Hey, an FF comic. As far as I know, this is not a period remembered fondly. It hasn’t gotten into real, real bad territory yet, at this point. It’s our familiar friend Tom DeFalco and the guy who wound up drawing the Spider-Man wedding annual, Paul Ryan, with inks by Danny Buladani and colors by Christie Scheele (Side note: I recently read that Jim Shooter wanted Sal Buscema to do the wedding, someone far more suited to it given his long history with the character, but Sal found Shooter’s script way too overbearing, telling him exactly what to do in every panel, and turned it down. So you get a guy who no one associates with Spider-Man drawing one of the biggest moments in his life). DeFalco had a long run on this title that saw, among other things, Alicia revealed to have been a Skrull for many years, Reed “killed,” Sue adopting a ridiculously sexualized new costume, and Ben having his face cut open by Wolverine and wearing a helmet that he wore for 5 minutes in the early 60s to protect the parts of his head now missing rocks. It was messy, to say the least. That all comes later, tho. Right now, it’s just mediocre FF. The most common kind of FF. Fantastic Four can be Marvel’s best title, and indeed, launched the whole line, but most people can’t seem to bring out the best in it. FF became the cornerstone of the Marvel Universe because the first few years of Kirby/Lee saw them coming up with an incredible amount of new ideas, constantly. But rather than honor that tradition and do something new, most people who get the keys to the car just want to make them fight Dr. Doom and Galactus. And, to be fair, that’s probably what most fans want, anyway. There are, in my humble estimation, really only maybe 4 great runs in the history of the title. Anyway! In this issue, DeFalco and Ryan try to have their cake and eat it too, promising to show us a new world and a new foe on the first page, and delivering a world that could easily be The Negative Zone and a villain who’s a low rent Blastaar by page 2. That villain is Wild Blood, as advertised on the cover, and he is dopey. Reed doesn’t yet know he’s even made contact with this guy, having just stuck his hand through a door to another dimension and pulled it back, seemingly with no thought to the consequences.
After the dumn decision was made to have Johnny marry Ben’s longtime sweetheart years past, DeFalco tried to fix it by revealing Johnny’s Alicia is a Skrull, immediately bringing back the real Alicia, and rekindling her romance with Ben. Messy. But look who’s down there in the corner!
Later, as Johnny signs autographs for adoring fans, Spider-Man pulls a very 60s move and drops a big web bat on the Fantasticar, which covers Johnny in web when he investigates. DeFalco is perhaps to literal in making Spidey the Bugs Bunny of Marvel Comics as he has our hero ask, “What’s up, Doc?”
Yeah, so we’re doing this. A very 60s move all around. They keep fighting, doing increasingly silly things like making web wings and flame fly swatters, as Spider-Man says he’s her if Johnny wants to talk.
Look at all this destruction and reckless endangerment. “Great responsibility,” indeed. Meanwhile, the rest of the FF and little Franklin Richards are all on hand to watch Reed once again stick his hand into an unknown location he can’t see, and he is shocked when Wild Blood grabs him. Real weird choices for the alleged smartest man in the world! Wild Blood is being attacked by some goofy fantasy guys and hitches a ride through Reed’s dimensional door on his retracting arm.
Very, very smart. The Fantastic Three begin trying to fight the little weirdo without hurting him for several unsuccessful pages. Meanwhile…
Isn’t that water, like, necessary? Come on, guys, this is terrible. Back at base, Sue easily contains the weirdo in her force field like she should have from the beginning, and then Johnny gets home just in time to join the others in seeing Wild Blood’s enemies try to break through Reed’s portal, so they have to go in there. Next issue. Not really our concern. This was a very dumb comic book. Nostalgia is part and parcel of the superhero biz, but bringing back the worst parts of the past isn’t exactly a good thing. Next time, we’ll get to an actual, regular monthly Spider-Man comic.