Marvel Masterworks: The Fantastic Four, Vol. 17

Marvel Masterworks: The Fantastic Four #17

by Roy Thomas, Len Wein, George Pérez (Penciller)

The Fantastic Four continue their explorations into the impossible - when they confront none other than the Impossible Man! From a tale that rampages through the Marvel Bullpen and features the return of the Frightful Four, Impy will both torment and team-up in an attempt to make our heroes a Fantastic Five! Then, Reed Richards is replaced by his evil Counter-Earth counterpart. It's a saga so epic in scope that Thundra, Tigra, the Mad Thinker and Annihilus are pulled into it...as Reed battles for his life in the heart of the Negative Zone!
Fantastic Four (1961) 176-191

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Superheroes, Comic Book

256 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2015

About the author

Roy Thomas was the FIRST Editor-in-Chief at Marvel--After Stan Lee stepped down from the position. Roy is a longtime comic book writer and editor. Thomas has written comics for Archie, Charlton, DC, Heroic Publishing, Marvel, and Topps over the years. Thomas currently edits the fanzine Alter Ego for Twomorrow's Publishing. He was Editor for Marvel comics from 1972-1974. He wrote for several titles at Marvel, such as Avengers, Thor, Invaders, Fantastic Four, X-Men, and notably Conan the Barbarian. Thomas is also known for his championing of Golden Age comic-book heroes — particularly the 1940s superhero team the Justice Society of America — and for lengthy writing stints on Marvel's X-Men and Avengers, and DC Comics' All-Star Squadron, among other titles.

Also a legendary creator. Creations include Wolverine, Carol Danvers, Ghost Rider, Vision, Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Valkyrie, Morbius, Doc Samson, and Ultron. Roy has also worked for Archie, Charlton, and DC among others over the years.

Reviews

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

There was always family drama in the FF. Now we get an evil Counter-Earth Reed Richards taking over! Only Stan "The Man" Lee could write a soap opera storyline into comics and it come out as an awesome tale. Very nice read and art. Recommended

[Kris Shaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

Things start out strong with four Roy Thomas-penned issues. Roy brings back the Impossible Man, who had not been seen in years. From there he goes into the return of the Frightful Four, who hold auditions for their new fourth member in the FF's headquarters, the Baxter Building. Their new fourth member is The Brute, who is really (!!!SPOILER!!!) Reed Richards of Counter-Earth. Evil Reed Richards hitched a ride to this Earth unbeknownst to the FF in the issues collected in the previous volume. Counter-Earth Reed Richards/ The Brute ends up tricking the team, sending the real Mister Fantastic into The Negative Zone.

I really enjoyed this scene from issue 178, where the Frightful Four were holding the then cash strapped city of New York for ransom. The mayor reached for out for financial help from the soon-to-be president Jimmy Carter, the then-current president Gerald Ford, and the at the time eliminated presidential candidate and future president, actor turned politician Ronald Reagan. This issue was on the stands in October of 1976, and Roy Thomas was all Nostradamus, with Carter predicting his election the following week.

#180 was a reprint of #101, and only the cover is presented here. Marvel did this a handful of times during the '70s. Jim Shooter rectified deadline problems like these in the '80s by commissioning inventory issues which were whipped out in lieu of reprints if the current creative team missed their deadline. #181 is near and dear to my heart, as it was a quarter box find circa 1983 and served as my introduction to Annihilus. Agatha Harkness also returns as a supporting cast member in that issue.

Things develop with Agatha Harkness, coming to a head in #185. The Fantastic Four are led to New Salem, a town hidden in the Colorado Rockies which was not on any map. Oh, the days before Google Earth, when things like hidden towns were a possibility. The witches of New Salem kidnapped Agatha Harkness to try her for her “crime” of venturing into the outside world. There is lots of great faux occult goodness, including animated gargoyle stone statues and even a group of super-powered witches called Salem's Seven, the type of adversaries considered too silly for so-called sophisticated 21st century readers.

#187 and 188 are a two-parter where the FF take on Klaw and the Molecule Man. The Fantastic Four break up at the end of that issue. #189 is another reprint fill-in issue. Only the cover is included here. #190 is a waste of time, a recap issue slapped together to fill in what has happened so far. I remember enjoying those back in the pre-Internet days. This issue features some of Sal Buscema's most phoned in work. #191 cements the end of the Fantastic Four, with all four members going their own way at the end of the issue.

This is of course not the end of the team or the title. Modern day advance solicits would have sucked all of the life out of this storyline, but fans back in 1977 had no real way of knowing what was coming next. While I enjoy the online fan community I sometimes miss the more solitary nature of this hobby, at least in terms of spoilers and advance solicitations.

Marvel Masterworks are my poison of choice. For Masterworks of this book's vintage, rest assured that this is the definitive Blu-Ray edition of this material. No line bleed or off register printing. No mouldering pulp paper. The art and the colors look like the artists intended and are not hampered by primitive four color printing processes.

Think of the post-2007 Masterworks as definitive Blu-Ray editions, with painstakingly restored linework and a color palette that is 100% faithful to the source material. Those who claim that the colors are too bright or miss the “artistic choice” of benday dots are nuts.

[Tomás Sendarrubias García · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pues hace ya un par de días que terminé este tomo y se me había olvidado... Como están las cabezas...

Seguimos con una etapa de transición, en la que Roy Thomas termina con su labor en 4F, y comienza un pequeño desfile de guionistas y colaboradores, algunos encargándose de las tramas y otros de los diálogos. Len Wein, Gerry Conway, Archie Godwin, Jim Shooter, Bill Mantlo... fueron pasando por los guiones, acompañando, con breves excepciones, a George Pérez... que continúa medio escondido bajo las tintas de Joe Sinnot. En estos números, después de que Sue Richards hubiera dejado el grupo y hubiera vuelto, la Cosa hubiera perdido los poderes y los hubiera recuperado, llegaba el momento de que se pusiera en solfa la imagen del líder del grupo, del propio Mister Fantástico, que durante un ataque de los Cuatro Terribles será lanzado a la Zona Negativa para ser reemplazado por su doble de la Contratierra, el Bruto, decidido a acabar con la vida de los 4F, a lo largo de una saga que va a llevar a la (primera) disolución del grupo.

En fin, al igual que en el tomo anterior, las historias han mejorado un poquito frente a algunos tomos anteriores, auténticamente soporíferos y que me ha costado terminar. Pero nada, ahí seguimos... rumbo al 200.

[Justin Partridge · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Four No More!”

Now hip deep into the Wein/Thomas/Wolfman era of FF and I’m not really understanding the bad rep this has with FF people. Especially for a comic that sports some Mark Millar eventually.

I’m bending toward punchy because I’m in a weird mood but really these have been fine to good. It’s been interesting to see how the title has always been dealing with evil alternate versions of the core four and how further it’s been messing with everyone’s powers for dramatic effect.

While also pulling off silly stuff like the Impossible Man basically joining the team for a bit and them getting evicted and subsequently robbed by The Plunderer as Johnny continues to pine for Frankie and everyone is straight up meeting all the people who are actually working on the comic at the moment.

Like that’s too insane for me to completely hate. It still looks great too. It’s like right when I feel like I should step away for a bit it keeps hooking me in some way or another that keeps making me curious about how it continues on. I guess that’s the real marvel, huh?

[Jdetrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even though this volume sees the title go through a few different writers, I still think it's stronger than the previous one. At the very least we have a team that is changing and the book seems to be moving forward and exploring some new territory.

[Brent · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a great run! Good action, fun comedy, fantastic George Pérez artwork. It's run like this that make me appreciate the whole series a little bit more.

[Nicolas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I first read issue 179 out of sequence and it threw me for a loop. So much is going on that I had to track down the other issues! Ultimately I think the changing writers disrupted the flow, but still a good time.

For more, tune in to Comic Book Coffee Break: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lu61J...

[Ed · Rating 2 out of 5]

This collection starts off with some fun Roy Thomas madness, but quickly turns into a dire and dull set of stories by Len Wein. Most of the art is done by George Peréz, whom elevates all of the material.

Issues 176 and 177 are the highlights. I'm not usually a fan of the Impossible Man, but issue 176 is just too goofy and far-out not to love. 177 has the Frightful Four doing auditions for a fourth member right inside the Baxter Building. It's full on Venture Brothers (I couldn't not hear the Monarch when I read the Wizard's dialogue) and it's one of the funniest FF issues of all time. It brings Thundra and Tigra (who are favorites of mine) into the book for a while. It also introduces The Brute, an evil Reed Richards from Counter Earth. I love evil Reed's and this starts off pretty fun, but the Brute arc peaks with his entrance. 178 has the Brute and the Frightful Four defeating the FF; it's less fun than the preceding two but better than most of what comes next. 179 drags in Gene Conway and Ron Wilson as fill-in writer and artist, respectively, and continues the downward trend. 180 is the first of the two reprints in this run (although it has an awesome cover from a returning Kirby). 181 has Thomas back on scripting but keeps Wilson on pencils; it's a slight improvement and has Annihilus, whom I always love. Unfortunately, it's Thomas's last issue.

182 is a hodgepodge of 4 writers with Sal Buscema drawing. The best thing I can say about it is it has a Looney Tunes-esque Brute. 183 sees Bill Mantlo swooping in to wrap things up with a bad ending (but some nice moments from Tigra and Thundra).

184 is where it really goes off the rails, though. Len Wein takes over scripting starting here and most of what he gives us feels like a third rate rehashing of Silver Age style. It's filled with terrible "surprise" endings and terrible new characters. The Eliminator (issue 184) looks like a the worst Kirby monster ever. The witches of Salem (185 & 186) is just a deeply dumb plot thread and the Salem Seven team look like some rejected Masters of the Universe characters. They also lose their powers because Reed is using robot arms. Really.

187 has some terrible nonsensical Klaw backstory but at least it has a cool Perez splash page when the Molecule Man takes over Reed's body. 188 has a pretty awesome visual of a skyscraper turned into a monster by Molecule Reed, who also has a really cool costume. But the writing in this pair of issues might be the nadir of the entire book.

189 is another reprint; 190 is recap of the FF's internal disagreements by Marv Wolfman and Sal Buscema. 191 has the FF actually breaking up. It was okay in a maudlin sort of way and is the last issue fully written by Wein (the next few have co-writers and then Wolfman takes over), but the FF breaking up is dumb and no-one believes it will stick.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must-have for all George Perez fans. It's odd but even after all these years, I still think of these collected issues as NEW FF. Because my brother was buying them off the rack, and not picking up the Kirby back issues from the stacks at the comic book dealers house. Solid, entertaining material here. Classic stuff. Must own volume for all FF and Perez fans.