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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Sept 18, 2020 23:41:53 GMT -5
Fantastic Four #266"Call Her... Karisma!"Cover Date: May, 1984 Writer: John Byrne Artist: John Byrne Feature Characters: The Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Girl, The Human Torch, & She Hulk) Villain/s: Karisma (1st Appearance of; In Flashback Only) Special Guests: (In Present) "Alicia Masters"/Lyja, Bruce Banner, Walter Langkowski, Michael Morbius (In Flashback) The Thing, Alicia Masters, & The NYPD Official Plot:Her first official day as a member of the Fantastic Four, She-Hulk finds herself at Mercy General Hospital after the Invisible Girl collapsed due to complications caused by her second pregnancy. Alicia enters the room and asks how things are going. Jennifer tells Alicia that Sue has been stabilized and that Reed is working with some of the best experts in the field: Walter Langkowski, Bruce Banner, and Michael Morbius. Alicia tells Jen that the Torch is out looking for other experts. She recalls how Sue's last pregnancy was able to success thanks to the energies of the Cosmic Control Rod, which is not an option since Annihilus has apparently been destroyed. When She-Hulk asks Alicia how she is doing since hearing that the Thing has decided not to return to Earth following the Secret Wars, Alicia surprises Jen by explaining that she will wait until he discovers whatever makes him happy on Battleworld. The current situation reminds her of an event that happened months earlier between Ben and Sue and begins telling the tale... Ben and Alicia are walking through Central Park when suddenly they notice a strange veiled woman stopping an armored truck as it is making its rounds. By lifting her veil, she puts the men behind the wheel under her control and orders them to start unloading the money from the back. The Thing decides to get involved and leaves Alicia in the park. When the Thing begins trying to stop the men, the woman approaches him. Introducing herself as Karisma, the woman lifts her veil, enthralling the Thing as well. With the Thing under her control, Karisma orders Ben to begin unloading the truck for her. When Alicia rushes to Ben's side, she is left puzzled by what the woman has done to her boyfriend, as the Thing gathers up all the money and leaves, pushing Alicia aside to do the job he has been commanded to carry out. Not far away at the boutique off broadway, the Invisible Girl is trying on a wig when suddenly she hears police sirens. Deciding to investigate it, Sue rushes to the scene and witnesses as the New York Police are clashing with the Thing. Sue convinces the officers on the scene to let her try and contain the Thing. At first she is able to entrap him in an invisible force field, but the Thing smashes through the street below his feet and comes up from below, grabbing Sue's leg. Trying to get free, the Invisible Girl focuses her force field to strike a blow into the Thing's face in order to break free. But the Thing continues to come at her, and although Sue manages to trip Ben up, he manages to get the drop on her. Protected by a force field, Sue cannot take any further beatings. Realizing Ben is somehow under someone else's control, she changes tactics by turning invisible. Without being able to see his prey, Ben then wanders off to continue his task. Crossing paths with Karisma once again, he is given another view of her face from beneath the veil, renewing Karisma's hold on him. Karisma recalls how she was a lowly employee creating new products for the Gaylord Cosmetics Company until the day she discovered a formula that made men her slaves when seeing her face with the make-up on it and decided to use it for crime. The Thing continues to attack the Invisible Girl, as Karisma watches and mocks the female member of the Fantastic Four. Wondering what sort of power she has over the Thing, Sue uses her powers to rip off Karisma's veil. She is shocked to see that Karisma's face is horribly scarred. The villain explains that the chemicals used in her mind controlling make-up have proven lethal and begun affecting her face. When she unleashes her full power on all the men around her and orders them to attack, Sue responds by using her powers to make Karima's head invisible. Unable to see her face anymore, the Thing and the rest of Karima's thralls are freed from her control. With the battle over, Sue ensures that Karisma's face is covered before turning her over to the authorities. .... As Alicia finishes her story, they both hear commotion from up the hall and go to investigate. They soon learn that the scientists gathered by Reed have exhausted all avenues and cannot find a way to ensure that Sue and her unborn baby survive the coming birth. When all hope suddenly seems lost, Walter Langkowski suddenly remembers one of person who might be able to help them: Otto Octavius, a radiation expect who also happens to be the super-villain known as Doctor Octopus. Brodie's View:We get a flashback story for this issue, using what's happening in the Present (Reed Richards and various other scientists trying to save Susan Richards (and her baby) from the dangerous complications she is having with her pregnancy) as a framing device. The main chunk of the story is a story being told by Alicia Masters (well, actually, by Lyja the Skrull, who is disguised as Alicia) to She Hulk, who is the newest member of the FF. This story basically involves a female scientist that developed a special type of makeup that would allow her to control the minds of any males that gazed upon her make up covered face, and decided to use it to become a villain (named Karisma....lol) and commit various robberies. The Thing and Alicia (the REAL Alicia) happened upon one of these robberies, and Ben is quickly taken over by Karisma, and begins destroying police cars on her orders. This leads to Sue, who happened to also be nearby, trying to stop Ben, only to have her large teammate turned on her by Karisma. This leads to a battle between the two FF'ers, as even though there is some resistance, Ben, who is under the control of Karisma, tries to legit hurt the woman he had seen as a little sister. Finally, Sue is able to figure out Karisma's trick, and makes her face invisible, which breaks the make up caked woman's spell, thus, ending her threat. I didn't devote a lot of time to recapping this part of the story, because, quite honestly, it was pretty light and silly, although, I did enjoy seeing Sue be able to put her power up against the power of the Thing and not only survive, but also give as well as she got. An interesting question to ask about all of this, is whether or not this story actually happened at all, as the person telling it was not the real person it happened to. Once again, Byrne kind of leaves small holes in "Alicia's" recap of this that Jennifer even kind of asks about, only to get a "Oh, well, the others told me about the parts I wasn't specifically there for" type of answer. I guess my biggest issue with this story, as decent as it was, and it's the same problem I kind of have with the next couple issues as well, is the inclusion of Bruce Banner as being one of the scientists Reed called on to try and help him with Sue's condition. I also did reviews for THE INCREDIBLE HULK #272-300, which pretty much runs through this era as well, and I can tell you that in INCREDIBLE HULK #295, which is the issue that the Hulk returned from SECRET WARS, the green giant came back quickly losing his intelligence. He would go after Boomerang, who had kidnapped his love interest at the time, and damn near killed the D List villain until said love interest was able to calm him down. From there, it was pretty much a car ride to where Bruce Banner had been doing his scientific experiments at the time, and then he would transform into the Hulk again, and shortly after that, completely lose any bit of Bruce Banner that was controlling the Hulk. In other words, there really was no time in the flow of the story from HULK #295 where he could have gone to the hospital to try to help Reed with Sue. It's not something that sinks any of the next few issues, but it was definitely another annoying example of writers not being on the same page when dealing with the fallout from a major event. Anyways, at the end of the issue, it's made clear to Reed that even the scientific super team he had assembled (Banner, Walter Langkowski (Sasquatch from ALPHA FLIGHT), & Michael Morbius) aren't enough to help his wife, but there is one name mentioned that might be able to succeed where they failed....Otto Octavius, AKA Doctor Octopus. ( ) This is going to lead to yet another great issue, and next issue, we will get that issue, along with a HUGE turning point for the Invisible Girl, whether readers at the time knew that or not. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Sept 19, 2020 23:54:47 GMT -5
Fantastic Four #267"A Small Loss"Cover Date: June, 1984 Writer: John Byrne Artist: John Byrne Feature Characters: The Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Girl, The Human Torch, & She Hulk) Villain/s: Doctor Octopus Special Guests: "Alicia Masters"/Lyja, Bruce Banner, Walter Langkowski, Michael Morbius Frank Wilson, the NYPD, & Spider-Man (the Last in Recap Form Only) Official Plot:With Sue and their unborn child in mortal danger due to their unique physiology, Reed Richards has just learned that the only man who might be able to save their lives is Otto Octavius, the super-villain known as Doctor Octopus. As they discuss their options, She-Hulk assesses the situation, recalling how she just recently joined the team following her involvement in Secret Wars, and how Sue has collapsed due to the complications caused by her impending birth. Reed tells the other doctors that he will not consider letting a psychotic like Octavius near his wife. This raises questions with Dr. Morbius, who was once a living vampire. Banner points out that Morbius and his own condition before he learned to control his transformations into the Hulk are different when compared to Octavius. Banner recounts how Otto was a brilliant scientist who developed his mechanical arms before a nuclear explosion drove him criminally insane, becoming a regular Spider-Man villain known as Doctor Octopus. After some consideration, Reed decides that he should at least take the chance to deal with Doctor Octopus at the psychiatric clinic he has been remanded to. After checking to see how Sue is, he kisses her goodbye and heads off to try and convince Octavius to help save her and his unborn child. Stretching his body over to the Baxter Building, Reed quickly boards the Fantasti-Car and heads to the Brooklyn Psychiatric Facility where Doctor Octopus is being held. There, he convinces the head administrator Doctor Jefferson to allow him the opportunity to see Doctor Octopus. Jefferson takes Richards to Otto's room. Using some quickly learned psychiatric techniques, to the surprise of Jefferson and the other doctors, Reed manages to explain his situation and get through to Doctor Octopus. Shedding a tear over Richards' plight, Doctor Octopus agrees to help him try and save his wife and unborn child. Jefferson thanks Richards for help and they leave to make arrangements to have Otto released into Reed's protective custody. As they leave, one of the doctors goes looking at the arts and crafts that Otto was working on before they entered, finding a link of octopi cut out of paper. Soon Reed and Otto are racing back to the hospital in the Fantasti-Car, along the way Otto happens to see a Daily Bugle advertisement with an image of Spider-Man. This causes Otto to feel unwell. Miles away at a secure facility, the arms of Doctor Octopus spring to life and begin fighting off the police officers tasked with containing the deadly weapons. They break loose into the city and attack Mister Fantastic just as they near the hospital. As Otto tries to sort out his conflicting thoughts, Richards fights for his life against the mechanical arms. When he is finally pinned, the arms pull Otto toward them and, upon putting on his harness again, Otto's criminal mind is completely restored. Doctor Octopus then tries to kill Reed Richards, but Reed fights back. Reed quickly comes up with a way to stop his foe: stretching his hands, he plugs up the manual controls of Otto's harness, rending the arms useless. With time running out, Reed makes one final appeal to Octavius to help him save Sue and their child. Reed finally convinces Otto to help. Later at the hospital, Johnny emerges from inside in tears, unable to believe what has happened. He is soon met with Alicia who comes to his side and provides him comfort in his moment of grief. Reed soon arrives with Doctor Octopus, and when Johnny begins to stutter over what happened, he rushes into the hospital for answers. Inside, Reed is told by one of the doctors that Sue went into labor shortly after he left and that, while they were able to save Sue's life, the baby died. Brodie's View:Although he lacks the deep emotional writing style of his ex-cohort, Chris Claremont, I will say that John Byrne is pretty damn good with delivering huge sucker punches to the gut of the readers of the stuff he writes. A perfect example is the very ending of this issue. I remember reading this story for the first time, and feeling as if I had been cracked in the head with a 2x4 when I got to that ending. I guess what makes it worse is the amount of crap Byrne puts Reed Richards through in this issue; searching out and convincing Otto Octavius (Doctor Octopus) to help him trying to figure out, radiation wise, what is killing both his wife and his unborn child. Of course, the child was conceived in the Negative Zone, which probably was a bad idea to begin with, considering all of the trouble Susan had with the birth of Franklin. Still, that's neither here nor there, and Reed, like any good husband or father would do, is willing to even compromise with a character that had recently been trying to kill him in SECRET WARS (another miscommunication between SECRET WARS writer Jim Shooter and Byrne, as Shooter had Ock and most of the other villains being transported home by Owen Reece, the Molecule Man, in the next to last issue of SECRET WARS. Granted, they left a little bit before the heroes defeated Dr. Doom and made it back themselves, but it is never explained how Ock was captured so quickly, and why he was in a near catatonic state when Reed finds him in this issue) in order to try to save his wife and child. It's found out that this catatonic state has caused the persona of the Pre accident (that gave him control over the metal arms he created in the first place) Otto Octavius to re-emerge, and it is this Doc Ock that Reed is able to convince to come back and help him. This peaceful persona doesn't last long, as en route to the hospital that Sue is fighting for her life at, Ock sees one of J. Jonah Jameson's billboards denouncing Spider-Man for being a menace, and that causes the villainous part of his personality to come back. Soon, Reed is fighting for his life against Doc Ock's metallic arms, which even Reed admits work about as well as him arms, when it comes to being pliable. This is a pretty awesome little fight, and it would be interesting to see who would have won, had the life of Susan Richards and her child not been in the balance. This being the case, however, Reed quickly figures out a way to shut down Ock's arms, and winds up appealing to Ock's ego this time, in order to help him with Susan. Doctor Octopus finally agrees again, and the two make it back to the hospital to find out that this whole altercation had been for nothing; Susan had survived, but she lost the baby in the process. ( ) Once again, what a sucker punch of an ending, and one that will definitely change the dynamic, both between Reed and Sue, as well as Susan's role within the team period, as the next year or so of issues to follow this will finally lead to her becoming an equal to Reed as far as power and stature goes. It'll be interesting to watch this all develop, as Byrne had kind of been building to this since his run started. I would say the only thing that stops this from being an "A+" issue are the miscommunication between writers that caused little continuity mistakes in a few different areas. I mentioned the Doc Ock thing earlier, but I'll also reiterate the little rant I did in the last review on Bruce Banner's involvement in this storyline as well. Once again, not enough to sink this great story entirely, but definitely cause enough to not give it a "Perfect" rating. It's still damn good, though. Anyways, in the next issue, we'll deal with the fallout from all of this, as well as Reed, Johnny, and Jen dealing with the leftover mask of a villain thought dead who might not be as dead as everyone assumed. ( ) GRADE: A
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Sept 21, 2020 22:26:13 GMT -5
Fantastic Four #268"The Masque of Doom!"Cover Date: July, 1984 Writer: John Byrne Artist: John Byrne Feature Characters: The Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Girl, The Human Torch, & She Hulk) Villain/s: Doctor Doom (or One of his Doombots)---Behind the Scenes Special Guests: "Alicia Masters"/Lyja, Bruce Banner, Walter Langkowski, Michael Morbius, Otto Octavius, Danny Winchell, Dr. Lanning, Alma Chalmers, & Alice Winchell (1st Appearance of the Last Two) Official Plot:The Fantastic Four check in on Sue Richards, who is recovering after the miscarriage of her second child. As Reed and Sue come to terms with this recent loss -- Alicia, Johnny, and She-Hulk also reflect on recent events. While outside Sue's doctor, Dr. Lansing, thanks Michael Morbius, Walter Langkowski and Bruce Banner for helping the best they could. Banner cannot help but mention that the only salvation for Sue's baby came from the villainous Doctor Octopus, whose insanity delayed Reed for too long, resulting in the loss of his child. Hearing this, Doctor Octopus lashes out against his foes, prompting Banner to transform into the Hulk. The Hulk is about to battle Doctor Octopus when Reed steps in and handles the situation on his own. Richards calmly tells Octavius that he is going to voluntarily return himself to custody, otherwise he will not rest until he is brought back to justice. Seeing something in Richards eyes causes Octavius to relent and he agrees to the wishes of Mister Fantastic. Satisfied with Otto's response, Reed leaves him in the care of Dr. Lansing. Just then Johnny and She-Hulk are getting ready to leave so Johnny can show her around the Baxter Building. Reed agrees with this course of action, telling Johnny that he can program She-Hulk to be recognized as a member of the team for the security system. Going to the roof of the hospital, Johnny summons a Fantasti-Car with his signal belt and the two are soon off to the Baxter Building. Along the way, Johnny inquires about She-Hulk's past. He is surprised when she is very candid about about her true identity and her origins: That she was a California lawyer named Jennifer Walters. Cousin to Bruce Banner, she agreed to put up her wayward cousin during a period in which he could not control his transformations into the Hulk and needed refuge from the law. At the time Jennifer was dealing in a court case that involved the mob. The mobsters she was after did not appreciate this and organized to have Jen shot. With her life on the line, Jennifer was saved by a much needed blood transfusion by her cousin who quickly left thereafter. When the mob came to finish the job later on in the hospital, Jen was shocked when she suddenly transformed into the She-Hulk for the first time. She remarks that unlike her cousin, she can control her transformations and maintains her original personality and intellect when she becomes the She-Hulk. She finishes her life story by telling Johnny briefly of her joining the Avengers when they land on the roof of the Baxter Building. Inside, Johnny shows She-Hulk around, including one of a series of buttons used in case of emergency that can jam any signal coming from outside of the Baxter Building, and the private elevators that are operated by their special belt buckles. He then shows Jen a secret room where the Fantastic Four keep their "trophies", powerful weapons and inventions confiscated during their various adventures to ensure their safe keeping. Among all these items is the mask worn by Doctor Doom when he seemingly perished during the Fantastic Four's recent battle against him and Tyros the Tamer. As the pair leave the room they are unaware that the eyes on the Doom mask have begun to glow. At that moment at the home of "Reed and Sue Benjamin" in Belle Porte, Connecticut, local gossip Alma Chalmers is trying to peek into the window of the new family that has moved into the neighborhood. She is caught red-handed by Alice Winchell who is out with her son Danny, who scolds her for being a snoop. Back at the Baxter Building, Johnny and Jen are having coffee together talking about business when suddenly the alarm goes off. Rushing to the trophy room they find that something has blasted the door off the hinges. Going inside, they find that the mask appears to have been taken. While looking for clues they are caught off guard when they are attacked by the mask itself, which has appeared to take on a life of its own. The pair dodge the eye beams of the mask and its various other defenses but fail in trying to destroy it. When they try to exit the trophy room they are forced back by a powerful wind. When She-Hulk tries to rush it as hard as she can, the powerful force suddenly stops, sending She-Hulk charging right out of the window and plummeting to the ground below. At that moment, Reed has returned to the headquarters and arrives just as Johnny is being attacked anew by the mask. Trying to fight the mask himself, Reed discovers that it is more than a match for any of them. Quickly realizing that it must be controlled by remote, he stretches over to one of the emergency buttons and quickly presses it. With all outside signals now cut off, the Doom mask suddenly falls to the ground totally inert. In the aftermath of the battle, Reed explains that the mask came to life due to a signal being sent to it and not a pre-programmed attack. With the Latverian embassy denying the apparent death of Doctor Doom, Reed is left to wonder who it was that initiated this attack and if, in fact, Doctor Doom is still alive. Brodie's View:Before we get the main part of our story for this issue, we get some fallout from the end of the last issue (as Susan Richards lost the baby she had been carrying since the FF's adventures in the Negative Zone). First off, we check in on Sue, who is weak, yet happy to have her family and friends around her during one of the lowest points of her life (one can only assume). We'll see her try to go back to her normal role in the FF shortly, only to have Reed purposely keep her out of the super hero-ing game for a bit while she recovers, which will definitely cause some resentment between the two, but for now, all is good, as one would expect after an event like that. We then see the various scientists Reed had gathered to try and save Sue's (and the baby's) life, talking about the fact that even their combined mental powers couldn't save Sue's baby. Doctor Octopus is mentioned by Bruce Banner, which sets the insane Doctor off, and he attacks Banner, which causes him to transform into the Hulk. This is technically the last appearance of the original Banner Hulk, as by this time in his own series, he's back to being child like and destroying things. Reed is able to calm things down, however, and tells Doc Ock to stay to the side and shut up until Reed is ready to take him back to prison....lol. Dammmmmn. What's even better is that Otto completely listens to what Reed has to say, and that's the end of him for this run. That all being done, Johnny ends up volunteering to take She Hulk back to the Baxter Building, and give her the proper tour of the place that she never got, as her joining the team had happened so quickly. Along the way, Johnny shows Jen the room the team keep for devices and artifacts that could be a danger, or ones they don't yet understand the full nature of. One of these things is the mask of Doctor Doom, which was left behind after the battle between he, Tyros the Terrible, and the Silver Surfer in FF# 260. It's not long after seeing the mask, that the mask, seemingly on its own, begins attacking She Hulk and the Torch. Jen tries her best to live up to the role long held down by the Thing, only to be kind of made a fool of by the easily maneuverable mask. The Torch doesn't fare much better, neither does Reed, who joins the fight in process, as both long time FF'ers assume that the mask attacking them is some sort of beyond the grave contingency plan put into place by Doom before he seemingly was destroyed (and then seemingly was destroyed again by The Beyonder at the end of SECRET WARS). However, Reed quickly figures out that the signal that is controlling Doom's mask is coming from outside of the Baxter Building, and once he shuts down the Baxter Building completely, the Mask is shut down as well. The issue ends with Reed speculating that Doom might not be as dead as they all though, but then again, is he ever? Doom will return in a couple different forms throughout the remains of this run, and I'll explain what I mean by that when we get to those issues, but I will say this issue was a nice transition from the tragic events of last issue, bringing us back to the superhero side of things (at least where it relates to their ultimate nemesis, Doom). We do get a bit of a subplot involving a snoopy old woman trying to investigate the home Reed and Susan have in Connecticut, and we'll get a bit more of that over the next several issues, until it all blows up in a pretty major way, but once again, we'll get to all of that when we get to it. In the next issue, we'll get an Annual that will take us back to the Blue Area of the Moon and the Inhumans, as the FF are invited to a wedding. GRADE: A-
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Sept 25, 2020 23:43:09 GMT -5
Fantastic Four Annual #18"Something Old, Something New"Cover Date: Aug, 1983 Writer: John Byrne Artist: John Byrne Feature Characters: The Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Girl/Woman, The Human Torch, & The Thing) Villain/s: Bel-Dann & Raksor Special Guests: Uatu The Watcher, The Inhuman Royal Family (Black Bolt, Medusa, Gorgon, Triton, Karnak, Crystal, Luna, Lockjaw), Quicksilver, The Supreme Intelligence, Empress R'Klll, Various other Inhumans, & Wolverine (the Last in Recap Form Only) Official Plot:About a year ago.... Wolverine has just been kicked out of the Watcher's citadel during the battle of the Phoenix on the Blue Area of the Moon. As he recovers he is approached by who he thinks is his teammate Storm, but his enhanced senses warn him it's actually a shape changer. Tossing his disguised enemy aside, the alien morphs back into the shape of Raksor, a Skrull delegate who had come to observe the battle for his empire. Wolverine unleashes his claws and leaps for the attack but is blasted away by Bel-Dann, Raksor's Kree opposite. Insulted by being saved by a Kree soldier, Raksor morphs into another alien creature and the two come to blows. The fight takes them hurtling down a crater. As the two continue to scrap they are taken deeper and deeper below the ruined city of the Moon's Blue Area. They fight on, completely oblivious to the fact that the Trial of the Phoenix has finished and all other involved have moved on. Over the coming months the two warriors begin playing a game of cat and mouse with each other, both determined to see the end of their foe, but the pair are too evenly matched and the chase goes on for over a year. A few months ago... As Raksor and Bel-Dann continue their current days fighting, they are suddenly interrupted by Earth's Watcher, who stops the pair from fighting. Uatu informs them that he has a message from their perspective rulers. He then conjurers up communications from the Supreme Intelligence and Empress R'Klll. Both tell their subordinates that the on going war between the Kree and the Skrull has grown too costly for both sides. So the two rulers have mutually agreed that the course of the war will be decided by only two of their finest warriors and they have chosen Raksor and Bel-Dann to be those warriors. After being told that whoever the victor in their months long war between each other will also claim the victory for their respective empire. Both men agree and go their separate ways to prepare for the final battle. Today... On the surface of the Blue Area now stands Attilan the home of the Inhumans, and today is a day of a great celebration: the wedding of Inhuman ruler Black Bolt and his long time love Medusa. As the Inhumans celebrate the coming nuptials, Lockjaw teleports the Fantastic Four to the Moon so that they can attend the ceremony. Upon their arrival they are soon greeted by Crystal and the rest of the Inhuman royal family who are introduced to the Fantastic Four's newest member, She-Hulk. They are also joined by Black Bolt who is congratulated for his up coming wedding. Reed is disturbed when he sees Johnny brush off an Inhuman woman who is clearly interested in him, leaving Richards to wonder if Johnny is thinking about his old romance with Crystal again. As the wedding begins, Quicksilver watches from afar, feeling as though he will always be an outsider among his adopted people, but soon joins his wife Crystal carrying their baby Luna in hand. The priest begins the ceremony and after having Black Bolt and Medusa join hands, officiates the wedding and pronounces them husband and wife. With the ceremony just moments over the ground suddenly shakes violently and splits open. The Fantastic Four spring into action to see what the source of the quake is. She-Hulk races ahead outside of the city, and almost flings herself into a massive wall of blue flame when she realizes that gravity outside the city matches the rest of the surface of the moon. She is saved from being roasted alive by the Human Torch who manages to catch her in the nick of time. After Johnny absorbs the flame, the Fantastic Four and the Inhuman royal family go down into the crater to investigate the source of the attack. Down below the city they are suddenly attacked by Raksor who is armed with a gauntlet that can fire beams of force. He easily catches the gathered heroes off guard, and manages to slip away before they can regroup and capture him. When She-Hulk tries to follow after him, she triggers a booby-trap on the door he passed through, the resulting blast knocks her through a few rooms. When the Fantastic Four and the Inhumans follow after her they cross paths with Bel-Dann who is wearing a suit of armor. While the others fight off this new foe, Johnny goes after She-Hulk again. Reviving his teammate, Johnny suddenly spots another spout of blue flame erupting from the floor. This time he uses his powers to absorb the flames, but it is almost too much for him to contain. Instead, Johnny uses the excess flame to attack Bel-Dann, destroying his armor, but the Kree warrior also manages to escape them. The Fantastic Four and the Inhumans then retreat back to Attilan to make sense of the battle. Realizing that the Skrull and Kree warriors are fighting each other, but unaware why, Reed and Black Bolt pay a visit to the Watcher. Uatu is very forthcoming and explains why the two aliens are battling it out below the surface of the Moon. With this knowledge, Mister Fantastic comes up with a plan to stop the battle once and for all. Later, the Fantastic Four and Inhuman royal family resume their attack against the two alien combatants. This time, they fight strategically, forcing Raksor and Bel-Dann into the same room. Out numbered, the two mortal enemies are forced to work together and seemingly slay their foes. In the aftermath of the battle, the Watcher appears before them and informs them that their battle is over, and that they have decided the fate of their empires by working together. The Watcher then uses his powers to teleport the two warriors back to their respective empires to report back to their leaders. With the aliens gone, the Fantastic Four and Inhumans rise up from the group -- having staged their defeat with the help of Sue's invisible force fields -- in order to trick the Kree and Skrull into working together. With the danger passed, they return to the surface where they continue to celebrate the wedding of Black Bolt and Medusa. Brodie's View:This latest Annual takes us back to the Blue Area of the Moon, which at the time was the home of the Inhumans, and the main story, at least on the surface of things, seems to be the long awaited wedding of Black Bolt and Medusa. However, this ceremony is really only the set dressing for the main story, which concerns the Kree and Skrull warriors that end up battling each other during the events of UNCANNY X-MEN #137, rather than stopping the X-Men from defending the life of Jean Grey, The Phoenix. This is due to the long time hatred between the alien races, and this hatred is so deep that it causes Uatu The Watcher to step in, basically making a deal with the leaders of the Kree and Skrull Empires to let the war between the Kree and Skrull warriors represent the war between the Kree and the Skrull. In other words, whoever wins the battle between these specific two warriors will claim victory for the entire Empire. Not one of the more believable moments in this story, but for the sake of this story, we'll let it slide for now. Back to the royal wedding, which ends up being interrupted by a giant earthquake that both the FF (who have been invited for the wedding) and the Inhumans team up trying to lessen the effect of. Once this is out of the way, the groups investigate, and find that the earthquake has been caused by the ongoing battle between the Kree and Skrull warriors, who have been continuing their death feud (although, as it goes on, it seems more that these two have almost become frienemies during the course of their battle) the entire time between the Dark Phoenix Saga ending and the events of this story. Reed Richards and the FF end up seeking out Uatu, who tells the group about the deal he had worked out with the Kree and Skrull warrior. Reed decides that the perfect way to end this war is to make the Kree and Skrull warriors believe that they have won the war. In other words, force the two warriors to team up against the combined might of the FF and the Inhumans, and then have the two human based groups purposely lose this fight, thereby, tricking the Kree and Skrull warrior into thinking they had combined their forces to beat a common enemy, the humans. This all goes off without a hitch, and the two warriors, thinking they won something major for their empires, are sent back to their respective worlds as victors for their respective races, which ends the conflict. I will say that I did enjoy the ending to this story, as it was a pretty clever plan by Reed to play on the egos of the Kree and Skrull warriors in order to end their conflict. I will also say that I enjoyed the fact that these two enemies ended up forming some form of respect for the other, even to the point of teaming up against the FF and Inhumans. Now, for the bad....I wasn't a fan of the artwork, as it was definitely a huge step down compared to Byrne's stuff. My other major gripe, and I told you we'd get back to this, is I wasn't sure how believable it would be that the heads of the Kree and Skrull Empires would allow their centuries old conflict to be solved by the outcome of one battle, but then again, perhaps their involvement was all an illusion created by Uatu to trick the two warriors into thinking that the resolving of their specific conflict would bring about peace between the two empires. Who knows? Anyways, yeah, this was an okay Annual, but I'm definitely glad this wasn't played out over the actual ongoing issues of the FF series. Speaking of which, in the next issue we will return to the FANTASTIC FOUR series to see the debut of a new villain, and a long time supporting member's return to being a....ongoing supporting character (among other things) for the team. GRADE: B
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Sept 26, 2020 23:40:11 GMT -5
Fantastic Four #269"Skyfall"Cover Date: Aug, 1984 Writer: John Byrne Artist: John Byrne Feature Characters: The Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Girl, The Human Torch, & She Hulk) Villain/s: Terminus (1st Appearance of) Special Guests: "Alicia Masters"/Lyja, Wyatt Wingfoot, Franklin Richards, Sharon Selleck, Keewazi, & Clement Standground (Only Appearance of the Last) Official Plot:Wyatt Wingfoot is out in the desert near his tribe, his mind turning to the fact that he will have to lead his people now that his grandfather, Black Fox, passed away seven days previous. As he rides through the desert on his ATV, he reflects on how many adventures he's had with the Fantastic Four, and how the prospect of running his tribe will be dull by comparison. Wyatt's thoughts are suddenly cut short when he witnesses a massive beam of energy coming from the sky as it begins cutting a swath through the desert ground. He barely manages to dodge out of the way of the beam, upsetting his bike in the process. Recovering from the spill and riding his vehicle closer to the trench, he realizes that the chasm must be at least a thousand feet feet deep and decides to call in the authorities. Meanwhile, in New York City, Johnny has finally found some time to sit down and have dinner with Sharon Selleck, who has been interested in Johnny for months. Although Sharon is interest in what Johnny has been up to, he is reluctant to discuss his time during the Secret Wars or that Sue recently had a miscarriage. The date is cut short when Johnny spots Alicia Masters walking by. Johnny rushes to her side and offers to help her get the Museum of Natural History. She is thankful for the help and the two depart. When Johnny apologizes for cutting out on Sharon, Sharon finds it interesting that Johnny is rushing to Alicia's aid. Suspecting that he might be interested in Alicia, Sharon realizes that the Thing has not been seen in the city since the Fantastic Four returned to Earth. While at the Baxter Building, Sue is home recovering from her miscarriage. With the loss of their second child, Sue comes to terms with the fact that she and Reed should not attempt to have any more children. Her thoughts are interrupted by Franklin who enters the room to tell her that his uncle Johnny won't be making it out to dinner and asks if they can go back to Belle Porte. Sue is glad to hear that Franklin is adjusting to their other life as the "Benjamins" in Connecticut. When Franklin asks if She-Hulk will stay after Ben comes back from Battleworld, Sue says she doesn't know and tells Franklin to go and pack. Sue walks off, musing about her early relationship with Reed as she goes to the lab to check on Reed and She-Hulk. In the lab, Sue and She-Hulk exchange pleasantries, and She-Hulk reveals her secret identities to them. Reed then shows off his latest invention a device that can give an object the velocity of another object in space. He demonstrates the device by giving a tennis ball half the velocity of Earth's sun, causing the ball to implode on itself. Suddenly Reed gets a phone call from Wyatt warning him of the danger. As Reed asks for more information, She-Hulk notices another red beam of energy striking the Earth from the window as it cuts a swath across the Hudson River. Reed suddenly gets a call from the President of the United States who demands to know what is going on. Reed tells the President that he is going to investigate the situation and get back to him. Reed mobilized She-Hulk and tells Sue to stay behind to act as their liaison while they investigate things in Oklahoma. Sue protests this but is outranked by Reed, leaving Sue to believe that Reed is getting back into the habit of treating her like a fragile woman who cannot hold her own in battle. With Reed gone, Sue gives in to her anger over this, and vows never to be treated as a liability again, unleashing the full force of her powers in Reed's lab as a response. At that moment, Reed and She-Hulk are rocketing across the United States in the Pogo-Plane, following the trail of the strange beam. Reed realizes that the path of the beam came from light years in space and that it must have been a precisely complex task in order to strike the Earth perfectly in the way it did. As they reach the desert, they just barely manage to avoid a massive object that suddenly falls from the sky and strikes the ground... what appears to be some kind of alien ship. Reed and She-Hulk land the plane and approach the strange object and wait for it to begin cooling down from re-entry so they can get a closer look. They are joined by Wyatt Wingfoot and members of his tribe. As formalities are made and discussion turns to the strange beam, none are aware that the strange "ship" is actually a massive creature who raises his hand, glad to finally be at his destination. At that moment, Reed takes the others to the Pogo Plane where he shows his scan of the beam's path via satellite photos and shows that it is some kind of alien writing. Reed runs it through the Fantastic Four's Universal Translator and it comes out reading "I claim this world" signed by a being called Terminus. When they begin to puzzle this over, they are suddenly called out by Terminus himself. When they turn to face their foe they are shocked that what they thought was ship is actually the massive body of Terminus, who vows to enslave the planet and make it his own. Brodie's View:While we deal with relationship issues, both on the positive and negative side of things, as it relates to the members of the Fantastic Four, a new villain makes his first appearance, and in a pretty big way in this issue. We also get the return of long time supporting character Wyatt Wingfoot, who is mulling over his future when he suddenly is nearly creamed by a giant laser that is burning its way into the very Earth itself. We then jump to New York, as Johnny Storm is out on a lunch date with a side character that has long had the hots for him, Sharon Selleck, and it looks like things might be renewed, at least on her end of things, when Johnny spots Alicia Masters, who is having trouble making her way along. Johnny ends up straight leaving Sharon to help Alicia, as we see things starting to develop between them. Of course, this is not all a coincidence, at least as far as Johnny happening to notice Alicia, as Alicia has secretly been replaced by a Skrull, and being that her "long time love interest," Ben Grimm, is off world playing explorer on the former Battleworld, she decides to make her play for Ben's teammate, Johnny, as a way of keeping tabs on the FF for the remains of the Skrull Empire. As for Sharon Selleck, this is pretty much her last appearance, and it seems that her inclusion in this story was only to show that Johnny Storm's interest, if it had ever even slightly been for Sharon, was now pretty much pointing completely in the direction of Alicia Masters, or should I say Lyja the Skrull. Regardless, we'll see the relationship between Johnny and "Alicia" develop over the next few issues. We then head to the Baxter Building, as Reed Richards has been informed about the events happening out West, but they don't get too long to ponder this, as the same laser blasts through the Hudson River, finally ending its blasting process. Reed and She Hulk decide to head to Oklahoma to investigate the first spot the laser blasted in to, but in the process, Reed ends up pissing off Susan by insisting that she stay home. Sue takes this personally, as Reed had done that to her after the birth of their son, Franklin, and in a fit of rage, destroys Reed's lab. This is definitely a rift that will grow wider over the next year's worth of issues, and will come to a head during a major storyline that will lead to the next evolution, character wise, for Susan Richards. Reed and Jen arrive at the desert where the strange beam originated, and Reed introduces Jennifer to Wyatt Wingfoot, which is important, at least in the short term (including the remains of this run), as the two will become an item for the rest of Byrne's run. While they're in the middle of introductions, a large metal thing ends up falling from the sky, creating a huge crater in the desert floor as it lands. While this device cools, Reed realizes that the laser had been basically inscribing something into the Earth in an alien language, and once transcribed, the heroes discover that it is an official claim for the planet Earth. They then turn to see the being that laid said claim; our new villain, a huge metal alien monster known only as Terminus. ( ) I will say that Byrne definitely does a great job making Terminus seem like a huge deal right off the bat, as never before had an alien would be conqueror actually inscribe into the Earth that he was planning to take it over before he got there (especially when the beam had originated a hundred years ago....talk about long term planning). Sadly, this about the most impressive that Terminus ever looks, as he would spend the rest of his villain career being a formidable, yet pretty beatable threat. We'll see this in play in the next issue, as the FF deal with the threat of Terminus before we move on to our next Multi-Issue story. I will say that at least before we get a cool cover out of Terminus before he gets his giant metal ass handed to him. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Sept 27, 2020 22:54:39 GMT -5
Fantastic Four #270"Planet-Fall"Cover Date: Sept, 1984 Writer: John Byrne Artist: John Byrne Feature Characters: The Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Girl, The Human Torch, & She Hulk) Villain/s: Terminus Special Guests: "Alicia Masters"/Lyja, Wyatt Wingfoot, Franklin Richards, Keewazi, & Unnamed Zundamite (1st Appearance of)/(In Recap Form Only) The Thing, Alicia Masters, & Annihilus Official Plot:Johnny has brought Alicia Masters to his newly renovated apartment. He explains that he moved into the apartment to have a place of his own away from the Baxter Building so he can have an adult life outside of the Fantastic Four. The conversation turns over to Alicia's past with her father, the notorious Puppet Master, and her past relationship with the Thing. When the subject of Ben's absence comes up, Alicia tells Johnny that she understands why Ben stayed behind on Battleworld at the end of the Secret Wars. She explains that things had started to change for them as a couple following the attack on the Baxter Building from Annihilus. She spent five months recovering in the hospital and she and Ben spent most of that time evaluating their relationship. She reflects on how that both she and Ben began dating due to their mutual dependency on one another and that over time the dynamic has changed. She remarks how she still loves Ben, but has decided that it is time to move on with her life. Noting the time, Alicia recalls that she has an interview coming up and has to go. After she thanks Johnny for having her over, she kisses him on the mouth. After she is gone, Johnny notices that Alicia left her cap behind and debates on chasing after her to return it, but opts to keep it at his apartment as an excuse for her to come back again. Johnny then opens the skylight in his loft and flames on and flies off to the Baxter Building. There, Franklin comes rushing into Reed's lab after hearing a crash. Calling out to his mother, Franklin is surprised to find the lab in ruins and his mother crying. When Franklin asks what happened, she explains that she got mad when his father and She-Hulk went out on a mission and she was ordered to stay behind. Susan quietly reflects that she is also still quite upset about the miscarriage she just had, reminding herself that while it hurts the loss of the baby is not her fault. She tells Franklin that she needs to contact Johnny and tells him to finish packing to go back to Belle Porte. After Franklin rushes off, Sue initiates the Fantasti-Flare, calling Johnny to headquarters. Meanwhile, at a laboratory in Houston, Texas, scientists are trying to make sense of the strange alien craft that touched down in the deserts near Oklahoma, and what ties it might have with the strange alien writing that was carved into the Earth that the Fantastic Four were sent out to investigate.... ... While in that very desert, She-Hulk pulls herself free from the rubble following an attack from the massive alien invader calling himself Terminus. She quickly finds Reed, Wyatt Wingfoot and his tribes men, who were protected from the blast by Reed's body. Recovering, Reed grimly considers that Terminus is a threat as deadly as Galactus and must be stopped. They suddenly spot a massive explosion where Terminus is laying waste to a nearby town. The massive alien and his power lance makes short work of the buildings, gloating how the human race will become his slaves. Terminus pauses for a moment to check with his minion, an alien he keeps in a massive cylinder. The creature explains that since they left Arianis Major he did not have time to calculate how useful this world might be. Only interested in looting the planet and enslaving its people, Terminus is not interested in words and abandons his minion then begins training his lance's energies deep into the core of the Earth, causing the energies from its molten core to rise up and swirl around him. Observing this from afar, Reed realizes that Terminus is breaking down the planet to its base elements for his own use. Wyatt soon spots the alien minion of Terminus, who beacons them to him. Dying from the injuries sustained in his fall, the alien explains to them that he tricked Terminus into coming to Earth as he knew that it had super-humans who might be capable of stopping him. When Reed muses over this, She-Hulk is upset and asks if he intends on throwing the entire planet at this invader in order to stop him. She-Hulk's sarcastic comment actually inspires Reed with a solution to their problem. Meanwhile, Terminus continues forward on his march of destruction, approaching the town of Hanover. Before he can reach the town, Reed has She-Hulk distract Terminus by throwing the remains of the Pogo-Plane at him. This knocks his power lance from his hands and distracted Terminus long enough for Reed to attach his acceleration device onto Terminus. Suddenly, the massive alien is pulled deep into the ground. Without his lance to power him, Reed figures it will take Terminus months to dig his way free allowing Reed enough time to develop a suitable means of disposing of the alien invader. He explains to Wyatt that he used his accelerator to give Terminus the twenty times the velocity of Earth's rotation in space, causing him to sink into the Earth. As a side effect, the ground begins to shake as the hole made by Terminus fills in. This causes both She-Hulk and Wyatt to topple over, with Wyatt landing on top of Jen. While Wyatt is somewhat embarrassed, She-Hulk is merely flattered and flirtatious. In the aftermath of the battle Reed notices that Wyatt is troubled. Wyatt explains that he has been selected to be the new leader of his tribe following the death of his grandfather, but he is unsure if he is worthy of the title or if he wants it. After discussing it with his people, Wyatt decides that he needs to go and find himself again and decides to return to New York with the Fantastic Four to try and sort out what he wants out of his life. She-Hulk is impressed of Wyatt and the strength of his convictions, while Reed welcomes him along as a guest of the Fantastic Four. Brodie's View:We get the second half of our story with Terminus, as the giant alien disposes of the tiny alien that had acted as his herald, so to speak, and then starts just randomly laying waste to everything in his path, using his staff to make the walking equivalent of what his laser blast was doing in the last issue. We also kind of learn why Terminus isn't more successful, at least on Earth, as he probably should have been, given his massive size and power....he's kind of just a dumb brute with an eye for nothing more than scavenging the planets he destroys. Even Reed Richards comments on how small minded his goals are, as Reed is used to dealing with cosmic beings that at least bring a real purpose with their destructive ways. After trailing Terminus and his path of destruction for a while, Reed figures out a way to, if not defeat Termius, at the very least delay having to deal with the giant alien plunderer. In the last issue, we saw Reed using an acceleration device on a tennis ball. After he has She Hulk knock Terminus' staff out of his hand (by tossing a wrecked Fantasticar at him), Reed uses his acceleration device to drive Terminus down into the core of the Earth itself, ending his threat....for now. Actually, I'd say that it pretty much ends the threat of Terminus BEING a major threat, as he never really is one again. I've read stories where the Avengers, X-Men, and even the Justice League (in the JLA/Avengers Crossover) have whooped off on Terminus. He's kind of the Serpentor of the Marvel Universe; looks impressive, and has a heck of a build up, but very little actual results. Leaving Terminus behind, there are a few other things to mention from this issue. The first is the growing attraction between Johnny Storm and Alicia Masters, or rather the woman that Johnny thinks is Alicia Masters. In reality, "Alicia" is really Lyja the Skrull, and while it seems to be an intimate conversation between the two about "Alicia" leaving her relationship with Ben (who, of course, is still on Battleworld) behind to make way for the future, in reality, she's bridging the gap between the two FF'ers, relationship wise, as she plans on moving on to Johnny Storm quite quickly (to use him to spy on the FF for the remains of the Skrull Empire, who most certainly hold a grudge against the team for saving Galactus), and is trying to sooth any guilt he might have for shacking up with his "uncle's" ex girlfriend. Something far more important, at least character wise, happens on the Susan Richards end of things, as she deals with the hurt feelings (and feelings of worthlessness after losing her second child) she felt after Reed left her behind on the Terminus mission last issue (to which she used her powers to destroy Reed's lab). Once again, this miscarriage, as we'll see, has created a rift (or perhaps widened a rift that had long been there) between the two that two long time FF enemies will eventually exploit for their own purposes. Of course, that's a little bit down the road, but we'll definitely hit a few pot holes between the two on the road there, so, I figure it's best to mention it now. I will say, however, that the Susan Richards stuff definitely raises this issue a bit over last issue, quality wise. In the next issue, though, we're going to move on to our next storyline, and we'll start to head down that particular path by re-visiting a story (that we've actually never read/heard) from the past. GRADE: A-
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Sept 28, 2020 22:50:58 GMT -5
Fantastic Four #271"Happy Birthday, Darling!"Cover Date: Oct, 1984 Writer: John Byrne Artist: John Byrne Feature Characters: The Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Girl, The Human Torch, & She Hulk) Villain/s: Gormuu (Only Appearance) Special Guests: "Alicia Masters"/Lyja, Wyatt Wingfoot, Franklin Richards, Giles Peacock, & Mrs. Peacock (1st Appearances of the Last Two)/Ben Grimm & Taranith Gestal (Both in Flashback/Recap Form Only) Official Plot:The Fantastic Four, Alicia, Franklin and Wyatt Wingfoot have surprised their leader Reed Richards with a birthday cake. Reed is genuinely surprised as his birthday managed to slip his mind. With many candles on the cake, Reed decides to delight Franklin by using his powers to expand his lungs to comic proportions allowing him to generate the gust of breath needed to blow out all the candles. Once the festivities being, Sue begins to notice that something is troubling Reed. Confirming her feelings, Reed takes his wife outside and makes an admission to her: he cannot remember his mother's eyes. Reed explains that while they were exploring the Negative Zone and he was made a prisoner of Taranith Gestal, who absorbed Reed's mind into an entire machine, he has realized that since being restored to normal there are gaps in his memories. As Reed tries to struggle to remember these missing memories, he tells his wife that the earliest thing he can recall is a few years before they became the Fantastic Four when they battled the being known as Gormuu.... Years ago, a much younger Reed Richards is driving through Central City, glad that his lover Susan Storm had decided to come out and visit him. As they are driving, they witness as a strange alien ship passes by their car. Driving to the landing site they are shocked to discover a horrible looking alien creature emerging from the ship. It introduces itself as Gormuu, the warlord of the planet Kraalo. When Reed questions the alien's purpose on Earth, Gormuu explains that he has come to Earth to conquer it. As Reed pleads to the alien visitor not to do so, it merely brushes off his pleas and walks away, growing with every step. Soon the United States Air Force is deployed, but their weapons have no effect on Gormuu, who continues to grow and become stronger. Meanwhile, Reed is meeting with military officials to brainstorm on ways to stop Gormuu and his invasion of Earth. When reports that the creature is approaching Central City, an evacuation is ordered. When the general contacts the White House for assistance, the President tries to contact the Russians to get permission to launch nuclear weapons at the monster without any retaliation. The Russian premiere warns the President against such an action as it might be seen as an act of war. With the governments of the world locked in their nuclear rhetoric, Reed decides to try something out. Racing out to Gormuu's ship, Reed goes inside to investigate. There he discovers the device that is constantly pumping Gormuu with energy causing him to grow. Going out to investigate the footprints. Measuring the deepness of the footprints, Reed finally has the solution he is looking for. Rushing back to the Richards Rocket Group facility, Reed begins building a device that will bombard Gormuu with more power. As he is working he is joined by both Sue and Ben Grimm. When Reed tells them what he is up to, Ben believes that Reed is betraying them to Gormuu and tries to stop him. Reed is forced to punch out his best friend then activates the device. When the beam from the device begin to strike Gormuu, he suddenly shoots up in size. The alien invader initially gloats, but when he cannot stop growing he begins to panic as suddenly Gormuu's body grows larger than the planet itself, loses all cohesion and fades away. In the aftermath of the invasion, Reed explains that he discovered that while Gormuu's body increased in size, it did not increase in mass. That by increasing Gormuu's size to an exponential level it would cause him to dissipate. With the threat neutralized, Reed takes Sue and Ben outside where his new experimental space craft is in its final stages, telling his two closest friends that today's attack make their future space flight all the more important... ... Finishing his recollection, Reed comments how they went on their unauthorized space flight not long thereafter which resulted in their exposure to cosmic rays and becoming the Fantastic Four. Reed once more chastises himself for being responsible for Ben Grimm's transformation into the Thing. When Sue reminds her husband that Ben has gotten over that and has become comfortable with who he is. Reed responds by saying he is not so sure, pointing out their recent involvement in the Secret Wars on Battleworld where Ben discovered he could change back and forth between his human and Thing form. Reed had deceived Ben into thinking it was the planet itself that triggered the transformation, when he knew full well that it was Ben's own force of will. Reed wonders how Ben will feel if he ever returns to Earth and discovers the truth. Sue tries to assure to her husband that what he told Ben wasn't really a lie per se, as he told Ben what he needed to hear. Putting aside the conundrum for a time, Reed decides to make an announcement to the rest of the team: They are returning to Central City, and the Richards family home so that Reed can finally close any gaps he still has in his memory. They soon arrive at the Richards estate where Reed is reunited with Giles Peacock and his wife, the on site staff that has worked for the Richards family for years. After a round of introductions are made, the Fantastic Four and their friends all sit down to dinner. There, Reed explains that his father disappeared three years prior to the space mission that gained the Fantastic Four their powers. Reed's father had left him a few million dollars for his project. When Wyatt asks about how Reed still has this estate considering the Fantastic Four's early financial woes. Reed points out that his father's maintained separate ownership of the home from Reed, and that it had enough funds to be maintained and operated by the Peacocks in his absence. Giles tells Reed that things have been going smoothly with the exception of the occasional ghosts that appear in the night. He tells the Fantastic Four that they have been regularly visited by strange specters that periodically emerge from the lab owned by Reed's father. Curious as to what these ghosts might be, Reed and the rest of his team go down to the lab. He stops She-Hulk before she can smash the door open, warning about traps. Instead, Reed has Sue use her powers to make the wall transparent so Reed can spot the triggers and has Johnny uses his flame powers to melt through them, deactivating the traps. Getting into the lab, they are all shocked to see a massive time platform just like the one the Fantastic Four confiscated from Doctor Doom early on in their career. Examining the controls, Reed sees that it was set for yesterdays date and realizes that his father had traveled back in time to try to get to this point in history and something must have happened along the way and ended up strapped in a parallel universe. Reed tells his friends and family that there is but only one course of action: use the time platform and try to find his father. Brodie's View:We enter our next Multi-Part story rather innocently, with the FF (and some of their supporting cast) wishing the leader of the team, Reed Richards, a Happy Birthday. However, despite putting on a good appearance for the sake of his family and friends, Susan is able to recognize that there is something troubling her husband. Once they are alone, Reed confesses that ever since his mind was drained during the team's adventure in the Negative Zone, that a nice chunk of memories had been permanently lost, including the memory of the fact that it was his birthday to begin with, as well as the appearance of his long dead mother. This leads Reed to recall the first thing he can remember, a long untold story from the period slightly before he and his "family" took that fateful rocket trip that wound up bombarding them with cosmic rays and transforming them into the Fantastic Four. In this flashback, which Byrne draws to very much resemble the work of Jack Kirby, as the story is meant to be an homage to the classic Sci-Fi monster stories Marvel used to specialize in before the launch of the FF led to superhero comics becoming Marvel's bread and butter. In this story, Reed and Sue encounter a monster from space known only as Gormuu, who has the ability to grow to a giant size. The creature begins to lay waste to everything in its path, destroying things to a point that the US Government debates dropping a nuclear bomb on the creature to stop it. However, realizing that the creature's size change didn't effect its mass and weight, Reed decides to flood the creature with enough energy to make it grow to the point where its atoms would spread to far apart, and the creature would essentially become part of the universe himself. In the present, Reed explains to Sue that his plan to stop Gormuu working is what gave him the confidence to attempt the before mentioned space flight that would end up going horribly wrong. This briefly leads Reed to talk about the one FF'er that is currently MIA, and that's, of course, The Thing, who at that point was still on Battleworld. Ben stayed on Battleworld because he thought it was the one place that he could control his transformations into the Thing, although, the truth was that he had the ability to do that for a long time, and it was only his mental/emotional blocks concerning Alicia Masters that kept him a monster. Sue assures Reed that he did the right thing not telling Ben the truth, and over time, Ben might actually agree with that statement. Only time will tell, as far as this run goes, on that one, but I will say that Ben is most definitely not happy to find that out at first, but then again, Ben isn't going to be happy to find a FEW things out once he gets back. I'm looking at you, Johnny Storm. Eventually, all of this leads to Reed and the rest of the FF (along with Wyatt Wingfoot, Franklin, and "Alicia Masters") to head to the former home of Reed's father, Nathanial Richards, and we are introduced to the lovely older British couple who are paid to keep up appearances in Nathanial's absence, the Peacocks. They explain to Reed that there has been an ongoing ghost problem in the house, and after doing a bit of research on it, Reed deduces that these images the Peacocks are seeing are not actually ghosts, but more like images from another time. This is probably due to the time machine that Reed finds hidden, which actually was created before Doctor Doom created his time machine. Reed decides that he needs to use his father's time machine to find his time lost father, and he and the rest of the team (and Wyatt) will journey through time over the next few issues, trying to find Reed's only true connection to his past. Of course, he might find out more than he bargained for in the process. With this storyline, Byrne will actually do a bit of world building here that later writers, most notably Johnathon Hickman, would jump on and build their own stories off of. This was a pretty cool issue to start things out with, and I did enjoy Byrne's attempt at doing a Pre FF early 60's Marvel story, while also using that story to build what he was wanting to do for the team's future. In the next issue, we will see the team journey into what appears to be the Wild West, trying to find the father of Reed Richards. GRADE: A-
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Oct 2, 2020 22:48:39 GMT -5
Fantastic Four #272"Cowboys and Idioms"Cover Date: Nov, 1984 Writer: John Byrne Artist: John Byrne Feature Characters: The Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Girl, The Human Torch, & She Hulk) Villain/s: Nathaniel Richards, Warlord, & Bret Colby (1st Appearances of All) Special Guests: Wyatt Wingfoot, Giles Peacock, Gont, The Kid, & Unnamed Richards Child Official Plot:Having discovered a time platform in the laboratory of Reed Richards' long lost father, the Fantastic Four and Wyatt Wingfoot have decided to use the device to try and search for him. After the final preparations are made, Reed has the family butler -- Giles Peacock -- activate the device and the group are transported sideways in time to a parallel universe where Reed believes his father may have been lost. The group materializes in a strange desert where they spot what appears to be a town patterned after an old town of the American Frontier surrounded by bombed out craters. Seeking to learn more about this mystery, Reed sends Sue to do reconnaissance while invisible, stressing to her that it is important that she goes unseen until they can learn more about where they are. As Sue makes her way to the town she wishes her husband would stop treating her like she is delicate. Examining the blast craters she notes that they are quite old. Once she reaches the town she turns invisible and remarks about how it looks like Dodge City circa 1884. As she looks around, she suddenly witnesses a cowboy being thrown out of one of the buildings. This cowboy, dubbed the Kid, is being challenged to a draw by the local outlaw Bret Colby. As they prepare to draw, Sue decides to step in as she does not want there to be unnecessary bloodshed. When the two gun fighters draw, Sue puts up an invisible wall between them. She is surprised to find that they are not carrying six-shooters but high tech weapons of some future time. Colby, using a heat-seeking bullet, watches as his shot leaps over the invisible wall and strikes the Kid in the back, killing him instantly. Realizing that something was interfering with his fight, Colby begins to look around. Unable to see any trace of anything he decides to use the infrared scanner on his gun. Sue tries to stop him by turning it invisible, but Colby can still figure out how to fire the weapon and begins firing it in her general direction. With her cover blown, Sue erects an invisible shield around her and makes herself visible so she can barrel through Colby and run out of town. As Sue gets out of town she is suddenly surrounded by three of Colby's men, riding rocket powered robot horses. Seeing that Sue is in trouble the rest of the Fantastic Four leap to her aid, She-Hulk belting out the Thing's old battle cry of "It's Clobberin' Time". The Fantastic Four make short work of the three cowboys and their mechanical steeds. As Sue tries to explain what happened, the group is then attacked by a massive tripod device resembling the martian ships from H.G. Wells' novel War of the Worlds. The device stomps on She-Hulk and when Johnny tries to use his flames to free her, is manages to cover him in particles of carbon, snuffing out his flame. As the tripod begins to move, Sue notices that She-Hulk has punched a hole into the robots foot and is smashing her way up the inside of its leg. With the leg trashed, the tripod topples over in a heap. She-Hulk then bursts out and liberates the masked pilots inside. By this point, Bret Colby and his men have arrived on the scene who explains that he attacked Sue because he thought they were with the Warlord. When Reed tells them that they are not with the warlord, Reed introduces himself. This causes a start with Colby and one of his men, who believes that Warlord is a Richards. Wondering if Reed is family to the Warlord, they decide to try to use the situation to their advantage. Meanwhile, She-Hulk unmasks their attackers and they are shocked to discover that they are nothing more than cave-men in high tech armor. Reed explains that these throwbacks of humanity are controlled by neurological devices in their helmets. As Reed muses over the bizarre mishmash world they have found themselves on, the Fantastic Four are unaware that they are being monitored from afar. When one of the guards monitoring the course of events he asks his mistress if they should inform their ruler of what is transpiring. The woman tells the guard that she will bring the news herself. The hard faced woman then has her servants remove the armor she is wearing and dresses her in a fine gown. It is a softer, gentler woman who then enters the chambers of her husband and son to bring news to the ruler of this society... Nathaniel Richards, Reed's father. Brodie's View:The FF (along with Wyatt Wingfoot) head back to the past in this, the second part of a three part story. This is due to the theory by Reed Richards that his long lost father, Nathanial Richards, decided to hide somewhere in the past. However, when the team arrives in what appears to be the old west, they quickly find that while on the surface it appears to be the old west of "our timeline," the cowboys are equipped with technology that didn't exist during that time period. In some cases, it's technology that wouldn't have existed in 1984, or today, for that matter. Susan Richards, who Reed begrudgingly allows to play scout for the group (once again, we see her resentment over Reed's reluctance to allow her to fully re-take her role within the team), encounters these futuristic cowboys first, as she witnesses a duel where one of the cowboys is using heat seeking bullets. Sue tries to prevent the cowboy who that bullet is meant for's life, but being that this is a heat seeking bullet, it goes around Sue's force field and kills him anyways. This leads to a standoff between the cowboys, who ride robot horses, and Sue, which then leads to the FF and Wyatt vs. the cowboys. Needless to say, the cowboys are outmatched, and they soon call a truce, explaining that they assumed that the FF were working for a mysterious Warlord, who had came back to their past with futuristic technology, but in exchange for his complete rule over the land. The two groups attempt to seek out the Warlord, which seems pretty obvious (to everyone but Reed) that this Warlord is in fact Reed's father, but the identity of the Warlord is left a little murky, as we are shown a woman, who has married Nathanial and sired him a son, who also could very well be the Warlord, as she seems to live a duel life between being a warrior and the wife of Nathanial, but I suppose we'll find this out for sure in the next issue. This was a pretty decent issue, and, as always, I do enjoy Byrne giving Sue some nice solo time to strut her stuff, both in a character and power level sense. Susan Richards has most definitely evolved past the point of being the character automatically assumed to be the weakest member of the team, and instead has become arguably the most powerful. We'll see this continue to develop throughout the rest of this run (and beyond). In the next issue, we'll get the resolving of this story, which will actually link Reed's father to various time travel related villains. Of course, a lot of this has been retconned various times, so, it's kind of unclear where things stand now, identity wise, but I will say that the end of this particular storyline will definitely both answer certain questions while creating new ones. After that, we'll be checking in on a certain orange rock covered former member of the team. GRADE: A-
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Oct 4, 2020 0:06:15 GMT -5
Fantastic Four #273"Fathers and Others"Cover Date: Dec, 1984 Writer: John Byrne Artist: John Byrne Feature Characters: The Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Girl, The Human Torch, & She Hulk) Villain/s: Warlord/Cassandra Richards (Dies) Special Guests: Wyatt Wingfoot, Nathanial Richards, Bret Colby, Gont, & Eyriennes (1st Appearance of the Last) Official Plot:While searching for Nathaniel Richards on Other-Earth, the Fantastic Four are brought to the massive citadel controlled by the Warlord by the gunslinger known as Bret Colby. As they prepare to press forward, suddenly a massive tripod weapon rises out of the ground to face them. This time the Fantastic Four are ready for them. The Human Torch flames on and confuses the pilots of the weapon by creating flame duplicates of himself, until he can melt the side of the hull with his real self. Watching this from her control room is Cassandra Richards, wife to Nathaniel, who is furious that her primitive warriors cannot stop these four outworlders intruding upon her domain. She warns her minions not to fail her again or they will suffer a painful death. Outside, the Fantastic Four search the inside of the ship and discover that it is empty. Reed deduces that the tripods can be controlled remotely this close to the base. The Fantastic Four and their allies suddenly spot some warrior women flying in on mechanical steeds and decide to act cautiously. With Sue erecting a force-field around them, they wait until the warrior women land. Their leader begins to ask them why they are clashing with the Warlord. When Reed introduces himself, the react violently to the name Richards, accusing him of being relative to the Warlord. Reed quickly subdues the warrior woman attacking her, and the rest of the warriors are ordered to stand down by their elder. She asks Reed to release her daughter as they have much to discuss. After they have compared notes, and it is revealed that the Fantastic Four are from a parallel universe, the leader of the Eyriennes explains that by their calendar it is the year 1127. She explains that on their world their calendar begins on the date that their people first landed on the moon. She explains that the first to travel to the moon developed a colony called Luna. Soon a war between Luna and Earth erupted leading to a nuclear war that nearly wiped out the human race, but ended in the destruction of Luna. The planet was plunged into a nuclear winter and after ten years it also became bombarded with debris from the shattered moon. Poverty and war reigned supreme until one day the being who became known as the Warlord appeared, Nathaniel Richards. Richards tried to help this world by utilizing his knowledge of science. He eventually ventured to the land of the Eyriennes. With this class of warrior women, Nathaniel helped rebuild society, arming the Eyriennes as a military and building his massive citadel. In thanks for rebuilding their society, the Eyriennes gave one of their own -- Cassandra -- to be his wife. However in the passing years someone calling themselves the Warlord had become a tyrant, controlling the outside society from within the citadel. Someone they believe to be Nathaniel Richards. Impressed by the story, Reed theorizes that this reality did not experience the "great interruption", the period of time in during the dark ages when the advancement of science completely stopped. Suspecting that the Warlord is his father, Reed decides to approach the citadel alone to try and talk sense into Nathaniel and stop hostilities. As Reed approaches the citadel, he recalls how he came to this realm to find his father and hopefully close the gaps in his memory. He thinks back to how his father raised him to have a love for science and eventually funded his spaceship project until he disappeared three years prior to the birth of the Fantastic Four. His thoughts are cut off when suddenly a sentry device pops out of the ground and demands to know who he is. When Richards identifies himself and asks for an audience with the Warlord, the Warlord obliges with a holographic image. Unable to discern the identity of the Warlord due to the helmet and masked voice, Reed asks if the Warlord cannot recognize his own son. When Reed asks the Warlord how he could use his science to turn this alternate world into a perverted warzone, the Warlord simply answered by unleashing a massive army of attack planes and tripods upon them. The Fantastic Four, Eyriennes and Colby's cowboys all join in the bloody battle ahead. As the fight rages on, Wyatt Wingfoot manages to slip away to get closer to the citadel. On the other side of a ridge, he spots the Warlord and one of his men prepping an anti-matter cannon that will kill all the intruders. With the lives of his friends hanging in the balance, Wyatt makes the uneasy decision to take a life to save his friends by tossing a rock into the anti-matter cannon. With the weapon jammed, it instead explodes on the spot while Wyatt tries to leap to safety. Wyatt later awakens in a medical lab within the citadel. Soon they all learn that the Warlord was actually Nathaniel Richard's wife Cassandra, who was posing as him to the outside world. Nathaniel is heart broken by this truth, but is glad that it has been revealed and he has been reunited with his first son. Nathaniel tells the Fantastic Four that he intends to stay on Other-Earth until he can fix all the wrongs carried out by his wayward wife.... ... Centuries later in the year 3000 of Other-Earth, a man watches old 3-D Stereovision tapes of the past and finds them more exciting compared to the dull future world he lives in. Deciding to do something about it, this bored man decides to travel to the long abandoned citadel of the Warlord. Inside he finds plans for a time machine, deciding to travel back in time to ancient Egypt, he disguises the time machine as a massive Sphinx and uses it to go back in time where his destiny awaits him.... Brodie's View:As we reach the last part of this Three Part story exploring an alternate Earth that Reed Richards' father, Nathanial Richards, has been hanging out on for the last decade, we finally get a few questions answered, while also asking other questions by the time this story ends. When we ended off last issue, it was very much assumed that Nathanial had become the hated Warlord that holds sway over this land that seems to be a hodge podge of different time periods. This is even what Reed believes, as he confronts the figure that he thinks to be his father, only to be attacked by the Warlord's forces. This leads to a major battle between the FF, the futuristic cowboys that the team fell in with in the last issue, and a group of Valkyrie looking women who reveal the past of this world before the fighting starts. See, this is a world where there was no Dark Ages to discourage the rise of science and reason, and due to that, weapons that could cause great destruction were developed far earlier than they had in "our" timeline. This caused the civilization of this world to be destroyed, even to the point of destroying the moon itself (in fact, the whole origin of this world seemed like the beginning of the THUNDAR THE BARBARIAN cartoon, even down to the moon being cracked in two). This would be the world that Nathanial Richards discovered a decade earlier, and used his technology to somewhat rebuild what had been lost after the major war destroyed most everything. One of these female warrior's daughters had married Nathanial, and as we later discover, had grown power hungry and used Nathanial's technology to pose as the Warlord, and secretly was the person responsible for the subjugation of this "Other Earth's" remaining populace. This is the reason the "Warlord" attacked Reed and the rest of the FF; she didn't want Nathanial to know the truth. She even tries to destroy the heroes with an Anti-matter cannon, but Wyatt Wingfoot, who had pretty much set out the main part of the battle due to his lack of powers, manages to toss a large rock into the cannon, which causes it to explode, killing Cassandra and her elite guard. This leads to the ending of this story, as father and son finally reunite, and we get a further explanation about what had happened throughout the course of the last couple issues. We then get another ending, which, like the flashback story in FF #271, is very much depicted in that Jack Kirby-esque art style, and it shows that eventually Nathanial Richards' technology would once again create an advanced, peaceful society where war was a thing of the past. However, we see that a certain person in that future finds the lack of war and violence boring, and this person winds up creating a time machine to head back into the past and become the conqueror that he secretly desired to be. This person would become known as Rama-Tut, and he would face the FF early on in their run. However, eventually he would become Kang the Conqueror and then even later, Immortus. So, while this story, at least on the surface of things, mainly just concerned Reed Richards and the Fantastic Four, we see that the events of this issue would also affect the Avengers as well as other Marvel characters. Pretty cool. Anyways, we'll leave all that behind for now, as the next couple reviews will find us checking in on The Thing, who is still stuck on Battleworld. Before these two issues are over, however, we'll also peek at a couple of things happening back on the 616 Earth; one, that will certainly affect the FF, the other, a certain Wall Crawler. GRADE: A-
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Oct 4, 2020 23:40:29 GMT -5
The Thing #19"Rocky Grimm Space Ranger Part IX (of XII): Monster Mash"Cover Date: Jan, 1985 Writer: John Byrne Artist: Ron Wilson Feature Characters: The Thing Villain/s: Grimm the Sorcerer, Dracula, The Mummy (the Last Two Die), The Frankenstein Monster (1st Appearance of) Special Guests: Tarianna, Llrrllllnnllyyrrl, & Takers Official Plot:As Ban Grimm continues his search for Tarianna, who has been kidnapped by the evil Sorcerer, he finds himself in a strange forest thick with fog. He can't help but think that this scenery is almost like the monster movies of his youth and once more thinks back to what he was led to believe about Battleworld when it was first created. His thoughts are broken when Ben suddenly has to dodge out of the way of a horse and buggy. The rider stops his horse and apologizes for almost running him over and offers Ben a ride. However when the man removes his hat revealing he is walking corpse who is carrying a coffin, Ben decides to make a break for it. The ghoul in the wagon follows after him, and Ben makes a run toward a nearby castle. Noticing that the draw bridge has rotted out, Ben makes a leap across the moat and just barely manages to grab hold of the other side. About to fall down into the spikes down below, Ben is saved at the last moment by a man who looks shockingly like Count Dracula. The man apologizes for Ben's brush with death and invites him into his castle as a guest. Elsewhere this tableau is being observed by the Sorcerer who has Tarianna as his prisoner. When Tarianna chastises the Sorcerer for knowing nothing of her love, the Sorcerer comes back with the same, telling her that Ben loves another woman back on his home world named Alicia Masters. When Tarianna threatens to "deal" with the Sorcerer as the people in her village do, the Sorcerer shocks her by stating her village was imaginary. The Sorcerer then turns his attention away from Ben Grimm and back to the obelisk where the Takers are still trying to locate and return Llrrllllnnllyyrrl's dowry. When they return yet another item that is not what the woman is seeking, the Sorcerer curses them. While back in "Castle Dracula", the Thing has been left by his guest at the dinner table. Grimm is thinking over his decision to stay on Battleworld and his ability to change back and forth between his human and Thing forms. While thinking this over, Ben transforms into the Thing just as Dracula enters the room with his meal. Thinking that Ben is a monster, Dracula attacks. As the Thing fends him off, Dracula then transforms into a humanoid bat and lunges at him. Their fight sends them smashing through a door and down into the dungeon of the castle. There the Thing grabs a broken splinter of the door and jabs it into Dracula's heart causing him to first into flames until the flesh is burnt off his bones, then causes his bones to crumble to dust. Getting to his feet, the Thing is confused by the fact that the dungeon is Egyptian themed. As he travels down the hallway he is suddenly attacked by a mummy that emerges from one of the sarcophagus. Ben is not only surprised by the mummy's great strength, but also the fact that it can fire beams of energy from its eyes. When the creature tries to bury Ben alive by bringing the roof down, it merely gets Ben angry enough that he strikes the mummy so hard it dissipates into nothingness. Suddenly the Thing is visited again by the Sorcerer and now Ben demands to know who he is. When the Sorcerer explains that he is someone who hates him, Ben doesn't understand, pointing out that everyone who was involved with the Secret Wars were sent home. When Ben tries to charge at the Sorcerer, he is shocked to find that the robe is actually empty. Suddenly a trap door opens beneath him and Ben falls even deeper into the castle where he finds himself face to face with what appears to be the Frankenstein monster. This story is continued in Fantastic Four #274... Brodie's View:We once again jump over to The Thing's solo book for this review, as it leads pretty directly into the next issue of FANTASTIC FOUR, hence, its inclusion in the trade paperbacks I'm getting these issues from. Since last we saw him, Ben had decided to stay on Battleworld at the end of the SECRET WARS crossover (which was actually still going on at this point), and his own series was dedicated to his adventures on Battleworld during the period that SECRET WARS was still being published. Once that crossover ended, Ben pretty much would return to Earth, which we'll see in a few issues of the FF comic. While on Battleworld, where Ben seemingly had gained the ability to transform back and forth from Ben Grimm to The Thing at will (although, we'll find out that Ben had long had that ability, but psychologically couldn't due to his fear that Alicia Masters would reject him as Ben Grimm), he would quickly realize that everything he would encounter on Battleworld (with one or two exceptions) were the product of his own psyche. This is not to say, however, that the things he was mentally producing were not dangerous. Take this story for example. While walking through dark and scary woods, Ben encounters a ghoulish carriage with an equally scary looking driver. This carriage chases Ben until he seeks refuge in a dark and creepy castle that just happens to be the home of a being that is meant to resemble Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula. The Count invites him in, and while he's making himself at home, we get little side plot moments involving the main villain of this series of stories, Grimm the Sorcerer, who is actually the evil side of Ben made form. He has captured the female warrior that Ben had mentally created to accompany him on his adventures, Tarianna, and we see him basically telling Tarianna that none of what is happening is really real, and that this has all been created by Ben himself. However, we're not going to cover the resolving of all of this, so, I'll leave it be. I just felt it important enough to be mentioned. Anyways, Ben winds up transforming into The Thing, which sets Dracula, who transforms into a giant bat creature, off, and he and the giant bat creature, which has the ability to cut through even Ben's rocky hide, fight. Eventually, Ben manages to stake the "vampire" through the heart, and he moves on to another part of the castle, where he is attacked by a being that resembles the Hammer version of The Mummy, complete with eye lasers, as the Mummy appears to have on the promotional material from that movie. Ben is eventually able to defeat this Mummy as well, but ends up in the dungeon of the castle, where he encounters yet another being that appears to be the Frankenstein Monster (and not the one that had already been established in the Marvel Universe; same with the other two monsters). This is pretty much where this issue ends, as we will pick up with this story in FANTASTIC FOUR #274, where we'll see Ben and these monsters fighting in pure John Byrne goodness. I will say, though, that Ron Wilson does a pretty good job with the artwork here. I always though he was a solid artist, and the MVP of both the Thing's solo series, as well as his previous series, MARVEL TWO IN ONE. Still, I can't wait to see all of this with Byrne's pencils, and in the next issue, we will see that, along with a few other side things that will be worth mentioning....including one thing that has VERY long reaching ramifications for the Marvel Universe, even reaching to the present day comics. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Oct 6, 2020 1:10:02 GMT -5
Fantastic Four #274"Monster Mash: Part II"Cover Date: Jan, 1985 Writer: John Byrne Artist: John Byrne Feature Characters: The Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Girl, The Human Torch, & She Hulk) & The Thing Villain/s: The Monster Maker (Only Appearance; Dies), The Symbiote, & Kemp Special Guests: "Alicia Masters"/Lyja The Skrull, Alma Chambers, Elspeth Cromwell (Photo Only), Frankenstein's Monster (Last Appearance), & The Werewolf (Only Appearance) Official Plot:In the town of Belle Porte, Connecticut, local gossip Alma Chalmers is spying on the Benjamin house hold again by peeping through one of the windows with a periscope. Inside Sue Richards is entertaining her teammate Jennifer Walters when one of her earrings falls off and rolls under the fridge. In order to help Sue retrieve it, Jen turns into She-Hulk so she can lift the fridge off the ground, unaware that Alma is watching the whole thing. Hearing a noise as Chalmers flees, Sue rushes to the window and finds her discarded periscope, but dismisses it as a toy of one of the neighborhood children. Reaching the safety of her home, Alma Chalmers is convinced that the Benjamin household is a home to witches and monsters. Eyeing a copy of "Occult" magazine on her coffee table, Alma thinks to herself that she knows how to handle those sorts of things. Back at the Benjamin home, Sue decides they should head back to the Baxter Building in case her cover identity of "Sue Benjamin" has been compromised. As she heads upstairs, Sue passes by the room that was meant for the new baby that she had just recently lost. Seeing the empty nursery stops Sue dead in her tracts and she is suddenly flooded with emotions and can do nothing more than collapse to the floor and cry. Meanwhile, at the Baxter Building headquarters of the Fantastic Four, Alicia and Johnny are meeting with Reed who has suggested that they move the Fantastic Four's headquarters to a new location. When Johnny balks at this idea due to the long history the Fantastic Four have with the building, Reed points out the practicalities: Johnny and She-Hulk have their own apartments while Reed and Sue have their home in Belle Porte. He also tells Johnny that he needs more room for their company to expand and thanks to the 99 year leases that Walter Collins -- the former owner the Baxter Building -- signed with the other tenants, Reed can't evict anyone as they are legally sound. When they are finished their discussion, Johnny and Alicia leave to check out an art exhibit. Reed can't happen to notice that there appears to be a romance brewing between the couple and wonders what the world will think when "Ben Grimm's girlfriend" begins to date the Human Torch. These thoughts turn to Ben, and Reed wonders how his old friend is faring on Battleworld after they parted company in the Secret Wars.... ... Light years away on Battleworld the Thing has crossed paths with the Frankenstein's Monster. This only shocks Ben momentarily as he reminds himself that Reed explained to him that Battleworld was a world that mirrored the thoughts of those on it, per the Beyonder's specifications. Having just fought off Dracula and the Mummy, the Thing is hardly surprised by this new creature given his childhood love of old monster movies. When Ben tries to talk to the monster it shoves him, leading to the two powerhouses to come to blows. They two fight out out when yet another man shows up and tags the Frankenstein's Monster and Ben with tranquilizer darts that knock them out. Ben awakens inside a covered wagon as it pushes down a country road. Prisoners with him are the Frankenstein's Monster and a man who introduces himself as Gregor Lupus. He explains that they are being taken to Doctor Ackerman, the so-called Monster Maker. During this discussion, Ben realizes that the man he is talking to is a werewolf. Convinced that his captors have no idea about his ability to change back and forth from human form, Ben shifts to his human self and easily slips out of his bonds. However this does not go unnoticed, as the machines in the front of the wagon alert the two drivers of what is going on. The armored man named Kemp goes back to see what's going on, but is suddenly attacked by Ben Grimm, who easily knocks him out. When Ben grabs the other drover -- the Monster Maker himself -- Ackerman warns him against attacking, his eyes glowing all the while. Inside the wagon, Lupus suddenly transforms into his werewolf form and is released from his shackles. The werewolf gets the drop on Ben, who is outmatched until he remembers to change back into his Thing form. With the werewolf being easily trounced in battle, the Monster Maker then uses his powers to call the Frankenstein's Monster. However the monster attacks the Monster Maker instead of the Thing. Catching Ackerman off guard, the Frankenstein's Monster then snaps the villains neck, killing him instantly. With the Monster Maker dead, Lupus changes back to human form. With the battle over, Ben thanks Lupus and the Monster for their help, but tells them that he must part company so that he can continue to search for his female friend. As Ben leaves a fog passes over his two allies, and when it clears they have vanished as if they have never been there. Back on Earth, a small flying device breaches the security at the Baxter Building. It pilots itself into Reed's lab where it finds the container containing Spider-Man's living alien costume. The strange device then cuts a small pin-prick hole in the containment cylinder. This allows the costume to ooze out. Free from captivity, the alien costume then slips out the nearby window into the New York City. Brodie's View:So, what started in The Thing's solo book ends here, and although there are a few other things in this issue that are worth noting, we'll get to those moments later. For now, I'll talk a bit about what happens on the Ben Grimm side of things, as that takes up the majority of this issue. I will also say that this issue has a different inker than we've seen since Byrne took over the book, which gives the issue a very unique look. In fact, I would say that the only real problem that I have with this issue is that Byrne should have inked the non Thing related stuff in it, as it would have given the stuff set on Battleworld a VERY different feel vs. the rest of the issue. That all being said, when we last left our rocky hero, he had encountered a creature that very much resembled Frankenstein's Monster. That's where we pick up here, as Ben tries to make friends with the monster, as he automatically assumes that the creature will react like the Karloff version of the monster, which he resembles. However, the Monster attacks him, and the two tangle before both are knocked out by a futuristic looking man that resembles Judge Dredd. Ben awakens to find himself chained up in the back of a caravan, along with the Frankenstein Monster and a man that Ben quickly realizes is a werewolf. They are all meant to be freak show exhibits for a man known as The Monster Maker, who employs the Judge Dredd looking guy that is only known as Kemp. However, neither villain realizes that Ben can transform back to his human form, and once he does, he escapes the chains he had been locked into, and quickly takes out Kemp when the armored man goes to investigate. The Monster Maker (AKA, Julius Ackerman....which I LOVE the fact that this character is named after Forrest Ackerman, who was the man responsible for the beloved FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND) decides to live up to his name by forcing the werewolf to transform into his lupine form, and Ben and the werewolf do battle with each other. Meanwhile, the Frankenstein Monster also escapes, and Ben worries that the two monsters might team up on him. However, the Monster ends up making the decision that the Karloff Monster might have, and kills the Monster Maker, ending the fight between Ben and the Werewolf. Ben sees the two monstrous characters off afterwards, and the two groups (if you can call one guy a group) go their separate ways. Ben's story will continue in his own book, but we will definitely see him in the FANTASTIC FOUR comic sooner rather than later, as the one year period that the SECRET WARS mini series ran over is coming to an end. Needless to say, he's not going to be happy about certain things when he returns, and we do get a bit of a tease of this, as Reed Richards, who is working in his lab, talks to Johnny Storm and what appears to be Alicia Masters (secretly Lyja the Skrull) before the two head off to attend a college lecture. Reed notices that the two have grown FAR closer during the past few months, which he wonders how that will play for Ben when he returns from Battleworld. We also see Susan and She Hulk chilling at Reed and Sue's Connecticut home, although neither realize that they're both being watched by local snoop, Alma Chalmers, who witnesses Jennifer transform into her She Hulk form to lift up a refrigerator for Susan to find the earrings that had rolled under there. Alma freaks out at this, as she assumes both are witches, and goes home to call a woman that deals with the paranormal. We'll see the full ramifications of this in a couple of issues, but I will say that the story that all this leads to will be worth it. We also see Susan walking into the room that would have been the nursery for the daughter she never ended up having (she will MUCH later, thanks to her son, Franklin), and she ends up having a mini breakdown because of this. Once again, a very powerful moment for Susan that will also lead to some great stuff down the line, so, I'll leave that alone for now. Finally, we get the most important bit of business in this issue; a moment that will have VERY long term ramifications for the entire Marvel Universe. As most people know, one of the biggest things to happen in the SECRET WARS series was Spider-Man finding his black costume on Battleworld. However, he quickly realized that this black costume was a symbiote, and was basically living off of him and in some cases, controlling him. Frightened, he went to see Reed Richards in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #258, and Reed managed to get the symbiote off of him, and encased it in a capsule it couldn't escape. We see at the very end of this issue, however, a mysterious flying robot (which we will later learn was sent by Doombots) makes a small hole in the capsule that the symbiote is quickly able to squeeze itself through, and we see it creeping off into the night. None of this will end up affecting the FF, but the symbiote will once again try to bond itself to Peter Parker, but in failing that, it will bond itself to Eddie Brock, creating, of course, VENOM (and later Carnage and the other symbiote characters). So, yes, a little moment, but it definitely leads to the creation of a brand new Marvel character, so, pretty awesome there. Leaving all that behind, though, in the next issue, we actually enter the BEST part of the second half of Byrne's FF run, and we start things with Byrne's first (mostly) solo story involving the beautiful green amazon that replaced Ben Grimm on the team. GRADE: A-
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Oct 7, 2020 0:24:48 GMT -5
Fantastic Four #275"The Naked Truth"Cover Date: Feb, 1985 Writer: John Byrne Artist: John Byrne Feature Characters: The Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Girl, The Human Torch, & She Hulk) Villain/s: T.J. Vance (Only Appearance of) Special Guests: "Alicia Masters"/Lyja The Skrull, Wyatt Wingfoot, Franklin Richards, Dan Cooley, & Bill Watkins Official Plot:The She-Hulk is sunbathing topless on the roof of the Baxter Building when she suddenly notices that she is being observed by a traffic helicopter for WXIT TV. The invasion of her privacy startles She-Hulk enough to sit up right, causing her bikini top to fall off. This was the plan of one of the men aboard the chopper, who snaps photos of She-Hulk topless. Not wanting those photos to get published, She-Hulk puts her top back on and leaps off the Baxter Building and grabs onto the helicopter. The chopper takes off and begins flying around in a desperate effort to shape Jen loose just as Wyatt Wingfoot arrives on the roof to join her in tanning. Seeing what is going on, Wyatt then quickly makes a run for one of the Fantastic Four's jet-cycles to follow after her. Back aboard the traffic copter, Jen punches her fist into the cockpit, causing the two men aboard to panic and send her smashing into an office building. Recovering from the crash, Jen then climbs out the window just in time to see Wyatt arrive. She hops into the jet-cycle but when the two try to track renew the chase of the helicopter, they have lost it amid all the other air traffic over Manhattan. Unwilling to give up, She-Hulk decides to use her skills as a lawyer to track down the men who took her photo. Calling WXIT she learns the name of the pilot, Dan Cooley, and the location of their private landing field in Jersey. With this information in hand, She-Hulk pays Cooley a visit. When She-Hulk demands to know who took her photo, the man refuses until She-Hulk threatens to trash his helicopter. While not far away, Johnny and Alicia wake up from a passionate night spent together. Johnny feels bad at first, by Alicia tells Johnny what happened the night before was beautiful and what they both needed. Realizing that they are now more than friends the pair kiss. Meanwhile, She-Hulk has learned that the photo was taken for the Naked Truth, a sleazy tabloid that has an office in Times Square. Reverting to her Jennifer Walters form, Jen and Wyatt pay a visit to the dirty office of the Naked Truth. There they get an audience with the publisher T.J. Vance. At first the jovial Vance thinks that Walters is there to participate in a lawyer themed nude photo session, but she soon cuts down to business and tells him that she has come to give him a cease and desist order to not publish the nude photos of She-Hulk. When she starts demanding that if he publishes the photo she should be fully compensated due to her memberships in various showbusiness unions, including the SAG, AFTRA, and Equity. Vance then changes his tune, not willing to give her anything, stating that the photos and that as a public figure who was out in the public when the photo was taken, he refuses to pay her anything. When Jen begins arguing semantics about how they invaded her privacy on the top of the Baxter Building, Vance has finally had enough. He explains to her that the photos have already gone to print and shows off all the money he has earned on the pre-sales that he has kept in a safe. Vance then turns on the smarm by trying to hit on Walters and making suggestive advances on her. Having had enough, Jen decidse to compromise her double-identity by changing into the She-Hulk. Suddenly, the cowardly Vance backs away warning her that if she hurts him he will sue. She-Hulk assures him that is not what she plans to do and points out that his safe isn't very secure. To "help", She-Hulk uses her massive strength to crush the safe -- with all the money still inside -- in to a ball of metal. She then hands it to Vance, who cannot hold the wait and it drops to the ground. Satisfied that she has gotten some retribution, She-Hulk and Wyatt leave the Naked Truth offices. Three weeks later, Reed and Sue have returned to the Baxter Building with Franklin, their hopes of raising him in quite Belle Porte, Connecticut having been compromised. Although Franklin experienced some horrifying things, his parents remark on how normal he is acting since they have gotten back. Meanwhile, She-Hulk is fearful of the repercussions of her nude photos that will be hitting the newsstand that day. Suddenly, Johnny arrives with the magazine and shows Jen something amazing: when the photos were developed, someone figured that the color of She-Hulk's skin was an error and "color-corrected" the photos. Without anything to give scale to She-Hulk's size captured in the photos, it looks like a photo of a generic woman. With nobody able to identify her in the photograph, She-Hulk is happy at this turn of events. However when Johnny jokingly mentions getting his green-tinted sunglasses to look at the photo, Jen chases Johnny around the Baxter Building. Brodie's View: We begin the best part of the second half of John Byrne's FF run with his first (mostly) She Hulk solo story, and like a lot of his future She Hulk stories to come, it's far less serious than the rest of the FF stories we've dealt with recently (or will deal with down the line). Heck, the driving force behind this story is Jen getting photographed topless while she was sunning on top of the Baxter Building. Understandably pissed about this, she tries to catch the helicopter holding the sleezeball that took the pictures, and ends up being driven through the top floor of an office building by it. Even more upset, but realizing that strength isn't going to win the day, Jen (accompanied by her growing love interest, Wyatt Wingfoot) decides to put her lawyer abilities into action, finding the helicopter pilot, and forcing him to reveal who had hired him to do the flyby. The guy that hired the helicopter pilot is a real piece of work named T.J. Vance, who owns a HUSTLER type magazine called THE NAKED TRUTH, and Jen (in her Jennifer Walters form, and accompanied by Wyatt) decides to pay his office a visit. Things go well between Jen and Vance, until Jen threatens legal action for taking (secretly) and publishing her pictures without permission. Vance then basically tells Jennifer that being that She Hulk is considered a celebrity, her nude pictures are fair game, and she has no legal recourse against his publishing the pictures. This leads to an awesome moment where Jen transforms into She Hulk right in front of him (causing his Stan Lee-esque toupee to fall off), and takes the safe with all the money he made from pre-selling Jen's pictures, crushing it into a tiny ball and then handing it back to him. Lol. The story then cuts to a few weeks later (which we'll touch on something else that is hinted at during this final scene in a second), as the pictures are officially published. However, it's revealed that the colorist didn't realize that the pictures they were publishing were meant to be the pictures of a naked green woman, and color corrects them back to Caucasian. This makes Jen happy, until Johnny Storm (who had shown Jen the magazine) states that he's heading back to his room with the mag to find a pair of green tinted glasses....lol. However, Johnny is very much just messing with Jen, much in the way he used to mess with the Thing. We see earlier in the issue that the Torch definitely has a new love interest, and as one would expect at this point, it's Alicia Masters, or rather Lyja the Skrull, who is posing as Alicia. Regardless, this is definitely a game changer, and we can definitely see Byrne using this new relationship to mature Johnny Storm somewhat. We even see it in how he draws Johnny in his human form, as he makes him look older than he did when he first started the run. This will continue throughout the remains of this run. Another thing to note in this issue happens at the very end, as we see Susan and Reed watching their son Franklin play with Marvel figures, amazed that he is so quickly able to put aside the horror they all had been through (we also notice that Reed had broken his arm at some point during said horror). Needless to say, something major happened to Reed, Sue, and Franklin throughout the course of Jen's side story, and we will see that all play out over the next few issues. I wouldn't even mention it, as it actually hasn't happened yet, continuity wise, but being that Byrne himself references it, I felt it important to mention here. All in all, this was a fun story that finally gave She Hulk some solo time to strut her stuff as a character, as, up to that point, she really hadn't been much but "BEN'S REPLACEMENT" on the team. Her role will grow from here, not quite surpassing our favorite orange rock covered hero's importance to the FF, but definitely making her more than the innuendo spouting muscle she had been up to this point. Leaving all that behind for now, we'll move on to the next issue, which, I would argue, has the best cover of this entire run, and that's to say nothing of the craziness that happens within the issue itself. Things are about to get DARK, folks. GRADE: A
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Oct 8, 2020 0:24:06 GMT -5
Fantastic Four #276"Suffer a Witch to Live"Cover Date: March, 1985 Writer: John Byrne Artist: John Byrne Feature Characters: The Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Girl, The Human Torch, & She Hulk) Villain/s: Mephisto, Elspeth Cromwell, & The Knights of Hades (First Appearances of the Last Two) Special Guests: "Alicia Masters"/Lyja The Skrull, Wyatt Wingfoot, Franklin Richards, Alma Chalmers, Wong, Doctor Strange, Hyram Fieldstone, & Lois Fieldstone (1st Appearances of the Last Two) Official Plot:The Human Torch is deeply in love with Alicia Masters, flying across the Manhattan skyline, he reflects back on his past relationships and realizes none of the girls he previously loved made him feel the way Alicia does. He returns to his apartment where Alicia is hard at work in the kitchen making him dinner. She tells him dinner is almost ready, but stops long enough to give her new lover a kiss. Meanwhile, at the Baxter Building, She-Hulk is working out to test her strength. Monitoring her progress is her new boyfriend Wyatt Wingfoot, who remarks that her current strength level is comparable to the Thing, whom she has recently replaced on the Fantastic Four. When Wyatt comments on Reed's assessment that she may be able to reach the strength levels of her cousin the Hulk, Jen wonders if she is at risk of losing her humanity in the process. Deciding to take a break, she asks Wyatt if he's up to massaging her back. At that same time at their home in Belle Porte, Connecticut, Reed and Sue "Benjamin" have a house warming party and have invited all their neighbors over to get to know them better. When Sue introduces Reed to the Fieldstones, Hyram Fieldstone makes a comment about how Reed and Sue have the same first names as Reed and Sue Richards of the Fantastic Four and remarks that it is a funny coincidence. As the party continues, from across the street local snoop Alma Chalmers is spying on the house with binoculars. She is convinced that the Benjamin family are really witches and has convinced the occult expert Elspeth Cromwell to come and investigate her suspicions. Elspeth assures Alma that when the Benjamin family are finally alone she will act. Hours later, Reed and Sue say goodbye to the last of their patrons. Finally no longer required to keep up their ruse as the "Benjamins", Reed allows his face to resume it's proper proportions. Although he is concerned how a possible connection to the Fantastic Four was made during the party. Their discussion is interrupted by their son Franklin who has woken up to ask for a glass of water. Sue gets the boy the water and escorts him back to bed where Franklin tells her that he had a strange dream where his parents were attacked by a strange woman and man with horns. Sue assures her son that it was just a dream and that they are safe. Although when she leaves the room, Sue can't help but wonder if there might be something wrong with her son, recalling an incident in Reed's lab a few days earlier. [1] She can't help but wonder if perhaps her son's mutant powers might be returning again. While downstairs, Reed is cleaning up the garbage from the party and his concerns about their double identities in Belle Porte being compromised causes him to reflect their attempts to try and have a normal family life, but realizes that as members of the Fantastic Four they may no longer have that luxury. When Reed opens the door to take out the trash he is suddenly blinded by a bright light. Sue is upstairs getting ready for bed when she notices the bright flash of light as well and comes rushing to her husband's aid. As Reed comments on the omni-directional light their attacker, Elspeth Cromwell, makes her appearance and calls out the "Benjamins" as witches that must be destroyed. When Reed tries to explain who they really are, Cromwell refuses to believe them and strikes Richards with a mystical bolt. When Sue tries to contain their attacker in an invisible force field, Elspeth turns it into water that she passes through. Suddenly fire begins to belch from the ground around Reed and Sue. Demonic hands rise from the ground and grab Reed's wife and pulls her into the Earth. When Reed tries to stretch his arm down to grab his wife, the demons manage to break it. However Sue is not gone, she uses her invisibility powers to force her way back to the surface. Increasing her attack, Elspeth then uses her arcane powers to summon the Knights of Hades to attack the couple. As the battle rages on, Franklin is awoken by the noise and he goes downstairs to check on his parents. As he runs to the door there is suddenly an explosion that knocks young Franklin backwards and he strikes his head on a cabinet, knocking him out. As Franklin falls to the ground unconscious, his head starts to bleed. As the blood seeps out onto the floor of the kitchen it begins to smolder. While outside, Reed tries to talk sense into Cromwell, pointing out that the only supernatural threat to Belle Port is her own reckless use of her occult power. Reed points out that the legends of the Knights of Hades states that if innocent blood is shed in their attacks then it can unleash an powerful evil force. When Elspeth tries to regain control of the Knights they turn on her and strike her down. Suddenly Franklin comes out to warn his parents that something is happening in the house. When Sue notices Franklin is bleeding, Elspeth realizes that it's too late, and at that very moment the massive form of Mephisto raises from the burning house saying that it is time for the final punishment. Back in New York's Greenwich village, Doctor Strange is in deep meditation when he suddenly calls out in pain. Sensing some powerful evil having been unleashed upon the Earth, he has his servant Wong bring him his Cloak of Levitation and flies off into the night sky to face this evil. Brodie's View:My goodness! This is such a great cover, and as I stated at the end of the last review, probably the best of this entire run IMO. That's saying something too, as there have been some AMAZING covers, and some pretty great ones to come, and yet, none of them match up to this particular cover. Simplistic, with things rendered in terms of pure black and white, and yet so effective. What makes it even better is that it depicts an event that actually happens in the story, as Elspeth Cromwell's initial attack against Reed and Sue is hitting their house with an intense white light. Always a nice thing, as we often get awesome covers depicting things that never actually happen in the story. I'm glad this isn't the case here. Anyways, this is the pay off of the whole "Snoopy old lady (Alma Chalmers) spying on Reed and Sue" subplot that has been going on since the two (and Franklin) had moved to Belle Porte, Connecticut, and, boy, is it a pay off. Convinced that Reed and Sue are secretly witches or demons, Alma calls upon renowned Exorcist Elspeth Cromwell to help her remove this "Evil" from her neighborhood. Elspeth decides to strike soon after Reed and Sue finish their house warming party (where most of their neighbors look like Byrne's version of classic comic strip characters), and she decides to fight magic with magic, or what she believes to be magic, by hitting them with blinding white light. This draws Reed and Sue outside, where Elspeth accuses them of being witches posing as the FF. Reed and Sue try to convince her that they are really the FF, but she doesn't want to hear any of it, and casts another spell, causing the very ground under them to rip open. Sue is pulled into the hole, and Reed tries to reach for her, but ends up getting his arm broken by a demon ( ). That's when things get even worse, and demonic knights rise from the ground, and start to destroy everything around them. During all of this, Reed and Sue's son, Franklin, awakens, and tries to go downstairs to see what is happening, but is caught in one of the explosions caused by the demonic knights, and cracks his head, bleeding a bit. This is important, as Elspeth's ability to control the Knights is dependent on there being no innocent blood shed in the process. Once this happens, however, it causes the very being that Elspeth made the deal with to gain this black magic in the first place, MEPHISTO, who busts out of Reed and Susan's house, delighted to have gained not only Elspeth's soul, but the souls of Reed and Susan Richards in the process. We get a teaser at the very end of the issue that shows that Doctor Strange has become aware of all of this is happening, and is en route to try and help Reed and Sue if he can. There will actually be a few Guest Stars in the next issue, but I'll get to them in a second. I do also want to mention that before things go completely crazy, we check in on our two other couples; first, on Johnny Storm, who is overjoyed at truly being in love for the first time with the woman that he thinks is Alicia Masters. In reality, she's Lyja, a Skrull that is posing as Alicia, but we won't find that out until MUUUUUCH later...like past the end of Byrne's run. That's not to say that this new relationship is going to make everyone as happy as Johnny is at the beginning of this issue. In fact, I can think of one person that isn't going to be too thrilled about this whole thing, and he's going to find out sooner than everyone thinks. One other thing worth mentioning is that we get a brief scene with She Hulk and her growing love interest, Wyatt Wingfoot, as Jen tries to measure her strength by using machines the Thing would have used before he went off to Battleworld. Wyatt states that her strength level has grown beyond what had been thought previously, and what she's able to lift now, weight wise, puts her in the same strength category as Ben Grimm, which is pretty cool. Speaking of Aunt Petunia's favorite Nephew, this next issue finds us at the one year point since the heroes went off to fight the SECRET WARS, which means that with that mini series ending, there's really no reason to keep Ben on Battleworld any more. Have I hinted enough about the Thing returning to Earth yet? ( ) I will say that he returns to quite a few shocking things happening, and only one of them involves Johnny and Alicia. Oh, and the Devil tortures Reed and Sue. Fun times. GRADE: A
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Oct 14, 2020 22:53:31 GMT -5
Fantastic Four #277"Back from Beyond"Cover Date: April, 1985 Writer: John Byrne Artist: John Byrne Feature Characters: The Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Girl, The Human Torch, & She Hulk) Villain/s: Mephisto, The Dire Wraiths, & Ultron (Deactivated) Special Guests: "Alicia Masters"/Lyja The Skrull, The Thing, Wyatt Wingfoot, Franklin Richards, Alma Chalmers, Doctor Strange, General Merriwether Locklin, & Elspeth Cromwell (Death) Official Plot:New York City After months living on Battleworld, the Thing -- with the deactivated head of Ultron -- teleports back to Earth, materializing in Central Park. As he walks through the park, Ben recounts how much has changed since he originally went off world to battle in the Secret Wars and how he can no longer change back to his human form at will. With nowhere else to turn, Ben decides to pay a visit to the woman he still thinks of as his girlfriend -- Alicia Masters. Ben goes to her apartment, completely oblivious as to how his approach to Alicia's home is making people nervous. When Ben knocks on Alicia's apartment door, he is shocked to find a shirtless Johnny Storm answering. Unprepared to tell Ben about his and Alicia's relationship, Johnny slams the door in a panic. Ben quickly figures out what is going on and comes smashing through the door, accusing Johnny of being nothing more than a skirt chaser. When Ben lashes out, Johnny flames on to defend himself, while also trying to explain to Ben that what he and Alicia have is genuine. But Ben is not willing to listen and attacks in full fury. Alicia suddenly comes in and yells at the two men to stop fighting. When Ben tries to explain himself, Alicia is not willing to listen to his excuses and slaps him across the face. Although this doesn't hurt Ben physically, it totally crushes him emotionally. She then explains to Ben that while he was off on Battleworld trying to figure out who he is, she and Johnny have fallen in love. Ben turns away from them and mulls it over, wondering if it is his ego that has him so upset because he intended to break things off with Alicia but she beat him to the punch and already moved on. Before Ben can come to any conclusions he notices something strange happening to the sun while looking out the window. Up in the sky, a massive portal materializes and another planet begins to emerge from within. Suddenly the opposing gravity causes Alicia's apartment to collapse among the other buildings. Johnny saves Alicia, Ben tells him to get her to the Baxter Building right away. When Johnny arrives, he finds She-Hulk and Wyatt there. After they explain that they've had no luck trying to contact Reed and Sue, Johnny goes outside to try and figure out what he can do in during this crisis. When Alicia calls Johnny her "darling", She-Hulk finally is clued in that they have started a relationship and that Ben is back. She-Hulk begins to fear that now that Ben Grimm has returned from Battleworld, her time with the Fantastic Four may be over. Elsewhere in the city, Ben is walking through the rubble trying to figure out what happened when he comes across what he thinks is a woman. However when he approaches her, she transforms into a Dire Wraith and tries to assimilate his form. However the mandible from its mouth cannot pierce the rocky exterior of the Thing's skull, and Ben is able to pull it out. He is shocked when his alien attacker suddenly passes out. Suddenly the sky clears up, leaving Ben to wonder what has happened, while high above a space platform was used to repel the alien Wraithworld. Returning to the Baxter Building, Ben and Johnny learn that the Wraiths were turned back by Rom the Spaceknight, and that Rom had left Earth, saying his mission was accomplished. [1] As they finish their conversation with General Locklin, She-Hulk enters the room with all her bags packed. This comes to a shock to Johnny and Alicia who insist that She-Hulk should stay on the team even if Ben is back. However Ben tells them that they are getting ahead of themselves... he's not coming back to the Fantastic Four, in fact, he quits. Belle Porte Following strange emanations of evil, the Sorcerer Supreme Doctor Strange is drawn to the town of Belle Porte, Connecticut. Landing in the town, he disguises himself in street clothes and offers his aid as a physician to the police on the scene of the Benjamin house. The officer allows Strange to examine the bodies, who Strange recognizes them -- Reed and Sue Richards and their son Franklin, as well as occult expert Elspeth Cromwell. What happens becomes clear when local snoop Alma Chalmers comes onto the scene ranting about how the "Benjamin" family were secretly a coven of witches and how she hired Cromwell to exorcise them from the neighborhood. At that very moment in the neither realm of Mephisto, the demon tortures the Invisible Girl's spirit in a vice-like device. Reed, trapped in rock, calls the demon a monster. When Mephisto explains that he is the embodiment of evil, Reed still defies him. As punishment, the lord of lies painfully stretches Mister Fantastic's body. When Sue begs the demon to leave her husband alone, Mephisto decides to return his attention to her so that he can prolong the mutual suffering. He then impales Sue on a stalagmite, before boasting how his rise to power will allow him to consume the entire world. Mephisto's rant is interrupted by the sudden arrival of Doctor Stranges who engages Mephisto in mystical combat. Knocked aside, Strange spies the form of Franklin Richards, trapped within a crystal fast asleep. When Mephisto orders the Sorcerer Supreme away from the boy's inert body, Strange realizes that Mephisto must be using the boy in some way. Hearing this, Reed wonders if perhaps his son's mutant powers are returning and yells to Doctor Strange, telling him to free his son. Complying, Strange uses his magical powers to shatter the crystal keeping Franklin prisoner. As Franklin wakes up, Mephisto approaches the boy, threatening to torture his soul for all eternity. Made angry by this threat, Franklin's powers charge up and he fires an energy blast from his eyes that seriously harm Mephisto. The lord of lies quickly realizes that he is growing weaker, and when Franklin unleashes his powers upon him again, he is seemingly obliterated. Back on Earth, Alma is still going on about how the Benjamin family are witches when Doctor Strange reappears and tells both her and the officer that they are actually members of the Fantastic Four. At that moment, Reed, Sue and Franklin awaken -- their souls returned to their bodies and they are happily reunited. When Reed notices that Elspeth has not awoken, Strange explains that she is dead. When Alma asks Strange to bring her back to life, he explains to the elderly gossip that it is beyond his power to do so, in using her powers to try and destroy evil, it cost Cromwell her own life. As Chalmers breaks down in tears, Strange tells her not to forget what has transpired this night. Brodie's View:Ben Grimm returns to Earth in this issue, which also continues the story we left off with in the last issue, where Reed, Susan, and Franklin Richards were captured by Mephisto. Byrne uses another interesting story telling technique here, as he literally splits the comic in half, with the part involving The Thing in the top half of the comic, while the whole Mephisto/Richards story occupies the bottom half. It almost takes two readings to get the whole story, as trying to read it traditionally means constantly jumping from one story to the other. Anyways, Ben returns to Earth, thinking that he would pick up where he left off right before he and the other heroes were transported to Battleworld. However, he quickly realizes that things (no pun intended) had changed drastically since he left, as his long time love, Alicia Masters, appears to have hooked up with his long time teammate, Johnny Storm. Needless to say, he doesn't take this very well, and literally breaks down the door to get at Johnny. However, Alicia (or rather Lyja the Skrull, who has been posing as Alicia since the heroes vanished, or sometime during the period that they were missing) quickly shuts Ben down by slapping him in the face and telling him that she isn't her property, and that what had developed between she and Johnny was real. Ben, who actually was planning to officially break up with Alicia, and even internally admits that it was merely his wounded male ego that caused him to get violent, is instantly shut down by Alicia's slap, and winds up leaving the blind artist's apartment building. He winds up stepping into another crazy situation, as the Earth, at that moment, was caught in the middle of a secret war with the alien race known as the Dire Wraiths, who we saw during our UNCANNY X-MEN run. The moon is literally blacked out by the Wraith's planet, which, I'm assuming the identity stealing aliens were planning to bring their planet closer to Earth in order to properly take it over. This causes massive earthquakes and destruction that Ben and Johnny must put aside their differences and go into Super Hero mode to be able to protect innocents from. Most of the actual battle between the people of Earth and the Wraiths happen off camera, and in the pages of ROM, which we get a few different references to. Luckily, we don't get more of that, as that most likely would have forced Marvel to have to cut the Spaceknight out of the trade paperback, as Marvel no longer has the rights to ROM. This happened in the Hulk REGRESSION trade, and I'm glad it didn't happen here. Anyways, Ben, Johnny, and "Alicia" soon join She Hulk and Wyatt Wingfoot at the Baxter Building, where they find out that ROM and the other Spaceknights were able to defeat the Wraiths. This leaves one last piece of business on this side of things, as although Jennifer is thinking that her time in the FF was over, as Ben had returned, Ben alleviates her fears by stating that even though he was back, he wasn't planning to rejoin the team. We'll see the follow up to this part of things in the next review, as we'll jump over to THE THING's solo book once more to wrap Ben's story up, at least for the remains of the John Byrne run. Jumping over to the other side of the story, we see Mephisto, whose power has risen greatly due to harnessing the power of Franklin Richards (who is still unconscious after cracking his head near the end of the last issue), torturing Reed and Susan Richards. Mephisto tries to convince the two heroes that they are dead, and their souls are his for the keeping, but the arrival of Doctor Strange (who quickly puts together what has happened) makes Reed realize that it is merely their astral forms that Mephisto is torturing. He also realizes that Franklin is the one that is amping up Mephisto's power, and after he tells Doctor Strange to wake Franklin up, Franklin quickly uses his massive reality warping powers to destroy the supposed Lord of Hell. Granted, Mephisto would return from this, as his soul would be shattered into different pieces that a villain named Master Pandemonium would unwittingly reassemble. Of course, that wouldn't happen until way later, during Byrne's run on WEST COAST AVENGERS, where he would pick up on this little plot point. Anyways, Reed, Susan, and Franklin are returned to their normal bodies, however, we find out that Elspeth Cromwell, who was the one that summoned Mephisto in the first place, lost her soul in the process and was truly dead. This gives a nice little bit of comeuppance to local snoop, Alma Chalmers, who started all of this by calling Elspeth. The biggest bummer out of all of this, at least where it concerns the Richards family, is that their undercover life in Belle Porte, Connecticut is officially over, as their cover had been blown. This brings us almost back to the end of FF #275, but there's one more piece of business to take care of before we find ourselves back in the "Present." In the next review, we get our last Goodbye from Ben Grimm, at least where it concerns his being a part of this run of reviews, as he finds out another piece of nasty news that will sever the last connection he had with the Fantastic Four....at least for the rest of this run. GRADE: A
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Oct 16, 2020 0:24:09 GMT -5
The Thing #23"Remembrances"Cover Date: May, 1985 Writer: Mike Carlin Artist: Ron Wilson Feature Characters: The Thing Villain/s: None Special Guests: The Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic, The Human Torch, & The Invisible Girl) & Franklin Richards/Alicia Masters (In Flashback Form Only) Official Plot:This story is continued from Fantastic Four #277... The Thing is packing things up in his room and loses his temper once more when thinking about how he returned from Battleworld to find that his long time girlfriend Alicia Masters is now in a relationship with the Human Torch. Ben tries to rationalize the situation to himself, reminding himself how the whole time he was on Battleworld he had come to the realization that he was no longer in love with Alicia. However he cannot get over the fact that while he was gone she moved on without him and also started dating his best friend. Going through his things some more, Ben comes across a photograph of Johnny and it causes him to think back to how close they were. He recalls how the Torch always played pranks on him, like the time Johnny rudely woke Ben up with some large amplifiers, then tried to soak his hand in a bowl of warm water in order to make him wet the bed. When Ben later chased Johnny through the Baxter Building, Johnny pelted him with cream pies, and had a great time laughing at how mad Ben was getting. Ben's thought are cut off when Johnny comes to talk to him. He tries to get Ben to understand that he and Alicia didn't intentionally get together to hurt him. However his words do not get through to Ben, and Johnny wishes Ben would not put himself through this. Seeing that he is accomplishing nothing, Johnny resigns to the fact that he at least tried and leaves. Ben then continues packing. Going through his things some more, Ben finds a picture of himself and Reed during their university years and marvels at how young they were back then. He then finds a picture of Alicia which cuts deep. Ben recalls all the times he wondered why Alicia would stay with a monster like him when she could have a normal man. With all these recollections, Ben thinks that finally Alicia can get that chance with Johnny. Just then, Reed enters the room to talk to him. Reed wants to talk to him about something important, but Ben keeps on interrupting, first by showing the picture of them when they were younger, then talking about his realizations about Alicia. Suddenly Reed interjects and explains to him how he knew that Ben's inability to change between his human and Thing forms was due to a psychological problem. He then tells him that he could change back and forth at any time. Hearing this causes Ben to go berserk because thanks to Reed keeping this a secret before they went off to the Secret Wars, he wouldn't have slain "Ben Grimm" and trapped himself in his Thing form. Reed tries to restrain Ben who has completely lost his temper. Blaming Reed for taking his humanity away a second time, Ben breaks free and goes charging out the door. On his way out he shoves past Johnny and bolts by Sue and Franklin and out into the streets of New York City. Checking on Reed, Johnny and Sue watch as Reed gazes at the shattered photograph of him and Ben when they were younger, telling them that things are apparently over for good. While down on the streets, Ben storms off, deciding that he is finished with the Fantastic Four for good. Brodie's View:We journey over to THE THING's solo book for the last time during this run, as Ben is in the process of officially breaking all ties with the Fantastic Four, and I will say first off, that the book's new writer, Mike Carlin, does a solid job picking up where John Byrne left off in FF #277. Actually, Byrne had written Ben's solo book up until the last issue, so, I have to assume that Byrne had some sort of input in picking his replacement, as Carlin tries to go in the direction one feels Byrne would have went with this issue. That's a good thing, as we'll see down the line (and have seen with the SECRET WARS fallout) that having different writers doesn't always mean a seamless continuation of a story, both in plot and tone. Carlin, though, does a solid job taking Ben through past memories, as Ben tries his best to close the door on his past before moving on to his future. We see his past relationship with Johnny Storm, as Johnny would often mess with Ben with various practical jokes, but as we see during one such joke, there was never any long term anger over those jokes, although, as we've seen in the past, sometimes Johnny would pick wrong times to mess with his orange rock covered teammate. However, as we see in the "present," Ben is so hurt by the fact that Johnny hooked up with his long time girlfriend, Alicia Masters (or appeared to, as we'll find out later that "Alicia" is really Lyja the Skrull), that when Johnny tries to make amends over something even he internally feels he shouldn't have to make amends for, Ben basically blows him off. Johnny leaves, and Ben goes back to packing, coming across a photo of Alicia in the process. This leads Ben to internally state what he had stated in FF #277; that he had been planning to break up with Alicia anyways, but he wasn't expecting the door slamming in his face, both in a figurative and literal sense, that he got from Alicia in the previously mentioned FANTASTIC FOUR issue. Finally, Reed shows up, and this is where Ben leaving on good terms kind of flies out the window, as the guilty Mr. Fantastic tells Ben a truth he's known ever since Franklin Richards had probed his mind back in FF #245; that Ben had long had the ability to transform back and forth from his Ben Grimm form into his Thing form, but had subconsciously blocked himself from being able to do that, as he felt that Alicia had only loved The Thing and not Ben Grimm. This causes Ben to freak out and attack his long time friend, as Ben had been convinced that the only reason he could transform back and forth on Battleworld was due to the wish fulfillment field The Beyonder had given the heroes at the end of the SECRET WARS mini series. To make things worse, near the end of his time on Battleworld, he had killed the evil part of himself (who we saw manipulating things in THE THING #19), and had once again been convinced that he no longer could become human again. I don't think Reed would have believed that, and had Ben been in his rational mind, Reed probably could have convinced Ben of this, but Ben ends up charging out of his apartment (going through the wall) and rushes off before Reed can calm him down. Reed thinks about trying to go after him, but figures he's done enough damage already, and that in time, Ben would return. He will, but not until this run is over, so, this is pretty much the last time we'll see the legit Ben Grimm in this run. ( ) However, the FF aren't going to get a chance to try and get Ben to come back, as they're going to have quite a few major things (no pun intended) happening to them over the next year or so, issue wise. In the next issue, we'll see the first of those major things taking place, as another of our favorite Doctor's contingency plans are put into motion. GRADE: B+
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Oct 19, 2020 1:07:51 GMT -5
Fantastic Four #278"True Lies"Cover Date: May, 1985 Writer: John Byrne Artist: John Byrne Feature Characters: The Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Girl, The Human Torch, & She Hulk) Villain/s: Doctor Doom (Kristoff Vernard---1st Appearance as), Doombots, Psycho Man (In Shadows), & Doctor Doom (In Flashback Only) Special Guests: (Present) "Alicia Masters"/Lyja The Skrull, Wyatt Wingfoot, Franklin Richards, Fraulein Mueller, & Dwayne Samuels (In Flashback/Recap Form Only) The Sub-Mariner, Boris, Werner von Doom, Daniel Kurtz, & Valeria Official Plot:One of the robots that poses as Doctor Doom has informed Doom's young ward Kristoff Vernard that it is now time. Interrupting the boys studies, the Doombot takes the lad down to one of Doom's labs. There he informs Kristoff that the real Doctor Doom seemingly died battling the Fantastic Four. [1] The gathered Doombots then explain to Kristoff that he is to be Doctor Doom's final legacy, explaining that a copy of Doom's mind will be implanted into Kristoff's body creating a copy of Doom so perfect that even a telepath would not be able to tell the difference. The innocent boy is then strapped to Doom's mind transfer device and then it is activated, as young Kristoff sees the life of Victor von Doom flash before his eyes... .... Years ago, Werner von Doom tells his son Victor that he was unable to cure the King's wife of cancer and she has died. Fearing reprisals, Werner and his son flee into the montains. As they hid in the ice and snow of the Alps, Werner wraps his young son in his coat in order to keep the boy warm. When they are found by Werner's friend Boris, Werner is on the brink of death. Taken back to their gypsy village, Werner dies telling his son to protect. Young Victor von Doom swears to make those responsible for murdering his father will pay. Over the years, Victor continued to harbor hatred towards those he blamed for his father. When his lover Valeria tried to convince him to let it go, he refused. Finding his mothers old trunk of magical artifacts, Victor began practicing witchcraft as well as science. As the years grew on, Victor became obsessed with becoming master of the world, despite Valeria's pleas to let go of his anger. Soon Victor is flown to the United States where he attends school at State University. It is there that he first met Reed Richards. One day when Richards was examining his notes for a device to contact the neither world, Reed pointed out a minor error in the calculations. Disbelieving that he could have done anything wrong, an angered von Doom pushes Reed out of his room. Victor goes on with the experiment which suddenly goes off in his face. While recovering in the hospital, Victor was expelled form school due to his unauthorized experiments. When Victor finally removes the bandages from his face he is horrified to see a single scar running down the side of his face from left eye down to his chin. Finding this disfigurement horrifying, he smashes the mirror he is looking into. Later still, Victor von Doom travels the Himalayian Mountains of Tibet until he finds a secret order of monks who take him in and teach them everything. He eventually becomes their master and has the monks construct his armor. When the mask is constructed, Doom insists it be placed on his face before it can cool, and the visage of Victor von Doom is horrifically scarred by the searing heat of the mask. In pain, Victor fled out into the snow to cool his face. Recovering he had his first costume made and his vow to take over the world. Some time after that, Victor had his first unsuccessful clash with the Fantastic Four. Then his second attempt to stop them where he allied himself with the Sub-Mariner and attempted to hurtle the Baxter Building into the sun... Kristoff -- his mind now imprinted with the memories and personality of Doctor Doom -- calls for a halt of the memory playback. Now wearing a suit of Doom's armor that makes him look like an adult, Kristoff -- now calling himself Doctor Doom -- has an idea of how to use this same scheme to destroy the Fantastic Four once and for all. In New York City, Johnny and Alicia are walking through Times Square. Along a fence Johnny notices a poster advertising Reverend Thomas Scott-Harmon's payer meeting for racial equality. He is shocked to see that someone as defaced the posters by placing banners over them with derogatory slurs. Disgusted by what he is reading, Johnny explains what he has seen to Alicia then spots the man vandalizing the posters. When Johnny turns the person around he is shocked to see that it's actually a young boy, and worse a fan of the Human Torch. When Johnny asks what he's doing, the young man begins to talk about a man named Mister Unger who has been teaching the boy that the only way to achieve peace is to acknowledge hatred. The boy then hands Johnny a pamphlet on "Hate" and starts spouting racist ideals about white supremacy. Johnny hears enough and tells the kid to get lost, sending the racist bigot off with a kick in the butt to see him off. Then using his flame powers, Johnny burns off the racial slurs from the posters before deciding to walk Alicia home instead of going on their date. As young Johnny Storm leads his blind girlfriend on, they are unaware that a mysterious figure is watching and pleased that his plan is coming to fruition, a plan that will see the annihilation of all mankind. While at the Baxter Building, Reed has finished conducting a series on tests on Franklin to see if his mutant powers have returned. After Reed sends Franklin off to bed, and assures him that his dreams are only dreams. However when the boy is gone, Reed admits that Franklin has been having precognitive dreams, such as the night the fought Mephisto. When Sue begins to worry that they will never have a normal life, Reed tries to comfort her but can only assure her of the reality of their lives in the Fantastic Four. While downstairs, She-Hulk and Wyatt Wingfoot return from a date, entering the elevator after saying hello to Mister Samuels the night watchman. Samuels muses over the fact that he works for the Fantastic Four, but his thoughts are interrupted when what appears to be a brick comes smashing through one of the windows, prompting him to go out and investigate. In reality, it is not a brick but a disguised device that activates and send the Baxter Building shooting up into the sky. Seeing this from afar is the Human Torch, who flames on and rushes toward his headquarters. However the Baxter Building soon gets too high and the lack of oxygen causes Johnny's flame to go out. But before he can fall to his death, he is grabbed by Reed who has stretched out his arm to catch Johnny and pull him into the building. With the building sealed off, Reed is suddenly contacted by Doctor Doom who has come to gloat over his victory. Although he concedes that this is not an original scheme, Doom still believes that he has finally made a plan that will see the destruction of the Fantastic Four. Pressing a button on his control panel, Doom causes the Baxter Building to explode just outside of Earth orbit. Brodie's View:With the era of The Thing being a member of the FF officially done and settled for now (and for the rest of the run I'm covering), it's time to move on to those bigger and nastier threats that I talked about recently. The threat we deal with in this issue (and the next), or at least the main one, as I'll get to the one simmering on the back burner in a bit, is the young boy who was left in the care of Doctor Doom after the events of FF #246-7, Kristoff Vernard. However, none of this is really his fault, as we see that with the true master of the castle apparently gone (we'll eventually find out that this is incorrect information), Kristoff is brought into a secret part of Doom's castle by Doombots, who then brainwash Kristoff, by showing him the history of Doctor Doom (where we learn quite a few things about Doom that we hadn't really known up to that point; things that would be expanded even more on by other writers down the road), into thinking he is Doom himself. Of course, this whole idea wasn't thought of by the Doombots, but rather Doom himself, who created yet another contingency plan in the case of his death. BTW, I love the fact that Doom has all these crazy and messed up contingency plans that he has at the ready to put into motion on the event of his death, as he obviously feels that no matter what....DOOM MUST SURVIVE! Anyways, the Kristoff Doom arrogantly makes the Doombots shut these memories off after the second time Doom had fought the FF (after launching the Baxter Building into space), as he assumes that the only reason Doom didn't destroy the FF was his being betrayed by Namor, who he had formed a brief alliance with. Over time, he sends small robots in to change certain settings in the Baxter Building without any of the team's knowledge (including setting the alien symbiote free that would later bond with Eddie Brock to become Venom, in FF #274), and when he thinks the time is right, he sends a rocket that appears to be a brick through the Baxter Building window. This launches the Baxter Building (In which the FF, Franklin, & Wyatt Wingfoot are all inside) into space, and once again blows it up. We'll see the resolving of this in the next issue, but I do want to talk about that back burner villain (or villains) that I referred to earlier in the review. Before the Baxter Building gets launched into space, we see Johnny Storm and "Alicia Masters" coming home after a date. As they are walking home, they see a man spray painting "N****r Lover" on posters advertising an event at a black church, and enraged, Johnny confronts the man to reveal that it appears to be a normal looking teenager/young adult. Disgusted, Storm lets the teen go, but we see a figure watching in the shadows, pleased that Storm has taken the bait of taking one of the defaced posters with him, as well as helping to start a fire of Hate that will eventually destroy both the FF and New York City itself. This back burner story will go over the next several issues (as well as a crossover that we'll get to eventually), and will involve two long time FF villains (well, one long time villain; one taking the mantle of a long time villain) playing on people's hatreds and prejudices, building them up to the point of turning a nice chunk of the NYC populace into a dangerous mob. The events of all this will affect the entire time, but none more so than Susan Richards, the Invisible Girl. Anyways, we'll get into all of this as it plays out over the next few issues, but in the next issue, we'll see if the Fantastic Four, Franklin, and Wyatt Wingfoot survived the destruction of the Baxter Building (Psssst, they obviously do, but I like leaving these little cliff hangers). GRADE: A
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Nov 9, 2020 0:47:39 GMT -5
Fantastic Four #279"Crack of Doom"Cover Date: June, 1985 Writer: John Byrne Artist: John Byrne Feature Characters: The Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Girl, The Human Torch, & She Hulk) Villain/s: Doctor Doom (Kristoff Vernard), Doombots, Servo Guards, Psycho Man, & Mister Unger/The Hate Monger (1st Appearance) Special Guests: Wyatt Wingfoot & Franklin Richards Official Plot:Kristoff Vernard -- the successor to Doctor Doom -- has launched the Baxter Building into space where it explodes. However instead of being killed in the blast, the Fantastic Four, Reed and Sue's son Franklin, and Wyatt Wingfoot are saved thanks to Sue's force field, and are all play possum until Doom's scanning device leaves. Convinced that they have tricked Doom into thinking they are dead, Reed then devises a plan to get them back to Earth. Wrapping everyone up in his body and protected by Sue's force field, Reed directs the group back towards Earth for re-entry. In order to prevent themselves from burning up in re-entry, Reed has Johnny absorb all the heat and flame. They then head directly toward Latveria in order to face their foe. Once they are at a safe altitude, Johnny is allow to flame on and expel the excess heat he has absorbed. The group then literally crashes into Doom's castle where they are instantly attacked by Doom's Servo-Guards. Reed and Sue send Wyatt off with Franklin to keep him safe and the team begins to tear into the Servo-Robots. Making short work of the robots, they then smash their way through to Doom's lab deep below where they confront the new Doctor Doom and his group of Doombots. While Johnny destroys the robots, She-Hulk grabs Doom and rips off his armor. They are shocked when it turns out to be the young Kristoff Vernard inside the armor and not a full sized adult. Realizing what happened, Reed theorizes that Vernard did not go through all of Doom's past memories, as their ace in the hole was the fact that when the real Doctor Doom tried to shoot the Fantastic Four into space in their headquarters, Sue did not have her force-field making capabilities -- the one thing that made survival possible this time around. Soon it sinks in that the Fantastic Four have apparently lost everything, Reed wonders how things can get any worse.... .... At a rally somewhere a man named Mister Unger is preaching hate, riling up a crowd of people with hate speech about African-Americans. This speech is interrupted by a priest who tells all those gathered that they should love all, regardless of their race. Unger, calling the priest a "N*****-Lover" entices the mob into beating the holy man. Walking out of the alley, Unger meets with his mysterious employer. Turning from a blonde haired blue eyed Caucasian, to a brown haired Jew, and then an African-American woman, this new Hate Monger tells his master that he intends to spread hatred to the Sons of Zion and the Black Women's Defense League, in order to spread hatred all over the city. Brodie's View:When last we left things, it appeared that Kristoff Vernard (who has been brainwashed into believing he is Doctor Doom) had succeeded where the actual Doctor Doom failed, as he had launched the team (along with Franklin Richards and Wyatt Wingfoot, who also happened to be there as well) into space in their own Baxter Building, and then blew said building up ( ). This is something similar to what the actual Doctor Doom (who had been allied with Namor at the time) had tried early on in the FF's run, but had failed when the former ruler of Latveria had been betrayed by Namor; a mistake Vernard figures he was too clever to make. However, Vernard probably should have sit still for the entire downloading of Doom's memories, as he missed the fact that the team (and the members within that team) had grown both experience and power (and the ability to control said powers) wise since the first time Doom had launched them into space. Specifically, he didn't realize that Susan Richards had gained a LOT more control of her powers since those early days, and it is she that saves the life of the team, Franklin, and Wyatt, by constructing an invisible force field around them. This allows them to play dead long enough to fool Vernard, and then with the brilliant mind of Reed Richards, they manage to manipulate and steer Sue's force field into almost a transport, leading them directly to Doom's castle. From there it's an all out assault, as the FF invade the former headquarters of the REAL Doctor Doom, just wrecking Doom and Servo robots as they go (which is pretty awesome, even though I wish the ending to this hadn't been quite as rushed). Meanwhile, the Doombots that set this plan in motion to begin with (under programming from the "late" Doctor Doom) try to warn Vernard that his plan has failed, and that the FF are approaching, but full of the arrogance of a younger Victor Von Doom, Vernard refuses to accept the fact that the Fantastic Four are still alive....even when they're standing right in front of him. Being that this is the case, She Hulk puts an instant end to this by snatching the Vernard Doom up, trying to rip him out of his armor, only to be shocked by the fact that it was a small boy running the Doom armor. Reed, recognizing Vernard, quickly puts together what had happened, but then is shocked out of even this revelation by the remembrance that the Baxter Building, which had long been both the FF's headquarters and living space, was no more. Of course, this was all by design by Byrne, who had hinted a while ago (through Reed) that the Baxter Building had grown too small to contain all the various shit Reed had built and designed over the years, and the team will indeed get a new headquarters in the future. However, there is quite a bit of fallout that they have to deal with concerning the destruction of the Baxter Building, and they'll start to deal with that in the next issue. What's going to make this all worse is what's been going on behind the scenes while this Vernard Doom story was playing out, and it involves two older FF villains (well, one older; the other is a new version of an old villain the team had faced VERY early on in their adventures) that are trying to make their play to not only destroy the FF, but New York (and one can only assume the world) as well. The main villain behind this is the emotions controlling Psycho Man, and we'll see in the next few issues that he has his eyes specifically on one of the members of the team, and that character will be forever transformed due to the Psycho Man's manipulations. Oh, we also have another crossover that will dip in and out of the rest of this run, and that will start VERY soon....should be an interesting next few reviews, right? GRADE: A-
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Nov 9, 2020 23:35:56 GMT -5
Fantastic Four #280"Tell Them All They Love Must Die"Cover Date: July, 1985 Writer: John Byrne Artist: John Byrne Feature Characters: The Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Girl, The Human Torch, & She Hulk) Villain/s: Psycho Man, & Mister Unger/The Hate Monger, & Malice (1st Appearance of) Special Guests: Wyatt Wingfoot, Franklin Richards, "Alicia Masters"/Lyja the Skrull, Abraham Shoenstein, Edwin Jarvis, Marty, & the NYPD Official Plot:The Fantastic Four have returned to the now empty lot where their headquarters, the Baxter Building, used to reside. Reed explains to a police officer that the entire building was shot into space and blown up by Kristoff Vernard, the heir of Doctor Doom. The scene gets heated when Abraham Shoenstein, the owner of a deli that used to reside in the Baxter Building, arrives at the scene upset that his store is now gone. When Reed promises to reimburse him for the damages, Shoenstein tells Reed it'll never be enough as the only picture of his late wife hung over the door of his deli. When Reed tires to comfort him, one of the officers on the scene tells Reed to save his breath and then begins roughing up Shoenstein simply because he is Jewish. When Wyatt steps in to get the officer to back off, the cop belts Wyatt across the face with his nightstick. When She-Hulk steps in to help her boyfriend, officers start to swarm her. Before she can fight them off, Reed tells her that she must not resist arrest and that things should get cleared up at the police station. Listening to Reed, both She-Hulk and Wyatt allow themselves to be arrested and taken away in a police wagon. After they leave, Reed and Sue notice that the gathered crowd is growing hostile. Things heat up even more when someone in the crowd tries to toss a brick at Alicia. This upsets Johnny who tries to scare off the mob by flaming on. But this only serves to inflame the people who begin to charge at them. Thankfully, Sue is able to erect a force field to keep their attackers at bay. The four decide to split up, Sue using her invisibility to help Alicia get out away from the mob and back home, while Johnny carrier Reed to their temporary home at Avengers Mansion. As they leave, the Hate-Monger and his master Psycho-Man keep track of Sue and Alicia's progress through the mob with a scanning device. Disguising himself as Reed Richards, the Hate-Monger is sent to intercept Sue. When Reed and Johnny arrive at Avengers Mansion they see an anti-mutant mob has formed around the mansion. Inside they are told by Jarvis that the Avengers are out examining the increasing acts of violence breaking out all over the city. Reed deduces that it may have something to do with some hate pamphlets that have been circulating around and so he and Johnny head down to the lab to examine one of the pamphlets further. Elsewhere in the city, the police wagon carrying She-Hulk and Wyatt is suddenly knocked over when a bomb goes off under manhole cover it is passing by. When a group of men try to raid the truck, they suddenly run away when She-Hulk busts her way out. She-Hulk then begins heading to Avengers Mansion to find out what's going on, leaving Wyatt with the guards. Along the way she sees anti-Semitic slogans painted on Jewish owned buildings and other acts of vandalism all over the city. Suddenly another explosion goes off in front of her, and She-Hulk is confronted by a leather clad woman calling herself Malice, the Mistress of Hate. When She-Hulk tries to punch out her foe, she is shocked to find that she can handle the blow. Suddenly the chunk of street she is standing on is shot high up in the air and then dropped. Trying to reach up at her foe by digging under the street, She-Hulk is not prepared when Malice causes he street she is standing on to collapse. The final victor is in Malice's hands when she somehow cuts off She-Hulk's air until she passes out. Malice is then visited by the Hate-Monger who resumes his natural form and congratulates her on a job well done. Malice removes her mask, revealing herself to be Sue Richards, as the Hate-Monger plots to use her to kill the rest of the Fantastic Four. Back at Avengers Mansion, Reed has examined one of the hate pamphlets and concludes that it has some kind of alien molecules that are effecting those who come into contact with it. As Reed and Johnny try to figure out who might be responsible, they are interrupted by Franklin who has had a terrible dream where they were attacked by his mother, and killed Reed. Brodie's View:In addition to yet another striking, memorable cover by John Byrne, we move into one of the more relevant (I would say just in the current day, but sadly the hatred on display here is always relevant) stories of this run, as we see the hatred manipulated by the Psycho Man and his new Hate Monger starting to boil over. This really kind of starts with the FF explaining to the police what had happened to their former home and headquarters, The Baxter Building, a couple of issues back (the brainwashed Kristoff Vernard, believing he was Doctor Doom, shot the BB into space and blew it up). This leads to one of Reed's former tenants, an old Jewish man that owned a little snack shop inside the building, complaining about the fact that his long time business and all that was inside his store when the building was destroyed, was gone. Reed tries to console the man, but he doesn't get very long, as the very police officer that Reed was just explaining things to suddenly attacks the man, slamming him up against the nearest wall in a very hateful way. Wyatt Wingfoot tries to come to the man's aid, but is also attacked and insulted for his Native American heritage by the officer. This leads She Hulk into the frey, but Reed is quickly able to de-escalate the situation by convincing Jennifer to comply with the officers until they can figure all of this out, which Jen and Wyatt begrudgingly do. However, this action, while de-escalating things with the police, does nothing for the angry crowd that has gathered around them as all this had been going on, and they attack the remaining FF members (and "Alicia Masters," who is secretly a Skrull) with bricks and other objects. Johnny is able to fend them off long enough for Reed and Sue to work out a plan (Sue will escort Alicia home, while Reed and Johnny head to Avengers Mansion to see if they can figure out what is happening and why), and the team foolishly splits up. I say foolishly, because we see that the FF are being observed by the two villains responsible (well, not entirely responsible, as they are only playing off of feelings that the more affected people already had, much like the Shadow King, but like the X-Men villain I just named, they have the ability to greatly amplify what is already there), the Psycho Man and his new Hate Monger, who has the ability to change his shape, as we saw at the very end of the last issue. We see that they have their eyes specifically on Sue Richards, who they can detect, despite her and Alicia being invisible. We don't see the confrontation between Sue, "Alicia," and these villains in the pages of this book. We will see it somewhere else a couple of reviews from now, and when we see it, we'll almost kind of wish that the writer that had depicted it had taken the Byrne approach, and just let it happen off camera. Regardless, we jump ahead to She Hulk and Wyatt Wingfoot in the back of a police truck, which is attacked by a group of thugs who mistakenly thought one of their member was in said truck. However, this gives Jen an official chance to try and break away and join the rest of the team. She doesn't get far, however, as she is attacked by a new villain; one covered in a leather S&M style outfit and calling herself Malice, the Mistress of Hate(!!!), who seems to have an answer for every one of Jen's attacks. In fact, Malice's attack seem kind of familiar, as they seem to be a darker version of the attacks Sue Richards might use on a foe. Finally, after putting She Hulk down for the count, Malice is approached by the Hate Monger, and we reveal that Malice is indeed the Invisible Girl; one that has been somehow corrupted and turned evil by the powers of this new Hate Monger. We then get a little teaser from within Avengers Mansion, as Reed and Johnny are trying to analyze the pamphlet that Johnny took off of Mister Unger (who had disguised himself as a young man, throwing Johnny off) a few issues back. Franklin runs in, telling his dad that he just had another "special dream" that his mom had killed him(!!!). Needless to say, we'll be picking all of this up in the next review, as we see whether the remaining two members of the FF can fight arguably their most powerful (as established by John Byrne throughout this run) member, and what the fall out from said fight will be. This will also lead into that big crossover that I mentioned in the last review, as we will see moments that were missing in this story (whether we really need to see said moments or not), but first....the FF must battle Malice: Mistress of HATE!!! GRADE: A
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Nov 10, 2020 22:46:15 GMT -5
Fantastic Four #281"With Malice Towards All!"Cover Date: Aug, 1985 Writer: John Byrne Artist: John Byrne Feature Characters: The Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Girl, The Human Torch, & She Hulk) Villain/s: Psycho Man, & Mister Unger/The Hate Monger, & Malice Special Guests: "Alicia Masters"/Lyja the Skrull, Daredevil, Edwin Jarvis, & Elsie Gertz Official Plot:New York City is in flames thanks to the hatred stoked by the Hate-Monger. He gloats over his victory from a rooftop alongside his master the Psycho-Man, and their slave Malice -- formally the Invisible Girl of the Fantastic Four. People all over the city are now fighting, rioting, and destroying everything in sight. Hate-Monger is particularly proud of twisting Sue Richards into the leather tressed femme fatal before him. His gloating is abruptly stopped by the Pscyho-Man who orders his Hate-Monger to go out and complete his mission: the destruction of the Fantastic Four. With that, Hate-Monger orders Malice to seek out her former teammates and kill them. Without a moment’s hesitation, Malice leaps off the building, eager to kill her friends and family, her husband Reed Richards in particular. Elsewhere in the city the hero known as Daredevil is leaping from rooftop to rooftop when he hears a cry for help. In a nearby alley a homeless African-American woman is being terrorized by members of a gang. Daredevil easily trounces the two gang members, but is suddenly shocked when the black woman suddenly strikes him and calls him a "honkey" before running off. Confused by this altercation, Daredevil gathers up the two gang members to the police hoping they can give him some answers. While back at Avengers Mansion, the temporary home to the Fantastic Four, Reed continues his analysis of the strange hate filled pamphlets that are the root of the chaos in the city. Johnny Storm is also trying to reach his girlfriend Alicia Masters by phone, but cannot get a hold of her, although she should have arrived at home by now. Reed tells Johnny not to worry because Sue is the most powerful member of the FF and she can take care of herself and protect Alicia. Their work is interrupted by the Avengers’ butler Jarvis who tells them that the city is erupting with violence. Reed sends Johnny outside to see what he can do. Seeing the city in flames, Johnny tries his best to absorb flames wherever he can. As he does so, he recalls that the Wraith-War was not too long ago, and wonders if the world would be a more peaceful place without super-heroes around. His thoughts are cut off when he spots Alicia on a rooftop and goes to her side. She tries to explain her encounter with the Hate-Monger. After explanations are made, Johnny takes Alicia back to Avenges Mansion for her own safety. Down in the streets below, She-Hulk revives from her battle with Malice. Contemplating how Malice defeated her, Jen finds it almost impossible to believe the true identity of her attacker. Back at Avengers Mansion, Reed has completed his device to stop the violence in the city and has Jarvis accompany him to the roof of the mansion to help him set it up. There they are confronted by Malice. Reed tries to defend himself, but is unprepared for his wife's unique use of her invisibility powers. When Johnny arrives on the scene, Malice uses her powers to cut off his oxygen supply so his flame goes out. Left to fall to the ground, Johnny is saved by the timely arrival of Daredevil. Suspecting who their attacker might be, Reed asks Daredevil to use his enhanced senses to see what might be protecting Malice. When Daredevil confirms that there is some kind of force field around her, it confirms to Reed who their enemy is. As this fact sinks in for both Reed and Johnny, Sue unmasks herself. When Johnny tries to appeal to Sue’s love for him in order to snap her out of it, but she knocks him out for his trouble. Witnessing Malice harm her younger brother so viciously leads Reed to realize that Malice is fully capable of killing both him and Johnny as Franklin predicted, and also that Sue’s emotions have been inverted, so that all of the love she felt for Reed and Johnny has been turned into hatred. Realizing that the one and only way to free her and save his life and Johnny’s is to make Sue hate him, Reed is forced to deliberately say cruel things to his wife. When Malice, enraged, tries to kill him in response, Reed slaps her, and that snaps Sue out of the inverted emotions put in place by the Hate-Monger. Sue, finally free, then breaks down in tears in her husband’s arms. Reed gently comforts her, and Sue tells Reed that she knows who is responsible and wants to make them pay for what they did to her. Brodie's View:New York City burns as the new Hate Monger and his master, The Psycho Man (who is really the one pulling the strings for all of this), watch on approvingly, as they realize that as their power grows, it will flow from NYC to the rest of the world. Watching also is Malice, who is also Susan Richards, but a Susan Richards turned dark and evil by the powers of the Hate Monger/Psycho Man. Obviously, this was done by playing on real resentment Susan had felt towards Reed and the rest of the team for leaving her behind/handling her as if she were fragile glass in the wake of the loss of her child in FF #267. Of course, while the Hate Monger gloats over his corruption of Susan, the Psycho Man warns him not to get too confident, as the FF have over come bigger threats in the past. The Hate Monger then sends Malice to finish the job she started with She Hulk in the last issue. Speaking of Jennifer, we see her come to after being put down for the count by Malice, and after replaying their battle in her head, figures out Malice's identity before Reed or Johnny, who are both on the roof of Avengers Mansion (where the FF have been staying after their headquarters was destroyed...again. I swear, Reed and the crew need to start paying rent to Tony Stark....lol)) trying to counteract the Hate Monger/Psycho Man's power. They really don't get much of a chance to make any headway, as they are soon attacked by Malice, who uses her powers to hurt both Reed and Johnny. In fact, Johnny nearly falls to his death from Susan cutting off his flame power, but is luckily caught by Daredevil, who is a Special Guest Star in this issue, although, it seems that the entire reason for his being there is his radar sense detecting nothing but a morphing force field surrounding Malice. This pretty much tips the remaining FF'ers off as to who the identity of Malice truly is, which she confirms by whipping her mask off and verbally attacking Reed and Johnny for the many slights she felt they committed against her. Realizing that the Psycho Man must be somehow responsible for all of this (as the pamphlets the Hate Monger had been distributing had been of alien origin), Reed puts together a plan to try and snap Susan out of the Hate Monger/Psycho Man's control, and that's basically to be a total dick to her. He does fully, at least in her mind, justify that her charges against Reed were correct, however, this ends up overloading the Hate Monger/Psycho Man's power, breaking their control over her. Once she comes back to her senses, and remembers who did this to her in the first place, she vows Vengeance against them. Of course, as we'll see in our next review (which we'll get to the tease for that in a second), she's not going to be able to get revenge against one of those two (though I'm not saying which one ), but her quest for revenge against the one remaining will take us to the second part of this story, which will also have some pretty shocking moments. Of course, as we'll see over the next few reviews, there's a lot of other stuff going on in the Marvel Universe at that point, and some of that will dip into this run as well. One of those will involve a major crossover that is happening (or beginning) at the same time that this particular story is taking place in, and while we'll majorly see that playing out in the next review, we'll definitely seeing events and characters from that crossover factoring in to certain events that take place as it relates specifically to the FF. Of course, I will warn you that this crossover definitely lacks in comparison to what Byrne is doing with the FF book (as well as other creative teams and books that this crossover tries to continue plot/story threads for), but as I hinted at before, it certainly intersects with some of the events of this particular storyline. After that, we'll come back to the FF series to see the team prepare to Get Small in order to get the Invisible Girl's vengeance for her. GRADE: A-
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Nov 12, 2020 0:56:50 GMT -5
Secret Wars II #2"I'll Take Manhattan..."Cover Date: Aug, 1985 Writer: Jim Shooter Artist: Al Milgrom Feature Characters: The Beyonder Villain/s: Psycho Man, The Hate Monger (Destroyed), Scourge, & Charlie Carcrash (and his gang) Special Guests: The Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Girl, The Human Torch, & She Hulk), Spider-Man, Power Man/Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Wyatt Wingfoot, "Alicia Masters"/Lyja the Skrull, & Elsie Gertz Official Plot:Following his initial interaction with humanity in LA[1] and taking on the physical form of Captain America[2], the Beyonder materializes atop the World Trade Center in New York City. He has decided to experience humanity through personal experience and decides to remain in human form as much as possible. However when he tries to fall down to the crowd below he briefly changes his mind after realizing he may have a nasty fall ahead of him. Walking around New York he would find it, and its people strange. Feeling hungry, he remembers what Rachel Summers told him about eating[3] and goes to a hot dog vendor and orders a hot dog and a beverage. He scares away the vendor when he literally eats the bottle, and finds the experience rather painful. As he continues along on his tour of New York, he finds everyone's attire fascinating. As the Beyonder continues to try to make sense of New York, the city itself is in the grip of angry riots that are mostly focused on mutants and the super-human community. The largest congregation around Avengers Mansion, the temporary home of the Fantastic Four.[4] The crowd is disbursed to allow a paddy wagon carrying an indignant She-Hulk and Wyatt Wingfoot back to the mansion[5]. While this is happening, the Invisible Girl is using her powers sneak Alicia Masters out of the mansion as well. They are unknowingly monitored by the Psycho man who sends his minion the Hate-Monger after her. Disguising himself as Reed Richards, the Hate Monger gets close enough to Sue to touch her transforming her into the absolute incarnation of her dark-side. In a bondage-inspired costume she calls herself Malice and vows to destroy her husband and the Fantastic Four[6]. While this is happening, the Beyonder is still wandering the streets of New York. When someone throws a brick through a store window, he decides to go inside. When asked by one of the store clerks why he crawled in, the Beyonder tells him it was because it was open. When he begins asking the clerk why people have to wear clothing, he asks the Beyonder to find a friend who can help. Satisfied with this, the Beyonder leaves the store (much to the clerks relief) and begins scanning the city for someone he knows. Recognizing Peter Parker from Battleworld[7] he teleports to the offices of the Daily Bugle and begins asking Peter about clothing. Peter, thinking the Beyonder is some loony, tries to escape him, but the Beyonder manages to follow him throughout the building. Deciding to ditch this strange man, Peter slips away and changes into Spider-Man and web-slings back to his Soho apartment, unaware that the Beyonder is invisibly following him. Thinking he is safe at home, Peter unmasks and begins drinking milk when the Beyonder startles him by appearing right before his eyes. Giving the Beyonder a punch across the face, he realizes who the Beyonder is and that he has come seeking information. When Peter suggests that the Beyonder seek out Reed Richards, the Beyonder alerts Spider-Man to the fact that he needs to go to the bathroom. Peter has the awkward position of trying to explain to the Beyonder what going to the bathroom is. When the Beyonder is done, he tells Peter that he is going to seek out Reed Richards and teleports away. Realizing what he's done, Peter puts his mask back on and swings off to try and find Richards to warn him. The Fantastic Four meanwhile, are in a pitched battle against the Hate-Monger unaware that they are being secretly observed by the Psycho-Man[6]. In the middle of the battle, the Beyonder appears right next to Mr. Fantastic and begins answering questions, distracting Reed enough to require Sue (now free from the Hate-Monger's control) to save him with an invisible force field. While Reed is distracted learning who the Beyonder is, Sue grabs the Hate-Monger and before She-Hulk can nab the Psycho-Man he teleports away. Sue demands answers from the Hate-Monger, but before they can get any answers the Scourge of the Underworld blasts him and he disintegrates into a puddle of ooze. Reed has a theory of who was responsible for creating the Hate-Monger but he ignores Sue for a moment to preoccupy himself with the Beyonder. However, when Reed admits that it would be difficult to explain the intricacies of existence, the Beyonder then teleports away to find someone else who can help him. However, this upsets Reed when he realizes that he's been neglecting Sue's desire to find out who has been manipulating her he redoubles his attention to her. As Spider-Man continues to seek out the Beyonder, the one from Beyonder appears in front of another store front. Seeing a suit that strikes his fancy, he uses his powers to make it appear on himself. The suit is ill-fitting and he is scolded by homeless woman Elsie Gertz. She explains to him that you need money to pay for things and then points out that the suit barely fits. As she points out it's flaws the Beyonder corrects them and decides to follow her to listen to her advice, finding what she says about the need of money to purchase things one wants interesting. Taking him back to the cardboard box she calls home the two are attacked by a gang led by Charlie Carcrash. Thinking the Beyonder has money on him they attempt to mug him, but when they find him as broke as the old bag lady they beat him bloody. When they run off, Elsie hands the Beyonder a business card for Heroes for Hire, telling him if he had money he could hire them to deal with those crooks. Using his powers to heal himself, the Beyonder decides to do just that and teleports away. He appears at the offices of Heroes For Hire after working hours, however after scanning the timeline he finds that its owners Power Man and Iron Fist were there earlier that day. He brings them forward in time and when Luke believes they are being attacked he grapples with the Beyonder and tells him to take it outside. The Beyonder makes him let go and jumps out the office window and falls to the ground. Luke jumps out after him, but is stopped from fighting further by Iron Fist. When they realize that the Beyonder only sought them out to learn more about the want of money, Luke pipes in with his street smart opinion of money. The Beyonder thanks them, and as Spider-Man arrives on the scene, the one from Beyond decides to pay Luke and Fist for their aid. To do so, the Beyonder uses his powers to turn the entire office building into solid gold before the three shocked heroes. With "payment" tendered, the Beyonder teleports away, and Power Man and Iron Fist are returned to the past leaving Spider-Man to wonder what to do about the giant gold building that is now collapsing under its own weight. Brodie's View:Yes, SECRET WARS II is the crossover I kept hinting about in the last few reviews, and this is one review I really wasn't looking forward to writing as....SECRET WARS II kind of sucks. Yeah, some of the crossover issues are good, as we've seen with some of the X-MEN crossover issues I covered during the Claremont run, and there are a few good ones that happen in this one, but those good stories kind of seem to happen in spite of the clusterf*** that then Editor in Chief of Marvel (and writer of the main SECRET WARS II series) Jim Shooter cooked up to follow up the wildly successful first SECRET WARS series. This is not to say that the idea behind the SECRET WARS II series is a bad one; it really isn't, but the execution of it misses far more than it hits, especially during the period of the series we're discussing here. So, for those that don't know, in the original SECRET WARS series, an all powerful being called The Beyonder decided to snatch a bunch of heroes and villains, and shunt them off to a pocket universe (and on a world created from parts of other worlds) to battle to the death in order to find out which side was superior; Good or Evil. Good wound up winning in the end, and pretty much every one was sent back to where they were snatched from....well, for the most part. In this series, the Beyonder decides to come to Earth to try and experience what it is to be human. That's what a good portion of this issue is dedicated to, the Beyonder traveling around, talking to a bunch of different people, trying to get answers for his questions concerning what it is to be human. Meanwhile, the events of FF #280/1 are happening throughout the course of this story, and that's the main reason I'm reviewing this issue as part of this run. For example, we do get to see a few scenes that we only got/will get hints of in the actual FF series; such as Susan Richards being transformed into Malice by the power of the Hate Monger. Of course, the way Shooter depicts it, his using his power on her takes on a strange sexual tone, and it really doesn't take very much for Susan to be turned into Malice, costume and all. I kind of wonder if this new Hate Monger just happened to have an S&M outfit on him to outfit the new Susan Richards with, and how he would happen to know her exact size measurements. Then again, I doubt one would get any kind of answers from the Hate Monger, as we jump ahead to the FF battling the Monger and the Psycho Man, who ends up splitting on his own creation, leaving him to the mercy of the heroes he tried to manipulate. The FF try to get answers out of the new Hate Monger, but he is instantly killed by another villain; one that would be VERY familiar to the readers of CAPTAIN AMERICA at the time. That's right, the Hate Monger is blasted into pink goo by the villain assassin known only as Scourge (now THAT is a run I wish I had collected somewhere to review). Pretty random, but I do give Thumbs Up to Shooter for including Scourge in the events going on in this issue, and I will also say that this won't be the last time we see Scourge Serving Justice during this run. ( ) Anyways, that pretty much covers it from the FF side of things. I wouldn't have minded seeing these scenes actually depicted in the FF comic, as i can guarantee that Byrne would have done a MUCH better job with it than Shooter did here. Jim Shooter isn't a TERRIBLE writer, but he's not a very good one either, and this series is a perfect example of Shooter having no idea how to write certain characters. I will say that he does a decent job with Spider-Man (who the Beyonder follows back to his apartment, only to take a dump in poor Pete's shitter after having the concept of taking a dump explained to him by a dumbfounded Web Head), but then again, he's a pretty hard character to TRULY mess up. Another check against this issue and series is the craptastic art by Al Milgrom, who I've never been a fan of, art-wise. I remember some of the hideous covers he did on the INCREDIBLE HULK during the whole "Banner Hulk" run of #272-300. I will say that SECRET WARS II does improve somewhat in the second half, but for the most part, you're better reading some of the better crossover issues that connect with the main book, rather than the main book itself. Anyways, yeah, the Beyonder will be popping in here and there throughout the latter part of this run, and the next review will be an example of that. However, not much of one, as we're entering the second half of the Psycho Man story, and one that actually is as good, if not better, as the half of the story that proceeded it. In the next issue, the FF prepare to go into the Microverse to hunt down the Psycho Man, and we get a little glimpse into the immediate future, story wise, for one Franklin Richards. GRADE: C+
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