{"id":17262,"date":"2023-06-09T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-09T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/?p=17262"},"modified":"2022-01-25T14:14:20","modified_gmt":"2022-01-25T18:14:20","slug":"ff-374","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/2023\/06\/09\/ff-374\/","title":{"rendered":"FF 374"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

3 non-standard titles in a row! And look at this! Should be a weird one. Still i what could charitably be called \u201cone of the less popular runs of FF,\u201d I guess this is one way to try to juice sales. Ho\u2019in\u2019 up Sue\u2019s outfit didn\u2019t seem to do it. Having an OG like Paul Ryan drawing probably isn\u2019t helping, either. Not really a commentary on him, just on what sells in 1992 (Meaning art, the Image kind). This issue is part of a multi-issue story that doesn\u2019t feature Spider-Man in every part, but seemed worth looking at. Spidey catches us up right on page 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So, yeah, DeFalco, Ryan, Danny Bulanadi and Gina Going. Johnny Storm on the run. And Spider-Man going to Dr. Strange for help. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Spidey suggests he should team-up with \u201cThe New Fantastic Four\u201d again for this caper, and Strange sends his astral form all over the US to find them and recruit them. In addition to his own title, Strange is currently the lynchpin of a book called \u201cSecret Defenders,\u201d where he brings together random heroes for missions, which is a cool idea, but never seemed to take off. So this kind of messenger service is kind of his thing now. Meanwhile, at Four Freedoms Plaza, Red, Ben and Sharon Ventura (Still hanging out but not a Thing, in this period) have come home form a mission, and Sue is mad at them for not being here to help with Johnny. Also, Sharon\u2019s apparently heard Ben tell the recently returned Alicia Masters he still loves her, and obviously has an issue with that (The Alicia Johnny married was revealed to be a Skrull to solve how Johnny marrying her was a terrible idea in the first place, as I think we heard about in FF 362<\/a>, just last 1992 block). A lot of strife in the house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Agatha Harkness, probably not recognizable to Wandavision fans, settles Franklin down with her magic. Then we cut to Latveria for some crazy Dr. Doom stuff. Man, a lot of business in this title right now. Then we cut back to the FF-minus-Johnny as they set out to look for him. We see Johnny\u2019s hiding out in one of New York\u2019s endless supply of abandoned buildings, afraid to face his family after what he\u2019s done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Not sure why Hulk is so aggro. Other than just general 90s miasma, presumably. Quick look in on the Skrulls who started this, including Lyja, the one Johnny accidentally married who, get this, isn\u2019t as mad at him as she thought she was (I know!), then back to the New FF finding Johnny. Johnny feels threatened since Hulk is openly threatening him and shoots up a \u201c4\u201d signal to get some backup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Time for the beloved variation Eight Heroes Fight Over A Misunderstanding. Kinda harkens back to FF 73<\/a>. Just much lamer. Sue and Reed stat having a marital dispute while she\u2019s making sure Wolverine can\u2019t stab Reed and Ghost Rider can\u2019t chain whip her with her force field. As unfun as it is to watch Peter & MJ fight, they got nothing on this. Johnny tries to fight Ghost Rider, but he\u2019s rather ambivalent about, you know, fire. Sharon comes for Spider-Man, but he outmaneuvers and webs her. Back in their fight, Ben says Hulk of all people should know what Johnny\u2019s going through, and he says he does, \u201cin spades!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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PHRASING, Reed! Improbably, we cut from that to the moon, where The Inhumans watch Dr. Doom zoom up to harass The Watcher, like there wasn\u2019t enough going on with the big super fight, then right back to said fight. And then something famously stupid happens:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This is the very moment when The Thing gets rocks cut off his face to reveal the weird lumpy skin underneath, and starts wearing a helmet because he looks ugly now. One of the most ridiculed moments of the 90s, and I accidentally got it. History in the making, but not the good kind, like you want. While everyone\u2019s focused on Ben\u2019s new face, Ghost Rider hasn\u2019t forgotten he\u2019s Ghost Rider, and snares Johnny in his chains. He\u2019s about to be subjected to the Penance Stare, which, I dunno, seems fair, it\u2019s not like he killed anybody (Did he?), but then Lyja shows up to claim the right to fight him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And thus, abruptly, \u201cThe New FF\u201d are out of the story. Presumably, our heroes were zapped to the moon to fight Dr. Doom. I think it\u2019s not long after this that Reed and Doom \u201cdie\u201d in combat, Ant-Man takes Reed\u2019s place on the team, Sue goes bad\u2026 The 90s, man. Woof. Next post, it\u2019s back to ASM for a 2-parter to finish out this block.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

3 non-standard titles in a row! And look at this! Should be a weird one. Still i what could charitably be called \u201cone of the less popular runs of FF,\u201d I guess…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17263,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[410],"tags":[1580,886,49,288,1040,560,1579,59,72,1038,564,390,2,663,124,300],"class_list":["post-17262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1990s","tag-agatha-harkness","tag-danny-bulanadi","tag-doctor-strange","tag-fantastic-four","tag-franklin-richards","tag-ghost-rider","tag-gina-going","tag-hulk","tag-human-torch","tag-invisible-woman","tag-mister-fantastic","tag-paul-ryan","tag-spider-man","tag-the-thing","tag-tom-defalco","tag-wolverine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17262"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17273,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17262\/revisions\/17273"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}