover their location through them. Johnny and Gorr, meanwhile, end up on a dragons-and-knights fantasy world, where they too are taken captive. The High Evolutionary won’t teleport Sue to the planets to rescue her teammates, saying instead he must fight Galactus one-on-one.

Issue #174: Sue uses invisibility to escape the High Evolutionary, but accidentally teleports herself to a lifeless planet, where she’s not able to rescue anyone. On the robot planet, Torgo makes a big speech about organic life versus mechanical life. Reed and Ben manage to fight back, with several pages of Ben and Torgo wailing on each other. Torgo finally agrees to accept Ben and Reed’s promise, and he lets them go.

On the magic and dragons planet, Johnny and Gorr are locked up in a dungeon, and Gorr offers to challenge the planet’s best knight in combat. They suit him up in armor for a jousting tournament. (That’s right — it’s an armor-clad jousting yellow gorilla!) He wins, but then all the wizards and knights and whatnots reveal themselves to be shape-shifting Skrulls. Just like they once had an all-gangster planet, this is their all medieval fantasy planet. The Skrulls then declare that this is a dead planet. They leave, and Johnny says there’s not enough there for Galactus to consume. Galactus arrives on Counter-Earth, and the High Evolutionary challenges him to battle.

Issue #175: Galactus and the High Evolutionary (who is now several stories tall — I guess he has growth powers) confront each other in the skies over Counter-Earth. The H.E. puts up a good fight, but is knocked out by Galactus. Galactus starts building his world-devouring machine (the one we all remember from issues #49-51) when the reunited FF appear and fight him. Then Sue arrives with a message for Galactus from another world. This world is offering itself to Galactus in place of one full of innocent lives.

Galactus devours the entire world, which is covered with aliens acting like they have no idea they’re about to die. But then something goes wrong, and Galactus shrinks down a tiny form, until there’s nothing left but a brain, and then nothing at all. The High Evolutionary decrees that the menace of Galactus is over forever. Reed then figures out that Sue is not Sue, she’s the Impossible Man in disguise! The Impossible Man’s people, the Poppupians, have evolved to a collected consciousness, so their entire society exists within the Impossible Man. Galatcus devouring the Poppup planet was like swallowing a lot of hot air, or, as Reed puts it, “terminal indigestion.” Gorr stays behind on Counter-Earth, but the Impossible Man follows the FF back to Earth. On the way home, and without much ceremony, Ben transforms back into the Thing, as a result of exposure to Galactus’ energy. When asked if Ben can be cured, Reed answers only with silence.

Issue #176: Ben grouses about being a monster again, while the Impossible Man does a lot of comedy shtick. Upon returning to Earth, the FF’s ship is about to crash, but Johnny saves the day by creating a heat updraft. There’s more comedy shtick as the FF make their way through New York City to get home, with Impossible Man goofing off the whole time.

Then things get really meta when Impossible Man visits the Marvel Comics offices. Stan Lee is panicking because the FF have been off-planet, so Marvel has no new stories about them for their comics. The other Marvel artists and writers, including Jack Kirby, suggest making up stories, but Stan won’t have it. The Impossible Man offers help, but the Marvel folks say readers don’t like him because he’s too silly. Impossible Man starts trashing the place, and the FF show up to stop him. They take Impossible Man back to the Baxter Building, only to discover the Frightful Four are there, waiting for them.

To be continued!

Unstable molecule: Reed is still losing his powers, and he reveals to Ben that he can no longer stretch his right arm. This subplot has been slowly building for about 20 issues now.

Fade out: When the boys go off adventuring, Sue is left behind again. This time, though, Reed says it because she’s so powerful that only she can be relied on to rescue them all if something goes wrong.

Clobberin’ time: Ben transformation from human back into a monster happens without much drama. Everybody’s all, “Well, everything’s back like it was now.”

Flame on: Johnny doesn’t seem all that serious about retiring from the team to be with Frankie, considering he leaves her twice to do the superhero thing. During the battle, his super-hot nova flame has little effect on Galactus.

Commercial break: We’re supposed to think the Hulk got his awesome strength from those little weights?

Trivia time: The High Evolutionary and his Counter-Earth were a big deal in Thor and Hulk comics, which dealt with the whole concept of Counter-Earth in greater detail.

Allegedly, the giant ape Gorr was created to cash in on the 1976 King Kong remake.

The Destroyer became a herald of Galactus in Thor #228, which was also the first appearance of Firelord. After this appearance, Loki goes ahead and steals the Destroyer back from Galactus for more fighting with Thor.

Jack Kirby appears in the Marvel Bullpen, because he had returned to Marvel by 1976, drawing “out there” comics like Eternals and 2001.

Fantastic or Frightful? How much fun is Gorr? Once he starts talking, he’s like a comedic version of the Beast from the X-Men. Marvel should totally bring back Gorr and have him pal around with the Guardians of the Galaxy. Having the High Evolutionary, who creates planets, battle Galactus, who destroys planets, seems like a good idea, but it’s a lot of buildup to nothing. Impossible Man is just silly, of course. I guess we’ll have to file this batch of issues under “mixed bag.”

Next week: Fruit Brute! (But without the fruit.)

****

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 clawing our way out of the creative black hole that was the “middle years,” after Jack Kirby but before John Byrne.

Issue #164: We begin with talk about how Sue’s powers have gotten stronger, after which Johnny heads out for a night on the town, in search of a new girlfriend. He has a blind date set up with a lovely redhead named Frankie Raye. (Get used to Frankie. She’s going to be around for a while.) Their date, a stroll through hippie-infested Greenwich Village, is interrupted by a super-powered guy named the Crusader. He says he’s on a one-man holy war to end all corruption in society, and he starts by destroying a bunch of buildings. Johnny uses his powers in front of Frankie, and she’s terrified to learn he has fire powers.

The Crusader is after a seemingly-normal man named Calvin McClary. Johnny tries to save the man, but Crusader uses his light powers to temporarily blind Johnny. With Johnny out of the fight, Crusader goes ahead and murders McClary. (Harsh.) Johnny reunites with his teammates, and Reed says he’ll search for Crusader alone while his teammates get some rest. (What?)

Issue #165: Reed is walking over NYC, his legs stretched into giant stilts, so he can look for the Crusader. (Doesn’t Reed have a lab full of high-tech scanning devices he can use?) Reed meets McClary’s widow, who says the Crusader spoke with the voice of McClary’s old science lab partner, Dr. Grayson. The Crusader runs around New York, destroying banks for their corruption, with the FF not able to catch up with him.

The Crusader attacks another bank, but this time the FF are ready for him. The Crusader tells us his origin. (I hope you’re sitting down.) Dr. Grayson was his father. During WWII, Grayson built a spaceship and flew him and his son to the planet Uranus. The boy grew up, and returned to Earth in the 1950s with super-powered wristbands. He fought crime under the name “Marvel Boy.” A corrupt bank denied him a loan to provide medical supplies to the people of Uranus, and the Urianians all died. Now, he’s renamed himself the Crusader and he’s back for vengeance. While Ben and the Crusader fight, Reed figures out that the Crusader’s powers are solar-based, so he clears the sky of all clouds, causing the Crusader to overload on solar energy. This makes him deteriorate, right in front of everyone. Only his wristbands are left behind. (Holy crap, Reed killed a guy!)

Issue #166: This one begins with the FF aboard a luxury 747, where Ben mopes about being a monster, and Johnny hopes he hasn’t screwed things up with Frankie already. The team is flying to Nebraska, where Reed hopes his new “Psi-Amplifier” can cure Dr. Bruce Banner, so he never turns into the Hulk again. The Hulk then attacks, apparently by coincidence, and there’s several pages of action as the FF use their powers to get the plane safely to the ground. Our heroes then meet with a Col. Sellers, who has been tracking the Hulk. They find the big green guy in the snowy mountains.

The FF and the Hulk fight. Sue uses a force field to cut off the Hulk’s oxygen, which weakens him just long enough for Ben to knock him out. At Sellers’ base, inside a hollowed-out mountain (!), Reed uses the Psi-Amplifier to transform the Hulk back into Banner. Ben, who has been wallowing in pity and snarking at Reed the whole time, decides that he’d rather be on the Hulk’s side, so he interrupts the process. This transforms Banner back into the Hulk, and now both the Hulk and the Thing are about to attack the rest of the FF.

Issue #167: Ben and the Hulk fight together, against Reed, Sue, Johnny, and a bunch of soldiers. Ben and the Hulk escape in a helicopter (why the Hulk just goes along with this, I don’t know). They fly to the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri, where Ben suffers a dizzy spell. The soldiers find them, and they start a fight with the Hulk. Reed shows up as well, and tries to reason with Ben. Reed uses a tranquilizer on the Hulk, only to have the Hulk attack him. Ben sees this, and fights the Hulk, standing up for Reed.

While Ben and the Hulk pummel each other, Ben gets another dizzy spell, and he transforms… back into a human! The Hulk is bummed that his new friend the Thing is gone, so he runs off. Reed explains that Ben’s prolonged exposure to the Hulk’s gamma radiation is what brought on the transformation. Ben, Johnny, and Sue are happy to have human Ben back, but Reed wonders if this means the end of the Fantastic Four.

Issue #168: Back in New York, Johnny is bummed out because Frankie won’t date him on account of his being a superhero. He asks for a leave of absence from the team, which upsets Reed even more. Ben, meanwhile, takes Alicia out on the town, and is glad when more people recognize her for her art than they recognize him. Back home, Reed says Ben has to be replaced, because the team’s charter (!) insists that there must be four members at all times. Reed already has a replacement ready — Luke Cage, Power Man!

An alarm goes off in the city. It’s a bank robbery, so the new FF jumps into action. Ben tags along as well, still hoping to prove himself. It’s the Wrecker, one of Marvel’s favorite go-to superpowered thugs. The fight moves to a nearby construction site, where Ben keeps getting in the way, forcing the FF to keep rescuing him. Cage defeats the Wrecker, and Ben wanders off, feeling worthless.

Issue #169: Ben wallows in self-pity, getting drunk and starting barroom brawls. Johnny finds Ben at a bar and takes him home. Back at headquarters, Sue and Cage get to know each other, until he flips out and starts trashing the place. Reed and Johnny join the fight, assuming that Cage is under some sort of mind control.

Cage fights his way into Reed’s lab, accidentally switching on Dr. Doom’s old time machine. He then escapes in the Fantasticar. Reed says Cage was never meant to be a permanent replacement for Ben. He then opens up a secret door, where Ben is shocked to discover another big rock monster just like he used to be — a second Thing!

Issue #170: No, it’s not another Thing. It’s a robo-exoskeleton made to look just like the Thing. Ben can wear it and use its strength to fight evil. After testing out the suit, the team turns its attention back on what happened to Cage. Cut to Alicia, who is visiting her father, the Puppet Master, in jail. She suspects he’s behind Cage attacking the FF. Alicia can sense that the jail cell’s walls are made from Puppet Master’s radioactive clay, and he’s using it to make his mind-control puppets. (How’d he set up all this ahead of time?)

Cage, still under mind control, shows up with the stolen Fantasticar to bust Puppet Master out of jail. Cage, Puppet Master, and Alicia take off over the ocean. The FF then arrive, and… fighting! During the fight, the Fantasticar is knocked to the side, and Puppet Master has to choose whether to save his puppet or to save Alicia. He saves Alicia, letting the puppet fall into the ocean. This frees Cage from the mind control. Puppet Master is hauled back to jail, and the issue ends with Ben questioning whether he should ask Alicia to marry him.

Unstable molecule: There are a few more hints here and there about Reed slowly losing his powers. The fact that Reed flat-out murdered the Crusader is pretty much swept under the rug.

Fade out: Sue manages to help take out the Hulk, and she helps land a crashing plane, all with her force fields — both signs that she’ll eventually emerge as the team’s most powerful member.

Clobberin’ time: Turning human again lets us see Ben in a new light. Although happy at first, he’s quick to return to his self-pity. Here we see that Ben’s wallowing in misery was not because he was transformed into the Thing, but it’s something that was always there.

Flame on: Johnny begins his romance with Frankie Raye, except she dislikes superheroes and she doesn’t know he is one. Comics fans who know what will later become of Frankie can already smell the whiff of irony.

Four and a half: Sue reminds us in one scene that Franklin no longer has super-powers, because he might destroy all of reality if he did.

Fantastic fifth wheel: We’re not given the exact circumstances of how Luke Cage joins the team as Ben’s replacement. He just shows up. The answer would appear to be in how he describes himself as a “Power Man for hire.” (As opposed to the more well-known “hero for hire” he usually goes by.) Issues 168-170 contain Cage’s entire run as a member of the FF.

Commercial break: Could this ad be the secret origin of Batroc?

Trivia time: There actually was a Marvel Boy comic in the early 1950s, which the Crusader is based on. You might think that the Crusader looks a lot like Marvel hero Quasar. You’d be right! It’ll later be revealed that the Crusader’s wrist bands are in fact Quasar’s quantum bands. The bands were created by Eon to be worn by the protector of the universe, but the Uranians didn’t know this when the found the bands and gave them to the Crusader. This Quasar stuff is some seriously complicated mythology.

Fantastic or frightful? These issues are… not bad. Definitely a step up in quality from what we’ve been seeing. There is genuine character development for Ben, letting us see him in a new light, and that alone makes this batch of issues worth reading.

Next week: Not just any gorilla.

****

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