Obsessively putting our comics in chronological order since 1985.
| 1969-07-01 00:03:10 |
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Fantastic Four #88-89
Issue(s): Fantastic Four #88, Fantastic Four #89
Cover Date: Jul-Aug 69
Title: "A house there was!" / "The madness of the Mole Man!"
Credits:
Stan Lee - Writer
Jack Kirby - Penciler
Joe Sinnott - Inker
Review/plot:
Here is as good as any a place to say that i've always found Reed's outraged face to be highly comical.
The FF return from Latveria and pick up their still unnamed baby from Alicia. Reed and Sue are looking for an out of the way house so that they can keep the baby safe. They find a mysterious house that looks like a flying saucer...
...and that the realtor says no one knows who built it or when...
...and, similar to how Reed is always taking the family on vacation in places where there are strange occurrences being reported, they decide this is the place to raise their son safely. And of course, they move all their stuff in without inspecting the house at all.
Despite the fact that Ben stays behind with Alicia while Johnny and Crystal eat dinner in the new place with Reed and Sue (P.S.: Crystal in an apron alert.)...
...he suddenly shows up in the next issue. Johnny did say Ben was coming later, but it's just odd the way he suddenly appears, especially since Johnny also told Sue it was too late to head back to the city and that's why they had to stay for dinner.
The house is actually a device of the Mole Man's, designed to blind all of humanity.
Despite being blinded, the FF still manage to defeat the Mole Man, and they stand around for the rest of the issue debating how much the Mole Man needs to be pitied.
This is the Mole Man's first appearance since he got amnesia in Uncanny X-Men #34, but there's no mention of that incident.
Meanwhile, a Skrull slaver ship lands on the Earth.
I liked this shot of the FF in civilian clothes:
Quality Rating: C
Historical Significance Rating: 2
Chronological Placement Considerations: The Fantastic Four are just arriving home from Latveria and stopping in at Alicia's to pick up Franklin so this has to be the first FF appearance after #87.
References: N/A
Crossover: N/A
Continuity Insert? N
My Reprint: Marvel's Greatest Comics #70 (#89 is an original)
Inbound References (3): showCharacters Appearing: Alicia Masters, Crystal, Franklin Richards, Human Torch, Invisible Woman, Mole Man, Mr. Fantastic, Thing 1969 / Box 5 / Silver Age Previous:
Avengers #66-68Up:
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Sub-Mariner #15
Comments
"Crystal in an apron alert"
I remember that.She was hot XDD.
I wonder she borrowed Sue's apron (the one she was wearing in issue 44).
The Thing's appearance at the Mole Man house was a blunder by Kirby. Stan couldn't find a way to explain it at the dialogue stage, so he just ignored it.
In the reprint of #89 (MGC #71), they added a dialogue balloon for suddenly-appearing Ben on that big splash page, but it's just something like "Holy Joe! I just walked in here and suddenly I'm blind!". No explanation of why he came back or anything, IIRC.
The Marvel's Greatest Comics about this point don't suffer from the reduced page count because by this point Kirby was addicted to the Unnecessary Full-Page Layout and they were always easy cuts, you could lose them and still keep the story intact. MGC 71 was different because they kept that interior splash, as noted. (Perhaps there's yet another interior splash that was cut? I forget.)
You can really see Jack getting lazy and bored now, IMO. Both the Doom story before this and the Skrull story after it are too long, the pacing is too slow (the Unnecessary Interior Splashes, again) and even this is a trifle that could easily have been a single issue tale. The company-mandated switch to one-shots later this year doesn't help, as most of the FF stories from here until #102 are pretty uninspired. (Ironically, #102 has great potential, and who knows how the Janus/Mega-Men/Nega-Man story would have come out, originally? But the partnership looks to be on fumes here, IMO.)
Jack is biding his time and looking for the exit, yes, but Stan's writing steps up a notch int he final part of the story. The sequence where Johnny destroys the Mole Man psychologically is fairly effective, IMHO.
On the splash page for #88, Reed has a left hand on his right arm.
Hell yeah, Ben showed up! Crystal's serving hot buns? Ben's not stupid.
Maybe Reed adapted the uniforms to generate aprons whenever food is being served...Sue's sporting one, as well.
Maybe Ben appearing was revenge for having to redraw those Galactus pages in the last Thor arc.
Hmmm...is it just me, or is having a blind lady watch a 2-month old baby (at times by herself) a little unnerving?
