FANTASTIC FOUR #187 (1977)
by Len Wein & George Perez
Continuing the Molecule Man mini-retrospective, he finally shows up on Fantastic Four for the first time since issue #20.
The bad news is that it’s during the Len Wein run, which is a bit of a mess. The good news is that we have George Perez drawing!
There’s a looooooot of Fantastic Four subplots I’m not going to cover, but one important factor is that Reed Richards is currently without his powers. He won’t regain them again until Fantastic Four #197, which I’ve already covered in the Doom retrospective.
And also the Impossible Man is hanging around as a supporting character. He can be a bit of a divisive character; I usually like him, but he can be annoying if he stays around too long.
The impish alien has been beaten up by two Fantastic Four villains: Klaw and Molecule Man.
That’s right, the two actually met way before Secret Wars. Which is kind of surprising since it’s never brought up in that series… although to be fair, they barely interacted and Klaw was nuts.
Klaw is not exactly a lightweight on his own, but Molecule Man comes out swinging: he takes down the Thing and the Human Torch in rapid succession.
Klaw shows himself useful by discovering where Invisible Girl is. I’m not a big fan of her invisibility being useless, but it’s a cool display of Klaw’s sonic powers so this time I don’t mind.
Without his powers, Reed is rather useless. Then again, it’s not like stretching would be helpful against Molecule Man when he gets serious.
(if the weapon was turned into that much helium, does that mean Reed is talking in a high-pitch voice now?)
How did Klaw and Molecule Man meet, anyway? It ties up nicely with Iron Man Annual #3: Klaw shows up in Man-Thing’s swamp after being exiled into another dimension in his previous appearance (against Ka-Zar, of all people)…
Molecule Man’s wand was unable to possess Klaw because the latter is made of solid sound (whatever the heck THAT means), so he ends up possessing a random drunk.
Klaw flies him all the way from Florida to New York for this, by the way. Because naturally there are no drunk people living in Florida.
The duo is ready to finish of the heroes, but the Fantastic Four are saved by the most unlikely person to save the day: the Impossible Man.
Impossible Man’s gimmick is that he can transform himself into ANYTHING (as long as it stays green and purple), so Molecule Man has some serious trouble dealing with him.
That’s pretty clever, considering how this version of Molecule Man loves transforming people. But Impossible Man also being immune to Klaw’s powers is a bit much.
While Klaw’s sonic creations keep Impossible Man occupied, Molecule Man proceeds with the real plan: using one of Reed’s machines to transfer his mind… and ends up being trapped in the wand again, because Reed sabotaged it.
So that means the threat is over, right? Well…
FANTASTIC FOUR #188 (1977)
by Len Wein & George Perez
I’m not a fan of dialogue-heavy covers. I can just imagine the Human Torch spouting this exposition and the other characters replying “YEAH WE KNOW!!!”
Now possessing Reed’s body, Molecule Man doesn’t waste any time leaving the Baxter Building to attack the city. Time for a mandatory Watcher appearance I guess!
Just like in the Iron Man story, there’s a lot of focus on the mental battle against Molecule Man.
And then… get ready for PURE GEORGE PEREZ AWESOMENESS!!!
Oh come on Reed, that monster is BY FAR the best thing about this story!!! Don’t make him disappear!!!
It really says a lot about how absurdly broken Molecule Man’s powers are if you have to come up with convoluted reasons why he doesn’t immediately disintegrate his foes.
Got to respect the classics!
Even then, Impossible Man is shown to be the biggest threat against him, to the point that Invisible Girl has to protect Molecule Man to save Reed’s life.
Honestly I’m happy to see Impossible Man leave. Like I said I like the character, but he was really overused in this period.
With Impy gone, the fight can get serious again. And the Fantastic Four Three are barely holding up.
With his team on the verge of defeat, Reed keeps struggling to wrestle control from Molecule Man… and eventually wins when he drops the wand into a furnace.
Yeah don’t check if the wand is still intact, I’m sure that won’t cause any troubles.
Also apparently Molecule Man can’t control unstable molecules? I could be fine with that if it was said in his first appearance, but lately he’s been WAY more powerful.
And so we end with Reed and Susan leaving the team. Don’t be too upset, it happens every couple of years.
Just one bad Molecule Man story left, and then we can finally close the retrospective with a GOOD Molecule Man story.
But before that he faces the Micronauts for basically no reason.
Interesting letters: future writer Kurt Busiek on why Reed’s subplot about losing his powers was rather underwhelming.
Historical significance: 0/10
Like I said, both Molecule Man and Klaw seem to have forgotten they know each other.
Silver Age-ness: 6/10
On the Marvel scale, this version of Molecule Man is as over the top as possible. The Impossible Man shenanigans also enhance the Silver Age-ness.
Does it stand the test of time? 4/10
Full disclosure: I think this is one of the worst periods for the Fantastic Four. Add the fact that this is also my least favorite way to use Molecule Man, and I can’t help being disappointed.
The fact that Impossible Man upstages the Fantastic Four multiple times should tell you something. I like the guy but he’s insufferable in this! He was seriously overused in this era; he works best in small doses, but he can quickly become obnoxious.
Pairing up Molecule Man with Klaw was a weird choice: they don’t seem to have any chemistry, as evidenced by Klaw completely dropping out of the second part.
Len Wein is a good writer so at least he delivers a solid plot, but it’s the myriad of small things that bring down the whole story. The saving grace is George Perez… who unfortunately is not allowed to go crazy for the majority of the issue.
With of course the exception of that giant monster which was ALL KINDS OF AWESOME.
George Perez even drew it again in a Hostess® Fruit Pie ad, of all places!!!
