Anniversary Countdown #14: Fantastic Four 131

We are now past the Stan Lee era for the Fantastic Four. Specifically, at this time Medusa had replaced the Invisible Girl.

---

Fantastici Quattro #131 (1976)
Published by: Corno

We’re back to removing the word balloons from the cover!

---

Fantastic Four #133 (1973)
written by Roy Thomas (plot) & Gerry Conway (script)
pencils by Ramona Fradon

While the original cover boasted this was “The Battle Of The Century – Any Century!”, in the Italian version we were simply told this was “The dawn of Thundra“.
Which is not just closer to the actual title (“Thundra at dawn”), but it’s more appropriate since *spoiler alert* this is anything BUT the The Battle Of The Century.

It’s New Years Eve, but the FF have few things to be happy about lately.
As noted this is the first time Medusa is a member of the team, but I don’t remember finding this strange or wondering what happened to Invisible Girl.

Also for some reason she’s wearing her mask despite being in civilian clothes.

Susan left Reed, Crystal left Johnny, Medusa left Black Bolt… it sure is a weird time for the Fantastic Four when THE THING is the only happy one!!!

Just when Reed and Johnny are beginning to cheer up, Thundra shows up to ruin everything.

---

A brief aside: this story doesn’t mention who Thundra is, and since she’s a major player I suppose I should explain it. Her first appearance is just 4 issues before this one.
She’s from “Femizonia”, an alternate future where women rule the world.

Out of all the characters created to capitalize on the 70’s Women’s Lib, Thundra is probably the most tolerable. She shows up from time to time, having survived thanks mostly through moderate fanservice and considerable self-humor.

---

Back to the story. Thundra is still upset that she didn’t get a real fight with the Thing the last time they met, so she issues a challenge.

Not a problem for the Thing! Thundra is super-strong, so it’s not like this isn’t a fair fight.

The Human Torch gets to her first, but she can handle him.

To make sure the Thing won’t try bringing anyone else into the fight, Thundra kidnaps Alicia.
Because that’s what defines a “honorable fight”: taking hostages.

Must be a slow news day.

I agree, Hulk. Everyone is dumb in this story.

Please don’t tell him Thundra will eventually go back in time to conceive a daughter with him, in the old-fashioned way.
By which I mean she takes a genetic sample to make herself pregnant with him.
No, not that kind of genetic sample.

Thundra is technically one of the Frightful Four in this period, so she reluctantly hangs around them despite the fact she clearly despises them.

This was published three years before Rocky hit theaters, so I’m disappointed to see we don’t get a full training montage.
And yes, the FF don’t make any effort to rescue Alicia. They just trust Thundra will honor the deal, despite BARELY knowing her.

This warrants a full page to show off how many people are going to witness the match!
I remember finding this impressive: there weren’t a lot of splash pages in the comics I owned, so this felt unique.
But it’s just padding.

Have I mentioned this is a dumb story?

Female supervillains were rare in the 70s, and Thundra might just be the first one to fight with her fists, so the Thing is a bit distracted.

Thundra then throws the Thing out of the stadium…

…which upsets the public who paid for the tickets! Alright, I admit this was a moderately funny idea.

Then the big dumb fight continues.

Time for a deus ex machina, because apparently Reed doesn’t think the Thing can win (???) and shoots him with a machine that turns him back into Ben Grimm.

Which only lasts long enough for Thundra to give up, because attacking him when he’s just a men would be unfeminine.

She then beats up the Frightful Four off-screen to release Alicia, and that’s the end.

---

Historical significance: 1/10
This is KIND OF the reason why Thundra stops being a villain. But really it was mostly because she was stuck in bad stories.

Personal significance: 8/10
I remember liking this one, mostly for the fight scenes. It also led me to believe Thundra was a much more important character than she ends up being.

Silver Age-ness: 8/10

Does it stand the test of time? 4/10
What a difference can reading good Fantastic Four stories make. Heck even good Thundra stories, and there’s even a couple of those!

---

Marvel Team-Up #23 (1974)
by Len Wein & Gil Kane

This is one of the few issues of Marvel Team-Up where Spider-Man is not the protagonist.
Instead it’s the Human Torch, so it makes sense to publish this on the book.

Spider-Man still appears on the first page, where he’s borrowing a goofy vehicle from the Fantastic Four in order to have a completely different adventure in another book.

In this period, the Human Torch has exchanged his classic FF blue costume for a red variation, basically the same costume his Golden Age counterpart used to wear (plus the FF symbol).
He also wore it in the Thundra story, but he did so little it’s not visible in the review.
I hate this costume, by the way.

He decides to follow a lead that Spider-Man gave him, but all he finds are puddles.

Then someone thruds him with a block of ice.

And five seconds later (!!!) he runs into Iceman! Which sounds like Iceman was right there, which would make Johnny’s assumption reasonable… but it’s also “many blocks away”.

I’ve always liked Iceman’s method of traveling, sliding across his ice bridge… but more recent stories have the decency to also draw some support pillars.

Understandably, Iceman has no idea why the Torch is angry with him.

By the way, that lead Spider-Man gave the Torch? The fact that he slipped on ice when trying to catch a robber.

This results in, what else, a Misunderstanding Fight™.
Which begins with a game of rock-paper-scissor-lasso.

I’m not a huge X-Men fan but if I’m not mistaken Iceman is not often in the same team with Storm, right? I’d like to see them work together.

Regular rain exhausting the Torch’s fire was fine in the 60s, but by 1974 it’s a bit ridiculous that so little water is able to neutralize that much fire.
So this results in the two heroes exchanging some thramms.

Iceman should have the edge in that fight, right? I’d say the two heroes should have roughly the same knowledge of hand-to-hand combat (possibly Iceman slightly more, but not enough to matter)… but he’s still covered in ice, so I’d say his punches hurt more.
But it doesn’t matter because the X-Men show up to spoil the fun.
Coincidentally, the X-Men are here right after Captain America #175.

Turns out Iceman can’t be responsible for the robbery because just 30 minutes earlier he was about to be assigned a special mission.

That mission, by the way, is in Giant-Size X-Men #1.
That’s right, this is the LAST X-Men story before the new team debuts!!!

And “moments later” they find the next lead. The Torch sure is lucky to ALWAYS be seconds away from the next plot-relevant event!!!

Then both are attacked by fire and ice.

The villain is initially protected by a metallic suit…

…but he removes it to show himself as new villain Equinox.

That’s a killer design, but I have a couple of questions.
Is he naked now? Is he wearing a mask? If not, WTF is wrong with his face?

Jokes aside, Equinox is incredibly cool (and hot I guess). But he’s supposed to continually shift between hot and cold, making me wish we had an animated version of him because it’d be awesome!

 

We have three characters with extremely versatile powers, which of course means they fight by just throwing stuff at each other and with punches.

While Equinox has basically the same powers of both the Human Torch and Iceman, he has a more mundane way of transportation… taking the bus.
I guess it makes sense he can’t fly or create ice bridges: if he’s continuously shifting between fire and ice, it would probably cause problems with stability.

And this results once again in a fisticuff. What is this, the Golden Age?

Maybe it’s a good thing the heroes have only used their fists so far, because the moment they shoot fire and ice…

…HE EXPLODES.

Turns out that what Equinox was trying to steal was an atomic clock. Specifically, a jeweled one (???) that was on display.
A quick research indicates that a “scientific-grade atomic clocks” can cost between 3,000 to 50,000 dollars, while those used for laboratories can range from 100.000 to several million dollars.
Who would put jewels on that thing and hope to sell it???

And that’s how it ends: the villain was only trying to keep his powers in check, and he just escapes through the sewers.

You guys suck at this job, don’t you?

---

Equinox would then appear in 1977’s Marvel Team-Up #60, which weirdly enough is not a team-up with the Human Torch or Iceman, but with Wasp.
The absence of Iceman is particularly weird since it’s written by Chris Claremont, and the absence of the Torch is equally strange since it’s penciled by John Byrne.

The story reveals that Equinox is quite a tragic figure, a kid that has been transformed into a monster through a scientific accident.

He’s seemingly neutralized at the end of the story, but he pops up sometimes.

---

Historical significance: 2/10
Equinox doesn’t show up frequently, even if HE SHOULD. Slightly bumped by being the last X-Men story set before the new team appears.

Personal significance: 8/10
I loved Equinox!!! He’s visually interesting and has extremely versatile powers.
Come to think of it, now that they’ve also added the tragic backstory, he’s even a complex character: why DOESN’T he show up more???

Silver Age-ness: 3/10
Everything conveniently happens “a few seconds later” and right around the block.

Does it stand the test of time? 6/10
The abrupt ending didn’t trouble me at the time, but man does it suck. We also don’t get any real depth to Equinox, and as I’ve highlighted there’s an embarrassing lack of creativity in using powers.
Just read the Claremont/Byrne issue, it’s a WAY better story that will make you wish they used Equinox more.

---

Sub-Mariner #68 (1974)
by Steve Gerber & Don Heck
cover by John Romita Sr.

Of course we can’t have a Fantastic Four issue without a Namor story.

We’ve already seen how Corno sometimes split a story in two parts, but this is a weird exception: this issue publishes ONLY pages 7 to 12, of a 19 page story!!!
I will still talk about the whole story, but Namor is not a fan of this approach.

The story begins with Namor discovering that Atlantis has been devastated AGAIN, in a beautiful two-page spread that is BY FAR the best part of the story.

Namor is suffering from survivor’s guilt, because the only reason he survived is that he wasn’t in Atlantis at the time.

You’re not helping, Namor!!!

Namorita is still alive though, and so are the Amphibians: humans who have been transformed into water-breathers by supervillain Dr. Hydro.

Turns out that the Atlanteans are not really dead, just in convenient suspended animation.

As Namor leaves to look for help, we have an extended flashback that explains Namor’s current situation. This is the part of the story I was able to read.

In this period, Namor had lost the ability to breathe both air and water, so Reed Richards gave him a costume that allowed him to act as normal.
This is my favorite Namor costume once they remove the wings, by the way! The speedo is a classic of course, but I always like it when he wears this beauty.

Things are so bad that Namor summons freaking Neptune.

Neptune does two things for Namor: a prophecy about Atlantis rising at “the forefront of nations” (which I don’t think ends up meaning anything)…

…and scribbling his symbol on Namor’s belt.

That’s it. That’s the entire contribution of Neptune.

After that completely necessary detour, Namor decides that Dr. Hydro’s old base might be useful to look for a cure, so he leads all of his allies there.
The red-skinned woman is the alien Tamara, who you might recall we’ve already seen interact with Doctor Doom all the way back in Super-Villain Team-Up #9.

Said base is none other than Hydrobase, which will become the Avengers headquarters durig the Stern run and last until Doom’s forces destroyed it in Avengers #311.

Oh there’s also a one-page subplot about some magicians from another universe looking for Doctor Strange. It’s completely disconnected from everthing else in this issue.

A potential solution for Atlantis’s problem requires the help of a specific scientist, so Namor leaves Hydrobase immediately.
This is where the story ended for me.

But the story continues with Namor going to Manhattan.

But he’s still not okay, losing consciousness as soon as he reaches the campus where he was headed. Neptune’s blessing doesn’t seem to have done anything.

Turns out the scientist Namor was looking for has been attacked by a supervillain…

…specifically this guy named Force.

You might recognize him as a future Iron Man villain and occasional ally (he was reformed for a while), once he gets a better armor.

The story started with Namor wrecking Atlantis, so it’s fitting he eventually defeats Force by wrecking the campus.

---

Historical significance: 3/10
Force is barely a D list Iron Man villain, and the people of Atlantis will eventually be saved.

Personal significance: 0/10
I completely forgot reading this issue, and no wonder since it’s barely a third of it.
That’s perhaps why, when I first saw Hydrobase on the Avengers issues, I didn’t remember I had already seen it.

Silver Age-ness: 0/10
Not really.

Does it stand the test of time? 4/10
The beginning is terrific, really selling the devastation of Atlantis. But then we go through multiple tangents that don’t mean anything, except maybe the wizards looking for Dr. Strange since it’s setting up a future team-up.