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!!