It's Marvel 1989 Week here at Slay Monstrobot, but that leaves us with a peculiar problem. There just aren't a lot of good one panel punchfests available from April 1989. Some good fights, but no really impressive rock 'em sock 'em single panels. So we go with the best I've got--Mantis vs. the Master of the Priests of Pama:
Don't need no oaths of celibacy now, eh?
Maybe Spacebooger can figure out why Mantis was facing the Priests of Pama and the Cotati in an issue of Fantastic Four...
Unexpected Kung Fu mayhem happens in Fantastic Four #325 (1989), by Steve Englehart, Rich Bucler, and Romeo Tanghal.
A few brief notes about this issue after the post-fight jump.
THE JUMP
We're talking about this issue:
This was the very last issue of Steve Englehart's nearly two year run on the FF.
[CORRECTION: Commenter Aardsy alerts me to the fact that Englehart actually stayed on board for the next 8 issues, but used the pseudonym "John Harkness" because he was pissed at Marvel's editorial demands for the title]
And he was racking up some big, radical (but not destined to be long-lived) changes. Reed and Sue left (only to later join the Avengers for 12 nanoseconds). Crystal rejoined the team briefly. And Sharon Ventura, aka Ms. Marvel, joined the team.
In due course yet another dose of cosmic rays transformed Ben into an even craggier Thing, and Ms. Marvel became a...well, She-Thing.
And she and Ben became romantically involved, which led to cringe-inducing scenes like this:
Watch those hands, Ben. Kids, please DO NOT let your imaginations run wild.
The Human Torch's flame was permanently stuck on and in overdrive, thanks to the magicks of the Inferno crossover event:
And, this being Steve Englehart writing a Marvel title, you just know who's going to show up--Mantis and Kang!!
Anyway, there's lots of fighting and stuff, The Silver Surfer shows up, and Englehart ends his run on a happy and joyous note:
No, she's not dead, she's just transferred her mind to the Cotati level of consciousness to find her kidnapped son and...oh, never mind. Next issue Reed and Sue come back, they fight a revamped Frightful Four, and in 6 months Walt Simonson would take over.
ELSEWHERE IN THE MARVEL UNIVERSE:
Speaking of the Silver Surfer...
Englehart was writing that one, too, so of course Mantis and Kang were showing up. But this issue had him facing off with Ego, the Living Planet, which gave us a pretty cool double-pager by Ron Lim and Tom Christopher:
Cosmic, bro.
Don't need no oaths of celibacy now, eh?Maybe Spacebooger can figure out why Mantis was facing the Priests of Pama and the Cotati in an issue of Fantastic Four...
Unexpected Kung Fu mayhem happens in Fantastic Four #325 (1989), by Steve Englehart, Rich Bucler, and Romeo Tanghal.
A few brief notes about this issue after the post-fight jump.
THE JUMP
We're talking about this issue:
This was the very last issue of Steve Englehart's nearly two year run on the FF.[CORRECTION: Commenter Aardsy alerts me to the fact that Englehart actually stayed on board for the next 8 issues, but used the pseudonym "John Harkness" because he was pissed at Marvel's editorial demands for the title]
And he was racking up some big, radical (but not destined to be long-lived) changes. Reed and Sue left (only to later join the Avengers for 12 nanoseconds). Crystal rejoined the team briefly. And Sharon Ventura, aka Ms. Marvel, joined the team.
In due course yet another dose of cosmic rays transformed Ben into an even craggier Thing, and Ms. Marvel became a...well, She-Thing.
And she and Ben became romantically involved, which led to cringe-inducing scenes like this:
Watch those hands, Ben. Kids, please DO NOT let your imaginations run wild.The Human Torch's flame was permanently stuck on and in overdrive, thanks to the magicks of the Inferno crossover event:
And, this being Steve Englehart writing a Marvel title, you just know who's going to show up--Mantis and Kang!!
Anyway, there's lots of fighting and stuff, The Silver Surfer shows up, and Englehart ends his run on a happy and joyous note:
No, she's not dead, she's just transferred her mind to the Cotati level of consciousness to find her kidnapped son and...oh, never mind. Next issue Reed and Sue come back, they fight a revamped Frightful Four, and in 6 months Walt Simonson would take over.ELSEWHERE IN THE MARVEL UNIVERSE:
Speaking of the Silver Surfer...
Englehart was writing that one, too, so of course Mantis and Kang were showing up. But this issue had him facing off with Ego, the Living Planet, which gave us a pretty cool double-pager by Ron Lim and Tom Christopher:
Cosmic, bro.
5 comments:
Steve Englehart actually stuck around until #333, but he wrote the rest of the issues under a pen name because he was ticked off at Marvel. You can read more about that here:
http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2007/06/14/comic-book-urban-legends-revealed-107/
Thanks, Aardsy, I hadn't known that. A correction has been made in the post. I wondered why I didn't recognize "John Harkness..."
No problem. These are the first issues of FF I read, and even though I was no experience with the title and was young, I could tell there was something incredibly retro and weird about the dream story and the quick restoration of the original team. (And I agree, the Avengers line-up at the time was terrible.)
I must have been buying every Marvel series at the time, because I've had them all up til now!
A pretty wretched era for the FF, I must admit. And I do hate it when writers bring their fetish characters to whatever title they're on. It's like Steve Gerber and Wundarr/Aquarius. God I hate that character.
Yeah. First rate stinker, really.
I mean, any time you remove two of a mag's title characters for no good reason, well...
It stinks. Hooray for Simonson, all I'm saying.
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