Featuring: Fantastic Four
Release: January 10, 1967
Cover: April 1967
12 cents
Extravagantly executed with exbullient erudition by: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Inked by: Joe Sinnott
Lettered by: Sam Rosen
20 pages
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|---|---|---|
| Sgt. Fury #40 | Reading order | Fantastic Four #62 |
| Fantastic Four #60 | Fantastic Four | Fantastic Four #62 |
Ya mean… after lickin’ Galactus… clobberin’ Klaw… an’ whumpin’ Doc Doom… we’re gonna be polished off by a kaboodle of sand?!!
We just finished the epic “Doom Surfer” saga, coming soon after the introduction of Black Panther, coming immediately after the masterful This Man This Monster, coming immediately after the Galactus saga, coming immediately after the Inhumans saga, coming soon after the wedding of Reed and Sue, another excellent battle against Dr. Doom alongside Daredevil, and several encounters with the Frightful Four.
I consider that run of twenty or so issues the height of the series. We’re past that height now. But it’s still going to be excellent.
Recall where we left off. Sandman had broken out of prison, but Wizard’s escape was thwarted. Sandman broke into the Baxter Building to try to steal equipment to free his partner. The FF fought him to a standstill and Sandman got away.
Dr. Doom captured the Silver Surfer, and stole his powers and surfboard. This led to an epic battle, which ended when Dr. Doom tried to fly to space, to learn Galactus had left measures to keep the Silver Surfer trapped on Earth. Those measures took out Doom. Perhaps he’s dead. We’re not sure. We last saw the surfboard flying back to Castle Doom where the Silver Surfer is imprisoned.
Johnny and Wyatt had been searching for the Inhumans with Lockjaw, but left the search to aid in the battle against Doom. Meanwhile, Black Bolt finally spoke, and the power of his voice destroyed the Negative Zone barrier surrounding their city, as well as the entire city. Black Bolt led his royal family and court into the world, while the rest of the Inhumans stayed behind to rebuild their city.
Don’tcha even get a coffee break in this blasted super-heroin’ business?
Apparently the Fantastic Four didn’t bother to check on the Silver Surfer after Doom’s defeat. He remains a prisoner in Latveria. But now his board and powers return to him. So he’ll be fine.
We saw the FF back at home before Surfer got his board back. As that board flies really fast, I assume the scenes aren’t shown in precisely chronological order.
This issue brings back the Sandman, who is basically a full-time Fantastic Four villain by this point. Sorry, Spidey.
Once Sandman appears, Reed finally deduced what sand-based foe was attacking them.
“It should have been obvious– right from the start!” Yes, world’s smartest man. I think it should have.
We do see a lot of sand. The total should be at most the volume/mass of Sandman himself, right?
Now Sandman has a whole new costume, and it has form as well as function, with assorted chemicals on his belt that affect the composition of his sand.
Reed refers to the FF as the “greatest fighting team of all”. I guess he means now that Thor and Iron Man are no longer with the Avengers.
Let’s check in with the Inhumans. They are now in Europe. Quite far from the Andes, but they do have a teleporting dog.
For some reason, Crystal still hasn’t seen Johnny, even though that was her whole reason for wanting out of the Great Refuge. Apparently Black Bolt has not yet approved it. They are in hiding.
Johnny and Wyatt had paused the search to battle Doom. I assumed they’d get right back to it, but instead they seem to have remembered they’re both in college. Now there’s a football game. And Metro (where Johnny and Jean go to school) is playing Empire State (where Peter goes to school). So Pete is at the game as well, with Mary Jane by his side.
Wyatt is not in the stands but on the field. He has joined the football team, despite insisting he wouldn’t. I guess Coach Thorpe finally talked him into it. However, Wyatt is not actually playing. He has joined the team, but sits on the sidelines.
Black Bolt does let Crystal see Johnny, and she and Lockjaw interrupt the football game, only to learn she just missed Johnny, who went off to fight the Sandman.
Wyatt recognizes Crystal. He claims it’s because Johnny has described her. But he knows Lockjaw quite well at this point. I feel like he recognizes her by the distinctive dog, rather than however Johnny described her eyes.
We have some naming confusion to deal with. The type of barrier Maximus used to seal in the city was called a Negative Zone. Silver Surfer and Galactus are able to travel faster than the speed of light by navigating Sub-Space. So Reed builds a device to allow them to start to explore Sub-Space. We learn that Sub-Space is made of “negative matter”. We later saw Reed monitoring Sub-Space and its strange creatures.
This issue starts to confuse the terminology. The chamber where Reed can enter and monitor Sub-Space is sometimes called the Space-Time Chamber. Something called “Negative Force” can issue from the Chamber.
As of this issue, Sub-Space is sometimes referred to as the “Negative Zone” and sometimes “Negative Space”. Perhaps it has similar negative matter properties to the force field that surrounded the Inhumans. But it’s really confusing to call both things the Negative Zone. And Sub-Space will also still be called Sub-Space. The two names for Sub-Space seem to be interchangeable. Confusing.
Sandman escapes, and Reed is sucked into what I still want to call Sub-Space. If they open the door to try to save him, they’ll just be sucked in. Which seems like a poor design. And next issue they’ll anyway open the door just fine.
But for now, Reed is trapped. And about to die. Heading for the “Explosive Zone”. Perhaps the same negative world that almost killed Reed last time, and did kill the Thing impostor.
The other piece of naming confusion is the coach of the football team, Coach Thorpe. He was referred to as Coach Thorne when first introduced, but called Thorpe since his second appearance. Perhaps Coach Thorne is a funny nickname the players use.
Anyways, despite all the confusing names, this was pretty good.
Fantastic Four Fan Page.
I am not able to confirm at this time whether the Mike Johnson who wrote into this issue is the current US Speaker of the House. I think the Speaker is from Louisiana, not New Jersey. And also that he was born 5 years after this comic came out. Anyways, still investigating the matter.
Rating: ★★★½, 63/100
Significance: ★★★☆☆
Though Sandman does get a spiffy new costume.
Characters:
- Invisible Girl
- Mr. Fantastic
- Thing
- Silver Surfer
- Sandman
- Triton
- Black Bolt
- Karnak
- Medusa
- Lockjaw
- Crystal
- Gorgon
- Peter Parker
- Mary Jane Watson
- Wyatt Wingfoot
- Sam Thorpe
Story notes:
- “The Fabulous FF… imperiled anew by a menace from the past!”
- Reed’s Atom Igniter malfunctioning and almost hits Ben. Unable to penetrate Sue’s force field.
- Reed suspects a human is behind the machine’s behavior.
- Ben does get hit, but seems okay.
- Ben notes they just finished clobbering Dr. Doom.
- Next, Reed’s remote-control Gravi-polarizers go crazy.
- Latverian guards keep taunting Surfer with picture of outer space.
- The Surfer’s board returns to him. That suggests this is the same day as the battle with Doom, as Surfer’s board moves quite fast.
- Silver Surfer is angry, and turns his back on the human race. He destroys the tower where he was kept.
- Reed is concerned about someone breaking into his Space-Time chamber.
- Sandman took course in science at Wizard’s advice.
- Sue plans to use Electric Hi-Speed Blower to scatter Sandman.
- Sandman spreads sand on the floor to see Sue’s footprints.
- Sandman’s costume belt has devices which enable him to mix a variety of chemicals with his sand.
- Sandman turns his sand into oil.
- Sandman notes the absence of the Torch.
- After being knocked by Sandman, Ben landed against Space-Time Generator Lever. A wrong move could destroy the city.
- Small band of Inhumans gathered in secret shelter somewhere in Europe. Not enough water for Triton.
- Black Bolt allows Crystal to leave and see Johnny.
- Metro College is playing ESU.
- A new 6’6″ Comanche Indian player with a famous father is on the Metro Bench, but not playing.
- Peter Parker is with Mary Jane Watson, photographing the game.
- Crystal and Lockjaw appear in the middle of the game.
- Wyatt notes she’d missed Johnny by minutes. He left when the news reported a battle between Sandman and the FF at the Baxter Building.
- Smokey the Bear reference.
- Johnny recognizes the glowing spectrum beams indicated the release of the Negative Force from Reed’s machine.
- Sandman locked himself in Space-Time chamber.
- Sandman’s belt releases liquid nitrogren, which allows his sandy molecules to freeze, causing Torch’s flame to become a poisonous vapor. This idea came from the Wizard. Sandman unaffected by the vapor.
- Reed opens door to Negative Zone. (Not to be confused with the Negative Zone which surrounded the Inhumans.)
- Sandman escapes out the window before he is sucked into the Negative Zone.
- Reed then calls it the Space-Time Chamber.
- Reed hits the Dimension Barrier and will be trapped in Negative Space.
- Sue sees Reed on the Space-Time screen.
- If they open the door, they’ll be sucked in too. Soon Reed will hit the Explosive Zone.
| Previous | #662 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Sgt. Fury #40 | Reading order | Fantastic Four #62 |
| Fantastic Four #60 | Fantastic Four | Fantastic Four #62 |
