Fantastic Four #21Issue(s): Fantastic Four #21 Review/plot: Ugh. The Hate-Monger... ...who is actually Adolf Hitler... ...uses his H-Ray to make the FF hate each other. He has been traveling all over Europe and the Americas using his hate ray to turn people into racists ("With us or against us" sounds familiar). The FF split up. Nick Fury, who Reed knew from WWII, shows up at the Baxter Building... ...and tells Reed about a problem in South America caused by the Hate-Monger. Reed leaves without the rest of the FF in the Pogo plane. Fury is now a Colonel and is working for the CIA. The rest of the FF see the Pogo plane launch and Fury tells them where Reed went... ...and they follow Reed in the ICBM missile they keep at the Baxter Building. Not to be outdone by Pogo Planes and ICBMs, the Hate Monger has his own cool vehicle: a Sub-Surface Missile, which Stan Lee assures us could be a real thing. Fury forces the Hate-Monger to give Reed the antidote to the H-Ray, and then Reed hunts down the rest of the FF and administers the antidote to them as well. Then they go back to fight Hitler, but he accidentally zaps his own troops with the H-Ray and they shoot him dead. This is such an awful concept. No one needs to see Hitler as a super-villain. His costume, which looks vaguely like a KKK uniform, is goofy and awkward looking. Nick Fury is not wearing an eyepatch in this issue, and is not working for SHIELD. He's with the CIA. The reprint editors of Marvel Tales #15 have put in a blurb saying that this is the last appearance of Fury before a WWII injury caused him to start wearing an eye patch. However, the Marvel: The Lost Generation explained this appearance by saying that he initially wore a bionic eye. Meanwhile, Sue tries on some wigs. Tthe fact that Reed Richards and Nick Fury met during World War II will soon become problematic for Marvel's sliding timescale concept. Nick Fury's longevity will eventually be explained by the Infinity Formula, but Reed's participation in World War II doesn't have a similar explanation. Quality Rating: D Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A References:
Crossover: N/A Continuity Insert? N My Reprint: Marvel Collector's Item Classics #15 Inbound References (9): show 1963 / Box 2 / Silver Age CommentsAlicia apears in this issue--Ben's her model as she sculpts a statue of him. Posted by: Shar | October 22, 2013 10:41 PM Thanks, Shar. Posted by: fnord12 | October 23, 2013 8:13 AM The comic references Sgt Fury #3. Why are the Sgt Fury and His Howling Commandos comics not included in your overview of the Silver Age? Posted by: AliensWhoSayYip | June 17, 2015 8:24 PM He has them classified under when they take place, the World War II/Golden Age period. Posted by: Thanos6 | June 17, 2015 8:33 PM That makes sense. Thanks Thanos Posted by: AliensWhoSayYip | June 17, 2015 11:50 PM Given that this was the era of the Birmingham Church bombings and the resurgence of the KKK, I'm a bit more charitable to this story, which basically takes an ongoing issue and calls out bigots as so many little Hitlers. There's a reason the Hate-Monger's costume design has that pointy hood. Posted by: Omar Karindu | October 16, 2015 10:29 PM Stan apparently wasn't talking out of his butt when it came to the claims regarding a subterranean vehicle. And, while the Soviets were researching it, the idea originated with the Nazis, making this story even more "plausible". http://englishrussia.com/2012/05/15/the-craziest-secret-military-project-of-the-ussr/ I bet it had been recently profiled in a Popular Mechanics or something. Posted by: FF3 | January 21, 2016 10:13 AM *choke* Why do George Roussos' inks look good on the "Tales Of Asgard" story from JIM #97, yet so hideous in this issue only a month later? I don't get it. Perhaps he took more time on the 5 page story? Maybe he just didn't like the subject matter in this FF/KKK story? All this hurried sloppy inking eventually pushed Kirby to do finish quality pencils on all of his pages, leaving nothing to the inker's imagination. Re: the subterranean vehicle, at first I thought that it must be traveling in the opposite direction of the rocket thrust... but it's not...!? What force could be making it move forward against the powerful reverse thrust of the rocket? Seems totally unbelievable. Posted by: James Holt | August 10, 2016 1:12 AM As often as the Secretly really Adolf Hitler idea has been used, this was actually the first time. On my reading list, I placed all the WWII and Korea era Sgt. Fury stories along with Capt. Savage and Combat Kelly before this issue. Posted by: Bobby Sisemore | October 25, 2016 8:47 PM Comments are now closed. |
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