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Rereading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. Here we are, folks. The end of an era. It’s Jack Kirby’s final issue of Fantastic Four. According to suspicious-sounding internet rumors, Kirby allegedly turned in his resignation letter to Marvel the same day he turned in the artwork for this issue.

We begin with some comedy shtick. Ben has a cold. Crystal tries to force feed him medicine, and Ben’s sneezes are so powerful that they destroy an entire room. Reed interrupts, saying that Sue and the baby will soon return to supernatural nanny Agatha Harkness, once the rainstorm currently blowing over New York has passed.

From there, we cut to Namor the Sub-mariner. He and some of his followers are in a submarine in the ocean, “beneath frozen Antarctica,” to investigate a mysterious shock wave. Namor swims ahead and discovers a warm, tropical area in the middle of the Antarctic continent, complete with still-alive dinosaurs. He finds a lone survivor of the shock wave and… it’s Magneto! (This is picking up the storyline from Uncanny X-Men #63, the first appearance of the Savage Land, in which Magneto was apparently killed in a shockwave.)

Then, strange goings-on in New York, as the tops of skyscrapers are mysteriously being torn off by an unseen force and floating off into the sky. Under the sea, Magneto has not only regained consciousness, but found his way into an Atlantean lab, where the high-tech devices can amplify his magnetic powers greatly. He’s granted an audience with Namor, and he proposes an alliance between them, arguing that they are not “truly human.”

Back in Reed’s lab, he has deduced that Atlantis is the source of the magnetic disturbances. He’s sent a probe to Atlantis to investigate. He adds that if there’s a problem, a second press of the button will send a concussion missile along the probe’s path. “To warn them of their folly!” Reed says. Then there’s some action as the magnetic weirdness causes all the futuristic tech seemingly comes to life and attacks the FF. Ben decides to go on the offensive, pressing the button and launching the missile at Atlantis.

The missile trashes part of Atlantis, with Namor using his awesome strength to save his people. Magneto says he traced the missile’s path back to New York. Namor sees this as an act of war, and Magneto promises to aid Namor in the upcoming fight. Magneto thought-monologues to himself how he’s using the situation to goad Namor into attacking the surface world. Magneto hopes Atlantis will kill off all the humans, allowing mutants to rule in their place.

Back in headquarters, Reed chides Ben for firing the missile, as his “vibro-alarm” picks up signals of an entire fleet of Atlantean warships headed for New York, ready to start a war.

To be continued!

Unstable molecule: For as much as Reed is angry at Ben for launching the missile, Reed’s the one who built it to blow up Atlantis with the press of a button.

Fade out: Sue sits this one out again, off taking care of the baby.  

Clobberin’ time: Ben, despite all strength, is susceptible to the common cold.

Flame on: Johnny is able to use his flame to draw the magnetized building debris into the ocean. Science!  

Four and a half: Franklin finally has his blond hair this issue, after several issues of his brown hair.

Fantastic fifth wheel: Crystal uses her powers to save the day when all the machines in Reed’s lab come to life. She zaps the control panel real good.  

Commercial break: Steampunk before there was steampunk:

Trivia time: “Wait a sec,” you say, “I thought issue #108 was Kirby’s last issue.” No, #108 was an inventory comic, drawn by Kirby years earlier and kept in a file, to be used as a backup in case they needed a fill-in at the last minute. Marvel history is rife with stories about these inventory comics, and the times they were and weren’t used.

Fantastic or frightful? A slim issue, with not a lot happening. Kirby doesn’t phone it in, managing to create some perfectly Kirby-ish outlandish visuals for his final go-around.

Next: Magneto in the middle.

****

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Rereading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. It’s Jack Kirby’s next-to-last issue on the book, and once again we go back to the “gangster movie” style he was allegedly fond of at the time.

We open with some sitcom shtick at the Baxter Building, as our heroes are throwing a dance party. Alicia is there, with long black hair now. Ben trips while dancing and smashes up some furniture. (How much of the FF’s furniture do you suppose he’s inadvertently destroyed by this point?) The fun is interrupted when a letter arrives from a group called the “Maggia.” They claim to have purchased the Baxter Building, and they’re evicting the FF!

Meanwhile, at a restaurant downtown, members of the Maggia gather for a secret meeting, complete with giant plates of spaghetti. They’re gangsters! They’re leader, known only as “Top Man,” says the eviction is part of his plot to steal all of Reed’s scientific wonders. He has outfitted his men with special bullet-proof suits to deal with the FF.

It’s winter in New York, and the FF are out for a stroll, all bundled up. While horsing around with some kids, Ben sees a helicopter flying toward the Baxter Building, which Reed somehow recognizes as a Maggia aircraft. Armed goons are on the roof of the building, Johnny flies up there, and… fighting! The bad guys have fireproof suits and ice guns (!) but Johnny outsmarts them by generating a smoke screen that they can’t see through. It doesn’t work, though, as the goons hit him with a “circle of force,” whatever that is. Johnny is knocked out, and the Maggia takes him hostage, along with going inside and raiding the place.

Reed and the rest of the team make it inside as well, watching the Maggia’s movements on closed-circuit TV monitors. The baddies bust into the room and knock everyone out with “Noxo-gas.” They then seal the FFers in specially-made concrete coffins, drive them out to the Jersey Flats, and dump them in the river. They’re gangsters! Crystal unleashes an elemental shockwave, which frees the team. Reed swears to retake the Baxter Building, no matter what.

Back at headquarters, Sue sneaks through the place invisible while the Maggia men ransack the place. The baddies have a detector that can sense her presence, but they’re unprepared for her using force fields against them, not to mention a conveniently-placed fire extinguisher. The henchmen’s leader, a guy with the unfortunate name of Gimlet, threatens to send more men to Agatha Harkness’s place to kidnap lil’ Franklin, so Sue surrenders. That’s when Reed and Ben arrive, joining the fight. There’s a real scary bit where Sue traps Gimlet inside a force field as his gun goes off, with the bullets ricocheting all around him. Somehow, he’s not dead, but he gives up the fight.

Then the FF’s doorman, the one who delivered the letter at the start of the issue, arrives and shoots Gimlet. Reed does the Scooby-Doo thing and unmasks the doorman — it was Maggia leader Top Man all along, posing as the doorman to case the joint. He wanted to evict the FF all legal-like so as not to get his hands dirty, but Gimlet screwed it all up with the helicopter attack. The issue ends Reed makes a big speech about how the FF will continue to fight crime and make the world a better place. The problem is, we never see what becomes of Top Man. Does he sneak away while Reed was speechifying?

Unstable molecule: Reed keeps his cool during the crisis. Even though the bad guys catch him by surprise, he still works to out-think them rather than out-fight them.

Fade out: We get an excellent three pages of Sue fighting the villains on her own, which is more than we’ve got from her in ages.

Clobberin’ time: Ben lifts up a car to impress the kids he meets on the street. So, who owns that car?

Flame on: Johnny uses his powers to generate thick, black smoke as well as fire, something I don’t recall seeing him do anywhere else. Also, we learn that he can play guitar.

Four and a half: Franklin makes an appearance in a few panels, mostly just to let us know he’s still around, and to increase the sense of danger with the FF’s home being attacked. He has brown hair in one panel and orange-y hair in another.

Fantastic fifth wheel: Crystal is key to rescuing everyone from their underwater graves, and later she consoles the weakened Johnny by letting him rest his head in her lap, which he’s only too happy to do.

Commercial break: This ad appropriately represents the early 1970s. I especially like how the girl’s hair is three-fourths of the frame:

Trivia time: This is the first appearance of international crime syndicate the Maggia, who has since been all over the Marvel universe. Stalwart Marvel villains like Silvermane, Hammerhead, and Count Nefaria all have Maggia ties. There was controversy whether the film The Godfather could get away with using the word “mafia,” so I imagine the same must have been true for this comic.

Fantastic or frightful? What a weird issue. All the “real world” crime stuff contrasts in a big way with all the high-tech superhero action. I guess it’s a fun issue, but it’s also a mess.

Next week: Farewell to the King.

****

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. After reading issue #100 last week, this week we’re taking a detour. In 2001, a whole slew of well-known comics pros collaborated on a 12-issue miniseries, Fantastic Four: World’s Greatest Comic Magazine.

The story was intended to be a speculative “what if” there had been a proper finale to Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s run on the title before Jack left Marvel. This series takes place between issues #100 and #101, with everyone writing and drawing in a pastiche of Stan and Jack’s styles.

Here’s the lineup. Artwork by: Bruce Timm, Erik Larsen, Keith Giffen, Jorge Lucas, Ron Frenz, Gordon Purcell, Tom Scioli, Shannon Denton, Mike Manley, Rick Veitch, Graham Nolan, Bill Wray, Paul Ryan, Frank Fosco, Dave Ross, Al Milgrom, Steve Rude, and Dan Jurgens. Written by: Erik Larsen, Eric Stephenson, Bruce Timm, Tom DeFalco, Kurt Busiek, Jeph Loeb, and… Stan Lee!

The story begins with the FF returning to New York in the NATO plane they hitched a ride on in issue #100. They’re immediately attacked by a small robot sniper. Reed is obsessed with trying to find out who sent it, but the rest of the family drags him out of the lab so they can all go visit Franklin, who’s still with his witchcraft-y nanny Agatha Harkness. Along the way, they’re attacked again, by an unseen energy blast. We cut to Latveria, to learn that Dr. Doom is behind the attacks. He’s keeping the FF occupied as he travels to the US and orchestrates a break-in, stealing a ton of Reed’s equipment, not to mention all of Doom’s tech Reed had previously confiscated, including Doom’s time machine.

From here, the first half of the miniseries is Doom sending random threats the FF’s way, so they are distracted from what he’s up to. This gives us several issues on tour of the Marvel universe at the time. A visit to the X-Men has Johnny and Ben goofing around the mutants’ danger room, and then both teams fighting some Sentinels. In Harlem, the FF joins the Falcon and Captain America in a fight against M.O.D.O.K. and A.I.M. The team then fights a duplicate of the hulk, only for the real Hulk to join the battle. While this is happening, Doom uses the time machine to retrieve the Cosmic Cube from just before it was destroyed. The Cube, of course, grants its wielder godlike powers.

Reed finally figures out that Doom is behind all this craziness, and that Doom’s next step to visit the moon and steal the Watcher’s “cache of galactic wonders.” Doom does just that, threatening the Watcher with the Cosmic Cube. The Watcher says that although he’s sworn not to interfere, there’s no way he’s letting Doom steal his stuff, so they battle. With the help of S.H.I.E.L.D., the Black Panther, and the Silver Surfer, the FF make it to the moon as well. Doom uses the cube to summon cosmic replicas of a bunch of the FF’s villains, and it’s a lot of fighting. Doom successfully steals the Watcher’s “ultimate machine.”

There’s a huge explosion, and Doom thinks he’s won. But, no, Sue saved everyone in an invisible force field. (If Doom’s so smart, why didn’t he think that might happen? His famous arrogance, I suppose.) While all this was going on, Crystal was whisked away back to the Inhumans’ city, to learn that a powerful Inhuman artifact was stolen. She returns to find Doom in Reed’s lab, helping himself to more of Reed’s science goodies. On a roll, Doom also steals Namor’s horn from Atlantis, and uses it summon all of those giant undersea monsters to attack New York, like they did way back in issue #4. The FF and the Inhumans are reunited, while the Avengers and the Silver Surfer battle the Atlantean monsters. (Note that this is the second group of Avengers, with Captain America, Goliath, Quicksilver, and Scarlet Witch.) Namor joins the battle, being mentally controlled by Doom, and there’s a great bit where Ben uses Captain America’s shield to knock him out.

All this was but another distraction, though. While everyone was fighting in New York, Doom entered the Negative Zone for the next item on his list. Perennial superhero sidekick Rick Jones shows up at FF headquarters to tell them this. He knows because he’s psychically linked to Captain Marvel, who’s already on the case in the Negative Zone. Doom is after Annihilus, hoping to steal the big bug’s cosmic control rod. Reed, Ben, Johnny and Crystal join the fight. Sue stays behind at HQ, where a new version of the Frightful Four attacks, with Blastaar taking Medusa’s former place. There’s a lot more fighting, and it ends with Doom getting the rod, Sue abducted, and the rest of the FF trapped in the Negative Zone. The Frightful Four’s infighting gives Sue the opportunity to free her teammates and take out the baddies.

Way out in space, Dr. Doom confronts Galactus, who has just successfully devoured a planet. Doom uses all his stolen goodies to steal the power cosmic from Galactus. Reed has figured out what Doom is up to, so the team goes to Thor for help, saying that the raw power of Galactus can only be matched by the gods of Asgard. After some back and forth, Odin and the Asgardians (band name!) agree to help. Using Asgardian tech, Reed sends a message to everyone — the Avengers, the X-Men, S.H.I.E.L.D., the Inhumans, Atlantis, and even the U.S. army. Doom appears in the sky over New York, and you know where this is going: Everybody fights!

The combined might of heroes from all over the Marvel universe put up a good fight, but Doom swats them all away, one by one. He convinces the army guys to lay down their weapons, and, just like that, Doom proclaims himself the ruler of the Earth, as no force in existence can stop him.

The FF hide out in their headquarters, trying to find some way to undo what’s been done. Reed looks at a bunch of old comic book covers and gets an idea. Reed sends Johnny out to look for Galactus, who is in a weakened, human-like state without his powers. Everyone then gathers in Latveria, with the human Galactus. Doom is there, and he gets attacked by giant monsters from the comics. These would be from the monster comics Marvel once published before getting into superheroes, giant beasts with names like Fing Fang Foom, Sporr, and the Living Colossus. (Sorry, Guardians of the Galaxy fans, but the original Groot does not make an appearance.)

The FF are mentally controlling the monsters, using the same tech that Doom used to control Namor earlier. Basically, Reed is using Doom’s own tactics against him. Doom wins the fight, but loses the Cosmic Cube. He then begins to feel the same hunger that Galactus once felt, so he decides he has no choice but to devour the Earth. Reed recovers the Cosmic Cube and steals away all of Doom’s powers, shouting “Sic Semper Tyrannis!”

Reed uses the power of the cube to restore everything back to the way it was. This means repairing all the damage done to New York and elsewhere, but it also means returning Doom to Latveria and giving Galactus his powers back. Galactus admits feeling “something akin to what men call gratitude,” and he returns to space. Reed gets the final speech, of course, saying, “In the vast and endless universe, does a world exist where we all can live in peace?”

The miniseries doesn’t have a “The End,” but a “to be continued” in issue #101, which was published about 40 years earlier.

Unstable molecule: Reed says Doom’s nanotech is to blame for why it took him so long to realize Doom is behind all this. Uh-huh, sure. His one-time catch phrase “Sic Semper Tyrannis,” is Latin for “Thus always to tyrants,” commonly misinterpreted as “Death to tyrants.” It’s odd that they would use it here, because it’s a phrase most associated with not-nice people like John Wilkes Booth and Crazy Joe Davola.

Fade out: There are a lot of references in this series to how Sue might be the FF’s most powerful member, which we’ll later see in the John Byrne years and beyond. It’s true that she gets left behind during the Negative Zone chapter, but she saves her teammates just as well.

Clobberin’ time: Ben picking up Captain America’s shield and using it in a fight. So cool.

Flame on: Johnny doesn’t do a whole lot except fret about Crystal every time she goes off on her own. Clingy, much? He uses his super-powerful nova flame against both the Hulk and Namor.

Four and a half: Franklin puts in only one appearance, showing that he’s still being cared for by Agatha Harkness. If we’re to take this miniseries as continuity, this is the first time he has blonde hair instead of brown.

Fantastic Fifth Wheel: When Crystal finds Doom alone inside Reed’s lab, she first attacks him, and then tries to reason with him. One thing’s for sure, she never once shows any fear of him.

Trivia time: The creators really did their research to make sure the whole series lines up with what Marvel was doing in 1970. This is when Dr. Strange was wearing the costume with that blue mask, and the Falcon had that weird one-gloved green and yellow costume. This was also the time when the Avengers headquarters wasn’t a mansion, but a nondescript Fifth Avenue apartment, and we see that as well.

Fantastic or Frightful? As part of the ongoing FF saga, there’s not much here — just a lot of running around and fighting. As a pastiche, however, it’s great. The artists and writers to a great job of aping Stan and Jack’s style, including Stan himself, who wrote the script for the final issue. The whole series is a fun and charming love letter to early Marvel, which why I wanted to spotlight it here.

Next week: Bedlam… again!

****

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