Issue(s): Fantastic Four #274
Cover Date: Jan 85
Title: "Monster Mash Part Two"
Credits:
John Byrne - Writer
John Byrne - Penciler
Alan Gordon - Inker
Michael Higgins - Assistant Editor
Mike Carlin - Editor

Review/plot:
Aside from a few pages of prologue and an epilogue featuring Spider-Man's alien costume, this is basically a Thing solo story. Considering that the Thing had his own book, that's a little bit of an odd choice. I suppose the idea was to promote the Thing book, but considering the story is really a continuation of the tribute to old monster movies from Thing #19, it's not really a great advertisement.

That said, i have no problem with John Byrne drawing Universal horror movie monsters (although i'm sure if Byrne had wanted to draw an issue of the Thing's book, Marvel would have let him).

I was a little disappointed by Byrne's Wolfman. The idea is that Ben Grimm's subconsciousness is generating these creatures, so i would have expected the werewolf to look more like the Lon Chaney Jr. version, since all of the other monsters appearing here and in the Thing issue were inspired by the movies.

There's also this guy. Maybe Ben had also been reading a lot of Judge Dredd comics before leaving for Secret Wars?

Anyway, it's nice art, and the Thing helps the monsters escape from Judge Dredd and the evil old man that have captured them. Who doesn't want to be buddies with Frankenstein's monster?

Nothing here furthers the Thing's story in any way.

As for the prologues, a nosy neighbor sees Jennifer Walters transform into the She-Hulk at the home where Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman are trying to maintain secret identities.

The neighbor assumes they are witches and calls an occult specialist.

Sue is still recovering from the miscarriage.

And Reed is surprised to see the Human Torch and Alicia Masters going out on dates, but he decides they might be good for each other.

The epilogue is a repeat from Amazing Spider-Man #261, which features the small spacecraft freeing Spidey's alien symbiote costume, except drawn by Byrne and, instead of saying that the FF are on a mission while this is happening, it just says that the Baxter Building is "silent and empty".

Quality Rating: B-

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: This story continues directly from Thing #19. The epilogue in this issue takes place concurrently with Amazing Spider-Man #261 (with a caveat to see the comments on that entry).

References:

• The Thing is on the planet that was created by the Beyonder for Secret Wars.
  
• We're told to not miss Thing #20 for the continuation of Ben Grimm's never-ending quest to save his girlfriend.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Love Byrne's art but Alan Gordon is not a great match for him.

Byrne at this point seemed very much in touch with the roots of and influences on his own storytelling -- all the books, movies, and natch comics he must have devoured in preparation for his own career as a fantasist. The preceding FF arc had him borrowing quite the ragbag of motifs from H.G. Wells, Zane Grey, Jack Kirby, Richard Wagner, Shakespeare, and so on. (Like any good post-modernist, there's no "high-brow" and "low-brow" for him, only genuine creativity.) In this two-parter (with Thing #19), he's similarly raiding the monster/horror genre. But the most important stuff here is what's happening in the background. And the scene of Sue's desolation over her recent miscarriage seems to belong to a whole different realm than this rather contrived "Monster Mash."

"The idea is that Ben Grimm's subconsciousness is generating these creatures, so i would have expected the werewolf to look more like the Lon Chaney Jr. version, since all of the other monsters appearing here and in the Thing issue were inspired by the movies."

That is kind of weird, but maybe Byrne felt Marvel's werewolf looked too much like the Universal Wolfman. Or he just never liked the LC design, and is arbitrary like that.

Another brief sequence in the controversial Johnny/Alicia hook-up continues here but not shown above. Johnny once again accompanies Alicia to an art lecture he would normally never attend. This is noticed by Reed who nonchalantly observes what a great fit she would be for Johnny.
Unless it occurred "off-screen" all either of them told her was that Ben decided not to come back from Battleworld. Neither saw fit to mention that he stayed there to "soul-search" because he could transform to his human self at will and that he was certain to return. No reassurance at all. While there were hints of a break-up Ben was mainly considering it for understandable safety reasons. Nothing had been permanently decided.
And so Byrne had Alicia decide to stop waiting, Johnny decide to move in on his friends girl, and Reed decide they're a better fit for each other than his best friend.
Wow. What would Ben have thought if he knew? Thanks buddies. My good pals. Watching my back while I'm away. Character development say some. I say travesty.

Come to think of it, the Thing didn't even stay in Battleworld that long, specially not on Marvel time. That just meant that the Torch was moving in on Alicia as soon as he possibly could, kind of like "gotta bang this blind chick right away before Ben comes back". So yeah, he's just being an asshole, and unless Alicia is an asshole herself, he probably told her "No, Ben is going to stay in Battleworld because, according to him, 'there's a whole lotta poontang in dis planet here, an' like hell I'm comin' back ta that big blue ball o' crap!' Also, he said you're fat."