“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Fantastic Four No. 139

20 Saturday Jul 2024

Posted by percivalhenry in The World's Greatest Comic Magazine

Tags

1973, Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four 139, John Buscema, Marvel, Marvel comics

Fantastic Four 139
“Target: Tomorrow!”
Published July 1973
Script: Gerry Conway
Layouts: John Buscema
Finishes: Joe Sinnott
Letters: John Costanza
Colors: Stan Goldberg
Editor: Roy Thomas
Cover: Buscema and Frank Giacoia

Synopsis

The Fantastic Four escape the chasm they plunged into last issue and eventually defeat the Miracle Man, with the help of the ghosts of the Native American elders that granted him his powers. Meanwhile, Franklin’s powers continue to manifest, and a nuclear catastrophe, perhaps caused by Mr. Fantastic’s experiment, looms.

What’s going on here

This is a more-or-less satisfying conclusion to a two-issue story that began with the re-introduction of the Miracle Man as a vastly more powerful character. Here, he displays almost Beyonder-level power, creating a new city and willing into existence quasi-living people and creatures. Given his potential impact on the Marvel universe, it’s probably just as well he’s faded away into obscurity.

This is otherwise an unremarkable issue. It’s not helped by Gerry Conway’s hyperbolic writing (see panel above), which seems even more over-the-top than Stan or Roy’s, maybe because he’s clearly imitating both. There’s a lot of questionable physics and odd plot holes in this story, but it’s basically inoffensive. More interesting are the subplots: Reed’s tinkering with something that seems very dangerous, and more clues about Franklin’s powers. Also, it’s nice to see Sue again after a few issues of her being left out.

What I liked

Speaking of left out, Medusa finally gets a bit more of a role. Her presence on the team still feels incidental, but at least he get a glimpse of her personality in this sequence.

I thought the appearance of the Cheemuzwa spirits at the end was well handled. Yes, mystic Natives are a tired trope, but this was a graceful way to remove the Miracle Man from the board (he apparently shows up just once more, in Marvel Two-in-One 8)

And this sequence with Miracle man being rejected by a woman he just created out of nothing was weird and creepy.

Then there’s this sequence of the FF building a raft. I wasn’t sure if I liked it or hated it, but it’s so ridiculous I think I like it. It reminds me of the montages in the A-Team TV shows, where the the team would assemble some sort of contraption as music played.

What I didn’t like

About halfway through the comic, the action cuts away and we learn of an imminent nuclear threat. It seemed like this was related to the Miracle Man, so I waited in vain to learn how, only for it to be revealed, lamely, that it’s a subplot connected to Reed’s tinkering. I have no problem with setting up next issue’s story, but this was poorly executed.

Anything else?

In previous posts I have written about Stan and Jack created very human androids (or very android-like humans), as if the distinction between alive and machine didn’t much matter. Here, the Miracle Man creates what appear to be living creatures, yet Medusa calls them “androids.” Not sure what Conway was thinking.