Weird how I don’t immediately think of Medusa as a core member of the Fantastic Four despite the fact this is yet another issue with her.
Fantastici Quattro #145 (1976)
Published by: Corno
Balloons removed from the cover as usual, but one interesting thing is the title.
It translates to “A hundred degrees below zero”, less impressive than the original “Doomsday at 200° below”.
That’s not really a problem with conversion between Celsius and Fahrenheit, since -100°C would be -148°F. They probably just thought it sounded better.
Fantastic Four #146 (1974)
by Gerry Conway & Ross Andru
cover by Gil Kane
Also, while the Thing does fight in this issue, he’s far from being the focus.
This is the second part of a story, but all you REALLY need to know is that the Fantastic Four Three (Reed is not in this, AT ALL) are in the Himalayas fighting Yetis that want to freeze the entire planet with a Climate Cannon™.
Medusa is a member of the Fantastic Four for quite a while, but they could never figure out a way to have her costume fit the team.
She mostly uses her own costume without even bothering with the 4 symbol.
Except for a few issues like this one, where they inexplicably decide to place it over her left breast for some reason?
I mean that’s understandable, it’s not like there was ANY precedent for how to place a superhero symbol on a woman’s costume.
Thankfully the Human Torch’s flame is not so easy to estinguish these days, so he’s able to free both himself and Medusa.
You would think this is going to be a short fight.
And it its, but not the way you think.
Medusa is the one making the most damage to the enemy!
But they can do only so much, deciding to hide while they come up with a plan.
With the help of Hot Yeti Girl.
Seems like the best moment to discuss the recent storyline where your brother-in-law lobotomized his son to save the universe.
Yeah that’s a thing that happened; it was a big deal, the closest the Fantastic Four ever had to splitting for good.
It’s VERY interesting to see just how quickly Medusa accepts “harm your kid for the greater good”, because she will eventually abandon HER son when ordered to do so by the rest of the Inhumans.
Hot Yeti Girl brings them to The Master, the guy who created the Yetis.
He looks fine for a half-frozen corpse that has been sitting down for the last 400 years.
But since he doesn’t agree with the Yeti’s plan to freeze the planet, he gives the Fantastic Four Two a device that can twart their plan.
You might be wondering: the Thing was on the cover, when is he going to show up?
He’s been looking for his teammates, and he finds them when the Yetis signal their position by mistake.
So he then joins the final fight, meaning he’s BARELY in this despite the cover.
The big dumb fight requires a two-page spread for some reason.
I remember being impressed by this, since not a lot of comics I owned had two-page spreads, but in retrospect it’s not that great.
The fight ends when Medusa activates the device she was given by The Master, which turns the Yetis into regular people.
Also Hot Yeti Girl has always been able to talk.
Oh and this was to be about whether The Master still had a soul or something.
Historical significance: 0/2
We never see these guys again.
Personal significance: 6/10
Like I said I liked the two-page spread and some of the action, but I remember thinking this story was kind of dumb.
Silver Age-ness: 7/10
I can’t be bothered to check if the leader of the Yetis turned the others into monsters for no reason, or if The Master had the machine that could turn them humans the whole time.
Either way, still kind of a dumb story.
Does it stand the test of time? 3/10
Aggressively meh. There’s SOME interesting stuff in the discussion about Reed’s actions, but that gets explored to a much higher degree in other issues.
The Fantastic Four stories where they get to explore new places are often among the best, and this was a rare opportunity to do this without Reed… and they don’t do anything interesting.
Captain Marvel #34
by Jim Starlin & Steve Englehart
Captain Marvel was back as the backup feature, with a VERY important story.
The credits are pretty funny.
This is following the end of the first big Thanos storyline, so we begin with a sort of epilogue.
I barely mentioned Rick Jones the last time Captain Marvel showed up in the retrospective.
In this period the two had a unique relationship: only one of them can exist in the regular universe at a time and the other one must wait in the Negative Zone.
They swap places every time the Nega-Bands on their wrists touch.
This was originally a homage to the Fawcett Captain Marvel, and the concept has been re-used on multiple Marvel characters ever since.
Rick is trying to break as a musician in this period. It won’t really go anywhere, as is potential new love interest Rachel Dandridge. She only shows in 5 issues of Captain Marvel and nowhere else.
But Rick also says goodbye to his then-current love interest Lou-Ann. She had been introduced in the Conway run; after this she will only appear ONCE. Appropriately, in the “Death Of Captain Marvel” graphic novel.
But let’s move to the superhero stuff, which begins with a return that at the time might’ve been surprising: Carol Danvers!
She hasn’t been seen since issue 18, five years earlier!!!
This is of course WAY before she will eventually become Captain Marvel herself, and three years before she becomics Miss Marvel.
But as we saw on the cover this is also the debut of supervillain Nitro, who is here to steal something called Compound Thirteen from a military base.
A weird thing that will be slowly dropped is the fact that he has a hump, something not really clear in most panels.
I’ve always liked Nitro’s power: he can explode and then re-form.
It’s a simple one, sure, but extremely effective.
Considering Nitro just attacked the base where Carol Danvers works, you might expect Captain Marvel to get involved because he contacts him.
But nope: it’s because Rick Jones RANDOMLY gets into a car accident with him!!!
You think dealing with someone road rage is the worst?
Try someone with road rage WHO CAN EXPLODE AT WILL.
Rick… I really like you as a character, especially since Peter David turned you into one of the most complex men in the Marvel Universe… but you’ve been a sidekick for years, you should know when you’re dealing with someone WAY out of your league.
Nitro just shrugged off Rick’s clops and bams, so he ktangs into Captain Marvel.
Like I said, it didn’t take much for a two-page spread to impress me at the time.
But while in retrospect the Fantastic Four one is kind of lame, THIS still holds up remarkably well.
It REALLY sells both Nitro’s power and how much it takes Captain Marvel by surprise.
I understand why they stopped showing Nitro is a hunchback. It can make for some goofy poses.
One of the reasons why I like Nitro is that most heroes need to think their way through a fight, since it’s very hard to punch him without being caught in an explosion.
Also come on, explosions are cool.
Nitro manages to escape with Compound Thirteen, which is A VERY BAD THING.
Better not to think too much about why the United States Army has a gas that can kill all life on the planet in a day.
Yeah keep exploding right next to the canister of pure death, Nitro, what could possibly go wrong?
Another thing that has been dropped is the idea of Nitro being super-strong. Which I approve, because it doesn’t really fit the character.
But he has it now, so Captain Marvel decides the only one who can defeat him is Rick Jones.
Nitro is defeated by… honestly I’m not really sure?
I think the idea is the since he explodes right when Rick does the switch, the explosion is much more powerful and it tires him out?
The issue ends with Captain Marvel breathing Compound Thirteen while closing the leak.
Captain Marvel is given an antidote the following issue.
Which, incidentally, is also the first time Carol Danvers meets Henry Pym and Wasp.
As you probably know, this is what eventually kills Captain Marvel: the nerve gas gives him cancer.
Because of this, the story is often reprinted together with the graphic novel The Death Of Captain Marvel, where *spoiler alert* Captain Marvel dies.
This leads most people to misremember that the events are much closer in time than they actually are: Captain Marvel #34 is from 1974, but the graphic novel is from 1982.
Which shouldn’t be all that surprising: one of the reasons why Captain Marvel was chosen as the character to be killed off is that he wasn’t doing anything.
“The Death Of Captain Marvel” is an absolute masterpiece that has stood the test of time so much that Marvel has not really resurrected Mar-Vell. They’ve done a few fake-outs through impostors and time travel, but the story is so revered and the character has already so many successors that they’ll probably keep him dead.
Surprisingly enough, Compound Thirteen has showed up exactly ONE time (excluding flashbacks): in 2022, Tony Stark was exposed to a much lower dose.
Considering there WAS an antidote all the way back in 1974 and that unlike Captain Marvel he didn’t inhale so much stuff, I have no trouble buying that Tony Stark survives it.
As for Nitro, his reputation of being a hero-killer was already established by his first appearance but would later be cemented by Civil War, where he’s the one killing the New Warriors.
I have problems with how Civil War treats the New Warriors… and EVERYTHING ELSE… but I think this is a good use of Nitro.
Whenever he shows up it should always be a big deal.
Historical significance: 10/10
As both the preamble to the death of Captain Marvel and, to a lesser extent, the introduction of Nitro.
Personal significance: 9/10
I really liked this story! Even if of course it would be years before I found out this is what killed Captain Marvel. The fight is great and Nitro is a cool villain.
Silver Age-ness: 4/10
Was it really necessary to have Rick Jones just randomly run into Captain Marvel?
Now that I think about it, Rick being in the wrong place in the wrong time is BOTH the reason why the Hulk exists AND why Captain Marvel dies!!!
Does it stand the test of time? 9/10
Plot convenience aside, this is a solid story that can basically be redone the way it is.
Sub-Mariner Comics #40 (1955)
by Bill Everett
Did you think the Fantastic Four book could go on without a Namor story?
Well, not only this is the last time I’ll have to cover him in this retrospective (the remaining two FF issues don’t have a Namor story), this is technically speaking the first Golden Age story I ever read!!!
Specifically it’s the third story from the book.
It’s always weird to re-visit Golden Age Namor, because we have the other Atlanteans that are completely different from the Silver Age ones and because Namor is not ruling the place.
Instead we have the Emperor, a.k.a. Namor’s grandfather.
I completely forgot I ever read this story. Even worse I didn’t even notice Namora was here!!!
It’s yet another of those cases when Atlantis is at war with the surface world.
I’m shocked by how much Namora plays into the story. I’m absolutely sure that when I read issue 112, which reveals her death, I didn’t make the connection with this story!!!
Also this is Golden Age Namora, so OF COURSE she gets captured.
Marvel: please give Namor his catchphrase back.
Turns out Namor declared war for no reason. I’m glad that’s settled, surely that won’t ever happened again.
As if that wasn’t enough, the Atlantean forces are about to inadvertedly destroy Atlantis itself.
So the Emperor orders to EVACUATE ATLANTIS.
The people survived thanks to the warning of the surface dwellers, leading to a new understanding between the two races.
Good thing these two civilizations will never ever be at war with each other again.
Historical significance: 0/10
Needless to say, but nobody learns anything from this experience.
Personal significance: 0/10
How could I completely forget that I already saw Namora???
Silver Age-ness: 2/10
Everything is resolved WAY too quickly, even for a 7 page story.
Does it stand the test of time? 7/10
It’s not bad for the late Golden Age. The coloring effects for the underwater scenes earn at least a full point.