FANTASTIC FOUR #197 (1978)
by Marv Wolfman & Keith Pollard
cover by George Perez
Continuing Doctor Doom’s last Silver Age storyline.
Now that he has the rest of the Fantastic Four hostage, Doctor Doom wants to restore the powers that Reed Richards lost in previous issues.
Reed doesn’t recall that last issue he was kidnapped and hypnotized by Doom. In fact, he doesn’t seem to put 2+2 together.
The smartest man in the world, ladies and gentlemen.
Even harder to swallow: he doesn’t recognize the leader of Cynthian Associates.
Now that’s just wrong. He has the same face of Victor Von Doom, and Reed knew him in college before he got his scars! He should’ve recognized him immediately!!!
This story does a little housekeeping with the origin of the Fantastic Four. Once in orbit, Reed wonders why no other astronaut got super-powers.
The original idea in 1961 was that anyone would be exposed to cosmic rays, but by 1978 there had already been enough astronauts to necessitate a small retcon.
It’s still a topical reference, since Reed still implies that the FF were the first successful spaceflight.
More housekeeping: Reed also theorizes that the reason for the cosmic rays was not just the Van Allen belt around Earth (which in the early 60s was considered more dangerous for space travel than it actually is), but unusual sunspot activity.
Everything works out, and Mister Fantastic is back!
And so is the Red Ghost, a Russian supervillain who ALSO got his powers from cosmic rays.
He has the power to turn intangible, but his molecules were scattered into space during a fight with Iron Man.
Reed’s fighting style is more physical than usual this issue. I like it!
Unfortunately, in addition to being able to make himself intangible, the Red Ghost has developed the power to make others intangible as well.
Meanwhile, Doctor Doom has kidnapped the Thing’s blind girlfriend Alicia.
And why? To finish the truly hideous statue from Fantastic Four #87.
His traps for the Fantastic Four are a classic. The Thing is being held by a device that turns his strength against him, the Invisible Girl by a power dampening helmet (that “prevents the use of her underrated talents”, in Doom’s words), and the Torch in a liquid prison. Doom will re-use the latter in a John Byrne story.
Doom plans to abdicate the throne of Latveria and leave the country to the leader of Cynthian Associates. Who is revealed to be his son.
That’s right. “That creep’s a pappy!”.
No time to dwell on that, because Reed’s ship is damaged during the fight with Red Ghost and begins to fall back to Earth. Doom is NOT pleased by this.
Back on the ship, Reed is able to free himself by slipping his body through the atoms of the floor. That’s typically WAY out of his league for this level of shapeshifting.
Despite this, the Red Ghost still manages to fool him.
The Red Ghost escapes, but Reed manages to survive the crash by hiding inside a canister ejected just in time. He’s later rescued by S.H.I.E.L.D.
And that’s the end of the story!
Fantastic Four significance: 7/10
This is the resolution of a very, very long subplot: Reed began to have issues with his powers in Fantastic Four #157 and completely lost then in Fantastic Four #178.
That’s a 40 issue subplot, including 19 issues where one of the four members is powerless! That’s really impressive.
Doom significance: 2/10
Unfortunately Doom doesn’t get much to do this time around.
Silver Age-ness: 6/10
If only Red Ghost had brought his Super-Apes, this would’ve easily been a 10/10! But without them, a pretty average Marvel story from the 70s.
Does it stand the test of time? 8/10
Nothing truly fantastic (pun intended) but a serviceable story.
It was a Doombot all along
Possible but unlikely.
Destroy the FF!
As strange as it sounds, since he’s the one restoring Reed’s powers, he’s actually doing it so that he can destroy him better so it still counts.
Take over the world
The ultimate goal of this entire storyline.