By [ad_1]
Today, we look at your picks for #36-33 of the greatest Fantastic Four stories ever told!
As always, you voted, I counted the votes and now we count them down, four at a time. If I don’t add a date for the series, it means it is the original volume of whatever series I’m talking about.
36. Fantastic Four #249-250 “Man and Super-Man”
In a lot of ways, and I mean this in the best possible way, John Byrne’s Fantastic Four run seemed to be filled with things designed to amuse Byrne himself. You know, like, “Hey, wouldn’t it be cool to have a landscape issue?” Similarly, for this two-parter, Byrne first got to have the Fantastic Four fight against Superman by using the Superboy riff, Gladiator, from the Shi’ar Imperial Guard. The cover for this issue, showing Gladiator handling the Fantastic Four easily was later homaged by Byrne when he relaunched the Superman titles Post-Crisis, this time using Legion of Super-Heroes members as stand-ins for the Fantastic Four the way that Gladiator stood in for Superman in this story.
The set-up is simple enough, that Gladiator chases some Skrulls to Earth and he becomes convinced that the Fantastic Four are the Skrulls that he is chasing and so, well, hilarity ensues. At the end of the issue, the X-Men seemingly show up to fight Gladiator after he’s mopped the floor with the Fantastic Four. Of course, due to their dialogue, it is clear that the X-Men are really the Skrulls that Gladiator is looking for.
In the next issue, Byrne celebrates the 250th issue of the Fantastic Four by guest-starring Captain America, Spider-Man and the “X-Men,” who Byrne, of course, had notable runs on all three of those guest stars’ titles (Marvel Team-Up for Spider-Man).
In the end, Byrne shows the Fantastic Four cleverly take advantage about how Gladiator’s powers are confidence-based…
Scott Lobdell later had fun with that same concept with a Gladiator/Cannonball fight in Uncanny X-Men.
35. Fantastic Four #73 “The Flames of Battle…”
Byrne using such notable guest stars is right in keeping with Fantastic Four #73, where Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and Joe Sinnott bring in THREE major guest-stars for a classic mistaken identity brawl with the Fantastic Four. The issue is sort of kind of a crossover of Daredevil #38, where Doctor Doom had temporarily switched bodies with Daredevil. He gave ol’ hornhead his body back just in time to let the Fantastic Four know that Doctor Doom was coming at them in Daredevil’s body and so they needed to protect themselves (while Daredevil was coming to give them some tips about protecting from body transfers). So when the Fantastic Four attack him, Daredevil quickly realizes he is in trouble.
He soon runs into Spider-Man and after a quick explanation (some might say TOO quick), Spidey is on his side and they happen to see Thor, who is still smarting from a fight he just had with the Wrecker and Spidey pulls the ol’ reverse psychology routine on Thor to get him to help, as well.
So it’s Spider-Man, Daredevil and Thor trying to break into the Baxter Building to talk some sense into the Fantastic Four. It resulted in one of Jack Kirby’s best full-page splash pages from his time on the Fantastic Four…
Sue eventually fills everyone in on what is going down (she saw Doom on TV, so she knows he can’t be Daredevil) and the heroes quit fighting. Daredevil is oddly cool about it, noting that it was at least a nice workout.
34. Fantastic Four #259-260 “When Titans Clash”
At the end of Fantastic Four #257, Reed Richards vanished. #258 is a solo Doom story, so by #259, Reed has been gone for over a month, but the rest of the Fantastic Four don’t know that yet, so they don’t think too much of it when Tyros the Terrible shows up on Earth to cause trouble and only 3/4 of the Fantastic Four arrive to stop him.
Doom, though, is back at home and has a plan to acquire Tyros’ Power Cosmic, but it involves Reed being his distraction so that Doom can swoop in and steal the Power Cosmic. When Reed doesn’t show up, however, Doom is forced to get involved himself and he finds himself literally trapped in his armor in Fantastic Four #260…
I adore the sight of Doom getting hoisted by his own petard! But, of course, Byrne sets up Doom’s escape plan beautifully, with an Aunt May cameo, to boot! Guest star Silver Surfer basically annihilating Tyros and disintegrating Doom’s body is such an epic moment. It really shows how Surfer was on a whole other level.
33. Fantastic Four #4 “The Coming of Sub-Mariner!”
As I noted in the last installment, When Martin Goodman told Stan Lee to create a new superhero series to compete with DC’s then-booming superhero revival of the late 1950s/early 1960s, Goodman initially just wanted Lee to do a revival of Marvel’s previous superhero line, basically a redo of what Lee had done in the early 1950s when Captain America, Human Torch and Sub-Mariner were all revived to kick some Communist behind. However, Lee wanted something new and so Jack Kirby (and presumably Lee) worked together on a brand-new concept that was more akin to Kirby’s Challengers of the Unknown idea from the 1950s, only with a single nod to Goodman’s initial request, which was to have a Human Torch on the team, only a brand-new teenaged literally human version of the Human Torch.
Things broke to the Golden Age four issues in as Kirby and Lee (and inker Sol Brodsky) bring back Namor the Sub-Mariner. Amusingly, Human Torch had just quit the team at the end of the previous issue, so this issue opens with the Fantastic Four searching for him and there is a bit I love to death where Mister Fantastic uses his powers to just yank a dude off of a motorcycle to see if he knows where Johnny is.
Johnny, of course, is just chilling in the bowery where he decides to burn the beard off of some bum…
Johnny then throws him into the water, as you do, and Namor’s memories return and he threatens to mess things up. He also tries to marry Sue and gets mad when she acts like it wouldn’t be an honor. The Fantastic Four manage to drive him away, but you can tell they’re very worried about a rematch in the future.
About The Author
[ad_2]
