Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Marvel 1978 Week--Fantastic Four #201

You youngsters out there may not remember this, but there was a time when the Fantastic Four was actually published on a monthly basis!! That's right, my incredulous friends, "The World's Greatest Comic Magazine" didn't appear only 7 or 8 times in a calender year back then--how quaint!!

And, in a twist for Marvel of December 1978, the FF had creative teams who didn't need fill-in issues!!

So let's see what we have to work with today:

Ahh, splitting up our heroes to kill them...one of the old-school classicsWell, it's not the most beautiful cover out there, but it does get the job done--and every scene depicted on the cover actually happens on the inside!!

And our creators:

Sorry, Shooter, you only get to consultMarv Wolfman was in the midst of a long run of the FF. We just missed issue #200 (dammit), a multi-part epic that ended in a classic Reed vs. Doctor Doom fight to the finish (another history note: back in the day, Doom wasn't a lackey who sat around tiny tables waiting for marching orders from a failed Spider-Man villain--I know, who woulda thought?!). And Wolfman was about to embark on an 11 issue arc that would take the FF gallivanting around the galaxy, show us the empowerment of Terrax as Galactus' new Herald, bring us an epic Galactus vs. Sphinx showdown for the fate of the Earth, resolve plotlines from Wolfman's sadly-canceled Nova series AND bring in a Tomb of Dracula villain (really!!). Wolfman was nothing if not ambitious.

And nothing against Keith Pollard, but the art star here is Joltin' Joe Sinnott, who for seemingly a million years managed to give a consistent look to the FF universe, no matter who the artist was. This just looks Fantastic Four, down to its very fibers.

So anyway, given that we're between epics, Wolfman & Co are going to give us a nice little cool down story:

January 20th?Yup, Doctor Doom is defeated, and Latveria is a democracy!!

Spoiler: Zorba will suck at this jobYeah, that'll take. (PRO-TIP: Zorba, democratic leaders usually don't wear crowns...just a thought...)

I won't oversell this story to you...as you can no doubt tell from the title, it's going to be the old "our HQ's defense systems turn against us" chestnut. But the main focus of the issue is reuniting our heroes as one big happy family:

Sister Sledge was inspired by this sceneSo Reed is still Reed:

Contracters on the Death StarJohnny and Sue are still Johnny and Sue:

Ah, high fashion...
Ah, sibling hijinksAnd Ben...well, of course he's Ben!!

Ben=strongIt's comfort food for the soul to see the FF like this. But wait: does something sinister lurk in our newly happy home?

Reed needs a better firewallBut before we get to the menace, here's something you don't see much of these days: a schematic of the Baxter Building!!!

At least they mention rest rooms..take THAT, Comics Code!!As is wont in this type of story, each member of the team must be attacked by a manifestation of technology gone wild. Reed must deal with an out of control science experiment...

Lesson one--invasive species are trouble
Lesson Two--don't trust Techomed computers
Lesson Three--glub glub gurgleBenjy has to deal with wayward exercise equipment...

Ben bought this from an infomercial...
The 'Ben Grimm Stretch Armstrong' doll never caught on
Kids--ALWAYS have a spotterSue is having more wardrobe troubles...

A baaad day to be one of Sue's dresses
This'll REALLY put a crimp in her wardrobeAnd Johnny is getting hosed.

Johnny--beaten by a fire extinguisher
Johnny plays Wall Street executiveFortunately, through team work and good luck, our heroes manage to escape:

Ahhh, FF chatter...
She recovers pretty quickly for being in shock...(although they never do tell us how Reed escaped from Microbe 201-B...there's a great ret-con idea...for the past 30 years it hasn't been Reed Richards, as he was replaced by the dastardly microbe...) (except they later acknowledged their flub and explained Reed's escape in the letters page in #204...sigh, there goes my No-Prize)

Anyway, Reed gives everybody their Die Hard tasks...

Ahhh...my crotch is talking to us!!...which inevitably means running a gantlet of techno-based terror, including gas...

JNohnny can't even think one step ahead......lasers AND sonics...

My husband--some hotshot!! Here's his ancient Negative Zone secret......and of course, robots.

Ben vs robots...oh, how I've missed youSue saves the day!!

Thoasands of dollars? Only thousands?!?And Reed and company decide to remain a team!! (Oh, by the way, remember how it was apparently forbidden to show Clark and Pa Kent quaffing a brew on a recent Action Comics cover?!? Well, to hell with that--the FF is swilling champagne, baby!! That's how we roll, Marvel Style!!)

The FF--heroes by day, drunks by nightMan, I love the jumbo-size glass Ben has.

Anyway, we don't figure out why the Baxter Building was malfunctioning, until:

Oh, great, even then it was all Stark's fault...a question we're still asking in 2008. But seriously, it turns out that Quasimodo the Living Computer tapping into the FF's computers for his own nefarious purposes....

Well, there we are. Not a brilliant issue, but a fun time-wasting romp, reuniting and repurposing our heroes for the next buncha issues. It's like comfort food (unlike the Millar and Hitch FF, which is like bland take-out food, and the delivery man never gets there, and when he does the food is cold and tasteless...)

On the letters page:

'Tripping out on it'??That's right, Bart Watts, that fall would see the debut of the Torchless FF, with...Herbie the Robot!!

Oh, my dear sweet lord
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHLesson: appreciate the cartoons you have today...they're soooo much better than what I had growing up...

ELSEWHERE IN THE MARVEL UNIVERSE:

John Buscema=metal ThorThor #278 was the final issue in the first part of Roy Thomas' awesomely ambitious run on the God of Thunder. In this first part of the arc, Odin went about creating a "false"Ragnorak to trick the forces of evil into attacking before the proper time, thus whooping them and moving the "real" Ragnorak further back. He went so far as to create another Thor, Red Norvell, to die at the hands of the Midgard Serpent. But that was only the beginning, as, after a handful of fill-in issues, Thomas unleashed an 18-issue epic, one insanely long story that worked the Eternals and Celestials into Asgardian continuity, explained the part Thor and Odin played in Wagner's Ring Cycle (seriously), and finally told us who Thor's mother was (Odin schtupped the Planet Earth!!). Oh, and Thor saved the Earth from the Celestials' judgment.

It was crazy long, it involved a lot of characters who were never really popular, it tied Thor's continuity into a bunch of operas--no wonder nobody remembers it. But it was one of the great, unheralded runs on Thor...

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Whoa! Thor sounds awesome! Would anyone know if Roy Thomas's run been collected?

snell said...

Surprisingly enough, Anon, it has been collected (at least the Eternals section has...I can't find the "False Ragnorak" issues collected anywhere.)

Anyway, it's available from Amazon as Thor: The Eternals Saga Vol 1 (issues #283-291) and Vol 2 (issues 292-301). But of course, check at your favorite local comics shop first, because we want to support them, right?

Anonymous said...

I might have to look into those Thomas trades: as a kid, I read like two random issues of Thor leading up to 300, and had no idea what was going on. Golden rings and valkyries and everyone dies...

FF#200 is sweet. That is all.

Menshevik said...

That is a time I remember well. I had been collecting Marvels (in German translation and occasionally in English elsewhere when I travelled) since the mid-1970s, but FF #200 was the first issue I bought when I finally found a steady source of US Marvels in my home town, a newsagent who carried the ten or so titles that then were distributed to German newsagents. (IIRC, the titles in late 1978 were ASM, MTU, FF, Conan, Hulk, Marvel Superheroes (Hulk reprints), Iron Man, Avengers, Captain America, Captain Marvel, and Thor).
As you mentioned, Chris Claremont's Marvel Team-Up (often drawn by John Byrne) is one of the half-forgotten gems of the era, but Thor was also very cool. I rather liked the design of the Ring (which the dwarf Alberich wore a bit like a knuckle-duster on four fingers, but which larger-sized beings wore on one finger) and also Thor's mom (who had previously appeared in a Doctor Strange story drawn by Gene Colan, probably my favourite Marvel artist in the 1970s).

(BTW, democratic leaders may not normally wear crowns, but in 20th-century, especially post-WW2 Europe monarchies did prove quite compatible with democratic government. Actually it was quite topical at the time, the reintroduction of the Monarchy in Spain after Franco's death (1975) resulting in the referendum accepting the new democratic constitution in 1978).

Jon K said...

My favorite part of this issue of the FF was Sue's complaining that Johnny had torched her "Frommage Original"... "Frommage" being French for cheese.

Anonymous said...

I had that FF comic when I was little. Ah, the magic of that Baxter Building diagram for a wee tyke.

snell said...

Menshevik--given how Zorba's reign turned out, I'm sticking with the crown=bad idea.

Jon--In my heart I'd always hoped Wolfman had meant the "Frommage original" as a joke...

Abe Lucas said...

FF #217 "By Herbie Betrayed!"

I guess Herbie could do that since the FF cartoon was cancelled by that point.