Fantastic Four 107
“And Now … the Thing!”
Published: Nov. 1970
Writer: Stan Lee
Pencils: John Buscema
Inks: Joe Sinnott
Letters: Artie Simek
Cover: Buscema and Sinnott

Synopsis

Reed finally succeeds at returning Ben to human form, and this time with the ability o revert back and forth to the Thing. But as Alicia suspects something is not quite right with Ben, a new villain, Janus, breaks into the Negative Zone.

What’s going on here?

The big news here is that this is the debut Fantastic Four issue for Big John Buscema. Buscema had been drawing comics since the 1940s, but only started doing Marvel superhero comics in the late 60s. He’ll be the regular FF artist for the next 30 issues or so and I think of him as the defining Bronze Age Fantastic Four artist. Of course, Sinnott is still inking, so the art has the same consistent feel. In a lot of ways, the ’70s is actually the Sinnott age.

This is also the debut of the villain, Janus, who is a pretty minor figure, only showing again much later in 2001, when Carlos Pacheco was writing the comic, and much later again in Alex Ross’s Full Circle graphic novel, which came out last year.

What I liked

The comic itself is excellent. Along with the drama of Ben reverting back to human—and with it, the unspoken question of how long will it be before he returns to being the Thing permanently—there’s some character development with Johnny, Sue and even baby Franklin, who seems to be manifesting signs of his powers. It’s been a while since the FF had what is sometimes called a “quiet issue,” and this one was very satisfying.

What I didn’t like

More jerk-like behavior from Reed. “He’s never spoken to that way before?” Lady, I can find a dozen issues where he has, and worse.

Also, the title makes no sense. “And Now .. the Thing!” What does that even mean? It’s not like he hasn’t been in every issue for the last nine years. If anything, it should be “And Now … Ben Grimm.”

Anything else?

Some fun ads in this issue.

Overall

An auspicious start to the Buscema era.