Featuring: Everybody
Release: August 21, 1996
Cover: October 1996
$2.95
Scintillating script by Stan Lee
Prurient plot by Fabian Nicieza
Pulse-pounding pencils by Sal Buscema, John Buscema, John Romita, Sr., Steve Ditko, Gene Colan, Marie Severin & Ron Frenz
Incredible inks by Tom Palmer, Joe Sinnott, Terry Austin, Bill Reinhold, Marie Severin & Al Milgrom
Kaleidoscopic colors by John Kalisz (with perfect page one and colossal cover coloring by Paul Becton)
Lascivious letters by Richard Starkings and Comicraft/ad
Effervescent edits by Matt Idelson
Aching assistant edits by Paul Tutrone
Evil editing-in-chiefing by Bob Harras
Very special thanks to: Mariano Nicieza, Darren Auck, Scott Koblish, Gil Kane, The Raiders, and the many terrific talents of the Mighty Marvel Bullpen
Based on Fantastic Four Annual #3 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
48 pages
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| Fantastic Four Annual 3 | Reading order | X-Men #14 |
Just between us, Alicia– I’ve been ready ever since I met the man!
I’m not trying to include too many POSTLUDE entries, but don’t have a clear standard for when I do. Having a copy of the comic in my living room as opposed to in storage somewhere is a good motivator. Plus, I actively used this comic as a reference when making my Fantastic Four Annual post, in deciding who might have been present at the wedding but off-panel.
Heroes & Legends is a loving retelling of the wedding of Sue and Reed from 1996, by continuity nerd Fabian Nicieza with a rotating cast of classic artists and a script by Stan Lee.
We know Steve Ditko very well by this point. We’ve seen some early work of John Romita, but he’s just about to join our regular cast of artists. Gene Colan just started drawing Namor’s adventures. Marie Severin has been working behind the scenes, and we’ll see her artwork soon enough. We’ve already seen some artwork of her brother John. John and Sal Buscema will be shaking things up eventually, and Ron Frenz in the more distant future. We’ll see Tom Palmer soon enough. We’ve briefly met Joe Sinnott a couple times, but he’s just about to become a regular. I’d bemoaned he wasn’t the original inker on the annual. It came out just one month too early. The other inkers will be coming along later.
This tells the same story as the Fantastic Four Annual, but with over twice as many pages.
In a short while, we’ll also read Marvels #2, which includes yet another take on this wedding to contrast with these two takes.
We’ll compare the new comic to the original and note the artist on the new comic. The original art is all by Jack Kirby and Vince Colletta. As noted above, for everything but the first page, John Kalisz did the colors in the new one.
The opening page deliberately mirrors the original.
The big addition is a kid named Mark, a superhero fan who gets separated from his father in the commotion, and targeted by villains and saved by heroes. He serves as the centerpiece for this retelling.
A theme of this issue echoes the theme of Marvels #2, which spins out of the fact that this story of the public fawning over the Fantastic Four as celebrities for the wedding is almost concurrent with the public hating mutants so much they support mutant-hunting robots. It’s an odd dichotomy embodied by this boy Mark, who loves superheroes like the Fantastic Four, but hates mutants like the X-Men. By the end of the story, he’ll learn better.
We see J. Jonah Jameson and Robbie Robertson. It makes sense Jameson would be at an event like this personally, because it’s big news and because his ego would have him want to make an appearance. He’s joined by his editor, Robbie. We have not yet met Robbie in the comics. We’re about 2 years away. But it’s plausible he’s already working for the Daily Bugle and we just haven’t met him.
Phil Sheldon isn’t a character who will be introduced for many decades, but we’ve read ahead to Marvels #1. And we’ll see him cover the wedding in Marvels #2.
We’ll try to find the panels that line up well with the original, starting with the battle between Thor and Super-Skrull. The original had Thor destroy his ship. So the panels in the new version may all take place after that, as we never see Super-Skrull’s ship.
The match-up between Captain America and Plant Man seems to closely mirror the battle between Captain America and Cobra from the original, but with the villain changed. Plant Man didn’t appear in the original story, but it was such a crazy mess that there may have been some villains around we didn’t see. Cobra doesn’t appear in this comic. It’s a bit odd that they copied the panel so carefully but changed the villain.
Here’s Scarlet Witch, conspicuously absent from the original, but presumably off-camera somewhere.
In the original, Spider-Man saved Hawkeye from a falling safe, but we don’t learn why the safe was falling. Here we see Grey Gargoyle knocked it loose while chasing Mark.
This time, Sue gets a chance to confront the man mucking up her big day.
Here’s the retelling of Daredevil using Hydra’s bomb to accidentally repel Attuma’s invasion.
Batroc is a villain we haven’t met yet, but was presumably active so could have shown up at the wedding. We see the X-Men take him down. And an example of a bystander here to cheer on the Fantastic Four, but who fears the mutant X-Men.
They then battle Grogoom. I don’t know who that is.
The battle makes it more clear it’s Diablo behind Reed’s arm and leaves out the bald mustached man I struggle to identify.
In this version, Sue suits up and joins the fray. In the original, she appears to stay inside in her wedding dress keeping safe.
This time, the Watcher at least seems to acknowledge he’s breaking his oath again.
We see Trapster fight Human Torch. I thought the Frightful Four were a conspicuous absence in the original.
Frenz and Milgrom are going for the most parallels with the original art. Here’s one last.
The comic decides to skip the ceremony itself. An odd creative choice.
This retelling omitted Dr. Strange, as well as Nick Fury and SHIELD. And a few villains must have been off-camera this time, including Red Ghost, Electro, Kang, and Human Top. (The MCP thinks they see both Kang and Nick Fury; they may have better eyesight than I.)
The comic is from 1996. Jack Kirby passed away in 1994, and this comic represents a chance for a variety of artists to pay tribute to his legacy.
Match-ups (** if new to this telling):
- Thor vs. Super-Skrull
- Captain America vs. Plant Man **
- Iron Man vs. Unicorn **
- Thor vs. Eel & Grey Gargoyle **
- Avengers vs. Masters of Evil **
- Spider-Man vs. Grey Gargoyle **
- Invisible Girl vs. Dr. Doom
- Fantastic Four vs. Hydra **
- Alicia vs. Hydra **
- Daredevil vs. Hydra
- Daredevil vs. Attuma
- X-Men vs. Batroc **
- X-Men vs. Executioner **
- X-Men vs. Grogoom **
- Mr. Fantastic vs. Black Knight
- Invisible Girl & Iron Man vs. Beetle
- X-Men & Avengers vs. Awesome Android **
- Thing vs. Super-Skrull **
- Hawkeye vs. Mr. Hyde **
- Spider-Man vs. Hydra **
Marvel will put out one more of these Heroes & Legends specials next year, this one retelling Avengers #16. We did not read that one, as it has so many errors that it doesn’t add to the original. Whereas this one shows a reverence to the original, even correcting a couple omissions like the absence of Scarlet Witch.
Rating: ★★★☆☆, 53/100
Characters:
- Mark
- Mark’s father
- Captain America
- Robbie Robertson
- J. Jonah Jameson
- Super-Skrull
- Thor
- Phil Sheldon
- Plant Man
- Iron Man
- The Watcher
- Grey Gargoyle
- Eel
- Unicorn
- Black Knight
- Hawkeye
- Scarlet Witch
- Enchantress
- Quicksilver
- Spider-Man
- Thing
- Mr. Fantastic
- Invisible Girl
- Human Torch
- Alicia
- Miriam Birchwood
- The minister
- Daredevil
- Angel
- Iceman
- Marvel Girl
- Cyclops
- Beast
- Batroc
- Professor X
- Executioner
- Mr. Hyde
- Mad Thinker
- Awesome Android
- Diablo
- Beetle
- Melter
- Mandarin
- Trapster
- Barney Bushkin
Story notes:
- Grey Gargoyle entraps himself in stone webbing.
- Miriam Birchwood is a gossip columnist we haven’t met before.
- Mark is afraid of Spider-Man because the Bugle calls him a menace.
- Mark loves superheroes but fears Spider-Man and mutants.
- Phil meets Spider-Man.
| Previous | Next | |
|---|---|---|
| Fantastic Four Annual 3 | Reading order | X-Men #14 |
