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Rereading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. We’re making our way through the “middle years,” after Jack Kirby but before John Byrne, several issues at a time.

Issue #117: We begin with Johnny, who has been all ticked off at everyone for the last few issues, flying to the Inhumans’ secret city in the Himalayas, in hopes of reuniting with Crystal. Crystal, remember, left abruptly several issues ago saying she could no longer live among human pollution. Johnny fights a bunch of Inhumans standing guard out in the snow, who reveal that Crystal never arrived at the city, and everyone believes she’s still with the FF. Also, Maximus the Mad has, through circumstances never revealed, taken over the city. Johnny, weakened from the fight, catches up with the rest of the FF at Agatha Harkness’s house. Harkness uses her (what else?) crystal ball to find Crystal, only to report that Crystal is no longer in “the normal world.”

In a flashback, we learn Crystal arrived in a war-torn alien landscape, where she is knocked out by evil chemist Diablo. (Dr. Doom stranded Diablo in this otherworld when they fought in Marvel Super Heroes #20.) Late at night in Harkness’s house, Johnny uses the Crystal ball again, and finds Crystal and Diablo emerging on Earth among Mayan ruins in South America. Diablo has possessed Crystal and dressed her in a super-sexy new costume. He’s using her powers to convince the superstitious natives to do his bidding. First, he will overthrow a local general, then take over the country, and then the world. Diablo’s followers start a revolution, with several pages of fighting and destruction. The issue ends on a weird partial-cliffhanger, in which Johnny flies over the battle, assuming that Crystal is not involved and deciding not to butt in.

Issue #118: So much for not butting in, because this issue begins with Johnny joining the fight and trashing a bunch of attacking airplanes. Johnny finds Crystal and tries to break the spell by kissing her, but it doesn’t work. She believes she’s a Mayan goddess and won’t have anything to do with him. She uses her elemental powers to douse Johnny’s flame and knock in unconscious. Diablo, meanwhile, succeeds in overthrowing the general, stating that he wants it for its natural supply of rare chemicals. He takes the general back to the Mayan ruins, where Johnny has woken up and is fighting Crystal.

The rest of the FF arrives, fighting their way through the revolution, and then facing off with Diablo. Diablo sics the giant Inhuman dog Lockjaw on them, and Ben gets to wrestle the big dog. Diablo’s chemicals start to wear off, and Crystal becomes herself again. Inside the ruins, Diablo fights the general, only to have the chemicals spill and cause a huge explosion. (We’re not told that Diablo is dead, but we’re not told that he survives, either. He’s just… gone.) Crystal of course says she can’t stay with Johnny, because she has to go back to Black Bolt and help the Inhumans defeat Maximus.

Issue #119: This one begins with Ben and Johnny bickering while Sue and Reed break them up. It’s another excuse for the characters to show off their powers for the first pages (been a while since we had one of those). Reed introduces his new household robot, AUNTIE, to clean up the Baxter Building. Then, our heroes get a message from Wakanda, from the Black Panther’s chief advisor. He tells them about two thieves, Jeth Robards and Nathan Kumalu, who stole an invention called the Vibatron (!) that can enhance the powers of Wakanda’s rare metal Vibranium. Black Panther has followed the thieves to a country called Rudyarda, a haven for white supremacists, where he’s disappeared.

If that’s not “real world” enough for you, Ben and Johnny take a commercial airliner to Rudyarda, only for it to get hijacked (!) in mid-flight. There’s a few pages of our heroes taking out the hijacker. They find Kumalu, who says the thieves are meeting with a mysterious buyer at midnight, and that Black Panther is locked up in a local prison. Ben and Johnny bust him out of the joint, and he reveals his new codename — the Black Leopard! He says he changed his name because “Black Panther,” he explains, has “political connotations.” They hurry to meet the buyer, who, it turns out, is sound-based villain Klaw. (Remember that Klaw was originally introduced as a villain for Black Panther.) Everybody fights! Ben destroys Klaw’s sound weapon and Black Leopard punches him out. Then we get the preachy ending in which Ben makes a political connotation of his own by destroying doors segregating whites and blacks.

Issue #120: Enough with the important social issues. This issue starts off in the middle of some action, with the Baxter Building under attack by gun-wielding masked men. After several pages of fighting these guys, the FF’s landlord shows up again, once more threatening to evict our heroes. Then Agatha Harkness appears in some kind of astral form, warning the FF of danger, but not saying what it is. We then get the comics version of a montage, where people all over the world react to a strange man walking in the sky above them. The FF investigates, luring the stranger, dubbed the “Air-Walker” by pedestrians, to the Baxter Building, where he just stands there in the sky, not reacting to them any further.

The Pentagon won’t have this, so tanks and missiles are launched to attack the Air-Walker, who blows them all away with awesome cosmic power. The Air-Walker summons a giant golden horn out of nowhere, and he says his name is Gabriel, here to announce that the end of the Earth is at hand.

Issue #121: The FF fights Gabriel, along with several strange lines of dialogue speculating on whether he’s an angel. Gabriel speaks to all the New Yorkers out on the street, telling them that the Earth can be spared if they kill the Fantastic Four. The locals chase the FF around for a few pages, until Reed leads the team to a TV station. All broadcasts have stopped worldwide, due to fear about Gabriel destroying them all. The FF heads back to the Baxter Building, and then starts another fight with Gabriel, who throws all their attacks back at them, flooding part of NYC while he’s at it.

In outer space just beyond Earth, the Silver Surfer takes notice of the battle, and he flies down to join the FF. The Surfer and Gabriel fight, while spouting a lot of serious dialogue about truth and destiny. The Surfer finally destroys Gabriel, revealing him to be a highly powerful robot. Just as our heroes ask who could have built such a robot, the answer appears in the sky above them — it’s Galactus, and he looks pissed!

To be continued!

Unstable molecule: Reed is shown inventing a brand-new fireproof plastic in one issue, but this is never brought up again. You’d think something like that would come in handy.

Fade out: Sue demonstrates all sorts of new uses for her powers in these issues, such as creating invisible parachutes and cushions to protect her teammates from falls, and confusing enemies by turning only parts of their bodies invisible.

Clobberin’ time: Issue #118 has a truly weird backup story in which Ben visits an alternate reality where there’s an entire village of Reed lookalike robots, built by an alternate Reed who got Ben’s Thing powers from the cosmic rays.

Flame on: Johnny is getting good at these long distance flights, traveling from New York to the Himalayas to South America in one issue.

Fantastic fifth wheel: Crystal doesn’t rejoin the team, but at least she and Johnny get to say a real goodbye this time.

Four and a half: Franklin’s nanny Agatha Harkness keeps showing up in the FF’s lives, but Franklin himself is oddly absent. Who’s watching this kid?

Commercial break: Fat track!

Trivia time: These issues have Maximus in control of the Inhumans’ city, but the Kree-Skrull war was happening at the same time in The Avengers, where Black Bolt was shown as sitting on the throne. It’s believed that these issues take place just before the war, and that the royal family made short work of Maximus after Crystal rejoined them.

The Black Panther’s new “Black Leopard” name didn’t last beyond this appearance. He next showed up in Daredevil #92, where he was back to calling himself Black Panther again.

The Marvel Wiki doesn’t have any entry I could find for the robot AUNTIE, but clearly she was a forerunner for the notoriously hated HERBIE the Robot. We’ll get to HERBIE soon enough.

Fantastic or frightful? Yeesh. The Diablo and Air-Walker stories are lesser retreads of what had gone on before, and the “realistic” Black Panther story is embarrassingly heavy-handed and preachy. The series is really hurting by this point.

Next: Monsters, Inc.

****

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 making our way through the “middle years,” several issues at a time.

Issue #113: In the last few issues, Ben developed the ability to turn back into a human, only for this “cure” to drive him mad. This led to a huge Thing/Hulk fight, resulting in Ben’s death! Reed, Johnny and Alicia are all at the battle scene, confirming that Ben is indeed dead. The Hulk turns back into Bruce Banner and runs off, pity-partying about having killed someone. Johnny and Reed argue while the police and the anti-superhero protestors from last issue chase them around New York. Reed takes Ben’s body back to the Baxter Building. Reed hooks up sensitive medical equipment to Ben, saying his heartbeat is impossible to detect by normal means.

Reed and Johnny continue to argue (Reed calls Johnny a “brat” at one point) as a strange light appears in the sky over New York. Reed revives Ben, who is feeling better. Ben destroys the machine that “cured” him, so that he never loses control again. He says he likes being the Thing, and he’s done trying to save himself. Johnny is still ticked off, and he flies away. The light over the city intensifies, revealing it to be the Watcher, arriving at FF headquarters with a dire warning. He says “Beware the Over-Mind” and vanishes. Elsewhere, the NYC mayor issues an executive order to disband the FF. (Can he do that?) The big twist is that the mayor is being manipulated by a crazy-looking character, the Over-Mind!

Issue #114: The FF are arrested because of damages to the city in their superhero fights, and this issue starts with them posting bail. Public opinion is still against them. The Over-Mind, meanwhile, goes out walking in New York, expositing about how much he hates Earthlings and can’t wait to conquer the planet. He coincidentally runs into the FF, and it’s several pages of fighting. The Over-Mind has “energy” powers, which deflects the FF’s attacks, and he has mental telepathy, erasing their memories of the fight.

Then there’s some business with the FF’s landlord trying to evict them, while the Over-Mind goes to his ship, hidden in a junkyard. He mentions the “Eternals,” and he says there is a prophecy that he will someday rule the universe. Then Agatha Harkness shows up with more dire warnings for the FF. With Ben and Johnny’s help, Harnkess casts a spell to contact the Watcher, who promises to spill the beans about the Over-Mind.

Issue #115: The Watcher tells the story of a faraway galaxy, home to advanced beings called Eternals. They got into wars, conquering lesser beings and staging gladiator games. A warrior named Grom was the Eternals’ greatest champion. One planet, Gigantus, fights back against the Eternals, forcing them to condense the minds of all Eternals into a single being, the Over-Mind who was cast into space in suspended hibernation, until now, when he’s made it to Earth. (How he ended in the NYC’s mayor’s office is anyone’s guess.)

The Watcher clues the FF in that the Over-Mind messed with their memories. Reed says only a great intellect can defeat the Over-Mind, and wants to face him alone. Ben figures out the Reed’s mind has been taken over by the Over-Mind (how does he know this?) and we get a couple of pages of Reed fighting his teammates before escaping.

Issue #116: Double-sized issue! To find Reed, Sue is the one who does the science thing, rigging a special Geiger counter to track him. Ben and Johnny follow the trail to where the Over-Mind is torturing Reed, erasing all the math and equations from Reed’s mind. Later joined by Sue, our heroes fight the Over-Mind, who is so powerful that he drives them off. Out in New York, there is rioting in the streets due to the Over-Mind’s influence. Sue flees to Avengers Mansion, but the Avengers are out of town. Harkness contacts Sue, telling her there is another great mind with the ability to challenge the Over-Mind: Dr. Doom!

Sue breaks into the Latverian embassy confronts a cigarette-smoking Doom. She gets him to help with reverse psychology, calling him a coward. Doom joins the fight, back out in New York, fighting alongside the FF against the Over-Mind. It’s several pages of fighting, with Doom using a “psionic refractor” to turn the Over-Mind’s powers against him. Reed, still under the Over-Mind’s control, joins the fight, taking out Doom and Sue, and it looks like the Over-Mind has won. Then, another alien, the Stranger, shows up out of nowhere. Just as the Over-Mind is the sum of all the Eternals, it turns out the Stranger is the sum of all Gigantus. The Strange banishes the Over-Mind to another, empty dimension. This fulfills the prophecy that he will crush the universe, except that this is already dead universe for the Over-Mind to crush.

Reed overcomes the Over-Mind’s programming by remembering his love for Sue and Franklin. Doom runs off saying that he and the FF are still enemies. The Watcher returns and says the FF made a difference, weakening the Over-Mind just enough for the Stranger to step in. Johnny is still ticked off, and he flies away, leaving his teammates to wonder where he’s gone.

Unstable molecule: Reed spends most of these issues under someone else’s control, meaning his teammates have to rescue him for once. He also shows he’s tough enough to fight all three of teammates at once.

Fade out: Sue the scientist! She whips up a device to track down Reed.

Clobberin’ time: Ben decides he’d rather be the Thing than be human again, except he already went through this a while back. It’s kind of a circular thing for him, I guess.

Flame on: OK, why is Johnny so angry? He spends this entire run of issues absolutely furious at Reed. One line of dialogue states that it’s because Crystal dumped him, but maybe it’s more than that.

Four and a half: Franklin spends these issues still being watched by Agatha Harkness, except that she keeps sticking her nose in the FF’s business with her magic. Maybe that shape-changing cat of hers is babysitting.

Fantastic fifth wheel: Strange but true, Dr. Doom has fought alongside the FF enough times that he’s often considered one of the team’s reserve members. This is the first time we see it happen.

Commercial break: Be taller!

Trivia time: The Eternals introduced in this issue are not the same Eternals later created by Jack Kirby when returned to Marvel in the late ‘70s, although there are some similarities. The Over-Mind, in particular, is similar in concept the Kirby Eternals’ Unimind. Many have speculated that both are inspired by the concept of the Overmind from Arthur C. Clarke’s novel Childhood’s End.

Fantastic or frightful? These issues want to be all huge and dramatic, and the Over-Mind was created to be one of the biggest, baddest villains ever, but it just doesn’t work. We’ve just seen too much of this stuff already in the Lee/Kirby run, where it was done better. The Over-Mind is a generic baddie, and the novelty of Doom temporarily joining the team isn’t played up as much as it could be. The scene where Reed remembers his love for his family is a great character moment for him, but other than that, there’s not much here.

Next week: Domestic bliss.

****

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 making our way through the “middle years,” after Jack Kirby but before John Byrne. In this batch of issues, we get another trip to the Negative Zone and a killer superhero vs. superhero fight.

Issue #108: In the previous issue some guy named Janus showed up, and it was clear he and the FF have some kind of history. This issue is mostly a flashback explaining just what that is. Janus was originally the “Nega-Man,” using “nega-energy” to rob banks, fighting Johnny and Ben in the process. Reed reveals that he knew Janus back in college, and he suspects something’s up beyond mere bank robbery. Turns out Janus once experimented with energy from the Negative Zone, splitting himself into two people, with his other self being the evil Nega-Man.

In a surprising dark moment, Janus shot and killed Nega-Man, and Reed thought it was over. Only now, Janus has returned. He got into Reed’s lab, and flung himself into the Negative Zone. The Negative Zone portal then opens, and out comes Annihilus.

Issue #109: Turns out Annihilus is not actually on Earth yet. He’s merely confronting Janus in the Negative Zone, as Janus could provide him a way to get to Earth. Reed, Ben and Johnny enter the Negative Zone with Sue staying behind to open the portal for them upon their return. Annihilus agrees to let Janus live if Janus takes him to Earth. These negotiations are interrupted by the FF, and there’s several pages of fighting. In his thirst for power, Janus flies into a “zone of anti-matter,” where he seemingly dies.

Uncharacteristically, Reed uses a gun (!) to fend off Annihilus. Ben and Johnny make it back home, but Reed’s homing device was broken in the fight, meaning he’s stranded in the Negative Zone.

Issue #110: Everyone frets about Reed still trapped. Reed makes his way around the Negative Zone, to hunt down Annihilus. Back in New York, Franklin’s supernatural nanny Agatha Harkness shows up, chewing Sue out for spending so much time away from the baby. Ben’s anger continues to be out of control since he got his shape-changing “cure.” He gets so ticked off at Sue that he threatens violence against her. After he storms off, Johnny decides he wants to go back into the Negative Zone with another homing device to get Reed home. He secures the device in a cocoon of intensified flame, and sends it to Reed. Reed gets it, but doesn’t want Annihilus following him home.

Agatha Harkness casts a spell to make it look like the Negative Zone is filled with clones of Reed, and this is just the distraction he needs to slip away from Annihilus. Reed makes it home. It should be a cause for celebration, but Ben loses it. His anger is out of control. He trashes Reed’s lab and wanders off, saying he and Reed are now enemies.

Issue #111: Out in the streets of New York, Ben is nothing but rage. He trashes a construction site, and is chased by the cops. He evades them easily by transforming back into a human. Reed whines about how the cure has affected his personality. Johnny flies over New York looking for Ben. Ben spots him, turns back into the Thing.

Then there’s a weird bit where the FF’s landlord wants to evict them because of crowds out front protesting the Thing’s violence, and Reed throws the landlord out, rather violently. Ben defeats Johnny, and goes on to rob a bank. Reed has Johnny fly into the air and a write message in the sky for Dr. Bruce Banner, whom Reed says is the only person who can help Ben. Banner sees this, hops into a taxi, and makes his way to the Baxter Building. They drive right into Ben’s rampaging in Central Park. Banner (of course) loses it and turns into the Hulk.

Issue #112: Ooohh yeah, time for a Thing/Hulk slugfest! The two heavy hitters beat each other senseless for several pages, using Central Park’s trees and statues as weapons. Reed has a pity party, and won’t let Johnny join the fight. Throughout the city, the fight has stirred up huge waves of anti-superhero sentiment with protestors all over the place, and the landlord threatens eviction again.

As the fight leaves the park and out into the buildings, Alicia dares to go out into the city to try to talk some sense into Ben. A piece of stray debris hits her and knocks her out. When Ben sees this, he’s distracted just long enough for the Hulk to deliver the killing blow. Reed arrives on the scene just the Hulk turns back into Bruce Banner, but he’s too late for Ben. Ben is… dead?!?

To be continued!

Unstable molecule: What’s the deal with Reed using a gun all of a sudden? OK, sure, it’s a “stun gun,” but it’s still out of character. Later, the weight of driving Ben crazy weighs heavily on Reed.

Fade out: Sue doesn’t enter the Negative Zone, but she remains part of the action by monitoring the action from the Earth side. We see her striving for more of a balance in spending time with the baby and fighting evil with the FF.

Clobberin’ time: Although consumed with rage, Ben doesn’t seem full-on evil, and he’s not seriously hurting people, just kind of throwing them around. Still, it’s interesting character development on his part. He’s gone from accepting his status as a monster, back to being enraged by it.

Flame on: Johnny can protect sensitive tech by surrounding it in solidified flames. Science?

Four and a half: Even though he’s outside of the city with his nanny, lil’ Franklin can tell Reed is in trouble, more foreshadowing of his emerging powers.

Commercial break: The Bug Bomb!

Trivia time: The Negative Zone issues establish a lot of what will be regular features of the Negative Zone from here on out, including those flying backpack things, and having to leave someone behind to bring everyone back home. Also, the statue of “General Forbush” seen in Central Park is an Easter egg, referring to Marvel in-joke character Irving Forbush.

Fantastic or frightful? The Negative Zone story is another example of why the middle years are so rarely talked about. It’s the comic spinning its wheels, doing the same sort of stories it had done before. Ben’s descent into madness and subsequent epic battle with the Hulk is excellent, however, with the big action and big emotion that Fantastic Four comics are known for.

Next week: Under over, over under

****

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 had the classic Stan Lee/Jack Kirby years, and we had the exciting new directions John Byrne took the characters years later. In between those two eras, though, we had the “middle years.”

Many fans dismiss the middle years as the time in Fantastic Four history in which nothing happened, but is that true? On one hand, we get Franklin’s emerging powers, new romances for Johnny, a truly epic confrontation with Dr. Doom in issue #200, and more. On the other hand, there are foolish new villains like Air-Walker, Ternak, and Mahkizmo. Even worse, there’s a lot of merely repeating the same stories Stan and Jack did, without trying anything new. So, I’m mixing up the format for the time being, as we’ll burn through the middle years on our road to Byrne.

Issue #103 picks up where the last one left off, with Namor and Atlantis declaring war on the surface world, but Namor is secretly being manipulated by Magneto, who wants to humans and Atlanteans to wipe each other out so mutants can take over the Earth. Reed contacts President Nixon (!) who gives Reed one chance to confront Namor before the U.S. military retaliates.

Magneto uses his powers to further convince Namor that the FF are attacking him instead of trying to reason with him, and then he (of course) takes Sue hostage. After several pages of fighting, Namor and the FF finally compare notes and realize that Magneto is playing them against each other. Then they learn he’s taken both Sue and Namor’s girlfriend Dorma hostage. Shouldn’t Magneto be smart enough to know that this won’t end well for him?

Issue #104 begins with a full-blown battle over the skies of New York, with Magneto using his powers to control all the missiles and ships from a distance. Fearing for Dorma’s safety, Namor switches sides again, helping Magneto conquer New York. Reed continues to argue with Nixon, who wants to launch the military. Reed promises to come up with a strategy to take out Magneto, and Johnny makes a similar promise to Namor.

Magneto, meanwhile, is mad with power, sitting on a big throne outside in New York, surrounded by Atlantean soldiers. Then there’s more fighting as Atlantis soldiers attack the Baxter Building. Reed finishes building a new device while the others fight off the soldiers. Reed’s device is an electric converter, which reflects Magneto’s powers back at him, trapping him in his own magnetic energy cage. (Science!) Magneto’s handed over to the military, the Atlanteans return to the sea, and Reed makes a big speech about peach and brotherhood.

Issue #105 begins with Crystal having a fainting spell just as an earthquake rocks New York. Reed obsesses over finding a cure for Ben, which leads to a flashback repeating the group’s origin story. Sue is out shopping when another earthquake hits, and she runs into a Dr. Zoltan Rambow (!) a scientist that she apparently knows from somewhere. The cause of the earthquakes is a strange glowing man roaming the streets of New York, and Rambow urges the FF not to destroy it. Reed gives Crystal the once over in the lab, and discovers that her DNA could be the key to curing Ben. The bad news is, Crystal has to return to the Inhumans, because staying around humans might mean her death. Where this development came from is never explained, but it leads to a lot of tears and heartache.

Crystal sends for the giant teleporting dog Lockjaw, says her teary-eyed goodbye to Johnny, and she’s gone. Johnny flips out, but comes to his senses long enough to help Sue and Dr. Rambow. Reed starts to heal Ben in a risky procedure, and then learns Sue is in danger. If he leaves Ben in mid-procedure, Ben could die, but if doesn’t go to help Sue, Sue might die. What to do? Cliffhanger!

Issue #106 has Sophie, um I mean Reed making his choice. He runs off to help Sue, leaving Johnny with Ben, instructing Johnny to absorb all the heat from Ben’s procedure. (Science!) This goes on for several pages of Johnny struggling to keep all machines hooked up to Ben from reheating. Reed joins Sue in the fight against the monster, who is still lashing out and destroying parts of New York at random. Dr. Rambow continues to plead that the monster shouldn’t be destroyed. Reed deduces that monster is Rambow’s son (hey, Son of Rambow, I saw that movie).

The monster, whose name is Larry (!) was part of an experiment that went horribly wrong, of course, and now he’s out of control. There’s several pages of fighting as Reed rushes Rambow to his lab in hopes of recovering a failsafe device. It works, and Larry is human again. The cliffhanger then is, what has become of Ben?

Issue #107 begins with a lot of drama over whether Ben will survive. Not only does he live, but he’s successfully turned back into a human! Even better, he can transform from human to the Thing and back again. Alicia shows up, conveniently, and doesn’t know what to think of the new Ben. Then there’s lots of soap opera stuff with Johnny whining about Crystal leaving, and Sue grousing about Reed spending more time in the lab instead of with her and the baby. Ben and Alicia enjoy a day out in New York, but he’s now very short-tempered and his newfound anger worries Alicia.

Sue goes to visit Franklin who’s with his supernatural nanny Agatha Harkness. She’s surprised to learn that Franklin can see her while invisible. Then, in Reed’s lab, a guy named Janus shows up, and even though this is his first appearance, he has some kind of history with the FF. He makes dire warnings about the Negative Zone, but it’s all a trick, as Janus’s whole plan is to enter the Negative Zone himself, and… to be continued!

Unstable molecule: Reed is really the super-scientist in these issues, especially devising the long-lost cure for Ben.

Fade out: Despite Reed worrying about Sue in danger, she holds her own battling Larry, her force fields holding up to his energy blasts. She puts up a pretty good fight against Magneto as well.

Clobberin’ time: Ben’s transformation promises new developments for his character, although there’s still a little of the old self-pitying Ben, as he frets over whether Alicia liked him better as a monster.

Flame on: There’s another new use of Johnny’s powers as he absorbs excess heat from Reed’s machines. This takes a lot of out of him, and he has to fly to space to release the excess flame he’s built up.

Four and a half: Franklin is able to see Sue while she’s invisible, the first hint of his powers. The colorists still can’t decide what color his hair is.

Fantastic fourth wheel: After Crystal and Johnny split a few issues back, now they split up again. Here’s an example of the “let’s just redo what was done before” stories of this era.

Commercial break: Would you trust this guy with your money?

Trivia time: Not surprisingly, Larry Rambow did not go on to be a Marvel icon, but he did appear a few other times, under his new villain name, simply “The Monster.”

Fantastic or frightful? Already we see the contradictory nature of the middle years. We have exciting new developments for Ben, which promise some exciting stories in the near future, but there’s also a lot of lazily repeating what had been done before. It’s only going to go on from here?

Next week: Negative Zone crazies, and a slugfest for the ages.

****

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