FANTASTIC FOUR #155 (1975)
by Len Wein & Rich Buckler
It’s been a while since we’ve seen Silver Surfer, who has since been in his own series.
We begin with the Fantastic Four (still with Medusa instead of the Invisible Girl) going for a walk, which means that someone tries to mug them.
And then Silver Surfer attacks! No idea about what’s happening to the Thing’s head.
Unfortunately for them Silver Surfer is, to use the exact technical term, “overpowered as f#ck”.
However he refuses to kill them, preferring to narrate his backstory. With the addition that his latest attempt to escape the barrier created by his master Galactus resulted in him falling back to Earth.
Hmmm, I wonder who is going to be the bad guy of this story.
What IS surprising, however, is finding a poster for the Queen of this mysterious country. And it’s Shalla-Bal, Silver Surfer’s love interest back on his planet.
Flying to the castle of this unknown country, the Silver Surfer found the Fantastic Four busy fighting a bunch of robots…
…just to discover that those were robotic copies of the FF for a training exercise.
Silver Surfer then reaches the castle, where Shalla-Bal doesn’t recognize him.
And it’s only then that he discovers who’s behind all this… Doctor Doom!
YOU DON’T SAY.
So, uhm, remember when Doctor Doom stole the power of Silver Surfer? Now he stole his woman, because Shalla-Bal is Doom’s wife.
I swear even Doom was doing drugs in the 70s. Look at his face and tell me he isn’t high.
And after all gigantic info dump, Silver Surfer decides that he does want to kill the Fantastic Four after all, since it’s the price to pay to set Shalla-Bal free.
Fantastic Four significance: 0/10
Considering all they do is get beaten by Silver Surfer and listening to him talk…
Doom significance: 0/10
You might expect Doom getting a queen would be more significant, but it has absolutely zero impact after this storyline.
Silver Age-ness: 6/10
On the Marvel scale, Silver Surfer not realizing he’s in Castle Doom and Shalla-Bal turning up there is relatively high.
Does it stand the test of time? 5/10
Meh. A serviceable setup for the story, but it’s a little clunky. Since both Silver Surfer and Doctor Doom are the kind of characters that never shut up, the narration can get a bit much. The art has definitely improved from Buckler’s earlier stories.
It was a Doombot all along
No indication one way or the other.
Take over the world & Destroy the FF!
Definitely in the “kill the FF” category.
Crazy tech
Those Fantastic Four robots looked pretty neat!