Issue(s): Fantastic Four #201
Cover Date: Dec 78
Title: "Home deadly home!"
Credits:
Marv Wolfman - Writer
Keith Pollard - Penciler
Joe Sinnott - Inker

Review/plot:
This issue begins with the FF still in Latveria with Zorba.

They then fly home in their Pogo Plane and land on the roof of the Baxter Building, because it's the only place that has a landing mechanism for it.

(Note that Alicia, who was with the FF in Latveria, does not seem to be with the group.)

The FF's old landlord Mr. Collins shows up immediately...

...and while he's not happy to see them, he also admits that he's having trouble renting out the abandoned floors because potential tenants are worried about getting attacked by super-villains. Collins demands an increase in the rent but is otherwise willing to let the team have their building back. The Thing claims that they have another offer from the World Trade Center and tells Collins they'll only take the building back if he lowers the rent, "send[s] up more heat, an' keep the bill collectors off our doorsteps". Surely the FF had their own thermostats, and if it's anyone's job to keep people away it's Sergius O'Hoolihan's, so i assume the Thing is just having a lark.

Collins doesn't immediately accept the counter-offer, but "within a day" Reed is supervising the reconstruction of the FF's headquarters...

...and soon we get one of these:

The rest of the issue has the FF getting attacked by their own building equipment.

They don't learn the cause (we'll soon learn that it's Quasimodo) but things eventually settle down, and Reed says that he's asked Stark Industries to run some further tests.

As Michael notes below, Reed Richards is never shown getting out of his deathtrap, so a re-scripted panel is included in issue #204 for us to clip out and paste over the original. I'll stick with the top panel because i take it for granted that Mr. Fantastic can outsmart a microbe and i prefer the reference to Stark.

Throughout all of this, even after re-renting the Baxter Building and rebuilding the HQ, Reed remained unconvinced that the FF should go back into action as a team. But by the end of the issue, Reed agrees that they should.

It keeps the Thing out of the "Midget Wrestling" circuit, anyway.

It was actually a pretty long period of time, between FF #188 and #201, that the FF were disbanded. That's looking at it from the most generous perspective; you could argue it was really only #191-199. Either way, it's a pretty long time and certainly a significant event for the time period.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - FF get back together

Chronological Placement Considerations: There are discrepancies between this issue and Fantastic Four annual #13 regarding the timeline of the rebuilding of the Baxter Building. More on the entry for that annual. Basically, i am suggesting that this issue takes place after the annual.

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Zorba talking about the FF "restoring democracy" is weird, since previous stories made it clear that Latveria had been a dictatorship at least since Doom was a small child. Of course, Byrne explained that by explaining that Zorba had a twisted idea of democracy.
The explanation as to how Reed escaped the microbe was left out of the script and had to be explained in a later letter column.

Was "Room X" ever explained?

Not in these issues. Not sure about something in the future (it could even have been in something that i've reviewed prior to the current Backissue Add and missed it).

So, after the redesign, Sue and Reed are right on the other side of the wall from Johnny. They couldn't have given themselves a little more privacy?