“The World’ s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Fantastic Four No. 121

16 Saturday Mar 2024

Posted by percivalhenry in World's Greatest Comic Magazine

Tags

1972, Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four 121, galactus, Silver Surfer, Stan Lee

Fantastic Four 121
“The Mysterious Mind Blowing Secret of Gabriel!”
Published: Jan. 1972
Story: Stan Lee & John Buscema
Script: Lee
Pencils: Buscema
Inks: Joe Sinnott
Letters: Sam Rosen
Cover: Buscema and Sinnott

Synopsis

The Air-Walker turns humanity against the Fantastic Four, whose effort to battle him are futile, before admitting he was only attempting to lure the Silver Surfer. After the Surfer beats him and reveals him to be a robot, Galactus makes a dramatic appearance.

What’s going on here?

After last issue’s long build up, FF 121 delivers some pay off. There’s a long fight with Air-Walker, some not-too-subtle commentary about religious fanaticism by Stan, a dramatic appearance from the Silver Surfer and two big twists: Air-Walker is a robot, and he was doing the bidding of Galactus. Unfortunately, most comic readers today know Air-Walker as a herald of Galactus (information I first received from the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe circa 1983) , but I imagine for a reader in 1972 this would have come as a shocking revelation. Mind-blowing, even (to quote the comic’s title). At this point, Stan may be close to the end of his days as a regular comic writer, but he shows here he’s still got something on his fastball.

Along with the aforementioned plot twists, I did like Stan’s injection of social commentary into the New Yorkers reaction of Gabriel. It’s pretty clear what Stan thinks of zealotry.

There are some great Buscema panels, like this one:

As well as some fun sound effects (which I think would be done by Buscema, not Sam Rosen, the letterer):

What I didn’t like

This issue suffers from the same sluggish pacing of a lot of Stan’s Fantastic Four comics. The FF spend an awful long time either fighting Air-Walker, running away from Air-Walker or escaping New Yorkers doing Air-Walker’s bidding, and so the appearance of the Silver Surfer is jammed into the last few pages. When he arrives to save the day, it’s a tiny panel and he’s about half an inch high. Surely this dramatic scene merits at least a half splash?