Issue(s): Fantastic Four #306
Cover Date: Sep 87
Title: "The Marvel Rage!"
Credits:
Steve Englehart - Writer
John Buscema - Breakdowns
Joe Sinnott - Finishes
Craig Anderson - Assistant Editor
Ralph Macchio - Editor

Review/plot:
With some help from Captain America, we are ready to finalize the line-up of the Thing's Fantastic Four. Before that, though, the Inhumans show up to take Quicksilver home.

They also bring along an Inhuman named Maya, who will be serving as Luna's nanny. She has the power to control the environment, which means Luna won't have to take the potion that the other Inhumans need to breath Earth's polluted atmosphere. But she says she won't use those powers to help the FF fight.

Quicksilver temporarily escapes during the handoff, but he's recaptured again.

After all that, we see Cap pulling up on his motorcycle with Sharon Ventura on the back. She recoils from Cap's touch...

...and Cap notes that she's been sitting as far away from him while as possible they were on the bike, too. And she refuses to let him escort her up to the Fantastic Four's building. After Cap leaves, she doesn't go up to the FF but instead wanders the streets, and, similar to what was implied in Cap #331, we learn that while she was held prisoner, some of Karl Malus' henchmen became "interested" in her.

The Thing notices Sharon walking away, and leaves to go find her. Instead, Crystal catches up with him...

...and discusses the fact that Johnny is uncomfortable with her being around, and how that makes her uncomfortable too. She considers leaving the team, but the Thing says that "the whole situation" is Johnny's fault, and she should tough it out.

That's when Diablo shows up with some elementals.

The full current team shows up to help with the fight, but Diablo's elementals are improved and he has the upper hand.

At least until Sharon Ventura shows up and pounds the crap out of him.

She continues to beat him long after it's necessary, and she says it's because she hates him...

...and in fact hates all men...

...with their mustaches and brutal hands and baseball caps and golf shoes.

Not to fear, though, because Ben Grimm is no man, so he's ok.

Despite that unintended insult, he invites her to join the team.

I like the fact that Sharon is used here. It's nice to see that the events of the Thing's solo series aren't being ignored, and Sharon had potential to be a decent character. But there was no need to have her gang raped and turn her into an overt man-hater. We had enough of the man hating from Man-Killer and Thundra in the 70s. And she was already a stand-offish character that wasn't able to commit to a relationship due to childhood problems with her father. The way she had already been depicted seems to be enough for what Englehart wanted to do with her here. This is also the second character Englehart has had raped, after Mockingbird in West Coast Avengers (yes, Ventura's rape was also implied in the Captain America issue but i'm assuming that was done in coordination with Englehart, and the implication is stronger here).

Looking beyond that (!), there's an interesting mix of stuff going on. In one sense, this is a very traditional feeling book, with Englehart's scripting and classic art from Buscema/Sinnott. And the use of Diablo, a kind of corny villain but also the one that John Byrne used to kick off his Fantastic Four run (while this issue is sort-of the first adventure for the new line-up). But Englehart really wants us to think of this run as being a radical pushing of the boundaries, with the most drastic line-up change we've ever seen. And he's clearly trying to deal with mature topics like rape and the Ben/Alica/Johnny/Crystal relationship. The results are as mixed as the ingredients.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 3 - Sharon Ventura joins the Fantastic Four

Chronological Placement Considerations: Franklin, Quicksilver, and the Inhumans (except Crystal), next appear in X-Factor annual #2. That annual has to occur after this issue because Quicksilver is released from the FF's prison here. He must then have immediately escaped as Maximus started exerting more control over them all. The weird thing is Luna's appearance in that annual, since here the Inhumans arrive with her and the nanny Maya. I guess after the Diablo attack, the Inhumans take Luna back to the moon to be safe, and then return her some time before Fantastic Four #307. Captain America and Sharon Ventura appear here after Captain America #331, and Cap says that he's just dropping Sharon off here on his way to Washington, so i have him appearing in Captain America #332 next.

References:

• Handing over Quicksilver, Mr. Fantastic says "very frankly, I've had enough of people with mental problems", a reference to Kristoff from last issue and Fantastic Four annual #20.
  
• Captain America rescued Sharon Ventura from the Power Broker in in Captain America #331.
  
• Sharon met the Thing in Thing #27 and last saw him in Thing #36.
  
• Diablo was last seen "in these pages" in Fantastic Four #232. He's been seen a few times outside these pages since then.
  
• Diablo references the FF trapping him behind iron and stone and it taking him "years" to escape. I can only assume that he's referring to the FF re-trapping him in his castle in Fantastic Four #30, but it didn't take him that long to get out (Fantastic Four #35). Is he confusing things with when he was trapped in his castle prior to FF #30? Or is Englehart not aware of Diablo's non-FF appearances and thinking that the FF imprisoned Diablo again after #232?
  

• Crystal references Diablo enslaving her, as shown in Fantastic Four #117-118.
  
• Fighting the air elemental, the Thing uses a trick similar to what he did in Fantastic Four #305 while fighting the Human Torch, and uses his powerful lungs to suck in all the air.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

With her handbag, umbrella, and prim posture, I wonder it Maya wasn't a sly reference to Mary Poppins?

Couldn't Sue just surround the fire elemental in a force field until its flame goes out? She's done that to Johnny before.
The sheer-stupidity of making someone with a fear of touching men a member of a superhero team is beyond belief. More on that when we get to the Arab-stereotype, er, Fasaud storyline.

On one level, I admire the courage Englehart is showing here blowing up the FF and creating a new time while Reed and Sue raise Franklin. However, I just don't like this team.

Ben and Johnny are OK of course. Crystal's elemental powers slightly duplicate Johnny's flame, but her other powers make her versatile. However, I really don't like Sharon's involvement as her powers add nothing new to the team. She's a lot less stronger Thing basically, and duplicate powers in a small team is rarely interesting. Part of the interest in a good superhero team is seeing fun and creative uses of varied powers. She adds nothing to the team in that regard.

If they could somehow given her different powers, I'd feel differently. We've lost Reed's elastic powers and Sue's invisibility/force field and been given two replacement characters whose powers are too close to the remaining two members.

Its true that Shary's power-set is somewhat redundant (especially once she becomes a Thing--right now she still has her enhanced agility and speed, which makes for at least a different fighting style from Ben), but she does bring something important to the mix...and that is her sharp mind. Although Shary is not a scientific genius like Reed, she will ultimately end up filling his role as the 'brains' of the group...once she gets past her emotional baggage.

That is something I always rather liked about Shary--she wasn't a scientist or traditional comic book 'genius', but she was still noteworthy for a sharp intellect, making connections that other's couldn't, devising solutions, etc. That isn't a role that traditionally went to female characters or two 'muscle' characters--and Shary is both.

When people think of Shary (and especially Englehart's work with Shary), they tend to focus largely on her basketcase period...but that was just the starting point for his work with her, and I think he developed her into a really interesting character who I enjoyed having as part of the FF family.

I like Shary, but Ben if I didn't think she was a good character, I'd be grateful to Engelhart for adding her because we get an exceptionally funny Hulk issue when the grey Hulk finally meets her.

Hum, *even*, not "Ben." Autocorrect causes more mutations than cosmic rays...

Glad to finally see this issue. I was collecting Cap at the time, and at the end of 331, he's traveling east with Sharon, then in 332 she's not mentioned at all. There was nothing in either of those that mentioned this issue.

And what a strange way for her to go east - on the back of a motorcycle driven by a male when she's now averse to the touch of all men. Cap couldn't have gone over to Clint and borrowed a Quinjet? They had to bike 3000 miles together?