Issue(s): Fantastic Four #133
Cover Date: Apr 73
Title: "Thundra at dawn!"
Credits:
Gerry Conway - Script
Roy Thomas - Plot
Ramona Fradon - Penciler
Joe Sinnott - Inker

Review/plot:
Thundra challenges the Thing to a fight at Shea Stadium. She kidnaps Alicia to ensure that he will come. She delivers her message from the clock in Times Square, which for some reason reminds me of Spidey Super Stories.

There's a few panels of other super-heroes commenting on the fight (although none seem inclined to help the Thing rescue Alicia). The Hulk's panel is the funniest. I like the idea of him getting a newspaper delivered to his cave.

There's also a silly panel with Luke Cage getting snubbed by the FF.

The Thing shows up at the fight and gets utterly trounced by Thundra, who continues to spew pseudo-female chauvanist rhetoric.

The Thing "wins" the fight when Reed uses one of his failed Thing cures to temporarily turn the Thing back into Ben Grimm. Thundra refuses to hit a weakling, so she returns Alicia.

Thundra's deal is she wants to defeat the world's strongest male, but as this issue reminds us with cameos from Thor and the Hulk, that ain't the Thing.

The rest of the Frightful Four is in this issue as well, but they don't do a damn thing. The Invisible Girl is still absent from the FF.

Quality Rating: D+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

• Spider-Man, commenting on the Thundra/Thing event, thinks back to his team-up with the Thing in Marvel Team-Up #3 (incorrectly footnoted as #7).

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Hulk: Raging Thunder #1

Ramona Fradon had previously drawn The Shining Knight, Aquaman, and Metamorpho for DC. I believe some higher-ups at Marvel didn't think her art quite fit the house style, so she soon went back to DC to do mystery stories, Plastic Man, and Super Friends.

I always blamed Ben's loss in this issue (the first FF comic I ever read BTW) on his being unwilling to hit a woman, at least at this point in comics history. Thundra may be tough, but we've seen Ben take out tougher customers.

I read some Thundra issues as a kid and I remember that I found it very troubling to have a tall, hot, buxom woman depicted as much stronger than the Thing. George Perez's art made the difference in strength quite obvious during their fight in Marvel Two-In-One #56. I must have been 11 at the time and I found it rather sexy, even though I couldn't exactly define my feelings at the time. :)

"Fight dumb. Everyone dumb." One of the greatest written panels the Hulk has ever appeared in.

Ramona did a great job with Ben. The Thing isn't easy to draw.