The Fourth Member--Et Tu, Brute?

Well, after yesterday's thrill ride, can the Frightful Four possibly fail?

Hee hee...of course they can, they're the Frightful Four. I mean, duh.

We leap forward to Fantastic Four #178:

The Reed Richards from Counter-Earth has turned evil and joined the Frightful Four as the villainous Brute! Thundra and Tigra tried to help out, but were captured!! George Perez draws great giant propeller/cage thingies!! The ultimate triumph of evil!!

The big question is, how did Reed 2 turn evil, and get to Earth? Well, you see, a few issues back the FF were on Counter-Earth, helping the High Evolutionary fight off Galactus. All this action revealed the existence of the High Guy's fake asteroid lab, and C-E authorities sent their Reed Richards to investigate.

There, he finds the ship the FF used to get there, and while exploring...


Oh, dear, we've gone all Gilligan's Island. C'mon, Roy Thomas--you pull off a master coup of nerdishness by making Reed 2 your big reveal and fourth member...and then you cheese it all away with the old "blow to the head turned me evil" chestnut?? Really??

So, after stowing away to Earth, Reed/Brute saw the ad in the Daily Bugle (because after coming to a new planet, obviously the first thing you do is check the classifieds!!), and joined up with our fearsome foursome in time to save the day for evil.

Now, however, he proves he doesn't really belong, because he displays enough common sense to want to kill the FF immediately. The frightful ones, however, disagree:

But the Wizard halts the rampage by revealing their true plan:


Yes, they're going to hold the FF for a billion dollar ransom from New York City. Despite the fact that, at the time, NYC was notoriously broke. And even though the Wizard has perfected anti-gravity, and could be a billionaire from the patents. And even though Trapster has invented the world's toughest paste, AND a solvent that can dissolve any adhesive...again a patent worth a lot of dough. And even though their newest member is an evil Reed Richards, who probably craps a billion dollars worth of patents before breakfast and would be unfettered by morals about selling weapons, etc. Seriously, WHY are these peoples criminals?!?!? Why do they need to ransom the FF???

Meanwhile, prepare for a dose of "political satire," as New York mayor Abe Beame calls various presidential candidates asking for help in raising the billion:

Ho ho, ho ho.

So it looks like the ransom is not going to be paid, and the National Guard is camped outside the Baxter Building...

...and why weren't they there when the Wizard publicly advertised a gathering of super-villains??

Now the Wizard reveals exactly what he plans to do with that billion dollars:


We won't kill the FF when we have them...instead we'll use that billion...to help us kill the FF?!? Man, some super-villains shouldn't be allowed to play with normal scissors, if you know what I'm saying...

So, when the money's not there, Wizard is ready to throw the switch...

When...

OK, crazy deus ex machina time. Back in FF #177, at the start of this little mess, the Impossible Man was hanging with the FF. But early in the battle, he got a little...distracted:


And he's been watching TV THE ENTIRE TIME!! Remember snell's Third Law Of Comic Writing: The more powerful your character, the stupider the excuse you need to keep him from wrapping up the whole issue in one panel. It's therefore a measure of how powerful the Impossible Man is, when the best thing they could figure was: have him watch TV all day and night.

Then, by a ridiculous coincidence, the 3am deadline for the ransom is exactly the same time as:

That's right, children, TV stations didn't always broadcast all 24 hours of the day, or fill the dead time with infomercials. They actually stopped broadcasting, just putting up a "test pattern." Weird, I know. Anyway, Impy decides the problem must be a lack of power to the television, and so...at coincidentally the precise moment the Wizard flips the switch:

Yes, Wizard, it means that:


In the ensuing melee, the Brute threatens Sue:

...which leads to the shocking development:

That's right...Reed loses his power to stretch at precisely the moment another Reed who can't stretch is hanging around. You can see what's coming, can't you? Man, Roy was really leaning on the old coincidence machine this issue...

So, just because Perez demanded more panels of the Thing punching people:

And Tigra proves that, even wrapped up in paste and floating around, she's still tougher than the Wizard...

...well, for the Wizard, it's always about gender, isn't it?!?

Whatta putz.

As the battle wraps up, Brute/Reed grabs our Reed for a little one-on-one killin':

The rest of the frightful ones end up the way they usually do:

And by the time everyone manages to find Reed:

Ah, so the good Reed managed to put the bad Reed in the Negative Zone...or did he?!?

Man, that was the fastest clothing switch ever. And, unless Reed had already been wearing green trunks, involves some uncomfortable imagery...and nobody in the FF thinks to maybe be suspicious, or ask questions (like how a powerless Reed beat the Brute), or at all consider that maybe they've got the wrong Reed.

So, for the next several issues, our Reed was trapped in the Negative Zone, while the FF were led by the Brute. And how was this all resolved? In FF #183, by Bill Mantlo & Sal Buscema (and plotted by essentially the whole Marvel Bullpen...):

Yes, if there's anything lamer than the "blow to the head made me evil," it's got to be the ultra-convenient "the concussion that made me evil has worn off." Sigh...

So...fourth member who ultimately turns good? Check. Have the FF at your mercy but refuse to kill them for some half-baked reason? Check. Defeat snatched from the jaws of victory? Check. Still 500 time losers? Check. Still the Frightful Four we know and pity...

The Fourth Member--American Idol!!!

Well, we're finally back where this whole mess started.

It's 1976, It's Fantastic Four #176, it's Roy Thomas and George Perez. The FF have just returned from a space jaunt, having visited Counter-Earth.

(For those who have a life, Counter-Earth was an artificial duplicate of Earth created by the High Evolutionary to play God upon...it was located "exactly opposite" of Earth's orbit, so most people didn't even know it was there. Yes, I know that's not how orbits work. It's comics).

So, anyway, after hiring an unknown who would later turn out to be a hero; after brainwashing a hero whose brainwashing wore off; after once again hiring an unknown who would later turn out to be a (sort of kind of) hero; and after boldly deciding that a group named the Frightful Four was better off with only 3 members...after all of that, the Wizard and company have finally decided to try a new strategy to fill that fourth slot:

Oh, dear. Seriously, Wizard, don't you actually know any other super-villains? Couldn't you simply call up Diablo or Mysterio or someone and say, "Hey, wanna be in our group?" Putting out a classified ad doesn't seem to be the brightest way to go. But it will mean an awful lot of fun for us readers...

Rushing home, the FF discover that, for the 19th time, the Frightful ones have penetrated the Baxter Building's security:

As I mentioned when this series started, that panel sent my friend and I into a tizzy, a month-long scavenger hunt through Marvel history, trying to figure out who that "most fearsome" new fourth member could be. We needn't have bothered, as we'll see...

We jump forward to FF #177...where we spend a couple of pages talking. But at least Roy has the good sense to be quite tongue-in-cheek about how lame the Frightful ones are, and their classified ad idea:

Battle breaks out...

Note: as you can see from those panels, Reed's stretching powers have become unstable of late. That will become an important plot point later.

The Fantastics have the Frightfuls on the run...at least seemingly. When one of their members is known as the Trapster, though, perhaps the FF should have expected...a trap!!


Which leads to the Frightful Four putting their captives into the most ridiculous, yet most sublimely brilliant, contraptions ever.

No, I don't know whether Reed just had a giant propeller laying around, or if the Wizard brought it with him. All I know is: George Perez...bless you.

We should also note that this is the 15th time the Frightful ones have had the FF defeated and at their mercy...and don't kill them. But, believe it or not, the Wizard actually has a plan this time!!

First, though, the villain try-outs...as we've got a lobby full of costumed evil-doers waiting!!

Now, you know the early "audition" episodes of American Idol each season? The one where...ahem...obviously untalented...people somehow convince themselves that embarassing themselves on national television is somehow a good thing? Well, prepare for the comic book version of this, as every time the elevator door opens, we get Roy & George's version of William Hung, three decades early. First up:


Rule #1--don't piss off the Wizard.

Next up?


Hey, a dude with real powers!! This is bound to work, right??


D'oh!! Seriously...you let him go over money? You doofuses... (for the record, the "other bunch'a fellas" was S.H.I.E.L.D., and the Twister would go on to be one of their Super-Agents in the pages of Captain America. Seriously--S.H.I.E.L.D. pays better than the Frightful Four?!?)

Next off the elevator??


Don't these dudes have a camera to monitor who is coming up? A bouncer in the lobby? Is there any excuse for letting a traitorous former member come up and beat the bejeebers out of you? Is Medusa in line, too? Fortunately, once again the Trapster saves the day:

Hmmm. That's twice the Trapster has saved the day. Hell must have icicles today..Hang on, it's time for the next one off the elevator:



Finally!! A winner!!

D'oh!! By the way, we learn in later years that Captain Ultra's real name is Griffin Gogol...try saying that 5 times fast...also, that Captain Ultra was essentially the Sentry before Marvel felt the need to come up with the Sentry. Ultra-breath?!?

Our next contestant eschews the elevator for a more direct approach.


Now, we can forgive the Frightful Four a bit here...at this point, Tigra was still a relatively unknown player in the Marvel universe. This was pre-Avengers, pre-impregnated by Skrull Pym, so they can be forgiven for not immediately recognizing her as a hero. Still, get ready for the third time (THREE!!!) that they accept an unknown female who will turn out to be a hero and betray them:


So Tigra manages to free the Torch and the Thing, and the Wizard puts out a general call for help:

So most of the wannabes were just...wannabes. But there's this one guy:


How strong is the Brute??

That strong.

Meanwhile, the Wizard takes Tigra for a spin.

Now, despite a size disadvantage, Ben holds his own:

Until:

Howzat? How did the Brute manage to decipher the use of Reed Richards' most complex machinery?? Because, my friends, the Brute is really:

No wonder we never guessed the fourth member back in the day. The Brute? The Reed Richards from Counter-Earth?? Sure, he had appeared back in the old Marvel Premiere and original Warlock series several years earlier. But that was pretty dang obscure, Roy.

So the Frightful Four finally have a new member!! How's that gonna work out? Why has Counter-Earth's Reed Richards turned evil? Who is going to rescue the FF and Thundra and Tigra? What's the Wizard's actual plan?!? Tune in tomorrow, true believers, for a special guest appearance by Ronald Reagan, the fastest clothing change in history, and the biggest deus ex machina since the Mother Box!!

Things Were Different In Those Days, You See...

Back in his early 90s run, Deathlok had a two-part fight/team-up with the Punisher (#6-7) as well as a two-part fight/team-up with Ghost Rider (#9-10) (not to mention an earlier 4-part team-up with Misty Knight, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, and the Avengers...you think Marvel was trying to push Deathlok, or what??).

Which lead, in the letters page of Deathlok #19 (1993), to a question from Thomas Cregan of Staten Island, New York:

The response, which proves that the 1990s were indeed a very different era:

Yup. Here we had crossover stories with the Punisher and Ghost Rider, and had absolutely no plans for a trade. It apparently hadn't even occurred to them. You see, young ones, back in those days even storyline in every comic wasn't automatically put out in a trade, even ones with hyper-popular characters.

In 2009, of course, not only would Marvel have had a trade for those stories, but the trade would have been solicited before the stories in the single issues were even published, "readers' requests" be damned.

Not to go all Nostradamus here, but the next big implosion in the comics industry? At some point libraries, Barnes & Noble & your local comic shoppe are going to stop automatically buying this deluge of trades...beware...

Oh, FYI, Deathlok #19 had a chromium cover. No reason...it wasn't an anniversary, it was part 3 of a 5 part story...they just wanted to do a chromium cover. Bless you, 1990s...bless you.

Quiz Answer

Obviously, I didn't hide it too well, as those who did guess got it right:

Yes, Deathlok #18 was the LOUDEST comic of December 1992.

Ah, the 1990's, when "guaranteeing" that your comic was "THE LOUDEST" was actually a selling point...sigh.

Manic Monday--1990's Quiz

The following blurb was from the cover of a Marvel comic cover dated December 1992:

Was "the LOUDEST comic book you'll read all month":

A) Battletide #1 (starring Death's Head II and Killpower, guest-starring Dark Angel and Tuck and Psylocke and Motormouth and Wolverine)

B) Death's Head II (Volume II) #1 (guest-starring the X-Men)

C) Deathlok #18 (guest-starring Silver Sable)

D) Gun Runner #3

E) Motormounth #7 (with Killpower & guest-starring Cable)

F) Ravage 2099 #1

G) Silver Sable & The Wild Pack #7 (guest-starring Deathlok)

H) Terror, Inc. #6 (guest-starring the Punisher)

I) Warheads #7 (guest-starring Death's Head II)

J) X-Force #17 (Chapter 8 of X-Cutioner's Song)

Man, the 90s sucked, huh? But the comics were...LOUD!!!!!!!!!!!

Quiz answer tomorrow (and looking it up on GCD is cheating!!)...

We Interrupt This Broadcast

No post today--

Too busy playing!!

In Which snell Gets Ridiculously Hyper-Nitpicky About A Comic Book Depiction Of A Baseball Game

Let's get this out of the way up front--I loved Strange #1, it was great execution of a great story, a fine set-up for what looks to be an awesome mini-series (and nothing against Doctor Voodoo, but I would much rather see a Stephen Strange ongoing than a Jericho Drumm ongoing).

But, man, do I get anal at poor depictions of baseball in media. Seriously, nothing raises my blood pressure faster than seeing every goddamn baseball move of the past 20 years incorrectly use the "hidden ball trick"--the way they show it is illegal, and would award the runner a free base!! And don't get me started on Anthony Perkins portraying a major leaguer....shudder...

So I'm about to get hyper-nitpicky here, because I loves me my baseball...so if you really don't care, you might want to skip to the next post. Sorry.

Because, as much as I loved the Emma Rios art in this issue--and I did indeed love it--there's little evidence that she or anyone else involved in the production of the art has actually seen a baseball diamond, let alone an actual baseball game.

By the way, let me mention that not only did this issue feature Rios as "artist," it had Christina Strain as "color artist," Irene Y. Lee as "production," and Alan Fine as "executive producer." (What, is Marvel becoming like Fringe??!?) Along with an associate editor (Lauren Sankovitch) and an editor (Tom Brevoort), enough people were in charge that somebody should have been more on top of this...

And, yes, since demon-cast illusions are part of the story, you could argue that the following problems are actually supposed to be there. But then again, since these illusions are supposed to make it look like an actual baseball game, and none of the thousands of fans in attendance noticed anything askew, that answer doesn't hold any water for hyper-picky baseball lovin' snell.

Exhibit the first:

The Larks' field. Mostly a good portrayal, except for

A) Where, exactly, does the runner on first base think he's going?? Why is he standing a kajillion feet out of the basepath? Apparently the shortest route between two bases isn't a straight line...Plus, it's a surefire recipe for getting picked off.

B) What, exactly, are those white things at the edge of the infield grass?? Slip 'N' Slides? Some kind of odd basepath markers? I've never seen anything like them on any baseball diamond anywhere...

I show you this next picture because everything is (pretty much) right in it...

...and as a contrast to the very next panel:

Exhibit the second.

This is one panel later...our perspective hasn't shifted much...but suddenly we have chalk lines all over the danged place??

A) What the hell is this line? It seems to be running parallel to the line between first base and second, but across the outfield. WTF?? Is it the right field foul line, just horribly out of position? It wasn't there in either of our other two views of the field...

B) There's a line between first and second? Granted, in the days of crappy astroturf fields, they sometimes had one on the "grass" to illustrate the "basepath." But this ain't no astroturf field, and it wasn't there in the other shots. Still, at least this time, the baserunner is actually on the basepath...

C) Well, technically, there's nothing wrong with this line...(although you'll notice in the second picture, there it was a double line, which is inaccuurate...). But I just wanted to note that, based on the perspectives in this drawing, the distance between second base and third base is about 12 feet, and the baseball "diamond" portrayed is more of a rectangular, football field shaped affair.

I know, I know, like I said, hyper nit-picky. But that's all in just the first two pages of the story!! And with artists and producers and executive producers and associate editors and editors, you'd think somebody at some point might have actually looked to see what an actually baseball diamond actually looks like. I'm just sayin'...

(And no, Mark Waid doesn't get off the hook completely...the manager "not coming out of his office for the game" is unprecedented, and surely would not have gone unnoticed by the team, fans, press, etc. And if this demon team is so all-powerful, so Bugs Bunny funny-pitch making, so successfully cheating, why are they up by only 1 run in the bottom of the ninth, with the tying run on third? Really, with all the spells and demon-stuff, they're no better than a normal human team?!?!?!)

Again, let me assure you, I'm being ridiculously hyper-nitpicky. And I really did love the story a lot. Best part:

Someone calling Stephen Strange an asshat. Never thought I'd see that...

Friday Night Fights--Freelance Style!!

If you're going to break into a guy's luxury condo in his very first issue...

...you might want to spend less time warning your flunkies not to get cocky...

...and spend a little more time preparing to get your face caved in...

(Please, please, please click on the image to embiggen it to full double-page spread ultra-violence format!)

Spacebooger says: next time, use the doorbell!!

Mike Grell, Mike Grell and Mike Grell brings you his face-kicking children's author/freelance mercenary in Jon Sable, Freelance #1 (1983), wherein Ronald Reagan hires Sable to protect him from a hired assassin, and in payment allows Sable to sneak into CIA headquarters and erase all the files that prove Sable is the author of a series of children's books about leprechauns who live in Central Park. Seriously.