Reprints Fantastic Four (1961) #164-176
Written by Roy Thomas and Bill Mantlo.
Penciled by George Perez, Rich Buckler, John Buscema.
Inked by Joe Sinnott, Vince Colletta
A man calling himself the Crusader shows up in New York, invades a bank and attacks Calvin McClary, the bank's owner. Luckily, the Human Torch is nearby and intervenes. Crusader defeats the Torch and gets away. This menace is armed with Quantum Bands that give Crusader super-strength that make him very dangerous. Johnny will need his Fantastic Four teammates if he wants to stop the Crusader.
We learn that Crusader's real name is Robert Grayson and that used to fight crime under the name Marvel Boy. His father Horace was an atomic scientist who fled the Earth to Uranus in the 1950s. Horace Grayson needed money to fund his Uranus project and McClary wouldn't loan it to him. This resulted in the deaths of many Uranians, and the Crusader has come to New York to avenge them. This leads the madman to attack banks all over the city.
Later, the FF are flying over the Midwest when they encounter the Hulk! They battle the Green Goliath and the Invisible Girl eventually subdues him using her force field. The Hulk is turned over to the military. Reed makes a deal with Col. Sellers of the Air Force: If he's able to cure Bruce Banner of his Hulk transformations, Banner will go free and work with Richards.
The Thing doesn't like the way the Hulk is being treated by the military. Ben looks at Hulk and sees that they are both "monsters" who are unjustly feared by the powers that be.
Reed uses a device on the Hulk that he hopes will turn him back to Bruce Banner. The device is successful, but Col. Sellers suddenly reneges on their deal and imprisons Banner. When Ben sees this, he decides to free Banner, who turns back into the Hulk. The Thing teams up with Hulk and only the Fantastic Four can stop them.
They battle all over the city of St. Louis. Suddenly, Ben has a change of heart and attacks the Hulk. But in the middle of the fight, the Thing changes back to his human form! He's plain old, human Ben Grimm once again.
Since Ben is no longer the Thing, the FF need a new member. They hire Power Man, also known as "Luke Cage, hero for hire".
Ben's happiness at regaining his human form is short lived. No one recognizes him on the streets of New York, and talk shows that wanted to interview the Thing are no longer interested in booking him. Plus, Ben feels like a loser knowing that he's been replaced by Power Man. Grimm is further incensed because Reed is paying Cage for his services.
In the middle of these changes, the Fantastic Four are notified of a series of bank robberies. They learn it's the work of Thor's old foe the Wrecker. He possesses a mystically powered crowbar and proves to be a tough enemy. Power Man gets a chance to prove that he belongs on the team when he goes toe-to-toe with Wrecker.
Following that battle, Cage is having a conversation with Sue and Alicia Masters and Franklin. Power Man suddenly attacks them, but Invisible Girl's force holds him back and subdues Luke until her teammates arrive. Power Man steals their Fantasticar and escapes. The Fantastic Four know that Cage must be under some sort of mind-control and wonder who the real villain is.
Reed knows that they will need all the help they can get to stop Power Man. He also sympathizes with his old friend and builds Ben a "Thing suit." It's an exoskeleton that will allow him to become the Thing again, while staying human. The suit enables Ben to rejoin the Fantastic Four.
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| Ben tries on his "Thing suit" for the first time. |
The FF tracks down Power Man. The heroes learn that Cage is being controlled by their old enemy the Puppet Master!
After that conflict, a spaceship lands in Central Park. A golden gorilla emerges from the ship and grows into a giant. The Fantastic Four battle the gorilla and are able to capture him using Sue's force field (which also returns him to normal height). To their surprise, this gorilla can speak and tells them why he has come to Earth. He says his name is Gorr and he came to Earth to seek their help against Galactus, devourer of worlds!
After that conflict, a spaceship lands in Central Park. A golden gorilla emerges from the ship and grows into a giant. The Fantastic Four battle the gorilla and are able to capture him using Sue's force field (which also returns him to normal height). To their surprise, this gorilla can speak and tells them why he has come to Earth. He says his name is Gorr and he came to Earth to seek their help against Galactus, devourer of worlds!
Gorr had been sent to Earth by the god-like being who calls himself the High Evolutionary, who has created a Counter Earth nearly identical to our planet. The High Evolutionary asks the FF to help them find another planet that Galactus can feed on in order to spare Counter Earth. Will the Fantastic Four succeed in finding another planet? Or is Counter Earth doomed? Before it's all said and done, the High Evolutionary must engage Galactus in direct combat.
When the FF directly confronts Galactus, it will have a long-lasting impact on Ben Grimm.
Finally, when the Fantastic Four return to Earth, they are accompanied by the shape-shifter from planet Poppup known as the Impossible Man. The alien finds himself alone in New York City. The Impossible Man eventually ends up visiting 575 Madison Avenue, which houses the offices of Marvel Comics! Impossible Man demands that Marvel create a comic book that features him as the star. When they refuse, he attacks Marvel with extreme prejudice!
Review:
While this isn't exactly "classic"material, Fantastic Four: Crusaders & Titans is mostly fun from beginning to end. But I have some problems with these tales.
Story:
Roy Thomas writes some very entertaining stories in this tpb. It opens with the Crusader story, which features the FF against a very powerful being who has been tragically driven insane. The Hulk battle is pretty good too. It makes sense that the Thing would feel sympathy for his fellow "monster."
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| The FF battle the Hulk & Thing on the St. Louis arch! |
But after that, I'm not crazy some of what Thomas does. Ben is returned to his human form, something he'd wanted for (at that point) 167 issues. But almost immediately after his transformation, Grimm starts whining about how he's no longer a celebrity. Is it believable that Ben would feel left out when it was time for his teammates to go into battle? Sure, but we should have gotten at least one issue's worth of pages that show Grimm enjoying the return to his normal old self.
Power Man, hired to replace the Thing, is well-written here. Cage tries to balance his enthusiasm with being in the FF with respecting Ben's feelings. It's also good that Thomas doesn't try to overload Cage's dialogue with "urban" idioms, a mistake made by lots of 70s writers.
Gorr's first appearance is ridiculous, but I mean that in a good way. What's not to like about a giant, talking, alien, intelligent golden gorilla?! Thomas gives us a nice tribute to King King and other giant monster movies. There are even references to the 1976 Kong remake. The Thing jokes that "Dino de Laurentiis could save a fortune if he just had a Polaroid".
The Galactus story is pretty good. Thomas demonstrates that Galactus simply hungers and wants to consume the energies of Counter Earth simply because he needs to. But I was a bit disappointed in the battle between the Big G and High Evolutionary. It's teased as an epic clash, but Galactus needs only 9 panels over a page and a half to easily defeat the High Evolutionary.
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| Ben cries in his beer. |
Power Man, hired to replace the Thing, is well-written here. Cage tries to balance his enthusiasm with being in the FF with respecting Ben's feelings. It's also good that Thomas doesn't try to overload Cage's dialogue with "urban" idioms, a mistake made by lots of 70s writers.
Gorr's first appearance is ridiculous, but I mean that in a good way. What's not to like about a giant, talking, alien, intelligent golden gorilla?! Thomas gives us a nice tribute to King King and other giant monster movies. There are even references to the 1976 Kong remake. The Thing jokes that "Dino de Laurentiis could save a fortune if he just had a Polaroid".
The Galactus story is pretty good. Thomas demonstrates that Galactus simply hungers and wants to consume the energies of Counter Earth simply because he needs to. But I was a bit disappointed in the battle between the Big G and High Evolutionary. It's teased as an epic clash, but Galactus needs only 9 panels over a page and a half to easily defeat the High Evolutionary.
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| The Impossible Man & the FF crash-land in Central Park. |
Fantastic Four: Crusaders & Titans concludes on a funny note, with the Impossible Man paying a visit to Marvel Comics. I always liked things like this when I was a kid and still enjoy them today. It's entertaining to see Thomas, George Perez, Jack Kirby and Stan Lee depicted as comic book characters.
There's one more problem with this book. It ends with a cliffhanger. The Impossible Man story was followed by a two-parter that featured the Frightful Four. If you want to read what happens next, it's been reprinted in tpb called Fantastic Four Visionaries - George Perez, Vol. 2 (maybe I'll review that book here someday).
There's one more problem with this book. It ends with a cliffhanger. The Impossible Man story was followed by a two-parter that featured the Frightful Four. If you want to read what happens next, it's been reprinted in tpb called Fantastic Four Visionaries - George Perez, Vol. 2 (maybe I'll review that book here someday).
Art:
The art contained in this tpb is excellent. George Perez draws the first 4 issues reprinted here and also the last story in the book. Most of Perez' art is beautifully inked by Joe Sinnott, who inks the other pencilers as well. Look at this gorgeous two-page spread from Perez and Sinnott:
Great stuff.
John Buscema was, of course, a legendary artist and one of the best of the Bronze Age. This isn't his best art, but it's still good. Rich Buckler pencils the rest of the book and his art is also excellent. These stories were published during a time when Marvel wanted Buckler to deliberately imitate the art of Jack Kirby. But that's not his fault, and Buckler and Sinnott make a great art team. Here's an example of their work:
How Does It Look:
Below you find the splash page as it originally appeared in Fantastic Four #175:
And here's how it looks in Fantastic Four: Crusaders & Titans:
And for good measure, here's another original page, scanned from FF #172:
It looks like this in the tpb:
Thank to SuperMegaMonkey for the scans from the old issues.
Extras:
Thomas wrote a column in FF #176 about the making of the story where Impossible Man visited the Marvel offices. That column is reprinted here. The tpb also contains 4 pages of original art.
Fantastic Four: Crusaders & Titans features some outstanding art from Perez, Sinnott and Buckler and some solid stories from Thomas. This tpb is recommended, but Thomas' handling of Ben Grimm in the middle portions and the cliffhanger ending prevent me giving the book a higher rating.
J.A. Morris' rating:
3 Sals.
The art contained in this tpb is excellent. George Perez draws the first 4 issues reprinted here and also the last story in the book. Most of Perez' art is beautifully inked by Joe Sinnott, who inks the other pencilers as well. Look at this gorgeous two-page spread from Perez and Sinnott:
Great stuff.
John Buscema was, of course, a legendary artist and one of the best of the Bronze Age. This isn't his best art, but it's still good. Rich Buckler pencils the rest of the book and his art is also excellent. These stories were published during a time when Marvel wanted Buckler to deliberately imitate the art of Jack Kirby. But that's not his fault, and Buckler and Sinnott make a great art team. Here's an example of their work:
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| Power Man decks the Wrecker, while Ben struggles with life without super-strength. |
How Does It Look:
Below you find the splash page as it originally appeared in Fantastic Four #175:
And here's how it looks in Fantastic Four: Crusaders & Titans:
And for good measure, here's another original page, scanned from FF #172:
It looks like this in the tpb:
Thank to SuperMegaMonkey for the scans from the old issues.
Extras:
Thomas wrote a column in FF #176 about the making of the story where Impossible Man visited the Marvel offices. That column is reprinted here. The tpb also contains 4 pages of original art.
Fantastic Four: Crusaders & Titans features some outstanding art from Perez, Sinnott and Buckler and some solid stories from Thomas. This tpb is recommended, but Thomas' handling of Ben Grimm in the middle portions and the cliffhanger ending prevent me giving the book a higher rating.
J.A. Morris' rating:
3 Sals.
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