Humor and humanity, the essential elements of any good FF saga, shine through in J. Michael Straczynski’s first story arc.

Fantastic Four 527 through 532

A review by Hank Wagner

“It (the Fantastic Four comic magazine) featured credible people who had actual lives and distinctive personalities.  They argued among themselves, made nasty comments to each other, ripped their clothes, held grudges, ruined their own equipment, enjoyed separate lives, and ran off in petulant snits.  They squabbled among themselves just like I occasionally mixed it up with my own five brothers and one sister. (Okay, maybe not so occasionally!) But, unlike my family, the FF had wild adventures and faced off against some of the greatest characters ever created in the history of comic books.”  --Tom DeFalco (from his introduction to Fantastic Four: The Legend (1996))

I’d estimate that I’ve been reading comics for around forty years now, ever since I was five or six.  I became aware of comics because of the Batman craze that started in 1965, watching that every week with my younger brother, avidly consuming the show and all of its by-products, like the movie, the Aurora model, the Captain Action accessories, the trading cards, and…the comics.

My early education continued when the early Marvel comics came to the small screen.  The Marvel Superheroes show, with its stilted animation, comes to mind as my first exposure to Marvelmania.  Boy did I love those things.  “Doc Bruce Banner, belted by Gamma Rays, turns into the Hulk, ain’t he unglamor-ace?”  Ah, poetry. 

The big breakthrough came when Spider-Man appeared on ABC Saturday mornings in 1967.  The web slinger was a perfect hero, cracking wise while he kicked ass, striking the same wall crawling, web swinging poses over and over and over again.  My five year-old brother Andrew fell for the guy, hook, line and sinker.  I liked him too, but I soon developed a bigger passion for the show that preceded  Spider-Man, namely The Fantastic Four.

The FF, were, as Kurt Busiek acknowledges in his wonderful Astro City comics, Marvel’s “First Family” (you know, I got the “FF” initials reference there for the first time just now, dope that I am).  They weren’t as cool and hip as Spidey, but they appealed to me nonetheless.  Reed was and remains a classic father figure, always coming up with an intellectual solution in the nick of time.  Sue was motherly and sisterly at the same time.  Johnny was a pain in the ass, just like my little brothers.  And the Thing?  Let’s just say that the “husky” (does anyone else remember that word in a non-canine context?) seven year old I was identified with the bulky, oddly shaped hero a lot.

Thus, when I started collecting, much of my focus was on the quarrelsome quartet.  I’ve read a lot of FF stories over the years, some good (the first Galactus story in FF 48-50, FF 200, some of Byrne’s stuff, much of Simonson’s run), some bad (any issue with the She-Thing, for instance).  Throughout, it’s the family aspect of the team that’s appealed to me, whether the team was enduring one of it’s numerous breakups or enjoying one of its myriad, but welcome reunions.

I’m glad to report that new FF scribe J. Michael Straczynski (hereafter JMS) gets this.  Let’s look at his first story arc, penciled by the able Mike McKone (in a style with echoes of Kirby AND Byrne AND Perez!) , inked by Andy Lanning, colored by Paul Mounts, and lettered by VC’s Randy Gentile.

As he did when he took over Spider-Man, JMS revisits the FF origin story.  Wisely though, he doesn’t reinvent the mythology, as he did with Marvel’s other flagship book.  JMS goes back to basics, but adds his own little spin to the story, proving that you don’t need to reinvent this particular wheel; the FF’s history is so rich, the storytelling possibilities so broad, one will never have to do anything in “The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine” on a par with the regrettable Spider-Clone Saga or even this latest unfortunate “Evolve or Die” storyline. 

The story spans six issues, which, to this reader, is too long (give me some slack here, I grew up reading stories which were usually told in one issue).  Nowadays, it seems as if the stories just go on and on and on.  I guess that works for modern fans, but I’m still not used to it. Reminds me of Harlan Ellison’s comment on the books of best selling fantasy author Robert Jordan, which also go on and on and on—in his inimitable style, Ellison once commented on the slow pace of Jordan’s saga by reminding his audience that Stephen Crane, author of The Red Badge of Courage, handled the entire Civil War in a little over two hundred pages.

The saga begins in issue #527, in a story titled “Distant Music”.  There’s much to like about this issue, where we discover that Reed, Sue and Johnny are broke, but Ben is richer than Midas.  Ben’s wealth starts him thinking in new ways, and Reed’s poverty forces him to hire himself out as a contractor to the US government.  Highlights for this issue include Ben’s query, “How many hotdogs are too many?” (we learn the number for Ben is seventeen), the FF’s droll accountant Mr. Onoffon (“the most boring man on the planet,” according to Reed), and the last page, which delivers a roundhouse punch of a cliff hanger. 

The second chapter, “Random Factors”, asks a good question—why didn’t the cosmic rays affect Reed, Ben, Johnny and Sue in the same manner?  Nice touches in this issue include the appearance of social worker Ms. Debouvier, Ben and his bling (Johnny’s “Fantastic Three and their pimp” comment was priceless), Ben’s inner dialogue with his human self conducted via mirror, and Reed’s realization that the project to recreate the FF’s first journey into space cannot proceed.  My knock on this issue is the way Reed goes about sabotaging the project—surely the world’s smartest man could figure out a more subtle way to halt the launch?   

The next chapter is called “Appointment Overdue”.  Here, Reed tells his teammates that they have an appointment in space, perhaps with the entity that is responsible for endowing them with their powers.  The highlight of this particular segment had to be Reed’s escape from the government compound.

The next two chapters, “Truth in Flight” and “Many Questions, Some Answered”, could have, at least in my mind, been condensed into one issue.  Here, JMS explores a kind of “The Day the Earth Stood Still” scenario, dropping an alien into the FF’s midst.  The alien, searching for the ultimate knowledge (knowledge that in the DC universe lead to the original Crisis storyline), is being pursued by hostiles, intent on terminating his quest.  The FF side with the underdog and try to shield him, ultimately resulting in Reed and the Alien traveling to the beginning of existence, where they join together to design reality (it seems to take them only moments, not the assumed six days). 

My knock on this is that it’s too cosmic, especially only a couple of years after the FF went to Heaven, rescued the Thing, and met the Creator, for pity’s sake.  We find out why Reed had to be there in the next issue, but it’s a little pretentious.   Good things about this segment—Ben’s wisecracks on the trip in, and his nonchalant reaction to the alien’s abrupt appearance.

After slowing down considerably in the previous two issues, the story’s momentum picks up as it rounds the bend towards a satisfying conclusion.  Issue 532’s  “Any Day Now…I Shall Be Released” was pretty neat, as Reed has an “It’s a Wonderful Life” moment, discovering that he’s the reason the cosmic rays affected the FF the way they did.  Returning to the Baxter building, he rediscovers what’s important in life—being with his friends and family, and the little “moments” that result.  Grace notes in this issue include a woozy Susan complimenting her pliable husband’s sexual prowess, Reed’s reaction to Ben’s question about his new custom made duds (“Hey, Stretch, so whaddya think, is it me?” “Ben, it couldn’t possibly be anyone else.”) , and the final, guaranteed-to-choke-you-up panel, showing Ben admiring his image in the mirror with a single tear of happiness running down his rocky cheek.   

Although I have my quibbles with parts of the saga, I think JMS’s first extended FF tale was a success.   He’s left some intriguing plot threads dangling; it will be interesting to see where he takes them.  But, better than that, he’s shown he understands the characters and their relationships in all their humanity and disfunctionality.  He also knows that humor is as important a part of this book as Reed’s intellect, Sue’s quiet strength, Ben’s crabbiness, and Johnny’s daring.   That bodes well for future tales, at least to this longtime Marvelite. 

Hank Wagner lives in Northwest NJ with his wife and four daughters.    A tax attorney by trade, he’s a comic book aficionado by inclination.  Hank writes book reviews and conducts author interviews for genre-oriented magazines like Mystery Scene, Cemetery Dance, Hellnotes, Horror Garage, The New York Review of Science Fiction and others.  He’s a co-author of The Stephen King Universe: A Guide to the Worlds of the King of Horror, and a contributor to the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Watchers Guide: Volume 3 (he wrote an article about watching Buffy with his girls called “The Family Hour”).  As you might have guessed, he genuinely believes that the Fantastic Four is “The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!”