Essential Fantastic Four Volume 8 by Roy Thomas, et al.

Gradually descending into mediocrity

Reproducing classic Marvel Comics from July 1975 to June 1977, Essential Fantastic Four Volume 8 reprints issues 160 to 183 of the Fantastic Four magazine, as well as a three-issue crossover running through Fantastic Four Annual #11, Marvel Two-in-One Annual #1, and Marvel Two-in-One #20. (Marvel Two-in-One was a solo title for The Thing, who would team up with other heroes in each issue, similar to Spider-Man’s Marvel Team-Up title.) These three issues comprise one of the most fun adventures in the volume, as it involves the FF traveling back in time to World War II and collaborating with The Invaders and The Liberty Legion to fight Nazi supervillains. Overall, however, I found the quality of these comics to be a decline from Essential Fantastic Four Volume 7.

All the stories in this volume were written by Roy Thomas except for the last two issues in the book. Thomas was also the editor of his own stories since he replaced Stan Lee as editor-in-chief when Lee became publisher and president of the company in 1972. Thomas has the great foundation of characters and worlds built by Lee and Jack Kirby to work with, but in the mid-70s there was definitely an effort made by Marvel to break away from classic Marvel and try new things. A few of these experiments were successful, but more often than not they just resulted in the introduction of forgettable villains. Familiar tropes still abound, however. In the Fantastic Four title, the writers always seem to be looking for ways to get the FF members to fight each other. Here Thomas accomplishes that with parallel universes and a “Counter-Earth,” so there are at least two versions of each member of the FF family.

Under Thomas’s pen, the Fantastic Four title feels like it’s starting to become a parody of itself. In issue #176, the FF visits the Marvel Comics offices, where they interact with Stan, Roy, Jack, and the rest of the staff. The Impossible Man, a villain from Fantastic Four #11, comes back to hang out with the team for about twenty issues and provide comic relief straight out of a children’s cartoon. The incurable Thing, as he has done so many times, loses his powers to become human Ben Grimm again. Luke Cage, Power Man, takes over for a couple issues, but then Reed builds Ben a Thing suit that he can wear that’s just as good as the real Thing. Even Thomas seems to realize what a bad idea this is. After a while Ben seems to wear the suit 24 hours a day, and it just isn’t mentioned anymore.

One good thing about this run of issues is that the Invisible Girl (as she was called at the time) is back as an active part of the team. She finds new, stronger ways to use her powers, and often plays an important part in defeating the villains, unlike the damsel-in-distress role she previously played. At times she gets to team up with guest stars Thundra and Tigra, and there is occasionally some overt feminism written into the proceedings.

George Perez drew the majority of the art, but his issues are frequently interspersed with those by Rich Buckler, Ron Wilson, and John and Sal Buscema. In my opinion, Perez is the weakest artist of the bunch, but he’s still pretty good. Jack Kirby is still drawing many of the covers. At this time, however, Marvel started to move away from Kirby’s bombastic style and settle into a more prosaic—perhaps intended to be realistic—style of art. The Buscemas, however, still bring some of their classic Kirby-imitating glory. There is much to enjoy in these 1970s issues of the Fantastic Four, but one gets a sense of the title descending into a mediocrity that wouldn’t be alleviated until John Byrne took over the title with issue #232.
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