Fantastic Four: The Overthrow Of Doom

Reprints Fantastic Four #192-200
Written by Len Wein, Roger Stern, Marv Wolfman, Bill Mantlo, Roger Slifer, Keith Pollard.
Penciled by Keith Pollard, George Perez.
Inked by Joe Sinnott, Dave Hunt, Pablo Marcos.

Alternate cover.

The Fantastic Four have broken up!

Reed Richards (AKA Mr. Fantastic) has lost his stretching powers. This causes him to quit the team and the other three follow suit, believing that Reed is irreplaceable. They move out of their Baxter Building headquarters.

The members of the FF end up scattered all over the country:

Reed goes to Upstate New York and takes a job working on a project for a company called Cynthian Associates. The company seems a bit shady, but Reed is told he's doing work for "the government". He doesn't ask which government.

Johnny Storm, The Human Torch, travels to Oklahoma to compete in an auto race. But before the race is over, he's attacked by the Texas Twister. 

Texas Twister attacks the Torch.

Sue Richards, the Invisible Girl, has been offered a role in a movie that is shooting at Colossal Pictures studio in Hollywood. The studio is owned by old foe-turned-friend, Namor the Sub-Mariner. Namor has recently left Atlantis, but he and Sue are attacked by robots who want to forcibly return him to his undersea kingdom.

Namor & Sue are attacked by the Retrievers of Atlantis.

Last but not least, Ben Grimm, the Thing has taken a job as a test pilot for NASA in Houston. He is flying a new spacecraft called the Solar Shuttle when he is attacked by Darkoth, the Death Demon. It turns out Darkoth is being manipulated by the FF's old ememy Diablo, master of alchemy! 

The Thing battles Diablo.

Reed learns that the company that hired him is actually owned by his greatest foe, Doctor Doom! He used Reed to create a mind-control device that will give Doom the power to rule the world. Doom later captures Ben, Sue, and Johnny and forces Reed to finish the device. Doom also helps Reed get his powers back (through a re-creation of the accident that gave the FF their powers), but Doom has an ulterior motive. 

The Latverian resistance arrives at the gates of Castle Doom.

At the same time, Doom is facing troubles in his home country of Latveria. Doom has been ruling as its monarch for years and the citizens are beginning to revolt. He has a plan to keep power.  Doom will appoint his son, Victor Von Doom II, to the Latverian throne. This is a shock to everyone, since Doom has never mentioned that he had a son. 

Doom prepares to crown his "son" in a coronation ceremony.

A small Latverian resistance movement, led by Prince Zorba, rightful heir to the Latverian throne, is gaining strength. Reed meets up with them and they storm Doom's castle. This leads ultimately to a final one-on-one battle between Reed and Doom. If Doom wins, nothing will stop him from ruling the world!

It's Reed vs. Doom in a brutal brawl!

All that plus the return of the Red Ghost!


Review:

An enjoyable story featuring some nice art, hampered by a few things that bugged me (I'll get to them shortly). The title is a bit of a spoiler, since Doom is overthrown by the people of Latveria with help from the Fantastic Four. After this story, Doom would be absent from comics for about 2 years.

Darkoth tries to warn Ben Grimm that "death rides the space shuttle".

Story:
The last 5 issues (196-200) reprinted here are great. Marv Wolfman writes a great Doctor Doom. Doom is desperate to hold on to his throne and he's portrayed as a megalomaniac with a touch of nobility. His hatred for Reed (he blames Richards for the accident that scarred his face) has driven Doom to the verge of insanity.
 
Wolfman understands the Fantastic Four very well. Reed, Ben, Sue, and Johnny all act and talk like the characters Stan Lee wrote in the 60s. He also does a good job reuniting the FF (I always thought their break-up was a bit silly, but that's another story for another review!). Check out their reunion in the image below:

Wolfman also brings back the Torch's old friend Wyatt Wingfoot for a guest appearance, a nice nod to the Lee-Kirby years.  

But the first part of the story (reprinting FF#192-195) isn't so great. When Johnny is attacked by Texas Twister, we never learn who sent him after the Torch. Was it Doom? We're never told, and an internet search tells me that it's never revealed. 

The Red Ghost attacks Reed with a "meteor smasher"!

And Sue's visit with the Sub-Mariner feels like filler. We get a story from Namor about how he was forced to leave Atlantis because his people treated him like a god, followed by a battle with Atlantean robots who want him to return to his throne. But then he returns to Atlantis anyway? 

Len Wein, Bill Mantlo and Roger Slifer also plot and/or script a few of the issues reprinted at the beginning of the book.

Art:
Mostly excellent, with a few exceptions. Most of the book is penciled by Keith Pollard and inked by Joe Sinnott. They work great together and are one of my favorite FF art teams. Two issues reprinted here feature Pollard inked by Pablo Marcos. They don't mesh well together, their art isn't bad but it's a very noticeable drop-off in quality from Sinnott's inks. And we also get a story that features George Perez inked by Sinnott that looks great. 

Reed meets Prince Zorba, leader of the Latverian resistance.

How does it look?
Great, as good as the original issues, only glossier. This page below (and all the pages scanned here) shows how good the book looks.

Only Reed Richards can prevent Doom from ruling the world!

Fantastic Four: The Overthrow Of Doom is a strong story that features Doctor Doom at his best and fans of Pollard, Sinnott and Perez should pick up the book. But the weaker first half of the book makes it hard to give it a higher rating.

My rating:

3 Sals.

Spider-Man: Return Of The Burglar

Reprints Amazing Spider-Man #193-200
Written by Marv Wolfman & Stan Lee.
Penciled by Keith Pollard, Sal Buscema, Al Milgrom.
Inked by Frank Giacoia, Jim Mooney, M. Hands.

Peter Parker's crime fighting career as Spider-Man began when his Uncle Ben was killed in his own home by a burglar. Spider-Man captured the Burglar, but was shocked when he learned he could have apprehended him before he shot Ben. This taught Peter a great lesson about power and responsibility.

Variant cover

Years go by and Peter Parker matures into one of the world's greatest heroes. But now, the Burglar has returned! He believes there's a treasure hidden in the Parkers' Queensboro house (that's why he broke into the house years ago and shot Ben). The Burglar breaks into the (now-unoccupied) home and tears it to shreds. After failing to find the treasure that way, he decides that he'll have to get Aunt May to reveal its location. The Burglar makes it known that he will resort to deadly force if necessary.

The Burglar breaks into the Parker house in search of a hidden treasure.

At the same time, Spider-Man's enemy the Fly is back in town. He tries to kill Spidey and J. Jonah Jameson. The Fly later attempts to rob New York's Metropolitan Museum Of Art, Spider-Man intervenes, and a slugfest in a blizzard ensues.

Meanwhile, Spider-Man tangles with a new menace—the Black Cat! This is tough for the ol' webhead, since he's never been comfortable fighting women. Black Cat is attracted to Spidey and isn't shy about it...and he finds himself attracted to her as well! They share a kiss in the middle of a battle, but Spider-Man is determined to bring her to justice.

The Cat's main objective is to break into prison and free her father, famed cat burglar Walter Hardy.  Spidey tries to prevent this, but ends up with a broken arm. He follows Black Cat to her family's house, where she ends up falling to her apparent death.

While Spider-Man is fighting crime, Peter Parker's personal life is in shambles. Mary Jane has recently turned down his marriage proposal and now she dumps him when he misses a date. Pete finds himself in a love triangle with his first love, Betty Brant, and her husband, Ned Leeds. But the most crushing blow hits when Aunt May dies of a heart attack!

Things only get worse when the Kingpin of crime decides it's time to take revenge on the wallcrawler.   It's a knockdown fight, made tougher for Spider-Man because he's nursing a broken arm! Spidey barely survives his fight with the Kingpin.

After the battle with the Kingpin, Spidey's old foe Mysterio (who is working with the Burglar) zaps him with a gun that takes away his Spider-powers! The de-powered Parker is later captured by the Burglar.  He wants Peter to tell him where the treasure is hidden in the old Parker house. The Burglar tortures Peter to get the information, but he never caves. But the Burglar has a trump card left to play.

Review:
In case you don't know, the Burglar's name is never revealed in this story and has not been revealed to this day. And that's how it should be. And I don't think I'm spoiling anything here by mentioning that Aunt May is discovered to be alive after all.

Story:
A very good story but not an absolute classic. Marv Wolfman does a good job juggling all the characters that come and go. Wolfman began writing & editing Amazing Spider-Man with issue #182 and this story is easily the high point of his tenure. 

One problem I have is that this collection begins with part 2 of a two-part story. The Fly showed up in ASM#192, which was also a continuation of another story. I would've been willing to pay a couple extra bucks for the whole story.

But what we have here is good. Besides the Burglar's return, we get the first appearance of the Black Cat, who would go on to be a major character in the 1980s.

Mysterio is also handled well here. In recent years, Ol' Fishbowl Head has been turned into a bit of a joke, treated like a loser. But he's part of Spider-Man's original rogues gallery. When he strips Spider-Man of his powers, he feels like an A-list villain.

Spider-Man is surrounded by many Mysterios!

The biggest problem I have is the way Peter acts in the early part of the story. His old girlfriend Betty Brant Leeds is going through some marital strife and turns to Parker. Peter eventually rejects her in a very cruel manner, something that's very out of character for him. Yes, he immediately regrets the way he handled it, but the damage is done.

Spidey searches all over New York for the Fly.

Art:
This book doesn't have a unified look, since there are multiple artists handling the pencils. But that's okay when the pencilers are Keith Pollard, Sal Buscema, and Al Milgrom, all great artists of the Bronze Age. Jim Mooney (a great penciler in his own right) does most of the inking and he does a good job as well.

How does it look?
It looks great, as all the scans you see here will indicate. I didn't notice any weird looking recoloring on any page.

A very nice one-page retelling of Spidey's origin story.

Spider-Man: Return Of The Burglar is a great sequel to Spidey's origin story that gives Peter some closure. In the end, Spider-Man realizes he's lucky to have his powers and his encounter with the

Burglar reinvigorates his desire to fight crime and make the world a better place.

 My rating:

.5

3.5 Sals.